The Oscar nominations were unveiled today January 23 , with Emilia Perez leading the way with 13 nods, followed by The Brutalist and Wicked on 10 each.
The Oscar ceremony will take place on March 2. Directed by French auteur Jacques Audiard and shot mostly in Spanish and mostly in France, standing in for Mexico, it is also an old-fashioned musical.
Despite the Hollywood star power of Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez and the campaigning power of US distributor Netlfix which acquired the film at Cannes, its success was never assured. Now it has 13 Oscar nominations. They are for best international feature, best actress for Fernanda Torres, and as one of the 10 best film nominees.
It is Bafta-nominated for film not in the English language. Torres has some momentum, having nabbed the Golden Globe for best actress in a drama, the first Brazillian actress to do so, but it could be the international category where the film has its strongest chance. The first Gladiator film won five Oscars and was nominated in 12 categories.
The sequel has just one, for costume design, with surprising omissions in the VFX categories and in supporting actor for Denzel Washington. There is no avoiding the sheer volume of white men to have landed Oscar nominations this year. Coralie Fargeat, director of The Substance , does much of the heavy-lifting for female representation as the sole woman in the directing category.
