Alfonso Cuaron’s black-and-white foreign-language drama “Roma” and the bawdy period film “The Favourite” both collected a leading 10 nominations Tuesday for the 91st Academy Awards, while “Black Panther” became the first comic-book-based movie ever nominated for best picture.
The three films will compete for best picture honors with “BlacKkKlansman,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Green Book,” “A Star is Born” and “Vice.”
“Green Book,” the story of a white New York nightclub bouncer working as a bodyguard for a black pianist during a tour through the 1960s Deep South, is considered an Oscar front-runner, thanks largely to winning the top prize at the recent Producers Guild of America awards — an honor that often foreshadows success on Oscar night.
The film also won a Golden Globe for best musical/comedy film.
“Roma,” writer/director Cuaron’s drama following the life of a domestic worker in 1970s Mexico, won the best-picture prize at the Critics’ Choice Awards. The 10 nominations for “Roma” tied the record of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” for most Oscar nominations received by a foreign-language film.
Cuaron received four overall nominations for “Roma,” for his work producing and directing the film, along with best original screenplay and best cinematography. He will compete for best-director honors with Spike Lee for “BlacKkKlansman,” Pawel Pawlikowski for the Polish film “Cold War,” Yorgos Lanthimos for “The Favourite” and Adam McKay for “Vice.”
This year marks the first time that two directors of films nominated for best foreign-language picture — “Roma” and “Cold War” — have been nominated for best director.
Christian Bale is the front-runner for the best actor prize for his shape-shifting role as Vice President Dick Cheney in “Vice,” having already scored Golden Globe and Critics’ Choce Awards. Rami Malek also already collected a Golden Globe for his performance as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Bradley Cooper was nominated for best actor for his work in “A Star is Born,” although he was snubbed in the best director category. Also scoring best-actor nods were Willem Dafoe for “At Eternity’s Gate” and Viggo Mortensen for “Green Book.”
Bale is the only nominee in the category to already have an Oscar. He won a supporting-actor trophy in 2010 for “The Fighter.”
Glenn Close, also a Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice winner, led the nominees for best actress for her role as the suffering spouse of a Nobel Prize honoree in “The Wife.” Globe winner Olivia Colman also scored a nod for her lead role in “The Favourite.” Yalitza Aparicio was nominated for her role as a Mexican domestic worker in “Roma,” along with Lady Gaga for her work alongside Cooper in “A Star is Born” and Melissa McCarthy for her lead role in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Close has six previous Oscar nominations, but she has never won. She was nominated for best actress for the films “Fatal Attraction,” “Dangerous Liaisons” and “Albert Nobbs.”
Mahershala Ali is the front-runner for best supporting actor for his portrayal of pianist Don Shirley in “Green Book.” Ali has already collected Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice awards for his work in the film. He will compete for the Oscar with Adam Driver for “BlacKkKlansman,” Sam Elliott for “A Star is Born,” Richard E. Grant for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and Sam Rockwell for “Vice.”
Rockwell won the supporting-actor Oscar last year for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” Ali won the same prize three years ago for “Moonlight.”
Regina King, another Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award winner for her work in the romance “If Beale Street Could Talk” topped the list of supporting-actress nominees. Also vying for the prize will be Amy Adams for “Vice,” Marina de Tavira for “Roma” and Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz for “The Favourite.”
For Adams, the nomination is the sixth Oscar nod of her career, but she has never won. Weisz won a supporting-actress Oscar in 2005 for “The Constant Gardener,” while Stone was named best actress in 2016 for “La La Land.”
“Roma” was also nominated for best foreign-language film, along with “Cold War” (Poland), “Capernaum” (Lebanon), “Never Look Away” (Germany) and “Shoplifters” (Japan).
Nominated for best animated feature film were “Incredibles 2,” “Isle of Dogs,” “Mirai,” “Ralph Breaks the Internet” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”
The nominations were announced by actors Kumail Nanjiani and Tracee Ellis Ross at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, in an event live-streamed on the internet.
The Oscar ceremony is scheduled for Feb. 24 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The ceremony is still without a host after the withdrawal of comedian Kevin Hart, who dropped out following criticism of past homophobic comments for which he has since apologized.
— City News Service