The Academy will announce a shortlist of potential nominees in 10 key categories Tuesday, a crucial step on the road to the Academy Awards and a potential indicator of who might get nominated ahead of the Oscars ceremony in March.
"Emilia Pérez" is expected to get multiple shortlist mentions. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP) ... [+]
The Academy will reveal shortlists of 10 to 15 potential nominees in about half of its categories Tuesday, which will then be narrowed down to a list of five nominees in January.
Shortlists will be announced for visual effects, makeup and hairstyling, both music categories (score and song), sound, live action short film, animated short film, both documentary categories (feature film and short film) and international feature film.
The biggest categories—including Best Picture, acting categories, screenplay categories and directing—do not have shortlists, and Academy members will vote from the large pool of submissions with nominees announced in January.
Shortlist snubs and surprises could be early indicators of which movies are building momentum and might be headed toward big Oscar hauls—and which movies might be snubbed on Oscar nominations morning.
French crime musical drama “Emilia Pérez” is considered a frontrunner for Tuesday’s shortlists, with Variety projecting it to earn the most mentions—in part because it is eligible for many of the categories. The film is France’s submission for the International Feature Film category, it has multiple original songs eligible for the shortlist and it is also a contender for makeup and hairstyling, original score and sound. Other movies in contention include “Wicked,” which is eligible to be shortlisted in the makeup and hairstyling, sound and visual effects categories, as well as “Gladiator II” and “Dune: Part Two.” The song category could be dominated by pop stars, with songs written by Miley Cyrus (“Beautiful That Way” from “The Last Showgirl”), Maren Morris (“Kiss the Sky” from “The Wild Robot”), Pharrell Williams (“Piece by Piece” from “Piece by Piece”) and Lady Gaga (“Folie à Deux” from “Joker: “Folie à Deux”) in contention.
“All We Imagine as Light,” a critically adored film from India and a two-time Golden Globe nominee for best director (Payal Kapadia) and best foreign language film will not be among the shortlisted international feature film nominees. Countries vying for the International Feature Film Oscar (formerly known as the best foreign language film) must submit one film for consideration, and India’s Film Federation of India committee instead chose to submit “Laapataa Ladies,” which was considered a surprise after “All We Imagine as Light” won the prestigious Grand Prix prize at the Cannes Film Festival. FFI president Ravi Kottarakara compared “All We Imagine as Light”—about two Malayali nurses coping with loneliness and alienation in Mumbai—to a “European film taking place in India,” stating the jury favored the more traditional, Hindu-language “Laapataa Ladies.”
Sometimes. The most-shortlisted films can typically expect to rack up key nominations and even wins on Oscars night, even in categories that don’t have shortlists, though they don’t always become the biggest winners. Last year’s most-shortlisted film was “Barbie,” which earned five mentions between the song, score and sound categories. Though “Barbie” ended up winning the best song Oscar, that was its only win from eight nominations. “Oppenheimer” took home a leading seven Oscars from 13 nominations despite earning just three shortlist mentions and suffering what was considered a snub from the visual effects shortlist. Previous Best Picture winner “Everything Everywhere All At Once” also wasn’t the most-shortlisted film, with its three mentions falling behind the five earned by “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “All Quiet on the Western Front.”
Oscar nominations will be unveiled Jan. 17, and the ceremony will air on ABC and Hulu on March 2. But several other major awards bodies will have their say before, beginning with the Golden Globes on Jan. 5 and the Critics Choice Awards on Jan. 12. Like the Oscars, the British Academy Film Awards will unveil longlists on Jan. 3, followed by nominations on Jan. 15 and awards on Feb. 16. The Screen Actors Guild Awards will announce nominations on Jan. 8 and winners on Feb. 23.
The Golden Globes were the first major awards body to reveal nominations last week, with “Emilia Pérez” leading the nominations and setting the all-time record for most nods in the musical/comedy categories, with 10 nominations. It is nominated for best picture, musical/comedy, and its actresses Karla Sofia Gascon—the first openly transgender woman nominated as a leading actress at the Globes—Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña all earned nods. “The Brutalist” and “Conclave” led the drama nominations with seven and six nods, respectively. Other films that earned nominations include “Anora,” “The Substance,” “Wicked” and “A Real Pain.”
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