94th annual Academy Award nominations unveiled; The Power of the Dog leads with 12 nominations

The nominations for the 94th annual Academy Awards were unveiled this morning during a live presentation hosted by Leslie Jordan and Tracee Ellis Ross.

23 categories were revealed during a live stream that was made available on Oscar.com, Oscars.org, the Academy’s Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook platforms, along with being broadcast live on ABC’s Good Morning America and ABC News Live.

Netflix’s The Power of the Dog led the way with 12 nominations including scoring mentions in all the acting categories, Best Picture, writing, and directing for Jane Campion. Warner Bros’ Dune scored 10 nominations including Best Picture but Denis Villeneuve was a surprise snub in the Best Director category.

Jane Campion becomes the first female filmmaker to have two career-directing Oscar nominations after her nomination for The Power of the Dog. She was previously nominated in the category for The Piano in 1994 and won in the original screenplay category for that film.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is closer to his EGOT once again with his second career Oscar nomination in the Best Song category for “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto. The Best Original song category is stacked with a few front runners like Beyonce Knowles-Carter and Billie Eilish but he could pull it out.

Kenneth Branagh also posted a big showing and breaks the Oscar record with seven nominations in seven different categories. He served as a writer, director, and producer on Belfast and that brought him nominations today for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture, along with his Best Director nomination. The film is deeply personal to Branagh which is why his presence is all over this one.

Comic book fans will be bummed to see that Spider-Man: No Way Home did not secure a Best Picture nomination despite campaigning for the top prize. The film did score a Best Visual Effects nomination and most of us knew that would likely be the only category it would show up in.

CODA also makes history as the first film led by a predominantly deaf cast to be nominated for Best Picture. Troy Kotsur also becomes the first deaf male actor to land an Oscar nomination. Apple TV+ also makes its name known in streaming with CODA being the first Apple Original to land a Best Picture nomination.

House of Gucci showed up in the Makeup & Hairstyling category but all of the actors, including award season favorites Lady Gaga and Jared Leto, were shut out. Lady Gaga likely lost her spot to Penelope Cruz, who scored a Best Actress nomination for Parallel Mothers. Kristen Stewart also shows up after a SAG and BAFTA snub for Spencer. Her chances dwindled after those snubs but the Academy showed her some love.

With the nominations announced, the 94th Academy Awards will take place during an in-person ceremony on March 27, 2022.

Here are the nominees:

Best Picture:

Belfast

CODA

Don’t Look Up

Drive My Car

Dune

King Richard

Licorice Pizza

Nightmare Alley

The Power of the Dog

West Side Story

Best Actress:

Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)

Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)

Penelope Cruz (Parallell Mothers)

Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos)

Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

Best Actor:

Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos)

Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)

Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick…Boom!)

Will Smith (King Richard)

Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

Best Director:

Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)

Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)

Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)

Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)

Rysusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car)

Best Supporting Actress:

Jessie Buckley – The Lost Daughter

Ariana DeBose – West Side Story

Judi Dench – Belfast

Kirsten Dunst – The Power of the Dog

Aunjanue Eillis – King Richard

Best Supporting Actor:

Ciaran Hinds – Belfast

Troy Kotsur – CODA

Jesse Plemons – The Power of the Dog

J.K. Simmons – Being the Ricardos

Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power of the Dog

Best Animated Feature:

Encanto

Flee

Luca

The Mitchells vs. The Machines

Raya and the Last Dragon

Best Film Editing:

Don’t Look Up – Hank Corwin

Dune – Joe Walker

King Richard – Pamela Martin

The Power of the Dog – Peter Sciberras

Tick, Tick…Boom! – Myron Kerstein & Andrew Weisblum

Best Cinematography:

Dune (Greg Fraser)

Nightmare Alley (Dan Lausten)

The Power of the Dog (Ari Wegner)

The Tragedy of Macbeth (Bruno Delbonnel)

West Side Story (Janusz Kaminski)

Best Production Design:

Dune

Nightmare Alley

The Power of the Dog

The Tragedy of Macbeth

West Side Story

Best Visual Effects:

Dune

Free Guy

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

No Time To Die

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Best Costume Design:

Cruella (Jeremy Beavan)

Cyrano (Massimo Cantini Parrini)

Dune (Jacqueline West)

Nightmare Alley (Luis Sequeira)

West Side Story (Paul Tazewell)

Best MakeUp & Hairstyling:

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

House of Gucci

Coming 2 America

Cruella

Dune

Best Sound:

Belfast

Dune

No Time To Die

The Power of the Dog

West Side Story

Best Original Score:

Don’t Look Up (Nicholas Britell)

Dune (Hans Zimmer)

Encanto (Germaine Franco)

Parallel Mothers (Alberto Iglesias)

The Power of the Dog (Jonny Greenwood)

Best Original Song:

Be Alive – Beyonce Knowles-Carter & Darius Scott (King Richard)

Dos Oruguitas – Lin-Manuel Miranda (Encanto)

Down to Joy – Van Morrison (Belfast)

No Time To Die – Billie Eillish & Finneas O’Connell (No Time To Die)

Somehow You Do – Diane Warren (Four Good Days)

Best Adapted Screenplay:

CODA – Sian Heder

Drive My Car – Ryusuke Hamaguchi & Takamasa Oe

Dune – Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, & Denis Villeneuve

The Lost Daughter – Maggie Gyllenhaal

The Power of the Dog – Jane Campion

Best Orginal Screenply:

Belfast – (Kenneth Branagh)

Don’t Look Up – (Adam McKay, David Sirota)

Licorice Pizza – (Paul Thomas Anderson)

King Richard

The Worst Person in the World

Best International Feature:

Drive My Car (Japan)

Flee (Denmark)

The Hand of God (Italy)

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Bhutan)

The Worst Person in the World (Norway)

Best Documentary Feature:

Ascension

Attica

Flee

Summer of Soul

Writing With Fire

Best Documentary Short:

Audible

Lead Me Home

The Queen of Basketball

Three Songs for Benazir

When We Were Bullies

Best Animated Short:

Affairs of the Art

Bestia

Boxballet

Robin Robin

The Windshied Wiper

Best Live Action Short:

Ala Kachuu – Take and Run

The Dress

The Long Goodbye

On My Mind

Please Hold

What do you think of the nominations for the 94th annual Academy Awards?