Five things to keep in mind about the Oscar nominations

The contenders for the Oscars, the most coveted statuettes in the film industry, were announced on Tuesday, with the science fiction film “Everything Everywhere at the Same Time” leading the race with 11 nominations.

But as always, the announcement generated a lot of controversy, from the absence of female directors in the running to the surprise inclusion of an actress from a film that almost no one has seen.

Here are five things to keep in mind before the Oscars: on March 12 in Hollywood:

No women were nominated for an Oscar. for best director this year, an absence that quickly sparked angry expressions and allegations of sexism on social media.

The issue has drawn criticism over the years. Until two years ago, the American Kathryn Bigelow had been the only woman to win the top prize Hollywood directing award, which he received in 2010 for “Vivir al límite” (“En tierra hostile”, in Spain).

But in 2021, the statuette went to the Chinese with Chloe Zhao (“Nomadland”) and in 2022, to the New Zealand Jane Campion (“The power of the dog”), in what It seemed to be finally the end to decades of male domination.

This year, however, voters ignored strong candidates like Sarah Polley (“They Talk”) and Gina Prince Bythewood (“The King Woman”), to which Variety magazine proposed the perhaps inevitable hashtag #OscarsSoMale (OscarsTanMasculinos).

The nominees are Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”), Martin McDonagh (“The Spirits of the Island”; “Banshees by Inisherin” in Spain), Todd Field (“Tár”), Ruben Ostlund (“The triangle of sadness”) and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (“Everything everywhere at the same time”).

One of the most surprising nominations was for Andrea Riseborough for “To Leslie”“, a small indie film about a Texas single mother struggling with alcoholism who wins the lottery but quickly squanders her fortune.

While her performance has been highly praised, very few people have seen the film: it has grossed only $27,322 totalaccording to BoxOfficeMojo.

However, Riseborough benefited from an intense last-minute social media campaign mounted on his behalf by celebrity friends including Edward Norton, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sarah Paulson.

The surprise of “The Fabelmans”

Few doubted that Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical drama “The Fabelmans” was going to garner a best supporting actor nomination for the performance of Paul Dano, who received much applause for embodying to the director’s father.

But instead, Academy voters opted for Judd Hirsch, 87, who looks in the movie less than 10 minutes. Hirsch plays a curmudgeonly and highly eccentric great-uncle who shows up unexpectedly to offer a young Spielberg advice on how to fulfill his filmmaking dreams.

The Academy has previously awarded brief cameos with golden statuettes, including those of Judi Dench for “Passionate Shakespeare” and Beatrice Straight for just five minutes in “Power that kills” (Network, an implacable world” in Spain).

Despite the fact that India did not present it as its official selection for the Oscars, the action film “RRR” had wide popular support to become one of Hollywood’s favorites in recent months.

Among the fans is “Avatar” director James Cameronwho praised “RRR” director SS Rajamouli in a recent video that went viral on social media, raising hopes the film would enter the best picture Oscar contender.

While that didn’t happen, his catchy musical number “Naatu Naatu” was nominated for best original song.

The film that India presented as best international film, “The last film”, it did not achieve a nomination.

“Without trying to overshadow the film they chose, which is actually very good, ‘RRR’ is a masterstroke,” Clayton Davis, Variety’s awards editor, told AFP.

With television ratings at awards ceremonies plummeting in recent years, the producers of the Oscars want to make sure that some of the most important figures in the world of the show attend the gala in March.

No category is more star-studded than Best Original Song, which includes Lady Gaga, Rihanna and David Byrne.

Gaga sang “Hold My Hand” on “Top Gun: Maverick,” Rihanna sang “Lift Me Up” in the superhero sequel “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” and Talking Heads frontman Byrne sang “This Is A Life.” ” in “Everything everywhere at the same time”.

The contenders in this category are rounded out by MM’s “Naatu Naatu” Keeravaani, for “RRR”, and “Applause” by Diane Warren, for the film “Tell It Like a Woman.”

With this, Warren has 14 nominations for best original song, which he never won, although he did receive an honorary Academy Award last year for his career as a songwriter, which includes “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” from Aerosmith.