Gabriel Bouys—AFP
‘American Hustle’ and ‘Gravity’ lead the pack with 10 nominations each.
Hollywood fired the starting gun Thursday on the most crowded Oscars race for years, with American Hustle and 3D space drama Gravity topping nominations but a wide field of movies hoping for glory on March 2.
American Hustle and Gravity each racked up 10 nominations, and historical drama 12 Years a Slave was close behind with nine, in a year chock full of critically acclaimed movies, leaving few clear frontrunners ahead of the Academy Awards on March 2.
“I had already felt overwhelmingly blessed to have had the creative ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity that I did on Gravity,” said Sandra Bullock, nominated for best actress. “The life experience I garnered on this journey is something for which I will forever be grateful,” added Bullock, who plays an astronaut stranded in space with George Clooney.
American Hustle already had momentum after winning three major prizes at last weekend’s Golden Globes, Tinseltown’s second most high profile awards show, while the harrowing 12 Years a Slave took best drama.
All four key American Hustle actors—Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper—won nods. “To have these actors really put their hearts in it all together, to have them each get a nod is a big deal for us … We created a family together,” said director David O. Russell, who himself was also nominated.
Somali pirate drama Captain Phillips, AIDS activist film Dallas Buyers Club and black and white road movie Nebraska won six Oscar nods each, according to a list released by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Martin Scorsese’s epic about financial greed, The Wolf of Wall Street, and futuristic love story Her each got five nominations.
But there were also snubs: two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks failed to win a nomination for his roles in Captain Phillips or Saving Mr. Banks, while awards season perennials Ethan and Joel Coen got only two nods for Inside Llewyn Davis—neither of them in the main categories.
Veteran actor Robert Redford did not make the best actor shortlist for his powerful solo performance in shipwreck movie All is Lost. Britain’s Emma Thompson, who played Mary Poppins author P. L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks, also was shut out.
Redford took a jab at his film’s studio, Lionsgate. “I think we suffered from little to no distribution,” he said, adding: “I don’t know why, they didn’t want to spend the money, they were afraid, they were just incapable, I don’t know.”
And there will be no Oscars gold for Lee Daniels’ The Butler, about the civil rights era as seen through the eyes of a black White House servant. Star Forest Whitaker and talk show icon Oprah Winfrey, who played his wife, were both shut out. Reactions poured in within minutes of the announcements.
Meryl Streep said: “I am so happy for our film that Julia and I have been nominated. We are both so proud of August: Osage County.”
Clooney, Bullock’s Gravity co-star, paid tribute to their director. “Alfonso Cuaron is one of the great geniuses in the game. He really is a genius. He hasn’t made a bad film,” he told AFP.
The complete list of nominees follows:
Best Picture
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Lead Actor
Christian Bale, American Hustle
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Lead Actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Best Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Supporting Actress
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska
Best Animated Feature Film
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine
Frozen
The Wind Rises
Best Cinematography
The Grandmaster, Philippe Le Sourd
Gravity, Emmanuel Lubezki
Inside Llewyn Davis, Bruno Delbonnel
Nebraska, Phedon Papamichael
Prisoners, Roger A. Deakins
Best Costume Design
American Hustle, Michael Wilkinson
The Grandmaster, William Chang Suk Ping
The Great Gatsby, Catherine Martin
The Invisible Woman, Michael O’Connor
12 Years a Slave, Patricia Norris
Best Documentary Feature
The Act of Killing
Cutie and the Boxer
Dirty Wars
The Square
20 Feet from Stardom
Best Documentary (Short Subject)
CaveDigger
Facing Fear
Karama Has No Walls
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall
Best Film Editing
American Hustle, Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten
Captain Phillips, Christopher Rouse
Dallas Buyers Club, John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
12 Years a Slave, Joe Walker
Best Foreign Language Film
The Broken Circle Breakdown, Belgium
The Great Beauty, Italy
The Hunt, Denmark
The Missing Picture, Cambodia
Omar, Palestine
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Dallas Buyers Club, Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, Stephen Prouty
The Lone Ranger, Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny
Best Original Score
The Book Thief, John Williams
Gravity, Steven Price
Her, William Butler and Owen Pallett
Philomena, Alexandre Desplat
Saving Mr. Banks, Thomas Newman
Best Original Song
“Alone Yet Not Alone” from Alone Yet Not Alone
“Happy” from Despicable Me 2
“Let It Go” from Frozen
“The Moon Song” from Her
“Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Best Production Design
American Hustle, Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Heather Loeffler
Gravity, Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard
The Great Gatsby, Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverley Dunn
Her, Production Design: K. K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena
12 Years a Slave, Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Alice Baker
Best Animated Short Film
Feral
Get a Horse!
Mr. Hublot
Possessions
Room on the Broom
Best Live Action Short Film
Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything)
Helium
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)
The Voorman Problem
Best Sound Editing
All Is Lost, Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
Captain Phillips, Oliver Tarney
Gravity, Glenn Freemantle
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Brent Burge
Lone Survivor, Wylie Stateman
Best Sound Mixing
Captain Phillips, Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
Gravity, Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
Inside Llewyn Davis, Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Lone Survivor, Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow
Best Visual Effects
Gravity, Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
Iron Man 3, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
The Lone Ranger, Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
Star Trek Into Darkness, Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton
Best Adapted Screenplay
Before Midnight, written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Captain Phillips, screenplay by Billy Ray
Philomena, screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
12 Years a Slave, screenplay by John Ridley
The Wolf of Wall Street, screenplay by Terence Winter
Best Original Screenplay
American Hustle, written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Blue Jasmine, written by Woody Allen
Dallas Buyers Club, written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
Her, written by Spike Jonze
Nebraska, written by Bob Nelson