American Hustle and Gravity lead Academy Award nominations

Comedy American Hustle and 3D space odyssey Gravity have lead the nominations for the 86th Academy Awards. Announced just before 6 a.m. in Los Angeles on Thursday January 16, Best Picture nominations included the two award seasons hits who both got 10 nominations each, with slave drama 12 Years A Slave trailing behind with 9 nominations.

Nine films all up were nominated for the big award of Best Picture including 12 Years A Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, The Wolf of Wall Street and Philomena. Favourites Rush, Saving Mr. Banks and Inside Llewyn Davis missed out on the ultimate award nomination.

Australians Cate Blanchett and Catherine Martin were among some of the nominees for the March ceremony. Blanchett was awarded a Best Actress nomination for her turn in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine as a fallen socialite whilst Martin received a double nomination for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design for her work on her husband Baz Lurhmann’s film The Great Gatsby, having won an award in 2002 for Moulin Rouge!. Unfortunately Luhrmann was snubbed for Best Director. Michael Wilkinson also earned a costume design nomination for American Hustle and Australian visual effects artist Dave Clayton nominated for his work on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

American Hustle director David O. Russell earned his third successive directing nomination after previous films Silver Linings Playbook and The Fighter. American Hustle also had nominations in every acting category as well as directing and film. Martin Scorsese earned his eighth directing nomination for The Wolf of Wall Street, which was the surprise multiple nominee with acting nods for Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill in Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively. Surprisingly Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa was nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Jackass star Johnny Knoxville tweeted, “Holy hell, an Oscar nomination for Stephen Prouty for makeup and hairstyling in bad grandpa!! Wahooo!!!!”

A number of omissions were made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Tom Hanks didn’t receive a nomination for his role in Saving Mr. Banks or Captain Phillips. Joaquin Phoenix was also snubbed for his role in Her and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss for her first film role in the acclaimed Enough Said. Two popular films have been widely ignored this award season and forgotten once again by the Academy. Real life drama Fruitvale Station, featuring work by Chronicle’s Michael B. Jordan, and Lee Daniel’s The Butler, which included standout work from Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker.

Best Actor nominee features Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Bruce Dern (Nebraska), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street), Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) and Christian Bale (American Hustle), with the main battle between DiCaprio and McConaughey with dark horse Ejiofor for the award.

The Best Actress nominees includes Amy Adams (American Hustle), Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Sandra Bullock (Gravity), Judi Dench (Philomena) and Meryl Streep (August: Osage County). Adams and Blanchett are favourites for the awards, depending on how the Academy prefers comedy or drama.

With her nomination, Streep increases her record for most acting nominations. This is her 18th nomination, including three wins, the last for playing Margaret Thatcher in 2011′s The Iron Lady. Streep is unlikely to win this year but the nomination doesn’t go amiss. Many enjoyed their first Oscar nomination, including Ejiofor, McConaughey, Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave), Barkhad Abdi (a limo driver before being cast in Captain Phillips) and Jared Leto for his role in Dallas Buyers Club.

This year’s Academy Awards will be screened on March 2, with Ellen DeGeneres hosting for the second time.

Below is the full list of nominations.

Best Picture
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actor
Christian Bale, American Hustle
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

Best Actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

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 Director
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Foreign Language Film
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium)
The Great Beauty (Italy)
The Hunt (Denmark)
The Missing Picture (Cambodia)
Omar (Palestine)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Before Midnight – Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Captain Phillips – Billy Ray
Philomena – Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
12 Years a Slave – John Ridley
The Wolf of Wall Street – Terence Winter

Best Original Screenplay
American Hustle – Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Blue Jasmine – Woody Allen
Dallas Buyers Club – Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
Her – Spike Jonze
Nebraska – Bob Nelson

Best Animated Feature Film
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine
Frozen
The Wind Rises

Best Production Design
American Hustle
Gravity
The Great Gatsby
Her
12 Years a Slave

Best Cinematography
The Grandmaster
Gravity
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Prisoners

Best Sound Mixing
Captain Phillips
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Inside Llewyn Davis
Lone Survivor

Best Sound Editing
All Is Lost
Captain Phillips
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Lone Survivor

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 – Bruce Broughton and Dennis Spiegel
Happy from Despicable Me 2 – Pharrell Williams
Let It Go from Frozen – Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez; The Moon Song from Her – Karen O and Spike Jonze
Ordinary Love from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen

Best Costume
American Hustle
The Grandmaster
The Great Gatsby
The Invisible Woman
12 Years a Slave

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
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
12 Years a Slave

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Dallas Buyers Club
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
The Lone Ranger

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
Pitaako Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)
The Voorman Problem

Best Visual Effects
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
The Lone Ranger
Star Trek Into Darkness

Originally published on CelebrityOZ, January 17, 2014. 

Watch the full nomination video below: