'Oppenheimer' leads in number of Oscar nominations, 'Barbie' takes second place

An Israeli short film, Letter to a Pig, by Tal Kantor and Amit Gicelter, was nominated in the Short Animated Film category.

By LISA RICHWINE

JANUARY 24, 2024 05:21

Scientists J. Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein are seen together in this photo. The two worked on the Manhattan Project and ultimately developed the world's first nuclear weapons. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons) — Scientists J. Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein are seen together in this photo. The two worked on the Manhattan Project and ultimately developed the world's first nuclear weapons.

(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Historical epic Oppenheimer, about the race to build the first atomic bomb, landed a leading 13 Oscar nominations on Tuesday and will compete for the prestigious best picture trophy.

Oppenheimer outpaced gothic comedy Poor Things, which received 11 nominations for the film industry’s highest honors.

Also in the best picture race were feminist doll adventure Barbie, Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon about the murders of members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma in the 1920s.

Rounding out the field of 10 were American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Past Lives, and The Zone of Interest.

Additional nominations

Barbie, last year’s highest-grossing movie, landed eight nominations, including a supporting actress nod for America Ferrera, but voters passed over lead actress Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig.

The mushroom cloud of the first test of a hydrogen bomb, ''Ivy Mike'', as photographed on Enewetak, an atoll in the Pacific Ocean, in 1952, by a member of the United States Air Force's Lookout Mountain. (credit: Photographic Squadron/File Photo)

Bradley Cooper also was left off the best director list for Maestro, though he was nominated for best actor for starring in the film as composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein.

His competitors include Cillian Murphy, who played scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. In a surprise, voters snubbed Leonardo DiCaprio, star of Killers of the Flower Moon.

For Best Actress, the nominations went to Annette Bening (Nyad), Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon), Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall), Carey Mulligan (Maestro), and Emma Stone (Poor Things).

Competing for Best Actor will be Cooper (Maestro), Colman Domingo (Rustin), Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers), Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction).

Nominated for Best director were Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest), Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things), Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer), Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), and Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall)

An Israeli short film, Letter to a Pig, by Tal Kantor and Amit Gicelter, was nominated in the Short Animated Film category. It’s about a Holocaust survivor who wrote a letter to the pig who saved his life and a girl who finds the letter and reads it later.

The golden statuettes will be handed out at a Hollywood ceremony on March 10. Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will return as host.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.