This year’s Oscars nominations yet again proved Netflix’s mettle against traditional distributors, but the streamers as a whole did not completely dominate the Academy Awards nominations.
Netflix led with a total of 27 nominations, including two best picture nods for The Power of the Dog and Don’t Look Up, though it fell short of nabbing a third best picture nomination for Tick, Tick … Boom!
Apple expanded its Oscars presence to six nominations, most notably with a best picture nomination for Siân Heder’s Coda — the first best picture nomination in the tech giant’s limited history with original film and TV content and the first film led by a predominantly deaf cast to receive the recognition. The nascent streamer also received three nods for Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, including a best actor nod for Denzel Washington, who now has a record total of 10 Oscar nominations.
Amazon Studios received three acting nominations for Being the Ricardos and its stars Javier Bardem, Nicole Kidman and J. K. Simmons and a makeup and hairstyling nod for Coming 2 America, but the streamer failed to match the dozen nods it garnered last year, including for best picture.
Disney had a total of 23 nominations and, as expected, was heavily recognized in the animated feature film category for Encanto, Luca and Raya and the Last Dragon. But as for Disney+, Luca was the only nominated animated film with a streaming-only release on the streamer. (Raya had a simultaneous release in theaters and on Disney+ for an extra fee.)
Instead, the major categories saw a hefty number of films with traditional theatrical releases, despite the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on release schedules. For best picture, West Side Story, Licorice Pizza and Belfast had, for the most part, traditional theatrical releases while CODA, Don’t Look Up and The Power of the Dog were primarily streaming only, albeit for a few limited-release theatrical showings. (Don’t Look Up opened in more than 750 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, but Netflix does not report theatrical grosses.) King Richard and Dune were both part of Warner Bros.’ day-and-date strategy on HBO Max, putting them in a separate category.
In the directing category, the streamers managed one nomination for Jane Campion, while the rest went to films with traditional releases. Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon Studios performed well in the leading acting categories — particularly for lead actor — but the leading actress category saw more entrants from theatrical releases, like Kristen Stewart in Spencer and Penélope Cruz in Parallel Mothers.
Feb. 8, 9:34 a.m.: Updated to note that Don’t Look Up opened in more than 750 theaters.
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Searchlight’s Nightmare Alley was a Warner Bros./HBO Max release.
