Everything Everywhere All at Once starring Michelle Yeoh. Photo: AGBO - Hotdog Hands - Ley Line E / Collection ChristopheL via AFP
Dimension-hopping adventure Everything Everywhere All at Once topped the list of movies nominated for this year's Oscars as Hollywood's film academy chose several crowd-pleasing hits to compete for the best picture prize.
Everything Everywhere, a science-fiction flick about an exasperated Chinese immigrant trying to finish her taxes, landed 11 nominations, including best picture and four acting nods.
Other films vying for best picture at the Academy Awards include Avatar: The Way of Water, James Cameron's sequel that currently ranks as the sixth-highest grossing movie of all time.
Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis, two of last summer's biggest blockbusters, also made the cut alongside Steven Spielberg's coming-of-age film The Fabelmans and dark comedy The Banshees of Inisherin.
Tar, Triangle of Sadness, Women Talking and a German remake of All Quiet on the Western Front rounded out the 10-picture list.
Winners of the industry's highest honours will be unveiled at a 12 March ceremony hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel and aired live on Walt Disney Co's ABC network.
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), directed by James Cameron. Photo: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Collection ChristopheL via AFP
The Oscars and other entertainment awards shows have been struggling to attract TV viewers, particularly younger ones who spend time on TikTok and YouTube.
Last year's Academy Awards ceremony, when Will Smith slapped presenter Chris Rock before winning best actor, drew about 15.4 million TV viewers, the second-smallest audience ever.
Having widely seen films, rather than just lesser-known art house movies, may help boost Oscar ratings this year, Hollywood Reporter awards editor Scott Feinberg said. The highest-rated Oscars took place 25 years ago, when megahit Titanic swept the honors.
"When the movies are popular with the public, the public feels invested and tunes in to see who wins," Feinberg said.
"This is setting them up for success as much as anything could."
Sixteen of the 20 people who clinched acting nods were first-time nominees.
They included Austin Butler for his portrayal of rock legend Elvis Presley, and Colin Farrell, who starred as an Irish farmer obsessed with restoring a friendship in Banshees. Top Gun star Tom Cruise did not make it into the field.
For best actress, Cate Blanchett, nominated for her portrayal of a manipulative orchestra conductor in Tar, will compete with Everything Everywhere star Michelle Yeoh and Michelle Williams of The Fabelmans, among others.
Austin Butler has been nominated for the first time for his portrayal of Elvis. Photo: Warner Bros. - Bazmark Films - R / Collection ChristopheL via AFP
Winners will be voted on by the roughly 10,000 actors, producers, directors and film craftspeople who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The academy added more women and people of colour to its ranks after the #OscarsSoWhite uproars of 2015 and 2016, and it increased membership from outside the United States.
This year, seven of the 20 acting nominees were people of colour. They included Everything Everywhere stars Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan, a former child star considered a front-runner for best supporting actor.
"I cannot even begin to describe how incredible this feeling is to be recognised as an Oscar nominee. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine this moment," Quan said in a statement.
Angela Bassett also was nominated for best supporting actress for playing Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Cuban-Spanish actress Ana de Armas received an acting nomination for her turn as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde.
Smith, who starred in slavery drama Emancipation, was not nominated.
He was been banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years after slapping Rock, but he remains eligible for nominations and awards.
- Reuters