Ralph Fiennes âthrilledâ to receive Oscars nomination for pope drama Conclave
British actors Cynthia Erivo and Felicity Jones have also secured nods.
British film star Ralph Fiennes has said he is âthrilledâ to receive a best actor Oscar nomination for his role in pope drama Conclave.
This yearâs announcement saw Spanish-language musical Emilia Perez lead the way with 13 nominations while director Edward Bergerâs film, about cardinals voting to elect the next pope, secured eight nods.
âIâm thrilled to be nominated and to be celebrating the other nominations for Conclave,â Fiennes said.
âEdward Berger brought an extraordinary cast and crew together â he is an inspirational director with rare insight and a unique vision which lies at the heart of this film.â
Also nominated is his co-star, Italian actress Isabella Rossellini, who reflected on how filmmaker David Lynch, who died earlier in the month, made an impact on her understanding of acting.
âWhen I was young, I was always identified as the daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini.
âAs Iâve gotten older, this doesnât happen as frequently; and, I miss it especially today.
âI wish my parents were alive to celebrate with me this great honour.
âAnd, also, today, with this joy, my mind canât help lingering in the beyond to David Lynch.
âOur collaboration was key to my understanding of the art of acting. It is my past, all that I have in me, that I brought to my interpretation of Sister Agnes in the film Conclave, working under the clear, sharp direction of Edward Berger his incredible cast and crew, especially the incomparable Ralph Fiennes.
âThank you to the Academy. I am very honoured.â
Screenwriter Peter Straughan added that it was an âenormous honourâ and said his thoughts were âwith the people of LA at this terrible timeâ, amid the wildfires.
Fiennes, known for playing Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter film series, will face off against Adrien Brody for immigrant tale The Brutalist, Timothee Chalamet for Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown and Colman Domingo for Sing Sing, about prisoners becoming part of a theatre group, at the Oscars ceremony in March.
Sebastian Stan is also up for the category for playing Donald Trump before he became the US president in The Apprentice.
Ariana Grande, right, with Cynthia Erivo (Christophe Petit Tesson/PA)
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Also leading the nominations are Wicked, based on the West End and Broadway musical of the same name, and The Brutalist on 10 nods, while A Complete Unknown is named in eight award categories.
They have all been nominated for the best picture, and acting categories, while The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown and Emilia Perez secured directing nods.
The nominations for the 97th Oscars were announced on Thursday at the Academyâs Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Los Angeles, after being postponed twice amid the wildfires in the region.
Fiennes was last nominated in 1997 for his leading role as a Hungarian pilot and desert explorer in The English Patient, which came after his first nod in 1994 for war drama Schindlerâs List, in which he played an Austrian Nazi official.
Up for a best actress Oscar is Erivo, who secured her second acting Oscar nod for musical The Wizard Of Oz prequel Wicked, along with new nominations for Mikey Madison for playing a stripper who falls for a Russian oligarchâs son in Anora, and Hollywood actress Demi Moore for body horror The Substance.
Spanish star Karla Sofia Gascon, who became the first transgender actress to be nominated, is also in the category for Emilia Perez alongside Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres for Portuguese-language film Iâm Still Here, about a mother coping with the disappearance of her husband in 1970s authoritarian Brazil.
Torres, whose mother Fernanda Montenegro was nominated more than two decades ago for best actress for road trip movie Central Station, said: âTo stand here today, representing Brazil in a lineage that began with my motherâs trailblazing journey, is both surreal and deeply moving.â
She also said portraying Brazilian lawyer Eunice Paiva âwas an immense privilege, as it allowed me to embody a woman whose life was defined by extraordinary resilience and a quiet, unwavering strengthâ.
In the supporting actor categories, The Brutalistâs Felicity Jones has landed her second Oscar nomination as former Succession stars Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin secured their first Academy Awards nods.
Jones will compete against Emilia Perez star Zoe Saldana, for her role in the Netflix thriller about a Mexican drug lord who changes gender, and Italian-born US star Isabella Rossellini for playing a nun in papal election drama Conclave.
Also nominated in the category is US pop singer Ariana Grande for playing Glinda the good witch, an early friend to Erivoâs green-skinned character in Wicked, and Monica Barbaro for A Complete Unknown.
Grande wrote on Instagram that she âcannot stop cryingâ after the âunfathomable recognitionâ.
In the supporting actor category, Culkin, for playing a cousin to Jesse Eisenbergâs character who goes on a trip to retrace his Jewish grandmotherâs past escaping the Holocaust in Poland in A Real Pain, and Strong, who portrayed former Trump mentor Roy Cohn in The Apprentice, are going head-to-head.
They were nominated alongside Russian actor Yura Borisov for Anora, and Edward Norton for A Complete Unknown and Australian star Guy Pearce for The Brutalist.
Meanwhile, Sir Elton John has secured his fifth original song nod after the release of his music documentary song Never Too Late for the Disney+ film Elton John: Never Too Late, about his Farewell Yellow Brick Road concert tour.
The British singer-songwriter was nominated for The Lion King, winning for Can You Feel The Love Tonight, and also snapping up the gong for a second time with Sir Elton biopic Rocketmanâs (Iâm Gonna) Love Me Again.
David Furnish and husband Sir Elton John (Ian West/PA)
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He will face competition from Emilia Perez, who has two songs El Mal, and Mi Camino up for original song, along with Sing Singâs Like A Bird, and The Six Triple Eightâs The Journey.
Sir Elton hailed his latest Oscar nod as an âincredible honourâ on Instagram, along with paying tribute to his collaborators Brandi Carlile, Bernie Taupin and Andrew Watt, and âto everyone who helped bring this beautiful song to the worldâ.
The best picture category is a crowded field with Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Emilia Perez, Iâm Still Here, The Substance, and Wicked all nominated.
Also up for the prize is Chalamet-starring science fiction blockbuster Dune: Part Two, and Nickel Boys, based on the Colson Whitehead book of the same name about children sent to an abusive reform school in the 1960s.
James Mangold, who previously secured an adapted screenplay nod for co-writing Logan and a best picture nomination for producing Ford V Ferrari, has earned his first directing nod for A Complete Unknown.
The category also includes first time nominees Sean Baker for Anora, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, Jacques Audiard for Emilia Perez and Coralie Fargeat for The Substance.
Karla Sofia Gascon, Selena Gomez, Jacques Audiard, Zoe Saldana and Adriana Paz (Jeff Moore/PA)
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Eric Fellner, co-chairman of Working Title films and co-producer on Fargeatâs film, said: âWe were blessed with two amazing actresses who gave their all, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, and an incredibly talented French crew that made it all happen.
âWe are all so grateful to the academy for these nominationsâ, he added.
For animated feature film, Wallace And Gromit are once again nominated for an Oscar gong after the release of the BBC Christmas hit Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl â which sees the return of evil penguin Feathers McGraw from Academy Award-winning short The Wrong Trousers.
They will compete against Latvian cat film Flow, Inside Out 2, the second film from Disney that dramatises emotions in the brain, Memoir Of A Snail, starring Succession star Sarah Snook, and The Wild Robot.
Those who had been in the running for awards, but missed out on nominations include Oscar winner Nicole Kidman for erotic thriller Babygirl, and James Bond star Daniel Craig for Mexico-set Queer, about an older man pursuing the love of a young man.
The Academy Awards ceremony will take place on March 2 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, with first-time host Conan OâBrien taking the helm this year.
British TV presenter Jonathan Ross will return as host of ITVâs Oscars companion show this March for the second year running, accompanied by celebrity guests and film experts to discuss nominated films on the night.
