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Michael B. Jordan plays twins Smoke and Stack in the new movie 'Sinners.'

Warner Bros. Pictures

5 takeaways from the Oscar nominations

by Linda Holmes

Oscar nominations are out, kicking off seven weeks of conversations about what the Academy got right (and wrong) and predictions about what voters might still get wrong during the awards on March 15.

Here's what struck me when the lists were announced.

‘Sinners’ dominated, followed by ‘One Battle After Another’

Before this year, no movie had ever gotten more than 14 Oscar nominations. Three films — All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land — shared the top spot. This year, Ryan Coogler's brilliant vampire story Sinners bested that by two, landing 16 nominations. If it had been 15, you could argue that the new category honoring best casting (in which Sinners, yes, was nominated) was the difference. But with 16, that's a straight-up record-breaker. Of course, nomination numbers do not always equal wins, let alone wins for a big category like best picture.

One Battle After Another, with 13 nominations, is also formidable on numbers alone. But Sinners was nominated in every category in which it was competing, which is a stunning accomplishment. Since each branch of the Academy votes on its own nominees (and everyone votes for best picture nominees), that suggests that the film has strong support across every single group of Oscars voters. And it's fair to ask: If every element of a movie is top-notch, from its design to its performances to its script to its music, how does it not deserve to be best picture?

Non-English language features continued their strong showing

Four non-English language acting performances were nominated this year, three from Norway's drama Sentimental Value (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård) and one from the Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent (Wagner Moura). That's a record. Both of those films were nominated for best picture as well, which continues the pattern from recent years of non-English-language films like Parasite, I'm Still Here, Emilia Pérez, Drive My Car and others earning nominations in the top category. Consider this: 10 such best picture nominations happened between 1938 and 2017; 12 have now happened between 2018 and 2026. (On the other hand, it's worth noting that the highly-regarded Korean movie No Other Choice from filmmaker Park Chan-wook was shut out, disappointing its many supporters.)

‘F1’ overperformed

The car-racing movie F1, which felt a lot like a promotional film for F1 racing itself, received what will be, for some, an eyebrow-raising best picture nomination in addition to nominations for editing, sound and visual effects. Both the Broadway drama Blue Moon and Iranian thriller It Was Just An Accident received original screenplay nominations, Blue Moon landed a lead actor nomination for Ethan Hawke, and It Was Just An Accident was nominated for best international feature (for France, which submitted it); neither appeared on the best picture list. People really like cars going vroom vroom, apparently.

New ‘Avatar’ and ‘Wicked’ stories lost steam

The first Avatar received nine Oscar nominations; the second, Avatar: The Way of Water, received four; this year, the third, Avatar: Fire and Ash, received only two, for costume design and visual effects. A year ago, Wicked received 10 nominations; this year, Wicked: For Good received zero. Avatar: Fire and Ash still made a mountain of money and Wicked: For Good made plenty, but the one-two punch of big box office and awards sparkle has worn off for both.

Diane Warren is Diane Warren, now and forever

The least-surprising possible news on Oscar nomination morning was a nomination for Diane Warren, who received her 17th nod, this time for the song "Dear Me" in the documentary Diane Warren: Relentless. She has never won — except for an honorary award in 2022 — which perhaps makes her the Susan Lucci of best original song, in honor of the All My Children actress nominated 21 times for a Daytime Emmy for playing Erica Kane. But one fact should be foremost in the mind: Susan Lucci eventually won. Yes, it took until her 19th nomination, but it happened. This year, Warren is nominated for a song she wrote for a documentary about herself; wouldn't it be fun if this were her year? If not, she should not lose heart, because let's be real: She will be nominated again next year.

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We Recommend

The Peacock series Ponies is a solid and stylish spy drama set in and around the American embassy in 1977 Moscow. Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson play secretaries whose CIA agent husbands get killed by the KGB; the two women — one uptight and by-the-book (Clarke), the other a loose cannon (Richardson) — convince the CIA that they’d make great spies, as the KGB routinely ignores the comings and goings of secretaries. There are plenty of moments that strain credulity until it snaps, but the chemistry of the two leads keeps the pot — and the plot — boiling. Throw in some juicy twists and some inspired casting — Adrian Lester as the CIA's Moscow chief, Artjom Gilz as a ruthless KGB agent, and Dropout’s Vic Michaelis as a hilariously mean office manager — and you got a show that hits some of the same buttons that The Americans did, if not quite as effortlessly. — Glen Weldon

You probably know that Netflix’s movie offerings from before about 2000 are extremely spotty. But! They’ve recently added (practically) all the James Bond movies, starring all the different James Bonds. (The one they don’t have is the Casino Royale from 1967.) Whatever you think about spy movies, these films have been very influential, and there’s never been a better time to study up for the next time someone asks you: Sean Connery or Daniel Craig? And hey — a lot of us are about to be snowed in for a while anyway. — Linda Holmes

I recently caught up with Sarah Friedland’s lovely feature debut Familiar Touch, which is currently streaming on MUBI. At first glance, the movie seems like it'll be sad: Steve (H. Jon Benjamin) makes the difficult decision to place his mother Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant), who’s living with dementia, in a nursing facility. As the once-independent Ruth navigates her new environment, there are sadness and moments of friction, but kindness and sweetness also coarse through the film. (Think of it as a far less-jokey A Man on the Inside.) And Chalfant is a big reason why: she gives a vulnerable and delicate performance, and it’s easy to be charmed by her just as her peers and the empathic staff members are. — Aisha Harris

What's Making Us Happy

Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are:

Monica Castillo: Remembering Bad Bunny’s final live-streamed concert, from his No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí residency

Glen Weldon: The movie Plainclothes, on MUBI and available to rent

Aisha Harris: The documentary Predators, on Paramount+

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