It was a good Oscar nominations morning for Netflix. The Los Gatos, Calif., company led all studios and fellow streamers with 16 feature film nods, thanks to a big showing for “Emilia Pérez,” which could give the streamer its best shot yet at winning best picture.
Indie studio A24 was right behind with 14 feature film nominations, 10 of which were for “The Brutalist,” the 3½-hour-long epic starring Adrien Brody as a Hungarian Jewish architect who immigrates to America after World War II.
Universal Pictures and its specialty film unit Focus Features rounded out the top four with 13 and 12 nods, respectively. Comcast-owned Universal was recognized for its highly marketed musical “Wicked,” while Focus Features received nominations for the papal election drama “Conclave” and the horror film “Nosferatu.” Those nods made Comcast the most nominated company overall.
Walt Disney Co.’s Searchlight Pictures brought in 10 nominations — eight for the Timothée Chalamet-led Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.” Counting the Burbank company’s other units, Disney amassed 15 nominations, including a nod for box office smash “Inside Out 2” in animated feature.
Meanwhile, indie studio Neon garnered seven, with recognition for “Anora.” Art house film streamer Mubi got six and was recognized for the body horror film “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore. Warner Bros. Pictures received five nominations, and Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics bagged three each.
Other than Netflix and Mubi, streaming services had a quieter morning on Thursday than in years past. Amazon MGM Studios received two nominations for “Nickel Boys,” and Apple came up empty-handed. Last year, Apple received 13 nominations, but didn’t win anything on Oscars night.
The muted showing for streamers overall reflects changing strategies at some of these companies, as awards contenders — or even winners — haven’t always translated to subscription boosts, said Stephen Galloway, dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. (Both “The Substance” and “Nickel Boys” got exclusive theatrical releases.)
“The specialty movie that traditionally won Oscars, it’s not going to sway millions and millions of people to subscribe,” he said.
Netflix also led the nominations tally last year, though the company brought home only one win, for Wes Anderson’s short film “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.” The streamer is still seeking its first best picture award, but has high hopes for “Emilia Pérez,” the largely Spanish-language film set in Mexico that garnered 13 nominations.
The film, which chronicles the journey of a Mexican cartel leader who undergoes gender transition, made Oscars history as star Karla Sofia Gascón became the first out trans woman to be nominated in an acting category.
This year’s nominees skew toward smaller and more art house fare. For as many major studio juggernauts as were released last year, only Universal Pictures’ “Wicked” and Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Dune: Part Two” were represented in the best picture race. “Conclave,” “The Substance” and “A Complete Unknown” were commercially successful, but at a much smaller scale.
Even among the major studios, it was largely their specialty labels that were recognized for awards this year, including Focus Features and Searchlight.
Overall, this year’s best picture nominees brought in $877 million in domestic box office and $1.7 billion globally, marking a 37% drop from last year’s total best picture nominee totals.
