Dear Gossips, 

Oscar nominations are happening today – announced by Tracee Ellis Ross and Leslie Jordan, an inspired and adorable combination. This post was written before the livestream, and we’ll be covering the Academy’s final list later on. But as I wrote to Sarah yesterday, for some reason I’m nervous, though not because I have any serious investment, emotional or otherwise, in any of this year’s nominees. And this is not always the case. In past years I have had my favourites, films that I was pulling for, like Parasite, or Moonlight, but while there are many films I like so much from 2021, there’s not one that I’m fully teamed up on, although there are a couple that, well, I do kinda side-eye, but even that strenuously. Nate Jones hilariously sums up that sentiment in his piece for Vulture about the potential 2022 Oscar villain, the film that will polarise the conversation if it secures multiple nominations. Alison Willmore takes it a step further and actually predicts that Don’t Look Up will win Best Picture. Her arguments are sound – since it’s on Netflix, and with that marquee cast, more Academy voters have likely seen Don’t Look Up than any other contender. And also, Hollywood loves lecturing people on what’s wrong with the world. 

 

Still, to go back to being nervous, it’s not necessarily personal; it’s more because this has been a wildly unpredictable award season. None of the precursors have really lined up in the same direction. Sure, The Power of the Dog and Belfast look like they’re solid, but there are also several wildcards in the mix in multiple categories. And more voters participated in the nomination process this year than ever before: 

The Academy now has more international members than ever before which The Hollywood Reporter says could “change the calculus” of who gets nominated and who wins Oscars.

 

So we could be in for some surprises. Or, you know, because it’s the Academy after all, it could be the same f-cking same, and then we’ll be shouting about that so, you see, it’s back to nerves. There were probably a lot of nerves happening last night in Hollywood, even though most of them will claim they were sleeping when the nominations were announced. 

I’ve been thinking about Ariana DeBose, as experts have been saying that she’s a lock for a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in West Side Story. All of this is new for her and for the last few weeks people have been calling her a frontrunner and she was just nominated for two BAFTAs. The nerves for her must be crazy. I feel confident in saying that we’ll hear her name. More on the Oscar nominations later today. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey