Margot Robbie in ‘I, Tonya’.
Australian talent figures prominently in the nominations for the 90th annual Academy Awards with nods for Margot Robbie, editors Lee Smith and Paul Machliss and filmmakers Derin Seale and Josh Lawson.
Robbie’s performance in I, Tonya sees her in the running for best lead actress against Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) and Meryl Streep (The Post).
The Queensland-born actress plays American figure skater Tonya Harding, whose life unravelled in 1994 when her ex-husband conspired to injure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan in the drama which Roadshow will release on Thursday.
Lee Smith is in contention for best film editor for his work on Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic Dunkirk, his third nomination following Nolan’s The Dark Knight in 2008 and Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003).
Machliss earned his first nomination for Baby Driver, shared with Jonathan Amos.
Seale, the son of cinematographer John Seale, and Lawson were nominated for their live-action short The Eleven O’Clock, which they produced with Karen Bryson.
‘The Eleven O’Clock’.Directed by Seale and written by and starring Lawson, Damon Herriman, Alyssa McClelland and Eliza Logan, the film follows a delusional patient of a psychiatrist who believes he is actually the psychiatrist. It won the AACTA award for best short fiction film.
“If I’m dreaming, please no one wake me up,” Lawson said on social media.
Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water scored 13 nods, just below the record of 14 nominations shared by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land.
Oscar watchers were surprised that among the talent overlooked were Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks for The Post, Martin McDonagh as best director for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (although he is up for best original screenplay) and The Disaster Artist’s James Franco.
The winners will be announced in Los Angeles on Sunday March 4 US time in a ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
The full list of nominees:
Best picture: Call Me By Your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Get Out, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, The Post, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Best director: Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread; Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water; Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird; Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk; Jordan Peele, Get Out.
Best actor: Timothee Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name; Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread; Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out; Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour; Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Best actress: Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water; Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Margot Robbie, I, Tonya; Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird; Meryl Streep, The Post.
Best supporting actor: Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project; Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water; Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World; Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Best supporting actress: Mary J. Blige, Mudbound; Allison Janney, I, Tonya; Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread; Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird; Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water.
Best original screenplay: The Big Sick (Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani), Get Out (Jordan Peele), Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig), The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh).
Best adapted screenplay: Call Me by Your Name (James Ivory), The Disaster Artist (Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber), Logan (screenplay by Scott Frank and James Mangold and Michael Green; story by James Mangold), Molly’s Game (Aaron Sorkin), Mudbound (Dee Rees and Virgil Williams).
Best foreign-language film: A Fantastic Woman, Chile; The Insult, Lebanon; Loveless, Russia; On Body and Soul, Hungary; The Square, Sweden.
Best animated feature: The Boss Baby, The Breadwinner, Coco, Ferdinand, Loving Vincent.
Best documentary feature: Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, Faces Places, Icarus, Last Men in Aleppo, Strong Island.
Best cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 (Roger Deakins), Darkest Hour (Bruno Delbonnel), Dunkirk (Hoyte van Hoytema), Mudbound (Rachel Morrison), The Shape of Water (Dan Laustsen).
Best film editing: Baby Driver (Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss), Dunkirk (Lee Smith), I, Tonya (Tatiana S. Riegel), The Shape of Water (Sidney Wolinsky), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Jon Gregory).
Best sound mixing: Baby Driver, Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk, The Shape of Water, Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Best sound editing: Baby Driver, Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk, The Shape of Water, Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Best visual effects: Blade Runner 2049, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Kong: Skull Island, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, War for the Planet of the Apes.
Best makeup and hairstyling: Darkest Hour, Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick; Victoria & Abdul, Daniel Phillips and Lou Sheppard; Wonder, Arjen Tuiten.
Best costume design: Beauty and the Beast (Jacqueline Durran), Darkest Hour (Jacqueline Durran), Phantom Thread (Mark Bridges), The Shape of Water (Luis Sequeira), Victoria & Abdul (Consolata Boyle).
Best production design: Beauty and the Beast, Blade Runner 2049, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, The Shape of Water.
Best original score: Dunkirk (Hans Zimmer), Phantom Thread (Jonny Greenwood), The Shape of Water (Alexandre Desplat), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (John Williams), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Carter Burwell).
Best original song: “Mighty River” (Mudbound), “The Mystery of Love” (Call Me by Your Name), “Remember Me” (Coco), “Stand Up for Something” (Marshall), “This Is Me” (The Greatest Showman).
Best live-action short: DeKalb Elementary, Reed Van Dyk; The Eleven O’Clock, Derin Seale and Josh Lawson; My Nephew Emmett, Kevin Wilson, Jr; The Silent Child, Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton; Watu Wote/All of Us, Katja Benrath and Tobias Rosen.
Best animated short: Dear Basketball, Glen Keane and Kobe Bryant; Garden Party, Victor Caire and Gabriel Grapperon; Lou, Dave Mullins and Dana Murray; Negative Space, Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata; Revolting Rhymes, Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer.
Best documentary short: Edith+Eddie, Laura Checkoway and Thomas Lee Wright; Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405, Frank Stiefel; Heroin(e), Elaine McMillion Sheldon and Kerrin Sheldon; Knife Skills, Thomas Lennon; Traffic Stop, Kate Davis and David Heilbroner.