British film star Ralph Fiennes has said he is “thrilled” to receive a best actor Oscar nomination for his role in pope drama Conclave.
This year’s announcement saw Spanish-language musical Emilia Perez lead the way with 13 nominations while director Edward Berger’s film, about cardinals voting to elect the next pope, secured eight nods.
“I’m thrilled to be nominated and to be celebrating the other nominations for Conclave,” Fiennes said.
“Edward Berger brought an extraordinary cast and crew together – he is an inspirational director with rare insight and a unique vision which lies at the heart of this film.”
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.
“When I was young, I was always identified as the daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini.
“As I’ve gotten older, this doesn’t happen as frequently; and, I miss it especially today.
“I wish my parents were alive to celebrate with me this great honour.
And the nominees for Best Picture are… #Oscars pic.twitter.com/BRQeEVSKQI
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) January 23, 2025
“And, also, today, with this joy, my mind can’t help lingering in the beyond to David Lynch.
“Our 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.
“Thank you to the Academy. I am very honoured.”
Screenwriter Peter Straughan added that it was an “enormous honour” and said his thoughts were “with the people of LA at this terrible time”, 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.
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 Academy’s 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 Schindler’s 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 oligarch’s 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 I’m 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: “To stand here today, representing Brazil in a lineage that began with my mother’s trailblazing journey, is both surreal and deeply moving.”
She also said portraying Brazilian lawyer Eunice Paiva “was an immense privilege, as it allowed me to embody a woman whose life was defined by extraordinary resilience and a quiet, unwavering strength”.
In the supporting actor categories, The Brutalist’s 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 Erivo’s green-skinned character in Wicked, and Monica Barbaro for A Complete Unknown.
Grande wrote on Instagram that she “cannot stop crying” after the “unfathomable recognition”.
In the supporting actor category, Culkin, for playing a cousin to Jesse Eisenberg’s character who goes on a trip to retrace his Jewish grandmother’s 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 Rocketman’s (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again.
He will face competition from Emilia Perez, who has two songs El Mal, and Mi Camino up for original song, along with Sing Sing’s Like A Bird, and The Six Triple Eight’s The Journey.
Sir Elton hailed his latest Oscar nod as an “incredible honour” on Instagram, along with paying tribute to his collaborators Brandi Carlile, Bernie Taupin and Andrew Watt, and “to everyone who helped bring this beautiful song to the world”.
The best picture category is a crowded field with Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Emilia Perez, I’m 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.
Eric Fellner, co-chairman of Working Title films and co-producer on Fargeat’s film, said: “We 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.
“We are all so grateful to the academy for these nominations”, 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 – 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 O’Brien taking the helm this year.
British TV presenter Jonathan Ross will return as host of ITV’s Oscars companion show this March for the second year running, accompanied by celebrity guests and film experts to discuss nominated films on the night.
