VOA文化艺术2022--Streaming Services Lead in Oscar Nominations

Streaming services, including Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon, are leading traditional movie studios with Academy Awards nominations² this year.

The 94th Academy Awards, also called the Oscars, will take place on March 27. The awards, presented by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, celebrate and recognize the best efforts and success in the film industry.

Streaming service nominations

The Netflix film The Power of the Dog leads all movies this year with 12 nominations. The streaming service also earned 27 nominations overall.

The movie received four acting³ nominations for Benedict Cumberbatch, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirsten Dunst, and Jesse Plemons. "For both Jesse and I to get our first nominations together is beyond our wildest dreams," Dunst said. Dunst and Plemons are in a relationship.

The film's director Jane Campion became the first woman nominated two times for best director. Only two women, Kathryn Bigelow and Chloe Zhao, have won the best director award.

The Power of the Dog also earned a best picture nomination¹. If it wins, it will be the first time a film from a streaming service has won such an award.

Apple TV+, another streaming service, also received a best picture nomination for CODA. It is a movie about a hearing woman in a deaf family. And Amazon Prime streaming service received three acting nominations for Being the Ricardos, a movie about Lucy Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz in the 1950's television show I love Lucy.

Marc Malkin is senior culture and events editor at the publication Variety. Malkin said, "Every year we talk about how the streamers are getting more and more powerful when it comes to the Oscars." He continued to say, "This year really proves it."

Best Picture nominations

The movie Dune⁴ was released in both traditional movie theaters and, for a short time, on the new streaming service HBOMax. The movie received ten nominations including best picture.

The three streaming-service releases, The Power of the Dog, CODA and Dune, will compete for the best picture against Kenneth Branagh's Belfast and Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story. Both films earned seven nominations each.

The Japanese-language movie Drive My Car, about a widowed theater actor, earned a surprise best picture nomination. Other contenders included King Richard, about the father of tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams, Licorice Pizza, a movie about growing up, and Don't Look Up along with Nightmare Alley⁵.

Other acting nominations

Actors Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem were nominated for playing Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos.

Kristen Stewart received her first Oscar nomination for playing Princess Diana in Spenser. She will compete with Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter among others. Voters did not give singer Lady Gaga a nomination for her widely praised performance in House of Gucci.

Racial inclusion

Three Black actors were nominated for acting awards this year. Both Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis received nominations for playing husband and wife in King Richard. And Denzel Washington was nominated for his work in The Tragedy of Macbeth.

Actor Ariana DeBose who is Black and Latino won a nomination for her acting in West Side Story.

After criticism over the #OscarsSoWhite movement in 2015 and 2016, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has added more women and people of color as voting members. It also added members from outside the United States.

Words in This Story

streaming – n. the continuous transmission of video files from a server to a viewer

studio – n. a company that makes movies

nomination – n. the act of choosing someone or something as a candidate for receiving an honor or award

widow – n. a woman whose husband has died

contender – n. a person who tries to win something in a contest

1 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

2 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句

3 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

4 dune   

n.(由风吹积而成的)沙丘

参考例句：

• The sand massed to form a dune.沙积集起来成了沙丘。
• Cute Jim sat on the dune eating a prune in June.可爱的吉姆在六月天坐在沙丘上吃着话梅。

5 alley   

n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路

参考例句：

• We live in the same alley.我们住在同一条小巷里。
• The blind alley ended in a brick wall.这条死胡同的尽头是砖墙。