

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez,” a Spanish-language, French-made film, dominated the nominations with a leading 13 nominations, including best picture and best actress for Karla Sofía Gascón, making her the first openly trans actor ever nominated for an Oscar. The film also landed nominations for directing, original screenplay, two for its songs and for Zoe Saldaña’ s supporting performance.

Another musical — “Wicked,” the smash Broadway adaptation — came away with nearly as many nominations. Jon M. Chu’s lavish “Wizard of Oz” riff collected 10 nominations, including best picture and acting nods for its stars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
Wicked tells the untold story of the witches of Oz. The film and the forthcoming Wicked: Part Two, set to hit theaters in November 2025, are based on the 2003 musical of the same name, which was originally adapted from the best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire. Winnie Holzman, the stage production’s book writer, wrote the screenplay for Chu’s movie with Dana Fox. Academy Award-winning composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz returned to the show to adapt the musical for the screen. Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth originated the roles of Elphaba and Glinda on Broadway, and made cameos in the film.
Wicked is a reimaged non-fairly tale based on the original fairy tale where people fit into a world they follow the tune. But Wicked is not that black and white. It challenges the notation of what is wicked and what makes people wicked. In fact the wicked are the true heroes who struggle to challenge the tune.
Also, the Wizard of Oz was all white and not black at all. This retake brings more colour and the thought to the story. There was another all-black iteration call The Whiz which was refreshing.
This years Oscar nominations hopefully will bring more colour to Oscar night.