The Australian director and his four-time Oscar winning wife are both producers of the Elvis Presley biopic,which is also up for best actor,cinematography,costumes,production design,make-up and hairstyling,editing and sound at the 95th Academy Awards.
Heading to the Oscars:Baz Luhrmann and Austin Butler,who plays Elvis Presley in Elvis.Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
At an announcement in Los Angeles early on Wednesday morning (AEDT),two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett was nominated for playing an intense composer-conductor inTarand Brisbane writer-director Lachlan Pendragon for best animated short film for the cutely-titledAn Ostrich Told Me The World Is Fake And I Think I Believe It.
Catherine Martin,who has won more Oscars than any other Australian,was nominated three times - for best costumes,best production design and,as one of the producers ofElvis,best picture. She now has nine Oscar nominations and could easily build on her double wins for bothMoulin Rouge! andThe Great Gatsby.
Mandy Walker,theElvis director of photography,has the chance to do something no woman has ever done at the Oscars - win best cinematography. She is only the third to be nominated in 95 years,with fellow Australian Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog) just the second last year.
Austin Butler,the previously,is up for best actor.
Luhrmann missed a nomination for best director but was delighted by the recognition for so many long-time collaborators for a film about an American icon that was entirely made in Australia.
“It feels great,” he said from Paris where the couple are celebrating their wedding anniversary and Martin’s birthday. “I’m not a ‘me’ guy,I’m a ‘we’ guy. What’s really great is some of our long-term collaborators like[editors] Matt Villa,Jonno Redmond and the most spectacular one,that CM and I were just jumping up and down about,is Mandy Walker.
“In more than 90 years,only three women have been nominated for[cinematography]. That’s just an extraordinary achievement.”
Martin said she felt “absolutely thrilled” by all theElvis nominations.
Austin Butler and Tom Hanks star in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.
“So many people who get their names on the credits but don’t get to be in the spotlight will now be able to say that they worked on an Oscar-nominated movie,” she said. “Hopefully that’s a little bit of payback for all the hard work,all the blood,sweat and tears,that went into making this movie.”
Martin praised the women she was nominated forElvis alongside,including producer Gail Berman and production designers Karen Murphy and Beverley Dunn. “It’s wonderful to see these fabulous women being recognised for their artistry,their hard work and their perseverance,” she said.
Overlooked for a nomination were Margot Robbie,who played an ambitious 1920s Hollywood actress inBabylon,and Hugh Jackman,who was a New York lawyer with a troubled family life inThe Son,with their Oscar hopes foundering on downbeat reactions to their films.
As well asElvis,the best picture field includes two long-awaited sequels that have become the biggest box office hits of the last 12 months,Avatar:The Way Of Water andTop Gun:Maverick.
They are up againstThe Fabelmans,Everything Everywhere All At Once,The Banshees of Inisherin,Tar,All Quiet On The Western Front,Women TalkingandTriangle Of Sadness.
Nominated for best director are Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans),Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (Everything Everywhere All At Once),Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin),Todd Field (Tar) and Ruben Ostlund (Triangle of Sadness).
Cate Blanchett in Tar.Focus Features
Delight among theElvis team about the nominations will be,a longtime supporter of the film from when Luhrmann started researching the story from a workspace in the Graceland barn. That support continued during the Hollywood awards season,when she joined theElvis party at the Golden Globes just two days before her death.
With a female cinematographer never previously winning at the either the British,American or Australian academy awards until her breakthrough late last year,Walker said she was thrilled by her nomination and praised Luhrmann as a visionary director.
“I’m here by myself - my daughter’s in New York,my husband’s in Australia,” she said via zoom from early in the morning in Los Angeles. “I couldn’t sleep then I’ve been running around the lounge room in my pyjamas.”
Walker described the nomination as “the icing on the cake” after all the accolades thatElvis has been receiving.
She felt nervous about having the chance to smash another glass ceiling at the Oscars in a category won by fellow Australian Greig Fraser forDunelast year.
“I’m humbled to be nominated to be honest,” Walker said. “It’s such a big deal. I’ll have a speech prepared. Just fingers crossed. Who knows?”
Butler’s rivals for best actor are Brendan Fraser in his celebrated comeback to a starring role (The Whale),Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin),Bill Nighy (Living) and Paul Mescal (Aftersun).
While Blanchett called for a stop to “the televised horse race” of pitting actresses against each other when she won at the Critics Choice Awards this month,the Oscars will see her up against - or alongside - Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once),Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans),Ana de Armas (Blonde) and Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie).
The surprising success of the wild sci-fi comedyEverything Everywhere All At Once sees Jamie Lee Curtis up for best supporting actress - her first Oscar nomination - with co-star Stephanie Hsu,Angela Bassett (Black Panther:Wakanda Forever),Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Hong Chau (The Whale).
Mandy Walker won the AACTA Award for best cinematography for her work on Elvis.James Brickwood and Warner Bros
Underlining the popularity of the pitch-black Irish comedyThe Banshees of Inisherin,both Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan are nominated for best supporting actor against Judd Hirsch (The Fabelmans),Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway) and Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once).
Everything Everywhere All At Once led the nominations with 11,followed byThe Banshees of Inisherin andAll Quiet on the Western Frontwith nine.
After two controversies in recent years - wrongly announcingLa La Land as best picture winner in 2017 then Will Smith slapping presenter Chris Rock last year - the Academy will be desperately hoping the focus is just on the films this year.
With Jimmy Kimmel as host,the Oscars will take place on March 13 (AEDT).
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