Oppenheimer – Christopher Nolan’s masterly portrait of the father of the atomic bomb – topped the Oscars nominations on Tuesday (Jan 23), earning an impressive 13 nods, including for best picture.

It was followed by Poor Things, a female-focused take on the Frankenstein myth, on 11, and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon on 10, in the race for Hollywood’s most prestigious awards.

But it was a somewhat disappointing morning for Barbie, the other half of last summer’s Barbenheimer box office phenomenon and the year’s highest-grossing film.

The comedy had to settle for eight nods – not bad for a satire based on a popular line of plastic dolls, but lower than many had predicted, and missing out on key nominations for Greta Gerwig as director, and star Margot Robbie in best actress.

Oppenheimer, which came out in theatres on the same day, and itself almost grossed US$1 billion, led the way with nods for its director Nolan, and stars Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr and Emily Blunt.

The film – which is the clear favourite to win best picture, the industry’s top prize, at the 96th Academy Awards on March 10 – also racked up nods in an array of technical categories.

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Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese’s three-and-a-half-hour true crime opus on murders ripping through the oil-rich Osage community in early 20th century Oklahoma, made history.

Star Lily Gladstone became the Oscars’ first Native American nominee for best actress. She will now go head-to-head with Emma Stone, the star of Poor Things, which also earned an acting nod for Mark Ruffalo, along with a swathe of technical nominations, from cinematography to costume design.

But there was disappointment for Killers star Leonardo DiCaprio, who failed to earn a best actor nomination, and the movie also missed out on best adapted screenplay.

It proved to be a record year for female directors.

Three movies helmed by women – French courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie and Past Lives – were nominated for best picture, for the first time in more than nine decades of Academy Awards.

Only 19 films by female directors had previously ever been nominated for best picture.

Tuesday’s announcement was a big success for Anatomy – despite it not being France’s official entry in the international film category, a decision that has caused a little hand-wringing in Paris.

As well as earning expected best picture and best actress (Sandra Huller) nominations, director Justine Triet secured a nod that had been widely predicted to go to Gerwig, and it also earned recognition for editing and original screenplay.

Bradley Cooper earned an impressive three individual nominations for acting in, producing and writing Maestro. The Leonard Bernstein biopic, which Cooper also directed, took seven nominations.

Other strong performers included Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, about a teacher, a cook and a student holed up in a boarding school over the festive season.

It took five nominations, including acting nods for Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who are both now considered strong contenders in their respective categories.

And it was a good morning for American Fiction, a deft satire on race, publishing and Hollywood, which also had five nominations, including for stars Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K Brown.

The best picture category was rounded out by Past Lives, a Korean-American production about love, friendship and how things change but stay the same, and bleak Nazi drama The Zone of Interest. AFP