Cynthia Erivo Closes in on EGOT Status with Best Actress Nomination at the Oscars

Emilia Pérez sets a new record for the most nominations for a non-English film, and it also matches last year’s historic number of nods set by Oppenheimer. Erivo’s Best Actress nod is one of ten nominations for Wicked, the second most nominations this year, alongside Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist.

For the fourth year in a row,no film submitted by an African country is in the running for Best International Film, which is particularly disappointing for Mati Diop’s Golden Bear-winning Dahomey. No African film has won the award in two decades since the South African film Tsotsi won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The only African film nominated in the category this decade remains The Man Who Sold His Skin by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouthar Ben Hania.

In the Best Live-Action Short Film category, Cindy Lee’sThe Last Ranger, a film about a ranger and her young protégé fighting to protect rhinos from being hunted in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, has been nominated. The short film is part of the anthology When the World Stopped, and it stars Avumile Qongqo and Liyabona Mroqoza in lead roles.

Also, notable Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez’sSoundtrack to a Coup D’Etat is up for Best Documentary Feature category. A comprehensive and enveloping detailing of the origins of the Congo crisis, Grimonprez weaves in the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the ideological beginnings of Pan-Africanism, the sometimes unwitting role of iconic jazz musicians, and more into his epic.