SINGAPORE - At the Oscars nominations announcement on Tuesday night (Feb 8), there were a couple of notable snubs, along with a few surprise entries.

Western drama The Power Of The Dog emerged as the one to beat with 12 nominations, the most of any film this year.

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, the film - about a bullying rancher played by Cumberbatch, his meek brother (Plemons) and new bride (Dunst) - is directed by Oscar-winning New Zealand film-maker Jane Campion.

The brooding study of jealousy sticks out in other ways. The 9,000-plus Academy Awards voters love its intense tone, but went on to support other mostly upbeat films.

Science-fiction epic Dune came in second with 10 nominations, followed by the bittersweet biography Belfast and the musical West Side Story with seven nods each.

As predicted, the critically-hated climate change satire Don't Look Up made it to the Best Picture category, but left in the cold were films such as mediaeval fantasy epic The Green Knight, psychological drama The Lost Daughter and French body horror work Titane, winner of the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival.

Like The Power Of The Dog, the snubbed films have a darker tone. But it is likely that they did not make the cut because their directors - David Lowery (The Green Knight), Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter) and Julia Ducournau (Titane) are relative newcomers compared with the likes of the other contenders in the Best Picture and Best Director categories, such as Kenneth Branagh (Belfast), Steven Spielberg (West Side Story) and Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza).

The fact that so many films by established, white, male film-makers made the cut in the Best Picture and Best Director categories shows that the efforts made in recent months by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to be more racially- and gender-diverse has some way to go.

While love has been lavished on Japanese film-maker Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car, a drama about grief - it is nominated in the Best Picture and Best Director categories - Hamaguchi is an industry veteran and the film's central character is a theatre director, which taps into Hollywood's incestuous bias for films about itself.

Hamaguchi's inclusion in the Best Director category left no space for Denis Villeneuve, who helmed Dune. The French-Canadian film-maker was not expected to win that category - those behind science-fiction or superhero movies rarely do - but a Best Director nod seemed to be a given because of the film's impressive haul of 10 nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

The Academy's love for films about show business is reflected again in nominations for Being The Ricardos, a biopic about actress Lucille Ball and performer husband Desi Arnaz. The movie received only lukewarm praise, but its topic, boosted by the presence of revered industry veteran Aaron Sorkin as writer and director, helped secure Best Actress and Best Actor nods for Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem.

The entries of Kidman and dark horse Kristen Stewart (for her role as Princess Diana in the biopic Spencer) in the Best Actress category helped shut out Lady Gaga, who played Italian socialite Patrizia Reggiani in biographical drama House Of Gucci. The 35-year-old pop star-actress had come into the race having secured Best Actress nominations at other key awards, including the Golden Globes, Critics' Choice and Screen Actors Guild.

In another surprise, Irish actress Jessie Buckley got a nod in the Best Supporting Actress category, beating much more favoured contenders such as Caitriona Balfe (Belfast), Ruth Negga (Passing) and Cate Blanchett (Nightmare Alley).

The 32-year-old, who played the younger version of the protagonist in the drama The Lost Daughter, is seen to be finally winning recognition after earning praise for her range and versatility in the historical drama miniseries Chernobyl (2019) and crime series Fargo (2020).

Key nominations

Best Picture

• Belfast
• Coda
• Don’t Look Up
• Drive My Car
• Dune
• King Richard
• Licorice Pizza
• Nightmare Alley
• The Power Of The Dog
• West Side Story

Best Director

• Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
• Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
• Jane Campion (The Power Of The Dog)
• Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car)
• Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)

Best Actor

• Javier Bardem (Being The Ricardos)
• Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power Of The Dog)
• Andrew Garfield (Tick, tick...Boom!)
• Will Smith (King Richard)
• Denzel Washington (The Tragedy Of Macbeth)

Best Actress

• Jessica Chastain (The Eyes Of Tammy Faye)
• Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)
• Penelope Cruz (Parallel Mothers)
• Nicole Kidman (Being The Ricardos)
• Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

Best Supporting Actor

• Ciaran Hinds (Belfast)
• Troy Kotsur (Coda)
• Jesse Plemons (The Power Of The Dog
• J.K. Simmons (Being The Ricardos)
• Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power Of The Dog)

Best supporting actress

• Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter)
• Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
• Judi Dench (Belfast)
• Kirsten Dunst (The Power Of The Dog)
• Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)