Josh O’Connor has addressed the recent Academy Award nominations, which saw Challengers completely shut out.
Luca Guadagnino’s erotic sports drama depicted the love triangle between tennis players Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), her husband Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and ex-boyfriend Patrick Zweig (O’Connor) as their careers and passions converge.
Following glowing reviews and four nominations – including a win for Best Original Score – at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, the film was expected to feature throughout the remainder of the awards season, but fans were shocked after it failed to accrue any nominations at the upcoming Oscar and BAFTA ceremonies.
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In an interview with IndieWire, O’Connor addressed the surprising decisions, sharing: “I thought we had that [Best Original Score] in the bag. No, I’m joking. All the nominations were so good this year.
“There’s so many great films. But I do think that every year. I’m always amazed by what people and artists can create. I don’t mind [missing out on nominations].
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“It’s cool that, particularly this year, two movies that I really love in La Chimera and Challengers [were released]. I’m so thrilled that people liked them and got to see them. I’m proud of both of them so I wasn’t overly concerned by that [the lack of nominations].”
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The nominations for the 97th Academy Awards, which were announced on Thursday (January 23), saw musical crime-drama Emilia Pérez top the pile with 13 nominations, with The Brutalist and Wicked following closely behind with 10 apiece.
Whilst O’Connor seemed content with Challengers’ lack of nominations, the star will have plenty of opportunities to feature at upcoming awards shows given his slew of upcoming projects, which include Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Separate Rooms and Steven Spielberg’s untitled sci-fi film.
Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
