'Drive My Car' Cast and Crew React to Surprise Oscar Nominations

EXCLUSIVE: Sonia Yuan, who stars in Japan’s first Best Picture Oscar nominee Drive My Car, has signed with Artist International Group for management.

Clayton Davis Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” defied expectations last week when it nabbed Oscar nominations for best picture, director, adapted screenplay and international feature. The Japanese movie, released domestically by venerable art-house distributor Janus Films, surpassed titles with more robust campaigns, including Amazon’s “Being the Ricardos” and Netflix’s “Tick, Tick … Boom!”Even Hamaguchi was surprised by the noms.“I could have never imagined that I would be a realistic contender,” he tells Variety, speaking through Stacy Lee, a Japanese interpreter.

EXCLUSIVE: Warnermedia OneFifty has acquired the Japanese road drama Drive My Car to premiere on HBO Max on March 2, 2022.

Weekend grosses popped higher for Oscar Best Picture nominees led by Licorice Pizza, Belfast and Drive My Car.

Nicole Kidman is up for another Oscar but her daughters aren’t fazed.

Keith Urban is having a proud husband moment. The “You’ll Think of Me” singer gave his wife, Nicole Kidman, a special shout-out after she was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actress in a Leading Role category for her performance as Lucille Ball in on Tuesday“CONGRATS on your OSCAR nomination today babygirl! SO proud of you & all that you poured into this dual role,” the 54-year-old singer tweeted. «Lucille AND Lucy.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentThe Oscar nominations for “Drive My Car,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s three-hour drama about a man dealing with the death of his wife, have thrilled the director’s native Japan.News of the four Academy Awards nominations was reported by all major Japanese media, from the most serious Nikkei business daily to the sports tabloids whose usual coverage of local art films is zero.The news also lit up Twitter.“An Academy Award nomination for Best Picture is a great accomplishment. I think the melding between Haruki Murakami and Chekhov has created a universality that can be felt around the world,” said Twitter user YasioE.“I really want it to win the Best Picture award, don’t you? Judging from the state of the awards race, I think it can win it.

Congratulations. Were you watching the live stream this morning?Yes, we were. Often, in the past, I have tricked myself into not knowing when nominations are being announced.

Jessica Chastain has built a résumé of portraying strong-willed women, but playing Tammy Faye Bakker was the first time she felt “exposed.” Believe it or not, she’s been working on bringing The Eyes of Tammy Faye to life since her most recent Best Actress nomination in 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty.

The Academy may have snubbed Lady Gaga, but the artist isn’t sweating it.

Lemonade won Best Picture, upon further research, we've discovered that's “not at all how anything works,” and this is her . No, she didn't get recognized for “Listen” from Dreamgirls, or for “Spirit” from The Lion King. We are surprised too.The is being honored for her song “Be Alive” from the movie King Richard, starring Will Smith as the tough but loving father-coach of Venus and Serena Williams.

Zack Sharf The nominations for the 94th Academy Awards have been announced, and it was a great morning for the likes of “Dune,” “The Power of the Dog,” “West Side Story,” “Don’t Look Up” and more. For smaller-scale indies such as Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket,” Janicza Bravo’s “Zola” and Michael Sarnoski’s “Pig,” it was a morning of expected misses, but heartbreak nonetheless.

Dune is a three-year-plus battle long-fought, and well won by Denis Villeneuve, even if he was boxed out of the Best Director category at the Oscars.

2022 Oscar nominations were announced on Tuesday — and it was a big day for Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz!The two were nominated for top acting awards, with Bardem earning his third career Best Actor nod for his performance as Dezi Arnaz in and Cruz garnering her second Best Actress nomination for her role in Pedro Almodóvar's The pair, who married in 2010 and share a son, Leo, and a daughter, Luna, are the first married couple to both be nominated for the Academy's top acting awards since Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were nominated together in 1967 for (Taylor won, Burton didn't, and they would divorce a few years later.)However, they're not the only acting couple to be nominated together this year. Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst, who announced their engagement in 2017 and share two children together, both scored supporting nods for Bardem and Cruz are each one-time Oscar winners; Bardem won Best Supporting Actor in 2008 for his role as assassin Anton Chigurh in  and Cruz won Best Supporting Actress the following year for in which Bardem was her co-star.Following his nomination, Bardem released a statement to ET, which reads, «To embody Desi Arnaz’s spirit was a privilege and an honor and to be connected to his energy and legacy is something I will never forget.

Chadwick Boseman once again.During Tuesday's live-streamed announcement of the 2022 Oscar nominees, Phylicia Rashad and students at Howard University's newly-renamed Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts helped announced the Best Actor category, in which Boseman was nominated just last year, for his performance in «All of our students here are so inspired by Chadwick Boseman, a Howard grad who was so committed to this university,» Rashad said.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car made history this morning, becoming the first Japanese film ever to score an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. What’s more, Hamaguchi is now only the third Japanese filmmaker to be nominated in the Best Director category. With nods in further key categories Best International Feature and Best Adapted Screenplay, Drive My Car has four nominations total, tying Akira Kurosawa’s Ran as the most-nominated film ever from Japan (though the latter was a French co-production).

The 2022 Oscar nominations are in.

nominations for the 94th Annual Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday, recognizing the biggest and best films of the year. While frontrunners like Nicole Kidman, Will Smith, Ariana DeBose and Kodi Smit-McPhee were all accounted for when the nominations were read, there were plenty of snubs and surprises among this year's nominees, including a near shutout for a surprising snub, a breakthrough foreign film and an unexpected Oscars record.Below, we break down the biggest shockers and omissions for the 94th Academy Awards.Alas, the «Father, Son, House of Gucci» weren't enough to bring Gaga another acting nod at the Oscars, despite her compelling performance as the complicated couture queen Patrizia Reggiani. In fact, despite early hype, ended up with only one nomination, for Makeup and Hairstyling.After a big win at the Golden Globes, the Japanese drama — directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and based on Haruki Murakami's short story of the same name -- was expected to be a contender in Best International Feature Film.