Let’s get one thing out of the way: if you’re an Oscar nominee, you’re not a loser. Even if you’ve been nominated nine times, 20 times, 50 times, and never actually won an Academy Award, you’re still not a loser. You’re an Oscar nominee, you’ve won at life. Still, racking up a number of Oscar nominations and never quite managing to win must rankle somewhat.
Bradley Cooper knows what that is like having amassed nine Oscar nominations to his name. We’ll go through those bids shortly but he’s now got a chance to not only add to that tally but to possibly break his losing streak and win an Academy Award at last. “Maestro” is the new Netflix biopic that depicts the marriage of Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) and Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). The film was released in US theaters on November 22 and will be available to stream on Netflix on December 20.
Cooper emerged as a filmmaking talent to watch in 2019 with “A Star is Born,” a film he directed, produced, starred in, and co-wrote. He takes on all four jobs again this year with “Maestro,” making him a quadruple Oscars threat once more. The record for most nominations in one year is Walt Disney in 1954 with six bids (he also has the record for the most wins by one person in one year with four, also in 1954) so Cooper can’t match that this year. But it could still be a very fruitful year for the “Maestro” maestro.
Cooper landed three Oscar nominations for “A Star is Born”: Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with Eric Roth and Will Fetters). He was snubbed for Best Director that year, despite landing Golden Globe, DGA, Critics Choice, and BAFTA nominations. That was in 2019.
Before that, Cooper was nominated for Best Actor in 2013 (“Silver Linings Playbook”) and 2015 (“American Sniper”) with a Best Supporting Actor bid sandwiched in between in 2014 for “American Hustle.” He’s also amassed three more Best Picture bids as a producer — the first in 2015 for “American Sniper” and then again in 2020 for “Joker” and in 2022 for “Nightmare Alley.” Phew. That’s nine nominations but zero wins, making him more of an Oscars bridesmaid than even poor Glenn Close.
Will he finally win this year?
Firstly, let’s look at Best Picture. This is Cooper’s joint-best category, by the way — he has as many Best Picture bids (three) as he does Best Actor. Currently, our predicted lineup of Best Picture nominees is: “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Poor Things,” “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Maestro,” “American Fiction,” “Past Lives,” “The Color Purple,” and “Anatomy of a Fall.” So, we think Cooper and “Maestro” will contend. That’s one out of four. And, no surprise, either. The academy loves biopics in this category. Recent Best Picture-nominated biopics include “Elvis,” “King Richard,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “Mank,” and “Judas and the Last Messiah.” This is a ripe genre for the academy to pick from.
Next up is Best Director. Cooper has never been nominated in this category; he was snubbed for his directorial debut, “A Star is Born.” The academy has a record of snubbing actor-turned-directors (Ben Affleck for “Argo” being the obvious example). At the moment, we think the Best Director nominees this year will be: Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”), Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”), Greta Gerwig (“Barbie”), and Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”). At the moment, then, we think Cooper will miss out yet again.
Cooper has better odds in Best Actor, though. Currently, we are predicting that he will earn a Best Actor nomination alongside Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), and Colman Domingo (“Rustin”). That’s two out of four. This would be Cooper’s fourth Best Actor bid and this role looks like a classic Oscar-worthy performance.
Cooper is portraying a real person. It’s a transformative performance. And, presumably, due to the musical nature of the role and the film, Cooper will be learning new skills for the role like he did in “A Star is Born.” That’s a great trifecta of factors that could lead to a bid for Cooper as it has done for many others before him, such as Austin Butler earlier this year for “Elvis,” Rami Malek in 2019 for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and Joaquin Phoenix in 2006 for “Walk the Line.” That’s two out of four.
And, lastly, is Best Original Screenplay. Cooper co-wrote the script with Josh Singer, who won this category in 2016 with Tom McCarthy for “Spotlight,” which also won Best Picture. Cooper is looking for his first nomination in this category. Currently, we are predicting that “The Holdovers,” “Past Lives,” “Barbie,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” and… “Maestro” will be nominated in this category.
That means that we think Cooper will earn three out of four possible Oscar nominations, taking his overall tally to a whopping 12 bids. We are not currently predicting him to win any of these races so he could take his record to 12-0 but he is rising in Best Actor, so don’t count him out just yet.
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