London, 24 January 2025 (PA Media/dpa/MIA) - The French film "Emilia Perez" dominated nomnations for the Academy Awards which were announced on Thursday, leading with a total of 13 nominations.

Also at the top of the list are "Wicked," based on the Broadway musical of the same name, and "The Brutalist" on 10 nods, while "Conclave," which is about the election of a Catholic pope in the Vatican, and "A Complete Unknown" are named in eight award categories.

They have all been nominated for the best picture and acting categories, while "The Brutalist," "A Complete Unknown" and "Emilia Perez" secured directing nominations.

The nominations for the 97th Oscars were announced on Thursday at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Los Angeles, after being postponed twice amid the wildfires in Los Angeles.

Ralph Fiennes and Cynthia Erivo were nominated for best actor.

Fiennes was last nominated in 1997 for his leading role as a Hungarian pilot and desert explorer in "The English Patient."

Also nominated for best actor is Adrien Brody for his role in "The Brutalist." He won an Oscar for the 2002 Holocaust film "The Pianist."

Cynthia Erivo is nominated for a best actress Oscar. She secured her second acting Oscar nod for musical "The Wizard Of Oz" prequel "Wicked," alongside nominations for Mikey Madison for playing a stripper who falls for a Russian oligarch's son in "Anora" and Hollywood actress Demi Moore for body horror "The Substance."

Spanish star Karla Sofia Gascon, who became the first transgender actress to be nominated, is also in the category for Emilia Perez alongside Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres for Portuguese-language film "I'm Still Here," about a mother coping with the disappearance of her husband in 1970s authoritarian Brazil.

In the supporting actor categories, "The Brutalist's" Felicity Jones has landed her second Oscar nomination as former "Succession" stars Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin secured their first Academy Awards nods.

Jones will compete against "Emilia Perez" star Zoe Saldana, for her role in the Netflix thriller about a Mexican drug lord who changes gender, and Italian-born US star Isabella Rossellini for playing a nun in papal election drama "Conclave."

Also nominated in the category is US pop singer Ariana Grande for playing Glinda the good witch, an early friend to Erivo's green-skinned character in "Wicked," and Monica Barbaro for "A Complete Unknown."

In the supporting actor category, Culkin is nominated for playing a cousin to Jesse Eisenberg's character who goes on a trip to retrace his Jewish grandmother's past escaping the Holocaust in Poland in "A Real Pain," and Strong, who portrayed former Trump mentor Roy Cohn in "The Apprentice," are going head-to-head.

They were nominated alongside Russian actor Yura Borisov for "Anora" as well as Edward Norton for "A Complete Unknown" and Australian star Guy Pearce for "The Brutalist."

Meanwhile, singer Elton John has secured his fifth original song nod after the release of his music documentary song "Never Too Late" for the Disney+ film "Elton John: Never Too Late," about his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road concert tour."

He will face competition from "Emilia Perez," who has two songs "El Mal," and "Mi Camino" up for original song, along with Sing Sing's "Like A Bird," and The Six Triple Eight's "The Journey."

The best picture category is a crowded field with "Anora," "The Brutalist," "A Complete Unknown," "Conclave," "Emilia Perez," "I'm Still Here," "The Substance" and "Wicked" all nominated.

Also up for the prize is science fiction blockbuster "Dune: Part Two" starring Timothy Chalamet and "Nickel Boys" based on the Colson Whitehead book of the same name about children sent to an abusive reform school in the 1960s.

James Mangold, who previously secured an adapted screenplay nod for co-writing "Logan" and a best picture nomination for producing "Ford V Ferrari," has earned his first directing nod for "A Complete Unknown."

The category also includes first-time nominees Sean Baker for "Anora," Brady Corbet for "The Brutalist," Jacques Audiard for "Emilia Perez" and Coralie Fargeat for "The Substance."

British screenwriter Peter Straughan, who brought Robert Harris's novel Conclave to the big screen, called the film a "labour of love from the beginning" after his nomination for best adapted screenplay, where he competes against "A Complete Unknown," " Emilia Perez," "Nickle Boys," and "Sing Sing."

For animated feature film, Wallace And Gromit are once again nominated for an Oscar gong after the release of the BBC Christmas hit "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl" - which sees the return of evil penguin Feathers McGraw from Academy Award-winning short "The Wrong Trousers."

They will compete against Latvian cat film "Flow," "Inside Out 2," the second film from Disney that dramatises emotions in the brain, "Memoir Of A Snail," starring "Succession" star Sarah Snook, and "The Wild Robot."

The Academy Awards ceremony will take place on March 2 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, with first-time host Conan O'Brien taking over the helm this year.