‘Wicked’ gets 10 Oscar nominations, including Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande — plus this unexpected bid

Oscar voters did not defy gravity this year. 

On Thursday, the Academy nominated the blockbuster musical Wicked for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Cynthia Erivo, and Best Supporting Actress for Ariana Grande. 

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Other nominations included Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hair, Best Score, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, and an unexpected bid for Best Editing. Heading into the Oscar nominations announcement, Wicked ranked ninth in the Gold Derby odds for the category. (Notably, the top two films in the odds — Dune: Part Two and Conclave — were snubbed.)

Wicked was widely predicted to land several of those nominations this year. But despite its strength, the film never seriously carried director Jon M. Chu into the Best Director conversation. Chu was one of several mainstream filmmakers who failed to land Oscar nominations on Thursday, including Denis Villeneuve for Dune: Part Two and Ridley Scott for Gladiator II. 

Wicked also missed a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination after hitting the Writers Guild Awards category last week. (However, several top Oscar contenders, including nominees Conclave and Sing Sing, were ineligible at the writers’ guild awards.) 

In all, Wicked received the following Oscar nominations:

• Best Picture

• Best Actress for Erivo

• Best Supporting Actress for Grande

• Best Production Design

• Best Costume Design

• Best Sound

• Best Makeup and Hair

• Best Score

• Best Visual Effects

• Best Editing

The good news for those Wicked creatives who didn’t earn Oscar recognition on Thursday is For Good. The second part of the Wicked experience, Wicked: For Good, is out later this year and will be eligible for Oscar consideration in 2026.

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