What strikes you first about this year's Academy Awards is how quietly the Australian contingent has worked its way into the conversation. No fanfare, no headlines announcing 'Australia's Oscar moment'. Just four talented people doing their work, and the Academy noticing.
Rose Byrne has been nominated for an Oscar for the first time for her role in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. The film is a comedy-drama about motherhood, the kind of intimate character study that often gets overlooked in favour of spectacle. She's competing in a crowded field; she'll be up against Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) and Emma Stone (Bugonia). But Byrne arrives at the ceremony with momentum. She's picked up several accolades for the role, including the Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture and Best Leading Performance at Berlin International Film Festival.
Jacob Elordi is up for best supporting actor thanks to his role in Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein, one of nine nods for the Netflix film. Like Byrne, this is his first Oscar nomination. He's already received several nominations for the portrayal and took home the Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor. The supporting actor race remains deeply unsettled; he will compete against Delroy Lindo (Sinners), Stellan Skarsgard (Sentimental Value), Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn (One Battle After Another).
Beyond the acting categories, Australian talent has secured representation elsewhere. Australian-born musician Nick Cave is up for best original song for the title song to Clint Bentley's film Train Dreams, which stars Australian actor Joel Edgerton. There's a particular sting to Edgerton's omission; the central pillar of Train Dreams was not nominated, although the picture earned four nominations, including best picture. It's a reminder that excellence in individual performance doesn't always align with Academy recognition. Australian costume and production designer Fiona Crombie has also been nominated for an Oscar in the best production design category for her work on Hamnet.
The broader ceremony reflects a year of exceptional cinema. Sinners, a horror film directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B Jordan, has earned a record-breaking 16 nominations at this year's Oscars. One Battle After Another, a searing examination of radical politics, picked up 13 nods. These two films are dominating the conversation, though neither is certain to take best picture.
Australians can catch all the action live. The ceremony will start at 10am AEDT and run for around three hours. Red carpet coverage will begin from 9:30am AEDT on Channel 7 and 7Plus before the main ceremony kicks off. Comedian Conan O'Brien is set to host the show for the second consecutive time, after receiving acclaim for hosting the previous year.
Beginning with this ceremony, the Academy will present a new competitive award that will honour casting directors. The Academy Award for Best Casting is the first new Oscar category introduced since Best Animated Feature in 2001. It's a small but symbolically important step, acknowledging that those who find talent deserve recognition alongside those who perform it.
There is something deeply revealing about how Australian talent moves through international spaces like the Oscars. No special pleading, no sense of exceptionalism. Just good work done well, and allowing the Academy's 10,000 voting members to decide its worth. Whether Byrne, Elordi, Cave, or Crombie take home statuettes, what matters is that they belong in this conversation at all. That's no small thing.