Oscars: Bohemian Rhapsody & A Star Is Born to fight it out, while two Aussie singers miss out

Multiple nominations for Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star Is Born at the 2019 Academy Awards on February 24 confirmed Hollywood’s re-ignited interest in big-budget music movies.

However, two Aussie expat singer-songwriters now based in Los Angeles – pop idol Troye Sivan and R&B performer Alston Koch – narrowly missed out after they made highly acclaimed acting debuts.

A Star Is Born received eight nominations — best actress, best original song (“Shallow”), best picture, best actor (Bradley Cooper), best-supporting actor (Sam Elliott), best-adapted screenplay, best cinematography, and best sound mixing.

Bohemian Rhapsody had five ticks: best picture, best actor, best film editing, best sound mixing and best sound editing.

Lady Gaga becomes the second ever, after Mary J. Blige last year, to be nominated for both acting and singing categories.

‘Shallow’, her duet with Bradley Cooper and co-written by her, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt also got recognised.

Also up for best original song are:

‘All the Stars’, Black Panther (written by Kendrick Lamar, Al Shux, Sounwave, SZA, Anthony Tiffith; performed by Kendrick Lamar and SZA)

‘I’ll Fight’, RBG (written by Diane Warren; performed by Jennifer Hudson)

‘The Place Where Lost Things Go’, Mary Poppins Returns (written by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman; performed by Emily Blunt)

‘When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings’, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (written by Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch; performed by Tim Blake Nelson, Willie Watson)

Troye Sivan missed out for his role in the Joel Edgerton-written and directed Boy Erased, about the son of Baptist parents whose son is forced to undergo gay conversion therapy.

Sivan plays Gary, one of the other patients who pretends to “become straight” just so he can get out of the program.

His song  ‘Revelation’ from the soundtrack missed out although it received a Golden Globe nomination.

Alston Koch, formerly based in Melbourne, was a favourite in the foreign language movie category for his lead role in According To Mathew about the real-life story of a Sri Lankan priest who was jailed for killing his wife and lover’s husband by injecting them with insulin.

The movie’s score was by Prince’s longtime music director, Morris Hayes.