42 | FEBRUARY 6 • 2020 

The Most 
Complete 
Oscar Guide 
for the Tribe

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

T

he Academy Awards cer-
emony will take place at 
8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, on 
ABC — with no host again. This 
is an unusual year in that there are 
more Jewish nominees than usual 
in the “marquee” categories (acting, 
directing) and no Jewish nominees 
in some less prominent categories 
(documentaries, short films and ani-
mation). 

Here are the Jewish nominees in 
the top categories.

ACTING: Lead actor: Joaquin 
Phoenix, 45, Joker; lead actress: 
Scarlett Johansson, 36, Marriage 
Story; supporting actress: Scarlett 
Johansson, Jojo Rabbit. 
This is the first time Johansson 
has been nominated for an Oscar, 
and the betting is she will win at 
least one. She gave a tour de force 
performance in Marriage Story as 
an actress going through a difficult 
divorce. She was equally powerful 
playing a non-Jewish woman in 
Nazi Germany who shelters a young 
Jewish woman in her home. She has 
been nominated for five Golden 
Globes and she won a British Oscar 
(called Bafta) for Lost in Translation
(2004). She’
s also won a Tony award. 
Johansson is the daughter of an 
American Jewish mother and a 

non-Jewish Danish father who set-
tled in Manhattan, where Johansson 
was born and raised. In a 2008 inter-
view, she said she grew up with basic 
observance of Shabbat and knowing 
about Jewish holidays. 
In 2017, Johnson appeared on 
Finding Your Roots, the PBS ancestry 
show. She was in tears when she was 
informed her great-grandfather’
s 
brother and his family died in the 
Warsaw Ghetto. In December, she 
told the Daily Mail she has expe-
rienced anti-Semitism and that 
anti-Semitism is now more preva-
lent and causing a lot of fear in the 
Jewish community. 
Phoenix has been Oscar-
nominated three times before (sup-
porting actor for Gladiator and best 
actor nominations for the lead role 
in I Walk the Line and The Master). 
He won a Golden Globe for I Walk 
the Line and last month for Joker. 

Arts&Life

the oscars

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

