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