What’s it concerning the musical biopic that has impressed a lot Oscar love? Is it the style’s front-row seat on the turbulent, provocative, culture-shifting lives of artists we’ve worshiped from afar? Is it the transformational, go-for-broke appearing showcase it affords, and the painstaking interval recreation so important to the journey again in time? Or is it merely the enduring energy of well-liked music and the icons who’ve created and carried out it?
With the discharge of writer-director Scott Cooper’s biographical drama “Springsteen: Ship Me from Nowhere,” starring kudos magnet Jeremy Allen White in an immersive portrayal of The Boss circa 1982, it looks like the proper time to flash again on among the most honored pop-music biopics in Oscars historical past.
‘A Full Unknown’ (8 nominations)
Monica Barbaro and Timothée Chalamet in “A Full Unknown.”
(Searchlight Footage)
This nostalgic snapshot of the early profession of legendary folks singer Bob Dylan racked up eight Oscar nominations, together with for image, director (James Mangold), tailored screenplay (Mangold and Jay Cocks), and actors Timothée Chalamet (Dylan), Edward Norton (Pete Seeger) and Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez). Although it exited the awards ceremony empty-handed (it additionally earned nods for sound and costume design), the movie loved stable awards-season grosses, largely constructive critiques and additional burnished Chalamet’s cred as a flexible and chameleonic main man.
‘Elvis’ (8 nominations)
Austin Butler in “Elvis.”
(Warner Bros. Footage)
Monitoring the meteoric rise and fall of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, this electrical, eclectic, midcentury biopic impressed critics, shook up the field workplace and made a star out of Presley proxy Austin Butler. (Go forward, say it: “Thanks, thanks very a lot!”) Although “Elvis” left the constructing on Oscar evening with zero wins from eight nods — together with image, lead actor, cinematography and movie enhancing — the film introduced the hip-swiveling singer again into the zeitgeist and gave director Baz Luhrmann one more feather in his movie-musical cap.
‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ (8 nominations)
James Cagney stars as George M. Cohan within the 1942 biographical musical drama “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”
(Turner Leisure)
An oldie however a goodie, this well-liked — and patriotic — musical drama, starring James Cagney as prolific composer-singer-showman George M. Cohan, was nominated for eight Academy Awards, together with for image, director (Michael Curtiz), lead actor and supporting actor (Walter Huston). Cagney received his solely Oscar for the exuberant function. (He additionally obtained nominations for 1938’s “Angels With Soiled Faces” and 1955’s “Love Me or Go away Me,” one other musical biopic.) “Yankee” took house extra statuettes for sound and, because the class was then known as, greatest scoring of a musical image.
‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ (7 nominations)
Levon Helm and Sissy Spacek in “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
(Common Footage)
Nation star Loretta Lynn might have been born a coal miner’s daughter, however Sissy Spacek was born to play her, as evidenced by the Oscar she received for her putting portrayal. The movie, which spanned Lynn’s humble Kentucky youth and marriage at 15 by way of her extraordinary rise to chart-topping fame — and the nervous breakdown that just about derailed her profession — scored seven nominations, together with for image and tailored screenplay (by Thomas Rickman). Spacek, the movie’s sole Oscar winner, would go on to earn 4 extra lead actress nominations.
‘Sure for Glory’ (6 nominations)
David Carradine, who performed folks singer Woody Guthrie in “Sure for Glory,” strums a guitar on the 1977 Cannes Movie Pageant.
(Keystone / Hulton Archive through Getty Photographs)
Seminal American folks singer Woody Guthrie, who was a pivotal supporting character in final 12 months’s “A Full Unknown,” had a biopic all to himself on this lyrical drama directed by the good Hal Ashby. Based mostly on Guthrie’s 1943 autobiography and starring David Carradine because the itinerant, socially acutely aware musician, the film was nominated for six Oscars, together with image, tailored screenplay and movie enhancing. It received for Haskell Wexler’s evocative cinematography and Leonard Rosenman’s sweeping rating — however remained extra of a important than industrial success.
‘Ray’ (6 nominations)
Jamie Foxx in “Ray.”
(Nicola Goode)
Jamie Foxx took house the Oscar, amongst many different prizes, for his vibrant embodiment of pioneering singer-songwriter-pianist Ray Charles. The bold box-office hit, which adopted the influential crossover artist from his childhood in Nineteen Thirties Georgia (when he went blind) by way of the late Seventies — and all of the successes, detours and struggles in between — garnered six nominations, together with greatest image and director (Taylor Hackford). Together with the lead actor award, “Ray” received for sound mixing. Foxx additionally earned a supporting actor nod that very same 12 months for his advantageous dramatic work in Michael Mann’s “Collateral.”
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (5 nominations)
Rami Malek in “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
(Alex Bailey / Twentieth Century Fox)
Audiences and Academy voters had been kinder than many critics to this typically dazzling, mega-grossing ($910 million worldwide) portrait of groundbreaking Queen frontman and co-founder Freddie Mercury, who died of issues from AIDS in 1991. Though known as out for sanitizing the queer, vocally gifted musician’s non-public — and not-so-private — life, the film was nominated for 5 Oscars, together with greatest image. With wins for movie enhancing, sound enhancing, sound mixing and, most notably, lead actor (for Rami Malek’s charming flip as Mercury), the image amassed probably the most statuettes in that 12 months’s race.
‘Girl Sings the Blues’ (5 nominations)
Diana Ross in “Girl Sings the Blues.”
(Paramount Footage)
Diana Ross made an auspicious function appearing debut on this sprawling biopic concerning the hardships and triumphs of celebrated jazz singer Billie Vacation. An iconic music star herself — she’d lately left the hit-making Supremes to go solo — Ross earned her first (and solely) Oscar nod for her galvanizing recreation. The movie obtained 4 extra nominations, together with for unique screenplay and costume design, however received none. Ross, who misplaced that 12 months to Liza Minnelli in “Cabaret,” would go on to star in only a handful of different movies. (“Mahogany,” anybody?)
‘Stroll the Line’ (5 nominations)
Joaquin Phoenix in “Stroll the Line.”
(Suzanne Tenner / twentieth Century Fox)
The lifetime of country-folk-rockabilly star Johnny Money obtained a elegant, emotionally wealthy big-screen remedy because of advantageous path by James Mangold (who co-wrote with Gill Dennis) and highly effective star turns by Joaquin Phoenix because the difficult Man in Black and Reese Witherspoon as his resilient spouse, singer June Carter Money. The favored, well-reviewed drama collected 5 Oscar nominations: lead actor and actress, costume design, movie enhancing and sound mixing. Witherspoon captured Oscar gold — together with a raft of different awards — for her memorable efficiency.
