Wallace And Gromit creator ‘ecstatic’ over Vengeance Most Fowl Oscar nomination

Wallace And Gromit creator Nick Park has said the team are “ecstatic” their BBC Christmas hit Vengeance Most Fowl has been nominated for an Oscar.

The film, which sees the return of evil penguin Feathers McGraw from Academy Award-winning short The Wrong Trousers, is up for the best animated feature film award.

It was revealed on Thursday that Spanish-language musical Emilia Perez leads the way this year at the Oscars with 13 nominations, with musical Wicked and immigrant tale The Brutalist following behind with 10 nods apiece.

Reacting to the nomination on BBC Breakfast on Friday, Park said he was feeling “ecstatic” and “you can’t get used to it” despite Aardman animation studio having previously won four Oscars over the years.

The first win came for the 1989 stop-motion comedy Creature Comforts, while the second film starring Wallace and Gromit, The Wrong Trousers, picked up the best animated short film Oscar in 1994. Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave won the same award in 1996, and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit won best animated feature in 2005.

The latest Oscar nod for Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl comes after it was nominated for three Bafta awards including best animated film, outstanding British film and children’s and family film.

Park said: “You can’t expect it and we didn’t make the film for this, and it still comes as an incredible thrill just to be counted up there.

“Every artist loves to (have) their work rewarded in some way or other. And it’s a great reflection on our amazing team of animators and all the talented director of photography, and everything that’s gone into the music, everything’s gone into the film, so many people have worked so hard.”

The filmmaker said working at Aardman is a “privilege” because he is surrounded by a “powerhouse of creativity” every day.

He revealed at award shows in the past he has had Hollywood stars including Tom Hanks and Sir Elton John congratulate him, while Basic Instinct actress Sharon Stone complimented their Wallace And Gromit puppets as “gorgeous characters” when they were at the Golden Globes earlier this month.

Creative director at Aardman animation studio, Merlin Crossingham, added: “It really is amazing. I know Nick’s an old hand at this but it’s the first time for me and I was at the studio and I was surrounded by some of the amazing animators who worked on the film with us, and it was just such a wonderful thing.

“The room went silent and we were all really nervous and excited and then a huge cheer went up. It was amazing to be able to share that moment with them.”

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will compete against Latvian cat film Flow, Inside Out 2, the second film from Disney that dramatises emotions in the brain, Memoir Of A Snail, starring Succession star Sarah Snook, and The Wild Robot.

Among the slate of nominations Wicked has received includes a best actress nod for British actress Cynthia Erivo for her role as Elphaba in the film based on the West End and Broadway musical of the same name.

She will compete against Mikey Madison, who plays a stripper who falls for a Russian oligarch’s son in Anora, and Hollywood star Demi Moore for body horror The Substance, for the gong.

Spanish star Karla Sofia Gascon, who became the first transgender actress to be nominated, is also in the category for Emilia Perez alongside Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres for Portuguese-language film I’m Still Here, about a mother coping with the disappearance of her husband in 1970s authoritarian Brazil.

US pop star Grande revealed she sobbed all day after finding out about the nomination while appearing on The Graham Norton Show, which will air on Friday evening.

She said: “It was so surreal – I did not expect at all. It is overwhelming, I have been sobbing all day. It has been really emotional, and I am so grateful for our Wicked family and for Cynthia being celebrated. It is very special.”

The actress also recalled how she began preparing for the role with voice and acting coaches before she had an audition as she wanted to give herself the best chance of landing the part.

“I thought, if I did the work then maybe I would have a chance. I was so nervous that I wouldn’t get the role, and I cried so much in the final screen test,” she added.

Grande will compete against Emilia Perez star Zoe Saldana, for her role in the Netflix thriller about a Mexican drug lord who changes gender, and Italian-born US star Isabella Rossellini for playing a nun in papal election drama Conclave.

Also nominated in the category is Monica Barbaro for A Complete Unknown, while The Brutalist’s Felicity Jones has landed her second Oscar nomination.

Wicked is also up for the coveted best picture award alongside Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, Nickel Boys, Emilia Perez, The Brutalist, Conclave, Anora, epic sci-fi Dune: Part Two, I’m Still Here and The Substance.

The nominations for the 97th Oscars were announced on Thursday at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Los Angeles, after being postponed twice due to wildfires in the region.