West Philly’s Colman Domingo picks up best actor Oscar nomination for ‘Sing Sing’
The Doylestown-set 'The Brutalist' starring Adrien Brody received 10 nominations
West Philly’s Colman Domingo picked up his second Academy Award nomination Thursday for best actor, highlighting his haunting, yet hopeful portrayal of an incarcerated playwright in Sing Sing.
Colman plays Divine G, who was instrumental in creating the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program in New York’s Sing Sing prison. The program, the focus of Sing Sing, produces theatrical stage shows with and for incarcerated men.
The Oscar nominations, announced by comedians Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang, came after a two-week delay due to the deadly California forest fires.
This year’s Oscar nod is Domingo’s second consecutive in the best actor category.
The 55-year-old actor was nominated last year for his role as West Chester civil rights legend Bayard Rustin in Netflix’s Rustin but lost to Cillian Murphy who played the lead in Oppenheimer, last year’s biggest Oscar winner.
Domingo’s competitors are Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown, Ralph Fiennes in Conclave, Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice; and Adrien Brody in The Brutalist.
Brody plays the moody Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor László Tóth, an architect who is separated from his wife and orphaned niece when he comes to Doylestown to build a community center. Domingo lost to Brody earlier this month for the Golden Globe for best actor.
The Brutalist, set in the Philadelphia area but filmed in Hungary, received 10 nominations including best picture, best director, and original screenplay. Other best picture nominees include Wicked, Emelia Pérez, Anora, Conclave, and A Complete Unknown.
A Complete Unknown, parts of which were filmed in Cape May and was based on the life of Bob Dylan, received eight nominations. Those included Chalamet’s nomination for his portrayal of Dylan and a Monica Barbaro was nominated best supporting actess for her breakout role as Joan Baez.
Emily Pérez received 13 nominations, and Wicked, the film adaptation of the Broadway hit, received 10.
Colman’s star continues to rise. In addition to Sing Sing, Domingo recently played a CNN pundit, Muncie Daniels, in Netflix’s Philadelphia-based The Madness.
He is reportedly directing and starring in a biopic about legendary African American crooner Nat King Cole and directing a film on the secret relationship between Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr.’s and actress Kim Novak.
Whether or not Domingo takes home the Academy Award — and we hope he does — we know he’ll be a winner on the red carpet.