We’ve been hearing the same dozen titles throughout Oscar season: Poor Things, Barbie, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, The Holdovers, Anatomy of a Fall, etcetera. But when the Oscar nominations were announced on Tuesday morning, one other title snuck into some pretty huge categories. What the heck is Nyad?
This movie has to be a big deal if it earned a nomination in the Best Actress category over Barbie herself, Margot Robbie, especially after Barbie was nominated in nearly every other category. Yes, legendary actress Annette Bening beat out stars like Robbie, Past Lives’ Greta Lee, and May December’s Natalie Portman to secure a nomination for her performance as long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad. So…we all have to watch Nyad now, I suppose.
That’s not all. On top of Bening’s nomination, supporting star and two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster also earned a nod for her portrayal of Nyad’s friend and training partner Bonnie Stoll. A quick run-down of a few deserving actresses who missed the list, for reference: Julianne Moore for May December, Penélope Cruz for Ferrari, and Cara Jade Myers for Killers of the Flower Moon.
Based on a true story and following the events of Nyad’s novel, Find a Way, the newly Oscar-nominated film is about a 64-year-old marathon swimmer who wants to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida. This isn’t Diana’s first try at the swim: She attempted and failed 32 years prior. But now, with the help of Bonnie, she’s going to do it right this time.
The question remains: Was Nyad worthy enough to beat out some of the other fan favorite stars who didn’t get noms? Bening and Foster are two beloved actresses—especially the latter, who has been an Academy darling since 1977, when she earned her first nom at just 14 years old from Taxi Driver—so these nods are not entirely surprising.
The reviews for Nyad are relatively positive, coming in at a solid 86 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. But there’s something so standard about Nyad—it’s a conventional Oscar biopic. As The Daily Beast’s Obsessed critic Nick Schager wrote in his review, “Nyad diligently adheres to biopic conventions, to the point that every one of its ups and downs is painfully predictable. That, as a result, makes the proceedings sluggish; at 120 minutes, the film feels like it goes on as long as Diana’s acclaimed expedition.”
Perhaps it’s inoffensive Oscar bait, or maybe it’s a little worse, when you consider the allegations that Nyad has been lying about completing the 2013 swim. The movie does not address this controversy, although its existence did prompt the renewal of an investigation into the verity of Nyad’s claims that she successfully swam from Florida to Cuba. The swim has never been formally ratified, and the Guinness Book of World Records formally revoked Nyad’s achievement.
But that fascinating drama is nowhere to be found in Nyad, although those details could’ve potentially made the film more interesting. So, is Nyad worth a watch? If you’re a big fan of Bening and Foster, two world-renowned actresses, probably! But if you want a more gripping sports historical biopic from this past year, maybe try Air instead.
