Cillian Murphy has been nominated for Best Actor in this year's Oscars

Cillian Murphy

IRISH ACTOR CILLIAN Murphy has been nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role in this year’s Oscars.

Murphy played J Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist known as the father as the atomic bomb, in the film.

Also nominated in the Best Actor category is Paul Giamatti for his role in The Holdovers where he played a teacher forced to remain on campus durimng the Christmas break to mind a handful of students with nowhere else to go.

Bradley Cooper also bagged a nomination in the category for his role in Maestro, which is also directed. Cooper portrayed American composer Leonard Bernstein in the biopic.

Colman Domingo was nominated in the category for his role in Rustin, a film about Bayard Rustin, advisor to Martin Luther King Jr.

Jeffrey Wright secured a nomination for his role in American Fiction.

Earlier this month, Murphy won a Golden Globe award for best performance by a male actor for his leading role in Oppenheimer.

He has also been nominated for a Bafta award and a SAG award for his performance.

Poor Things, a film produced by Irish company Element Pictures, has been nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing. In total, the film secured 11 nominations.

The 96th Oscars will be held on Sunday, 10 March at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.

Actors Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid are hosting the nominations announcement this afternoon.

More to follow.