Australia’s Margot Robbie is going to the Oscars.

The 27-year-old Queenslander received a Best Actress nomination for her portrayal of controversial US figure skater Tonya Harding in the dark comedy, I, Tonya.

The nomination is Robbie’s first, although she was considered close to a Best Supporting Actress nod after her breakthrough role inThe Wolf of Wall Street in 2013.

Robbie is, though, seen as a long shot to win the award on March 4, with Frances McDormand, for Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, the favourite, while the other three nominees include the great Meryl Streep (The Post), Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird).

While Robbie’s nomination was cause for celebration, the film itself was snubbed for a Best Picture nomination, which would have meant a second nomination for Robbie who was one of the film’s producers.

Australian editor Lee Smith also received a nomination for his work on World War II epic Dunkirk, while Australia’s Hugh Jackman missed out on a nomination for his role in The Greatest Showman.

But the clear winner was fantasy drama The Shape of Water with a leading 13 nominations, just one shy of the record 14 achieved jointly by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land. Dunkirk received eight nominations and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri seven.

The Shape of Water was nominated for Best Picture, while director Guillermo del Toro was also acknowledged.

There were plenty of surprise nominations and snubs, with the legendary Dame Judi Dench, for Victoria & Abdul, and Michelle Williams, for All the Money in the World, failing to make the Best Actress category.

James Franco, who won a Golden Globe earlier this month, missed out on nominations for Best Director and Lead Actor for The Disaster Artist,
seemingly a casualty of accusations of alleged sexual misconduct by five women, as reported in the Los Angeles Times in past weeks.

Denzel Washington’s nomination for Best Actor in Roman J. Israel, Esq. was also considered a surprise, coming arguably at the expense of Franco’s snub.

The Academy, criticised by the #OscarsSoWhite campaign and a lack of female directing nominees in past years, increased its minority and female membership.

Jordan Peele (L)and Greta Gerwig at Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 21. Photo: Getty

Greta Gerwig (Best Director), was nominated for Lady Bird – just the fifth woman ever in the category – while Jordan Peele received a nod for Get Out, becoming the fifth African American filmmaker nominated for Best Director.

Rachel Morrison also became the first woman to be nominated for Best Cinematography for Mudbound

The nominations in the main categories are:

Best picture: Call Me By Your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Get Out, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, The Post, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Best director: Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread; Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water; Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird; Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk; Jordan Peele, Get Out.

Best actor: Timothee Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name; Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread; Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out; Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour; Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Best actress: Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water; Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Margot Robbie, I, Tonya; Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird; Meryl Streep, The Post.

Best supporting actor: Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project; Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water; Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World; Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Best supporting actress: Mary J. Blige, Mudbound; Allison Janney, I, Tonya; Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread; Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird; Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water.

Best original screenplay: The Big Sick (Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani), Get Out (Jordan Peele), Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig), The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh).

Best adapted screenplay: Call Me by Your Name (James Ivory), The Disaster Artist (Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber), Logan(screenplay by Scott Frank and James Mangold and Michael Green; story by James Mangold), Molly’s Game (Aaron Sorkin), Mudbound(Dee Rees and Virgil Williams).

Best foreign-language film: A Fantastic Woman, Chile; The Insult, Lebanon; Loveless, Russia; On Body and Soul, Hungary; The Square, Sweden.

Best animated feature: The Boss Baby, The Breadwinner, Coco, Ferdinand, Loving Vincent.

Best cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 (Roger Deakins), Darkest Hour (Bruno Delbonnel), Dunkirk (Hoyte van Hoytema), Mudbound (Rachel Morrison), The Shape of Water (Dan Laustsen).

Best visual effects: Blade Runner 2049, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Kong: Skull Island, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, War for the Planet of the Apes.

Best costume design: Beauty and the Beast (Jacqueline Durran), Darkest Hour (Jacqueline Durran), Phantom Thread (Mark Bridges), The Shape of Water (Luis Sequeira), Victoria & Abdul (Consolata Boyle).

– with AAP