2025 Oscars: Isabella Rossellini Scores First-Ever Nomination for ‘Conclave’
Playing a traumatized nightclub singer made her a star, but to finally win over the Academy, Isabella Rossellini had to play a nosy nun.
Rossellini received her first-ever Oscar nomination on Thursday, scoring a nomination in the best supporting actress category for her role as Sister Agnes in Edward Berger’s Vatican-set thriller Conclave. Her competition includes Ariana Grande for Wicked, Monica Barbaro for A Complete Unknown, Felicity Jones for The Brutalist, and Zoe Saldaña for Emilia Pérez.
Both of Rossellini’s parents were Oscar nominees — her mother Ingrid Bergman was nominated an astounding 7 times, winning best actress 3 times, while father Roberto Rossellini received a screenwriting nom in 1950 — but it took this nepo-baby nearly 40 years to translate her overnight success into Academy acclaim.
Rossellini’s iconic role as tortured crooner Dorothy Vallens in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986) won her an Independent Spirit Award for best female lead but the provocative and disturbing film proved too much for the Oscars. Blue Velvet only secured a single nomination for best director. Lynch lost to Oliver Stone for Platoon.
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In the following decades, Rossellini has carved out a unique career in cinema, moving between big-budget features — Robert Zemeckis’ Death Becomes Her (1992), Peter Weir’s Fearless (1993) — and independent auteur films, working with Peter Greenaway (2003’s The Tulse Luper Suitcases), Guy Maddin (2006’s Brand Upon the Brain!), and Alice Rohrwacher (2023’s La chimera). She stepped behind the camera herself for Green Porno, Seduce Me and Mammas, a series of comical shorts exploring the sex lives of animals, in which she played everything from a motherly worm to a horny firefly.
Last month, the European Film Academy presented the 72-year-old filmmaker with a lifetime achievement award for her contributions to world cinema.
Rossellini’s Oscar glory has been decades in the making and 2025 might just be her year.
