January 23, 2025 / 1:48 PM CST / CBS Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS — “A Complete Unknown,” the biopic chronicling the swift pop-cultural ascent of Minnesota native Bob Dylan in the early 1960s, has been nominated for eight Academy Awards.
Timothée Chalamet, who plays Dylan, received a Best Actor nomination. Monica Barbaro and Edward Norton, who respectively played folk music icons Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, were also nominated for their supporting roles.
Dylan, who is now 83, was born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth and raised in Hibbing. He studied for a year at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he entrenched himself in folk music. He started performing at a Dinkytown coffee shop and embraced his new moniker before moving to New York City in 1961, where the film begins.
Although Minnesota itself isn’t featured in “A Complete Unknown,” Chalamet visited Duluth and Hibbing in January 2024 while preparing for the film, and surprised students in Hibbing High School’s drama department.
Searchlight Pictures
Chalamet then visited with fans at an advance screening of the film in December in Minneapolis, where he spoke to the press about the importance of Dylan’s brief time in the city and his Minnesota roots.
“I think he’s very proud of his Minnesota heritage, and I think in some ways the way I relate to it is I think the iron ore in his songs and the iron ore in his voice,” Chalamet said. “As a New Yorker, a 28-year-old New Yorker, I don’t think my path really would’ve brought me out here, ever. So the first time I got here I thought, ‘Wow, what a gift, Bob Dylan, being this guy’s worldview.'”
“A Complete Unknown” is also nominated for Oscars in the director, adapted screenplay, costume design and sound categories.
The crime musical “Emilia Pérez” received the most nominations with a total of 13. See the full list of Oscar nominations for 2025 Academy Awards.
NOTE: The original airdate of the video attached to this article is Dec. 5, 2024.
Stephen SwansonStephen Swanson is a web producer at CBS News Minnesota. Stephen was a floor director for a decade before moving to the WCCO-TV newsroom in 2011, where he focuses on general assignment reporting.
