Cate Blanchett has a chance to add a Tony Award to a trophy cabinet that already contains two Oscars, three BAFTAs and three Golden Globes.
The Tony Award nominations were announced in New York on Tuesday, honouring Broadway's best for the year.
Another Australian, Tim Minchin, is in the running after receiving an original score nomination for his hit, Groundhog Day the Musical.
Groundhog Day was one of the big winners with seven nods, including for the coveted best new musical category.
Blanchett was nominated for best actress in a leading role in a play for The Present, but her playwright husband Andrew Upton and co-star Richard Roxburgh were overlooked.
Blanchett, a regular winner of Hollywood's top awards and a seven-time Oscar nominee, is up against A-list talent for the prestigious Broadway honour.
The other nominees are Sally Field (The Glass Menagerie), Laura Linney (Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes), Laurie Metcalf, (A Doll's House, Part 2) and Jennifer Ehle, (Oslo).
The Present split New York critics when it opened at Manhattan's iconic Ethel Barrymore Theatre in January.
It marked Blanchett's long-awaited Broadway debut and another important international foray for the Sydney Theatre Company.
The play was Upton's update of Anton Chekhov's Platonov.
The Tony Awards ceremony will be held on June 11 at Radio City Musical Hall.
The musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 topped the nominations list with 12.
Bette Midler's revival of Hello, Dolly! Picked up 10 while Dear Evan Hansen collected nine.
