So the day movie fans/pundits have been waiting for is here… Oscar nominations were announced this morning by Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid. Well, there’s no repeat of Barbenheimer competition at the Oscars. Despite Barbie winning the box office with $1.4 billion worldwide (while Oppenheimer has made $946 million), Christopher Nolan‘s opus of the father of the atomic bomb came out swinging in terms of Oscar nominations.

Oppenheimer leads the nominations with a total of 13, with Poor Things in second place with 11 nods, followed by Killers of the Flower Moon with 10 and Barbie with 8.

The Best Picture nominations prove to be pretty predictable this year. For the first time ever, I got all 10 movies correctly! I even got the order right in terms of the number of nominations each of the top four films gets.

Most nominated films at the 2024 #Oscars

Oppenheimer – 13
Poor Things – 11
Killers of the Flower Moon – 10
Barbie – 8
Maestro – 7
The Holdovers – 5
American Fiction – 5
Zone of Interest – 5
Anatomy of a Fall – 5
Napoleon – 3
Past Lives – 2
The Creator – 2

See the full nominees… pic.twitter.com/0Xgb3jFpPx

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 23, 2024

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Egregious Snubs

It wouldn’t be award season without a few glaring snubs … though of course, it doesn’t make ’em any less painful.

• Let’s start with the most egregious of all: No Greta Gerwig in Directing or Margot Robbie for the Best Actress category, but yet Ryan Gosling got in??! So Ken getting in while Barbie is shut out is kinda the point of the movie that reality bites… something that wouldn’t have happened in Barbie’s universe 😉 Even Gosling himself released a statement to voice what everyone is thinking… “But there is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally celebrated film.” Right on!
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  But hey, Gerwig is still making history as she’s the first female filmmaker to direct three consecutive Best Picture nominees: Barbie, Little Women in 2019, and Ladybird in 2017.
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• OMG, it hurts not to see Greta Lee‘s name on the Best Leading Actress list!! 😭 Past Lives is such a beautiful film that hit me like a ton of bricks… largely thanks to Miss Lee’s phenomenal performance as Nora/Na-Young. Celine Song missing out in the Best Director category is just as painful, hopefully, she’d still come home with the golden statuette for Best Original Screenplay!

This reminds me I need to watch this episode of Variety’s Actors on Actors –
LOVE the pairing of Greta Lee + Andrew Scott!

• Speaking of hurt… it’s a travesty that Andrew Scott keeps getting snubbed over and over. He was recently snubbed by SAG, BAFTA, and now by the Academy, ugh!! His soulful and emotionally raw performance in All of Us Strangers is just outstanding… it’s one that I still think about to this day.
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• Having just seen Poor Things not too long ago, it’s still fresh in my mind. So I was flabbergasted to see the great Willem Dafoe snubbed in the Best Supporting Category! If you’ve read my review, then you know how I feel about Mark Ruffalo‘s performance. No offense Mark, you’re a good actor but when we’re talking about Poor Things, Dafoe is totally robbed here as he deserves that nod far more than you!
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• I’m surprised to see Todd Haynes’ May-December being snubbed in a major way. It only got one nomination in the Original Screenplay category. I thought either Natalie Portman or Julianne Moore would get in, both have won Oscars previously. Now, the biggest snub to me is breakout star Charles Melton in Best Supporting Actor, I think his performance deserves to be singled out.
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  I was also hoping that another breakout star Dominic Sessa would nab a nomination for The Holdovers. I wouldn’t call it a snub though, I mean he’s so young and I believe this is just a great start to his career!
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• Now, speaking of The Holdovers, it’s a head-scratcher that Alexander Payne is missing from the Best Director list. Just like Gerwig, Payne was shortlisted by the Directors Guild of America, usually a good precursor for the Oscars. Oh well.
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• It’s a bummer that Black female filmmakers are left out in the dust once again. Last year I cried foul that Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King was shut-out big time. This year, it’s Ava DuVernay whose excellent and Oscar-worthy ORIGIN is totally overlooked, as is the phenomenal leading lady, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor 😦
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• I guess the people behind Anatomy of A Fall have the last laugh given that it wasn’t selected as the French Oscar entry, but made it to the Best Picture list! The one that did, the exquisite The Taste Of Things, is totally snubbed as it wasn’t nominated in the Best International Feature. Yikes!!

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Enchanting Surprises

• Firstly, the Academy did the wright thing by nominating the consistently excellent Jeffrey Wright in American Fiction! I mentioned that his performance was Oscar-worthy in my review, glad the the voters agree!
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• Speaking of American Fiction, I’m beyond thrilled that Sterling K. Brown also made the cut!! This one is more of a surprise than Wright’s nomination as it could’ve easily been Paul Mescal (All of Us Strangers) or Jacob Elordi (Saltburn) who made the cut.
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• Lesson learned! Never bet against John Williams!!  The 91-year-old nonagenarian is nominated for the 54th time for his Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny score. The last time he won was 30 years ago for Schindler’s List in 1994. Per EW, Williams beat his record as the oldest person to ever be nominated in a competitive Oscar award category and this nod made him still the most-nominated living person. Woo wee!!
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• Glad to see Nimona made the cut in Best Animated Feature! I’m just thrilled that the Academy opted for the bold and groundbreaking animated film over the lame + more of the same Disney’s Wish. It’s a win for LGBTQ representation in a strong year for animated features.///
• Last but not least, I finally saw NYAD last night, the movie about the extraordinary journey of marathon swimmer Diana Nyad, and I was so impressed by both Annette Benning AND Jodie Foster! Yay for women over 60 making waves… Benning and Foster are 65 and 61, respectively, while veteran editor Thelma Schoonmaker, longtime Martin Scorsese collaborator, is 84!!
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2024 OSCAR NOMINATIONS

Best Picture

• Oppenheimer
• Poor Things
• Killers of the Flower Moon
• Barbie
• The Holdovers
• American Fiction
• Anatomy of a Fall
• Maestro
• Past Lives
• The Zone of Interest

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Best Director

• Justine Triet — “Anatomy of a Fall”
• Martin Scorsese — “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• Christopher Nolan — “Oppenheimer”
• Yorgos Lanthimos — “Poor Things”
• Jonathan Glazer — “The Zone of Interest”

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Best Actress

• Annette Bening (“Nyad”)
• Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”)
• Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”)
• Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”)
• Emma Stone (“Poor Things”)

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Best Actor

• Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”)
• Colman Domingo (“Rustin”)
• Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”)
• Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”)
• Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”)

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Best Supporting Actress

• Emily Blunt — (“Oppenheimer” )
• Danielle Brooks — (“The Color Purple” )
• America Ferrera – (“Barbie”)
• Jodie Foster — (“Nyad” )
• Da’Vine Joy Randolph — (“The Holdovers”)

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Best Supporting Actor

• Sterling K. Brown (“American Fiction”)
• Robert De Niro (“Killers of the Flower Moon”)
• Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”)
• Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”)
• Mark Ruffalo (“Poor Things”)

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Best Original Screenplay

• “Anatomy of a Fall,” screenplay by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
• “The Holdovers,” written by David Hemingson
• “Maestro,” written by Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer
• “May December,” screenplay by Samy Burch; story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik
• “Past Lives,” written by Celine Song

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Best Adapted Screenplay

• “American Fiction,” written for the screen by Cord Jefferson
• “Barbie,” written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
• “Oppenheimer,” written for the screen by Christopher Nolan
• “Poor Things,” screenplay by Tony McNamara
• “The Zone of Interest,” written by Jonathan Glazer

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Best Animated Feature

• The Boy and the Heron
• Elemental
• Nimona
• Robot Dreams 
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

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Best Cinematography

• “El Conde” – Edward Lachman
• “Killers of the Flower Moon” – Rodrigo Prieto
• “Maestro” – Matthew Libatique
• “Oppenheimer” – Hoyte van Hoytema
• “Poor Things” – Robbie Ryan

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Best Costume Design

• “Barbie” – Jacqueline Durran
• “Killers of the Flower Moon” – Jacqueline West
• “Napoleon” – Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
• “Oppenheimer” – Ellen Mirojnick
• “Poor Things” – Holly Waddington

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Best Production Design

• Poor Things
• Barbie
• Oppenheimer 
• Napoleon
• Killers of the Flower Moon

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Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Maestro
• Poor Things
• Oppenheimer
• Society of the Snow
• Golda

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Best Sound

• Oppenheimer
• Maestro
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
• The Creator
• The Zone of Interest

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Best Original Score

• “American Fiction” – Laura Karpman
• “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” John Williams
• “Killers of the Flower Moon” – Robbie Robertson
• “Oppenheimer” – Ludwig Göransson
• “Poor Things” – Jerskin Fendrix

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Best Original Song

• “The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot,” music and lyric by Diane Warren
• “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie,” music and lyrics by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt
• “It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony,” music and lyrics by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson
• “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon,” music and lyric by Scott George
• “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,” music and lyrics by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell

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Best Visual Effects

• The Creator
• Godzilla Minus One
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
• Napoleon

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Best Editing

• Anatomy of a Fall”– Laurent Sénéchal
• The Holdovers– Kevin Tent
• Killers of the Flower Moon – Thelma Schoonmaker
• Oppenheimer – Jennifer Lame
• Poor Things – Yorgos Mavropsaridis

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Best Foreign Language Film

• “Io Capitano” (Italy)
• “Perfect Days” (Japan)
• “Society of the Snow” (Spain)
• “The Teachers’ Lounge” (Germany)
• “The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom)

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What do you think of the 2024 Oscar nominations? Thoughts on the biggest snubs and surprises?

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