The Academy Award nominations were announced earlier today – leading the pack is Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer with 13 nominations, followed by Poor Things with 11 nominations, Killers of the Flower Moon with 10 nominations, and Barbie with a disappointing 8 nominations. (Also read: Oscars 2024 full list of nominations: Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer leads with 13 nods)
Four of the smaller films that had been making waves in the last few weeks – American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, and The Zone of Interest landed 5 nominations each, with strong showings in major categories.
Snubs
Greta Gerwig – One of two big snubs today, Greta Gerwig was shut out for her work on Barbie. Barbie’s lukewarm performance at all the precursor awards earlier this month indicated that there had been some sort of cooling off on the pink parade, but it’s still stunning that Gerwig was not nominated. Gerwig would have become only the second woman after Jane Campion to be nominated twice for Best Director. On the other hand, this almost guarantees a win for Gerwig and her writing partner, Noah Baumbach in the Adapted Screenplay category.
Margot Robbie – The other huge snub of the day, Barbie simply does not work without Margot Robbie’s central performance as stereotypical Barbie. Her journey from plastic to human is literally one of the most fully realized performances we have seen in a long while. How does Barbie make 1.5 billion dollars and land 8 nominations including best picture without a nomination for the titular role?
Leonardo DiCaprio – Leo losing out on a Best Actor nomination seemed inevitable given the last few weeks. He didn’t win any awards and he wasn’t nominated for a SAG Award, but the Academy is very fond of him, so a nomination was possible. Now he’ll have to be content with cheering on Lily Gladstone for the only possible win for Killers of the Flower Moon.
All of Us Strangers – Andrew Haigh’s moving story of love, loss, and lonely childhoods had a great showing at the BAFTAs with 6 nominations. There was an outside chance at a nomination for Hot Priest Andrew Scott in Lead Actor, but it was already a very crowded field.
Saltburn –Saltburn was Emerald Fennell’s hotly anticipated follow-up to Promising Young Woman, which received 5 nominations including Picture and Director, and won for Original Screenplay. The class satire opened to a mixed reception, but there was some lingering hope for Rosamund Pike in Supporting Actress. The movie will not go unmentioned on the big night, the Oscar monologue is sure to reference the bathtub scene.
Surprises
America Ferrera – Ferrera was finally given her due in the Best Supporting Actress category for Barbie. It’s easy to reduce her performance to that speech (which was outstanding), but Ferrera also makes the rest of her role work, from the comedic introduction to stereotypical Barbie to the wonder she feels when she first enters Barbieland. It’s a bittersweet surprise given the more egregious snubs.
American Fiction –The race satire had a great day with acting nominations for both Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown. Robert Downey Jr. has the supporting category locked down so Brown is not going to win, but it’s still an achievement to be nominated and recognised on this stage. I wouldn’t count Wright out yet, there’s still an outside chance of some kind of upset for Cillian Murphy. And writer-director Cord Jefferson’s nomination for Adapted Screenplay is welcome appreciation for the man who wrote the single best episode of television ever, “This Extraordinary Being” from Watchmen.
Anatomy of a Fall – The French movie about the elusive nature of the truth struck gold in major categories – Picture, Directing, Lead Actress, Original Screenplay, and Editing. And in true “there can be only one” fashion, the Academy swapped out Gerwig for Justine Triet in the Director category. Unfortunately, almost all of these categories are already spoken for, and the best chance for the movie to actually win is in the Original Screenplay, a category it has already won at the Golden Globes.
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