In a live presentation, actors Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid announced the 2024 Oscar nominees on Jan. 23. The nominations have sparked discourse about recognition and representation and have fans making predictions.

Snubs & Surprises

In a familiar pattern, many highly praised — and often independent — films were given zero nominations in favor of larger-budget Hollywood movies. Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” Sean Durkin’s “The Iron Claw” and even Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn,” whose first film “Promising Young Woman” received five nominations, all were snubbed of any recognition. 

“Saltburn” was not forgotten at recent award shows, such as the Golden Globes or Critics Choice Awards. The film received several nominations at both, including Best Cinematography, Best Picture and Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for Barry Keoghan. It’s interesting to wonder what members of the Academy thought made the film unworthy of any nomination, as it has been praised for its performances, cinematography and production design.

Baz Luhrmann’s ridiculous “Elvis” had a whopping eight nominations last year, while Coppola’s “Priscilla” is empty-handed this year. Her accurate and emotional portrayal of how Elvis groomed Priscilla from a young age, and the abuse she endured, is a far better film than Luhrmann’s chaotic adaptation. 

Upsetting nominations (or a lack of them) for women

One might say that Margot Robbie was . . . Margot Robbed. In a poll of MOVE staff members, 60% named Margot Robbie for Best Actress or Greta Gerwig for Best Director as the biggest snub. Many fans of “Barbie” are drawing comparisons between the plot of the film and the results of the nominations, such as how Ken’s patriarchal takeover of Barbieland is reminiscent of Ryan Gosling’s nomination. 

In the Best Original Song category, we see Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” alongside “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish, both featured in “Barbie.” Winning the category at the Critics Choice Awards, “I’m Just Ken” has accumulated similar criticism, that a joke song performed by an actor can beat a masterpiece by Eilish, an award-winning artist. Not to mention Jo Koy’s disastrous and misogynistic monologue at the Golden Globes, this year’s awards season is disappointing women left and right.

Tasked with voting for the Oscars, the Academy is made up of 67% men and is 81% white. A lack of representation sparked the #OscarsSoWhite movement in 2015. In 2020, unconvincing efforts were made to diversify voters. The Academy increased the number of female Academy governors from 25 to 26, and people of color from 11 to 12, making up only 33% and 19% of all voters, respectively. 

However, there is some excitement with the nominations since Lily Gladstone made history as the first Native American to be nominated for Best Actress. Her performance as Mollie Burkhart in “Killers of the Flower Moon” was deeply emotional. My first thought after leaving the theater was that she would win an Oscar for her role. Her grief is real, her pain makes you feel ill, her anger burns through you. 

Gladstone’s nomination is a long time coming. In high school, she was voted most likely to win an Oscar. Senior superlative aside, a win for her would be seminal, paving the way for more Indigenous representation in Hollywood. 

Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” received five nominations, including Best Picture, making Oscar history for three of the 10 Best Picture nominees being directed by women. Additionally, Sandra Hüller was nominated for Best Actress in an unexpected, yet exciting, surprise. 

When I watched “Anatomy of a Fall,” the performance that wowed me the most was not Hüller, it was the young actor playing her son. 

Milo Machado Graner was left out of the Best Supporting Actor category, and while only 14 years old, his monologue near the end of the film alone left me more impressed than Robert Downey Jr.’s entire performance in “Oppenheimer.”

Instead of nominating this up-and-coming actor for the category, the Academy saw more promise in Gosling’s comic relief character in “Barbie,” who, let’s face it, was nothing without his co-star. Who is Ken without Barbie?

Poor Things: The Best Film Of The Year

Though “Oppenheimer” is widely expected to sweep the awards, leading with 13 nominations, the film that closely follows is what I believe to be the most worthy of praise this season: “Poor Things.”

Yorgos Lanthimos’ most recent project, “Poor Things,” is a masterful and campy retelling of “Frankenstein” based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same title. Lead actress Emma Stone, who plays Bella Baxter, perfectly illustrated the message of the film in her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes: “I see this as a rom-com, in the sense that Bella falls in love with life itself, rather than a person. She accepts the good and the bad in equal measure … all of it is important.”

This film, ironically directed by a man, did a better job of forming and communicating feminist themes than Gerwig’s “Barbie.” Throughout her journey, Bella Baxter learns to embrace her liberation despite the efforts to contain her by the men around her.

I was hesitant to like this film in the first half, as it seemed to fall into the misogynistic “born sexy yesterday” trope often seen in sci-fi. This male fantasy is seen in characters like Leeloo from “The Fifth Element,” and pretty much every female alien in “Star Trek.” The trope includes a beautiful yet naive female character that validates the male character’s insecure ego by creating an unequal power dynamic. 

Mark Ruffalo’s character is instantly enamored by Bella’s childlike yet highly sexual undead character. Despite this, as Bella continues to experience life and become a well-rounded woman with thoughts and opinions, she overcomes this objectification. Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe’s characters are dumbfounded by the fact that Bella is a three-dimensional woman by the end of the film, rather than an infantilized sex object, an often relatable experience for women. 

“Poor Things” is much more radical, and the kind of gender analysis we should be pushing. “Barbie” was a good start, but was very digestible. We should be making the audience uncomfortable; feminism isn’t supposed to be cozy.

The film is nominated for Cinematography, and it deserves this. The film’s cinematographer Robbie Ryan utilizes extreme wide lenses to add to the uncanniness of the world Bella is experiencing for the first time. 

Lanthimos proves himself as an accomplished director time and time again, with previous nominations and wins for his films “The Lobster” and “The Favourite,” but I see “Poor Things” as his best and my personal favorite.

The film has acquired a lot of praise at recent award shows, and I hope this trend continues in March with “Poor Things” sweeping the awards and beating out its biggest competitors. 

Predictions

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is a strong contender for the Animated Feature Film category. With immersive and thrilling visuals, I found the animation to be groundbreaking. Combined with a mesmerizing soundtrack, I was certain this film would take the award at the Golden Globes. But if the Globes are any indication, “The Boy and the Heron” by Hayao Miyazaki has a fair shot as well. 

The success of “Oppenheimer” is undeniable. It is a rich and thrilling telling of a story that changed American history, with an unbeatable cast. I can see “Oppenheimer” sweeping with a Best Picture win, Best Actor win (Cillian Murphy), Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.) among other categories. Whether they deserve these wins is a different conversation, but with the film’s recent victories, I would put my money on a sweep.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s performance as Mary Lamb in “The Holdovers” makes a strong contender for Best Supporting Actress. With a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice award under her belt, she is at the forefront of this race.

Although the nominations for Gerwig’s “Barbie” seem to be disappointing as a whole, the film has a fair shot at winning Production Design. To bring Barbieland to life in the most authentic way possible, Gerwig opted out of green screen backgrounds and hand-painted backdrops for the film instead. Production designer Sarah Greenwood reported using so much pink paint it resulted in a worldwide shortage. 

Regardless of any disappointing nominations, I will still be tuning in to the awards and rooting for my favorite films in a few months.

The 96th Academy Awards will air on March 10 at 7 p.m. ET. 

Edited by Alex Goldstein | agoldstein@themaneater.com

Copy edited by Jae Green and Briana Iordan

Edited by Scout Hudson | shudson@themaneater.com