Oppenheimer leads the Oscars 2024 pack as Greta Gerwig misses out on best director, and Margot Robbie is absent from her first best actress category this awards season.
If you had any doubts about the quality of cinema in 2023, just take a quick look at the films not nominated for 2024’s Academy Awards.
Despite a strong showing in the BAFTAs, All Of Us Strangers has missed out in every category it was long-listed for in a nominations list dominated by Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things and Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon, with 13, 11 and 10 nominations apiece. There’s no love, either, for Ava DuVernay’s Origin, which has really struggled to break through this awards season, and Celine Song’s Past Lives is a notable absence from several categories.
But most of the headlines will be focusing on Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. The highest-grossing film of 2023 might have picked up an impressive eight nominations, but Margot Robbie was the surprise omission from the best actress category, having picked up nods at both the BAFTAs and The Golden Globes, and Greta Gerwig lost out on a Best Director nod in a crowded category which nonetheless only found room for a single female nominee – Justine Triet for French legal drama Anatomy Of A Fall.
Barbie film also picked up a surprise snub in the Makeup and Hairstyling category – losing to Andes-set survival drama Society Of The Snow.
But it’s far from all bad news for Barbie – it still picked up the expected attention for both Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, making Gerwig three-for-three on screenplay nominations for her solo directorial efforts. America Ferrera, meanwhile, picked up a surprise Supporting Actress nod for her role as a put-upon Mattel employee, while Ryan Gosling got a big cheer in the room when his name was read out for Supporting Actor.
Read more: Oscars 2024 | Nominations announced | Film Stories
In other categories, meanwhile, the race this year has played out largely as many pundits expected. Best Actor is likely still a two-horse race between Cillian Murphy and Paul Giamatti, while Best Director remains Christopher Nolan’s award to lose.
And despite a shocking omission from the BAFTAs, Lily Gladstone is likely still favourite to win Best Actress, with Emma Stone nipping on her heels in the hunt for her fourth acting trophy. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, too, remains the bookies’ choice for Supporting Actress.
As always though, there’s the occasional rogue choice thrown in there to keep us on our toes. Barbie’s two biggest hits (I’m Just Ken and What Was I Made For) are competing in the Best Original Song category with Flamin’ Hot, the movie about the invention of the titular Cheeto snack, and El Conde – the Chilean dark comedy about a vampiric Augusto Pinochet – has seemingly come out of nowhere with a cinematography nod ahead of favourites like The Zone Of Interest and Anatomy Of A Fall.
At this stage of the race, Oppenheimer certainly stands apart as the film to beat. Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Junior and Christopher Nolan are all favourites to win every category they’re nominated in, while the film is also staring down the barrel of wins in Cinematography and Editing – often key indicators for a film’s chance at winning Best Picture.
As for Barbie’s fate? Well, it may have suffered due to its association with Mattel – the ongoing disputes between different awards bodies on whether the script is an adapted or original screenplay speak to an industry struggling with what both box office and awards success could mean for a film funded by a toy company. That box office success also won’t have helped; we’re a long way from the days when the highest-grossing film of the year also dominated at the Oscars, and a pervading opinion around Hollywood is likely that Greta Gerwig has plenty of years as a top filmmaker ahead of her. She may have missed out on a director nod now so she can be showered with praise in a decade or so.
Few huge shocks, then, in the awards ceremony starring everyone’s favourite little golden statue people. The 96th Academy Awards will take place on the 10th of March – and we’ll be right here to let you know what’s happening when they do.
