Not that normal people care anymore, but the 2024 Oscar nominations are out, and it looks like a good night for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
Out of 23 possible categories, Nolan’s critical and financial blockbuster secured 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Director, Editing, Score, and Production Design.
Poor Things came in second with 11 nominations. Killers of the Flower Moon grabbed ten. Barbie earned eight.
Brass tacks: Unlike Killers of the Flower Moon and Barbie, Oppenheimer hit every nomination it needed to hit, which generally points to an Oscar night sweep — especially in the top categories.
Nolan is not only overdue; he turned a three-hour biopic about an obscure scientist into a worldwide hit.
Then there’s Annette Bening’s surprise Best Actress nomination for Nyad. She’s also overdue, and that might be enough. Her primary competition is Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon and Emma Stone for Poor Things. There’s hope for Bening. Stone already has her Oscar, and many believe Gladstone should’ve gone for a supporting nomination.
I’m also pleased to see Sterling K. Brown nominated for Best Supporting Actor. I haven’t seen American Fiction yet (I have read the nominated screenplay, which is dynamite), but Brown is one of those actors who’s been around for 20 years, elevating everything he touches. His performance as Christopher Darden in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016) is an all-timer.
Outside of that, the only Oscar news of note is the snubs.
Barbie earned one of ten Best Picture slots. But director Greta Gerwig and star Margot Robbie failed to win nominations.
The musical remake of The Color Purple failed to earn even one of those ten Best Picture nominations or any nomination other than Best Supporting Actress.
Insufferable crybully Ava DuVernay and her emotional blackmail campaign failed to win even a single nomination for Origin.
The Best Picture race has been seen as a toss-up between Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon. The awards season thus far has favored Oppenheimer, as do today’s Oscar nominations. No Best Actor nomination for Flower Moon star Leonardo DiCaprio. Most notable, though, is Flower Moon failing to win an Adapted Screenplay nomination.
We will close with my favorite snub… The following titles you will not see nominated for Best Visual Effects… No Little Mermaid, no Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantuwhatever, no Indiana Jones and the Dial of I’m Never Watching This Crap, and no Fast X, Flash, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, or The Marvels. Each of those titles poured hundreds of millions into visual effects and walked away empty-handed.
But.
What did win a Best Visual Effects nomination? Godzilla Minus One, which cost a measly $15 million to produce. More proof that Hollywood is run by talentless hacks.
The 96th Academy Awards will air sometime in March. Since I’m a normal person, I’ll be watching something else, like The Green Berets.
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