The time has come, ladies and germs! At the ass crack of dawn this morning, and with significant portions of Los Angeles County still on fire, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences brought out Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennot to announce this year’s Oscar nominees. I myself did NOT watch the proceedings live, because sleep is a precious commodity that I will be sacrificing in large quantities over the next month, and I want to preserve all I can. Also I was up until midnight last night writing my Emilia Pérez review.
The year of our Ford 2024 was something of a downer at the cinema, with sequels and prequels taking nine of the top 10 spots at the box office (Wicked being the lone exception), studios inundating audiences with massively overhyped ad campaigns (Wicked again), and awards baiting concentrated to a very select few films that were only just “okay” (Wicked a third time).
Still, these are the candidates. I’m sure there will be a surprise or two, and at this point, with approximately 99.999999999% of the prestige fare crammed into the last two months, I’m just hoping that my actual remaining viewing schedule will be fairly light (I’m literally reading the list as I type this), especially considering my normal Blitz lead time has been all but consumed by the flames. This is the shortest window between nominations and ceremony since the COVID pandemic, leaving me but 24 hours to get organized and five days before I start category breakdowns. So let’s hope the gods and voting clods are merciful, and I’ll have the Category Draw and Hub Post ready tomorrow. Here we go!
Best Actor
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Sebastian Stan – The Apprentice
Best Supporting Actor
Yura Borisov – Anora
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain
Edward Norton – A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice
Best Actress
Cynthia Erivo – Wicked Part One
Karla Sofia Gascón – Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison – Anora
Demi Moore – The Substance
Fernanda Torres – I’m Still Here
Best Supporting Actress
Monica Barbaro – A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande – Wicked Part One
Felicity Jones – The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini – Conclave
Zoe Saldaña – Emilia Pérez
Animated Feature
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot
Animated Short
Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress
Magic Candies
Wander to Wonder
Yuck!
Cinematography
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Maria
Nosferatu
Costume Design
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Gladiator II
Nosferatu
Wicked Part One
Best Director
Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
Sean Baker – Anora
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
James Mangold – A Complete Unknown
Documentary Feature
Black Box Diaries
No Other Land
Porcelain War
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane
Documentary Short
Death by Numbers
I Am Ready, Warden
Incident
Instruments of a Beating Heart
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Film Editing
Anora
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked Part One
International Feature
Brazil – I’m Still Here
Denmark – The Girl with the Needle
France – Emilia Pérez
Germany – The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Latvia – Flow
Makeup and Hairstyling
A Different Man
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked Part One
Original Score
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked Part One
The Wild Robot
Original Song
“El Mal” – Emilia Pérez
“The Journey” – The Six Triple Eight
“Like a Bird” – Sing Sing
“Mi Camino” – Emilia Pérez
“Never Too Late” – Elton John: Never Too Late
Production Design
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Wicked Part One
Live Action Short
A Lien
Anuja
I’m Not a Robot
The Last Ranger
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
Sound
A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Wicked Part One
The Wild Robot
Visual Effects
Alien: Romulus
Better Man
Dune: Part Two
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked Part One
Adapted Screenplay
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Nickel Boys
Sing Sing
Original Screenplay
Anora
The Brutalist
A Real Pain
September 5
The Substance
Best Picture
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I’m Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked Part One
***
Okay, lots to unpack here. First and foremost, I have six films still to see (seven if you count Norway’s submission, Armand, coming out on February 7, to complete the International Feature shortlist; their gamble did not pay off). Those are The Substance, Sing Sing, September 5, The Six Triple Eight, A Different Man, and Elton John: Never Too Late. Thankfully, those are all readily available through theatres and streamers, so I’m not in too much trouble, though I obviously still have a huge review backlog to get to.
Second, wow, way to not even try, voters. Thirteen nominations for Emilia Pérez and 10 each for The Brutalist and Wicked? So, you just wanted to eliminate all competition apart from those who lobbied (and bribed) the hardest, huh? The only one of those three that deserves any consideration apart from one or two base elements is The Brutalist, and even then I’d say it lands behind Anora, Conclave, and A Complete Unknown. The other two are incredibly overrated, which is even more baffling when one of them only rates 76% on Rotten Tomatoes (and only 70% with audiences) thanks to the huge backlash it’s gotten from the people who actually matter to its story. Some of these nominations don’t even make sense. I mean, Editing, really? A confusing sea of jump cuts is Oscar-worthy now? Or how about Original Score? These are musicals, but the category is reserved for the ambient orchestral score, not the song catalog, so who even remembers it enough to vote for it?
Even “lesser” nominees look positioned to push out any debate, as The Wild Robot has three nominations to basically guarantee it Animated Feature (Flow has a slight chance with two) and Nickel Boys gets the annual “We Somehow Nominated it for Best Picture Despite it Only Being Up for Adapted Screenplay Otherwise” Award, following in the footsteps of Women Talking and Past Lives. Seriously, how did it not at least get a nod for Cinematography, especially over the likes of Maria?
Speaking of snubs, here are some absolutely brilliant films that were completely left off:
The Piano Lesson – Danielle Deadwyler gets the shaft again, a much more worthy Supporting Actress nominee than Ariana Grande or Zoe Saldaña
Civil War – Should be up for Cinematography, Supporting Actress for Cailee Spaeny, Sound, and maybe even a stealth Supporting Actor nod for Jesse Plemons, though I’m happy with the five we have.
Kinds of Kindness – Original Screenplay and Jesse Plemons for Best Actor
Heretic – Best Actor for Hugh Grant
Kneecap – International Feature and Original Song
Saturday Night – Costume Design and Adapted Screenplay
The Bikeriders – Best Actor for Tom Hardy and Supporting Actress for Jodie Comer. I’m guessing the strike-induced delay from its intended 2023 release killed its chances.
Conversely, the only film that went for multiple nods, didn’t get any, and deservedly so, was Mufasa: The Lion King. It was shortlisted for Original Song and Visual Effects, but apparently a) the voters finally realized that a fully animated movie has no visual effects, and b) no matter how good a songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda is, it’s far more important to give Diane Warren yet another fraudulent nomination. One bad movie got ignored while a half-dozen great ones were left wanting in favor of the Mexican trans musical that’s hated by Mexicans, trans people, and musicians. Way to meet the moment, Academy!
There were a few other films that I’m sure will be called snubs, but thankfully, I’m glad they’re not here. Both The Last Showgirl and Queer were subpar (to say the least) and shameless acting showcases that did not warrant attention. Also, I can breathe something of a sigh of relief that Waltzing with Brando was not nominated for Makeup, so I don’t have to try to track it down. The film apparently had its qualifying run at the Chinese Theatre with absolutely no fanfare (other than Billy Zane’s Instagram, and in no universe would that ever count) in late November so it could campaign. By all accounts it’s a terrible film about the building of Marlon Brando’s private island sanctuary, with Zane made up to look really, really like Brando, hence the shilling. It was scheduled to play at one of the Laemmle theatres here in L.A. two weeks ago, but on the day before its release, it was pulled. At first I thought it might have to do with the fires, but if you search for it on the Laemmle website, it doesn’t even show up. The page has essentially been scrubbed, though you can google it directly. This tells me the distributor made the call not to show it, hoping to boost box office returns post-nomination. Sad trombone. That’s what you get for not trusting a film to succeed on the merits.
***
Okay, that’s it for now. Regardless of my opinions of this year’s chicanery and shenanigans, these are our nominees. I’ve got a lot of logistic work to do over the next 24 hours to map out my coverage, and a whole lot of prep and viewings to take in over the next five weeks. Pray for Mojo.
Join the conversation in the comments below! Do you agree with these nominees? What’s the biggest omission in your eyes? What is the exact ratio of Netflix bribes to votes? Let me know! And remember, you can follow me on Twitter (fuck “X”) as well as Bluesky, and subscribe to my YouTube channel for even more content, and check out the entire BTRP Media Network at btrpmedia.com!
I Actually Paid To See This 