The nominees for the Academy Awards have been announced in Los Angeles. Greta Gerwig, who directed the box office hit “Barbie,” was left without a director’s nomination, as was the lead actress in the film, Margot Robbie. The Academy also did not note the work of Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the central character in the film “Killers of the Flower Moon” by Martin Scorsese. The leader in the number of nominations is “Oppenheimer” by Christopher Nolan, its main rival is the film “The Unfortunate Ones” by Yorgos Lanthimos. Film critic Anton Dolin talks about what to expect from this year’s awards.
The dynamic and cheerful announcement of the 2024 Oscar nominations by young actors Zazie Beetz (“Atlanta”) and Jack Quaid (“Oppenheimer”) broadly confirmed the trends of the season announced by other awards and festivals.
The leader in the number of mentions was Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which just won the Best Drama category at the Golden Globes. He has 13 nominations, including all the main ones: film, directing, screenplay, acting (Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr.). It remains to be repeated many times: this dark and monumental picture, which has become the most commercially successful biopic of all time, frighteningly accurately expresses the spirit of troubled wartime. This is Nolan’s first film that is format-wise ideal for a respectable Oscar, but there is no guarantee that the film will win all the awards. Let’s not forget that last year the hooligan “Everything Everywhere and at Once” became the best film, beating much more Oscar-winning dramas – “Banshee of Inisherina” and “The Fabelmans”.
The same considerations make it possible to doubt the possible victory of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which received ten respectable nominations. As conceptually important as this monumental historical film about the genocide of Native Americans was, older directors and conservative, nuanced films have stopped winning at the Oscars. It is also alarming that Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the lead role, is not even nominated. But Lily Gladstone, the first Native American to receive an acting nomination, has a very high chance, although there is strong competition: Emma Stone from “The Lost and Lost” and Sandra Hüller from “Anatomy of a Fall.”
Scorsese himself became one of the Oscar record holders even before the awards were distributed. He became the leader in the number of director nominations among living people – he has ten – overtaking Steven Spielberg (the record of the late William Wyler with his 12 nominations is still far from being achieved).
Paramount Pictures
Greta Gerwig was not included in the director’s nomination – and this is something of a sensation. “Barbie” has a respectable but not mind-blowing eight nominations, including “adapted screenplay” (it remains unclear what Gerwig and Noah Baumbach adapted, other than children’s games without credits). Once upon a time, the Oscars were criticized for including Gerwig among the contenders for the director’s statuette for “Lady Bird”; now the Academy will be criticized for its disdainful attitude towards the main feminist blockbuster of the new time.
Even more surprising is the absence of Margot Robbie in the acting category (Ryan Gosling received a nomination for his supporting role). Perhaps academics considered Gerwig’s film to be overly commercial or infantile – however, no one can accurately formulate the motives of the collective unconscious with the vote of several thousand people.
Another film will be responsible for female subjectivity and emancipation in the Oscar scenario – the incomparably more innovative and shocking “The Poor Miserables” by Yorgos Lanthimos. They collected more nominations than Killers of the Flower Moon and were only slightly behind Oppenheimer. 11 mentions for an extremely bold and thoroughly European film is so solid that it allows us to hope not only for a well-deserved statuette for Emma Stone (and various “design” prizes), but also for victory. Although Oppenheimer is a more than serious opponent. This is an unprecedented success for Lanthimos.
In general, the confrontation repeats the double victory of these particular films in two different categories – “drama” and “comedy” – at the Golden Globes.
In general, Europe noticeably squeezed out the USA at these Oscars (it is also appropriate to remember that Nolan is actually half British). Among the main contenders for the prize for film of the year are “Anatomy of a Fall” by the Frenchwoman Justine Trieu and the German-language drama of the British Jonathan Glazer “Zone of Interest”; both have five nominations, including directing and writing. Thus, for the first time in many years, Oscar included among its favorites the winners of two of the most prestigious European festivals – Cannes (where Trieu took the first prize, Glaser the second) and Venice (Won by Lanthimos).
Against this background, both “American Fiction” by Cord Jefferson and “The Leftovers” by Alexander Payne (also five mentions each, but without a personal director’s nomination) do not look very convincing, and even the chances of Bradley Cooper’s elegant and spectacular “Maestro” are doubtful: he has seven mentions, but not in the director category.
Among full-length cartoons, the main confrontation will unfold between the magnificent “The Boy and the Bird” by Hayao Miyazaki and the much more American (but inferior to the first part of the same franchise) “Spider-Man: Web of Universes.” In the international category, there is reason to bet on the victory of “Zone of Interest”, but it is nice to note that Wim Wenders with “Perfect Days” and Matteo Garrone with “I, Captain” made the list.
As for the documentary competition, it would be fair to highlight “Twenty Days in Mariupol” by Ukrainian Mstislav Chernov – a strict, honest and shocking drama about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, filmed by professional reporters.
The Zone of Interest | Official Trailer 2 HD | A24
A24
Among the other nuances: it’s nice to see the Japanese “Godzilla minus one” and the third “Guardians of the Galaxy” (both nominated for visual effects) on the list of nominees, and it’s a little sad that Emirald Fennell’s “Saltburn” was left without mention at all. On the other hand, the Oscars have never been able to satisfy all filmmakers and their fans in its almost hundred-year history – and, it seems, they did not particularly strive for this.
The award ceremony will take place on March 10. It will be hosted by the famous American comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
