It’s finally March, and that means something very special for cinephiles; it’s Oscars Season!

2023 was an incredible year for cinema, with so many incredible films releasing in so many different genres.

Let’s look at what’s nominated at this year’s Oscar Awards, March 10th, 2024. 

Each category has five films or people nominated, except Best Picture with ten incredible films!

This year’s picks are American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest.

My personal pick would be Barbie, the third film by director Greta Gerwig that released this summer, but we predict that the award will go to the film it gained popularity with, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

Nolan’s film about the titular creator of the atom bomb leads the awards with THIRTEEN nominations!

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon trail with eleven and ten nominations. 

We also have some picks for Best Animated Film, though it’s much smaller. Among the films nominated are Elemental, The Boy and the Heron, Nimona, Across the Spiderverse and Robot Dreams.

My prediction and pick is Across the Spiderverse, a beautifully animated and written follow up to 2018’s Into the Spiderverse, but I also wish the best for Nimona, an animated film released on Netflix over the summer. 

Of course, we can’t forget the talented actors and actresses who make these films so special!

This year’s Best Actor in a Leading Role nominations go to Bradley Cooper (Maestro), Colman Domingo (Rustin), Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers), Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction.)

Once again, we have no doubt Oppenheimer’s lead actor will win this role, but my personal pick is Paul Giamatti for his role as Paul Hunham in The Holdovers.

For Supporting Actors, we have Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction), Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon), Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer), Ryan Gosling (Barbie), and Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things).

Aside from Oppenheimer, my prediction goes to Ryan Gosling for his role as Ken in Barbie, but I really enjoyed Mark Ruffalo’s performance as sleazy lawyer Duncan in Poor Things! He and Emma Stone are an incredible comedic duo that I didn’t know I needed.  

Speaking of Poor Things, Emma Stone is nominated for Best Leading Actress, along with Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon), Annette Bening (Nyad), Sandra Huller (Anatomy of a Fall) and Carey Mulligan (Maestro).

My prediction and pick has to go to Lily Gladstone for her role as Mollie in Martin Scorsese’s new film; if Gladstone wins, it will make her the first Native American actress to win that award, and she’s already making history as one of the first Indigenous women to be nominated!

As for Best Supporting Actresses, many were upset over Margot Robbie being snubbed for her titular role as Barbie, but America Ferrara scored a nomination for her part of Gloria in the same film. Joining her in the nominations are Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer), Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple), Jodie Foster (Nyad) and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers).

As usual, I wouldn’t be shocked if Emily Blunt wins for Oppenheimer, but I’d love either America Ferrara or Da’Vine Joy Randolph to take home the award! Ferrara’s character is integral to Barbie, with a powerful monologue that moved so many people, and she plays the role of a mother struggling and reconciling with her family and childhood.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph also plays a struggling mother, Mary, who is grieving the loss of her only child in The Holdovers. Her character is important to the story and film, and in a character-driven movie with such a small cast, she provides an incredible performance. 

In every film, there are so many people, pieces and parts that make up a movie, so it’s not a surprise we have so many sub-categories for music, styling, editing, cinematography and production.

For music and audio categories, we have Best Sound (nominations include The Creator, Maestro, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, The Zone of Interest and Oppenheimer).

Best Original Score (Oppenheimer, Indian Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things and American Fiction).

Best Original Song (Flamin’ Hot, Killers of the Flower Moon, American Symphony and two nominations for Barbie).

My prediction for each respective category would be Oppenheimer or The Zone of Interest, Oppenheimer and “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie (the final will be performed by Ryan Gosling alongside composer Mark Ronson at the award show).  

Editing nominations include Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer and Poor Things.

My personal pick and prediction goes to Kevin Tent’s work on The Holdovers.

For Cinematography, our nominations include El Conde, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer and Poor Things.

I hope for Poor Things to win, a film that uses many different styles and angles to create a truly unique and immersive experience! 

Poor Things also scores nominations for Best Makeup and Hairstyling (other nominations include Golda, Maestro, Oppenheimer and Society of the Snow) as well as Best Costume Design (as well as Barbie, Napoleon, Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon). I hope for either Barbie or Poor Things to win Costume Design; Barbie does a great job individualizing each character and bringing iconic doll designs to life, and the giant, colorful dresses Emma Stone wears through Poor Things are gorgeous. 

Finally, Production Design nominates Barbie, Oppenheimer, Napoleon, Poor Things and Killers of the Flower Moon.

Again, I believe Oppenheimer will win, but Barbie’s practical effects and worldbuilding are truly exceptional; as a film nerd, I love practical effects and it makes me so happy to see modern films use them! Barbie brought some well-loved dollhouses to life, while using moving props like stage shows and so much pink paint and glitter, it caused an actual outage (ironically, an episode of the: “Life in the Dreamhouse” show years earlier included an episode similar to what happened!) 

Of course, we can’t forget the other highlights of this night; a personal tradition my mother and I have at every award show is to sit and watch the red-carpet arrivals and rank every celebrity’s outfits.

We will also be graced with performances by Ryan Gosling, Billie Eillish, Becky G, Jon Batiste, and Scott George and the Osage Singers.

Hosts and presenters include Mahershala Ali, Emily Blunt, Nicolas Cage, America Ferrara, Ryan Gosling, Jennifer Lawrence, Rita Moreno, John Mulaney, Lupita Nyong’o, Michelle Pfieffer, Key Huy Quan, Issa Rae, Anya Taylor-Joy, Michelle Yeoh, Ramy Youssef and Zendaya.

Jimmy Kimmel will host the event again. The show will premiere 7:00 PM March 10th, and you can watch it on any network streaming ABC. 

And that’s all to know about the 2024 Oscars!

Again, every film this year was wonderful, with such powerful talents starring in and being behind the scenes of each. We’re all excited to watch the show and see how our predictions play out!