The Oscar nominations for Awards Season 2024 have finally been revealed, and as usual, all eyes turn to the 10 prestigious movies that figure in the ceremony's top category: Best Picture. It's true that only one out of the 10 will bring the award home, but simply receiving the honor of being among the best of the best guarantees each of the movies a spot in cinema history.
The Oscars remain the most relevant televised event in the film industry, and although it stands as a pretty local ceremony, aimed at praising American productions, the latest nominations show that the Academy's international branch is progressively turning the Oscars into a more diverse event. No wonder 2024's Best Picture lineup has three international features in it, as well as other memorable American productions.
Here's our ranking of the Best Picture nominees of this year's Oscars.
10 Maestro (2023)
Maestro
- Release Date
- December 20, 2023
- Runtime
- 2hr 9min
Maestro is Bradley Cooper's return to the director's chair and a project he has been eager to accomplish for years now. The movie recounts the life of Leonard Bernstein (played by Cooper) from the perspective of his relationship with Felicia Montealeegre (Carey Mulligan), his beloved muse, as he sets off to become America's greatest and most versatile conductor.
There's some injustice around Maestro's backlash, although the movie did stir controversy even before it was released. The contempt against the film seems to target Cooper trying too hard to finally win his Oscar rather than the movie itself. Despite delivering the typical Oscar-bait narrative, Maestro offers some of the most interesting artistic choices of any biopic of the last few years, bringing back that feeling from when Hollywood used to make real movie stars. Both Cooper and Mulligan are fantastic in it, as evidenced by their respective Best Actor and Best Actress nominations, but all their effort isn't enough to compensate for an often lifeless story. Stream on Netflix
9 Past Lives (2023)
Past Lives
- Release Date
- August 31, 2023
- Director
- Celine Song
- Runtime
- 1hr 46min
Past Lives might be the most displaced in this year's Best Picture lineup; a humble piece of filmmaking that managed to get in there mostly by word-of-mouth power and an emotional link created with the audience ever since January 2023, when it premiered on Sundance. The movie tells the story of two childhood best friends over the years, contemplating how distance impacts beautiful bonds that get lost with time.
Past Lives is fairly simple in its approach, and its characters' persisting self-awareness prevents the movie from taking many risks. That said, director Celine Song deservedly earned a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Her story touches with mastery the many "what ifs" that envelop a young person's life, and how the choices we don't make never really leave us. It's a mirror-movie; anyone who sees themselves here will love it. Those who don't won't be easily impressed. Rent on AppleTV
8 Barbie (2023)
Greta Gerwig's big pink kaledoscope, Barbie is a tribute to a generation no longer impressed by patriarchal standards, using the world's most standardized doll to illustrate this revolt. In the film, Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) get to see the world outside Barbie Land, bringing the tribulations of contemporary society into their safe haven.
2023's biggest hit was expected to show up in the Oscar lineup, not only for its record-breaking commercial success, but because it gave space for women to speak up and reflect on their true selves in contrast with the plastic appearances that society wants them to embrace. The message is clear, even though Barbie's dramatic moments can feel like pandering. Hopefully, the film's comical appeal helps to balance that.
In addition to its Best Picture nomination, Barbie scored nominations in other categories, from Best Supporting Actor (for Gosling) and Best Supporting Actress (for America Ferrera) to Best Production Design, among many others. Notably, Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie were snubbed in the Best Director and Best Actress categories. Stream on Max
7 Poor Things (2023)
Poor Things
- Release Date
- December 8, 2023
- Runtime
- 2hr 21min
Poor Things is a unique Frankenstein-esque tale about women's liberation, following a young woman, Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), brought to life and prompted to decide how society works from her own experiences. Though she develops a strong connection with her creator, she sets out to see the world with an unreliable lawyer in search of her essence and her true self.
The movie has its share of Yorgos Lanthimos' distinctively disquieting moments while holding on to relevant discussions on how societal institutions force us to bend to their will from an early age. In this context, Bella feels like the living embodiment of free will; an organism of rebellion against good manners and in favor of pleasures and desires. Second to Oppenheimer, Poor Things scored 11 Oscar nominations, from Best Actress for Stone to Best Director for Lanthimos.
6 The Holdovers (2023)
The Holdovers
- Release Date
- November 10, 2023
- Runtime
- 2hr 13min
One can only find a movie that feels like The Holdovers if one looks back to 1970s cinema. Alexander Payne was determined to make his new movie resonate with those he watched when he was growing up. The film follows a grumpy prep school instructor (Paul Giamatti) forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the students who have nowhere to go. Against all odds, he manages to find comfort in the company of a troubled boy (Dominic Sessa) and the school's grieving head cook (Da'Vine Joy Randolph).
There are great moments of beauty in The Holdovers that are as simple as the movie's premise. After all, the film offers a patient, rather slow process of transformation to its main characters in a scenario that, essentially, remains the same: they are the ones who change. Inside, only the school's empty corridors, untouched. Outside, only the overwhelming white of the snow. Viewers get to experience the isolation of these characters and bond with them as they learn to let out their frustrations, worries, and aspirations; at the end of the day, leaving the screening feels like saying goodbye to precious old friends.
Also earning Oscar nominations are: Giamatti for Best Actor, Randolph for Best Supporting Actress, David Hemingson for Best Original Screenplay, and Kevin Tent for Best Film Editing. Stream on Peacock
5 The Zone of Interest (2023)
Jonathan Glazer's talent for movies that feel like feverish dreams is brought to an emotionally oppressing Holocaust setting, where the commandant of Auschwitz and his family try to lead a peaceful life in the outskirts of World War II's most vicious concentration camp. The cinematic equivalent of what Hannah Arendt describes as the "banality of evil", The Zone of Interest explores labor in the Nazi machinery when the loss of humanity becomes a requisite to the system.
It's actually impressive how the movie conveys such a nauseating atmosphere without ever having to rely on graphic depictions of cruelty. The sound work conducts the narrative to its extremes, frequently offering a terrifying contrast between the family's dream life and the barbarism in their backdoor. The Zone of Interest flirts with experimental cinema, and it certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the message hits hard all the same.
4 American Fiction (2023)
The love and dedication that 2023's Toronto International Film Festival gave to American Fiction pretty much set the path for a profitable awards season run, but it's rare to see such a straight-up comedy figure among the Oscars' Best Picture nominees. The movie is centered around a Black writer (Jeffrey Wright), whose work is deemed "not Black enough." He resorts to a scandalous pseudonym to expose the publishing industry's dirty secrets but ends up embracing a persona that's bigger than fiction.
American Fiction orbits around Wright's multilayered performance (which earned him a Best Actor nomination) with an ironic approach that is funny precisely because of how real it is. It delves deep into how black stories are told in an oppressive system, where capitalism opens breaches for inclusion just to profit over it — punch lines that actually hurt. Now Playing in Theaters
3 Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Martin Scorsese's epic crime drama, Killers of the Flower Moon, is a more than obvious statement for audiences that tend to misinterpret violence; a prevailing topic in his movies. Shying away from the morally ambiguous "anti-heroes" that made him famous, from Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle to The King of Comedy's Rupert Pupkin, viewers now get to follow a complete idiot and his mischievous uncle at all times: hidden under the blanket of white privilege, they carry on a chilling conspiracy that aim at wiping a Native American tribe from their own land.
The controversy around having the antagonists as the main characters is something that will haunt Killers of the Flower Moon for years to come. However, that's precisely what makes the movie a chilling depiction of America's structural violence and the country's propensity to ignore the blood stains in its history. Stream on AppleTV+
2 Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
Anatomy of a Fall
- Release Date
- August 23, 2023
- Director
- Justine Triet
- Cast
- Sandra Hüller , Swann Arlaud , Antoine Reinartz , Jehnny Beth , Saadia Bentaieb
- Runtime
- 2hr 31min
Anatomy of a Fall slowly made its way from Cannes Film Festival's spotlight — winning the acclaimed Palme D'Or — to the Oscars' Best Picture nominees. In the film, a successful novelist is put on trial when her husband dies in mysterious circumstances and the only possible witness is her visually impaired son.
The film isn't one's traditional courtroom drama, and even less a conventional portrayal of a dysfunctional family. It rather ties these two threads together to explore an undercurrent of violence in matrimony disintegration. Best Actress nominee Sandra Hüller delivers the performance of a lifetime as a mother whose only concerns lie in the judgment of her son as opposed to that of justice. Rent on AppleTV
1 Oppenheimer (2023)
Oppenheimer was a lock in the Best Picture category ever since the day it came out. Although it had all the best attributes of a typical Oscar darling, the movie's influence goes way beyond the hackneyed Oscar-bait discourse. It captures with transparency a delicate moment in U.S. history, turning it into a gripping character study. The character in question is none other than American theoretical physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the mastermind behind the atomic bomb's creation; a controversial figure who fought to leave its mark on history, just to forever be haunted by the consequences of his actions.
Christopher Nolan is already one of the most respected filmmakers in the film industry, but Oppenheimer takes him to a greater level. This is his magnum opus; a memorable achievement in storytelling, historical perception, and box office performance. After all, the movie is an R-rated biopic that managed to gross almost $1 billion in 2023's summer theatrical windows. In addition to Best Picture, Oppenheimer scored the most nominations (13), including Best Director for Nolan, Best Actor for Murphy, and Best Supporting Actress for Emily Blunt. Rent on AppleTV
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