A Night of Stars, Drama and Likely Boredom!

Every year comes and goes, and every year the Oscars Academy Award show never fails to produce drama to be talked about year-round or simply be a waste of 3-4 hours. According to Statista, the 2021 Oscars showed the lowest viewer numbers in the award show’s history with only 10.4 million people tuning in live. For context, the 2020 Oscars had 23.6 million viewers. Since the low point of 2021, the award show has been slowly climbing back up to its previous popularity, reaching 18.7 million viewers in 2023. As the movie industry has sparked more drama and popularity in these last 12 months, the 2024 Oscars might get even closer to reaching their old acclaim. To prepare Eastern University for this year’s Oscars, the Waltonian has compiled a list of the major nominees. We’ll also dive into a little bit of the controversies already present before the show has even taken place.

To begin, the nominees for Best Picture: “American Fiction,” “Anatomy of the Fall,” “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Oppenheimer,” “Past Lives,” “Poor Things,” “The Zone of Interest.”

While most critics and fans seem to be leaning towards “Oppenheimer” taking this prestigious award, viewers shouldn’t be too surprised if any of these other films win. “American Fiction,” and “Poor Things” might be two dark horses in this race.

The nominees for Best Actress in a Leading Role: Annette Bening (“Nyad”), Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”), Emma Stone (“Poor Things”).

One of the biggest controversies taking over the internet surrounding the 2024 Oscars is that while “Barbie” has been nominated for Best Picture, the film’s lead actress, Margot Robbie, has not been nominated for Best Actress. This situation is made more awkward by the fact that Robbie’s co-star, Ryan Gosling, will be appearing in the following list of nominees. However, don’t let this controversy distract you from the other phenomenally talented women nominated for this award! All of them deserve to be on this list.

The nominees for Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Sterling K. Brown (“American Fiction”), Robert De Niro (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”), Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”), Mark Ruffalo (“Poor Things”).

Clearly just some lesser-known actors pitted against each other for this award. Sterling K. Brown? Rober De Niro? Anyone know these folks? In all seriousness: this is a crazy line-up of heavy hitters.

The nominees for Best Actor in a Lead Role: Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”), Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”), Jeffery Wright (“American Fiction”).

While all of these men are extraordinarily talented, it seems highly likely that Cillian Murphy will be winning this award. That being said, all of these performances should be recognized as some of the best we’ve seen in years.

The nominees for Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”), Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple”), America Ferrera (“Barbie”), Jodie Foster (“Nyad”), Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers).

Once again, while there may be no wrong answers here, Emily Blunt and Danielle Brooks would probably be the favorites to win this award.

The nominees for Best Director: Justine Triet (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”), Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”), Jonathan Glazer (“Zone of Interest”).

While it is strange that Greta Gerwig has not been nominated for Best Director for directing “Barbie” as it is nominated for Best Picture, and while I am all for pointing out the bias and stupidity of the Academy, it should be noted that only five of the directors of the nominees for Best Picture are featured here. Cord Jefferson (“American Fiction”), Alexander Payne (“The Holdovers”), Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”) and Celine Strong (“Past Lives”) are also missing from this list.

There are many other categories worth talking about that this article will not have space to give attention to. Best Original Score, Best Animated Feature Film, Best Costume Design and Best Visual Effects are all exciting categories. For the complete list of nominations, readers can go to the official website of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

As the editor of the Arts & Entertainment section for the Waltonian, a fan of movies and art and as a college student who enjoys procrastinating on his work, I highly recommend at least following the results of the 2024 Oscars Academy Award Show, even if you aren’t inclined to sit and watch 3-4 hours of celebrities sitting and chatting.

The 2024 Oscars Academy Award Show will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and will be live on ABC on Sunday, March 10 from 7-10 p.m.

Sources: Oscars.org, Statista