As the 2024 Oscar nominations were released Tuesday, movie fans heard not so much a hot field of contenders, but a list of losers.
So many names, such dismal chances.
Readers Jack Quaid and Zazie Beetz might as well have said, “And now, ‘Oppenheimer’… and everybody else.”
Christopher Nolan’s epic film about the father of the atomic bomb scored 13 nods, the most of any movie, and is a shoo-in for Best Picture and Director.
Two of the acting races are also sewn up: Supporting Actress (Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “The Holdovers”) and Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr. in — what else? — “Oppenheimer”).
Some sad snubbed A-listers had already lost by 8:45 a.m.
Seven-time nominee (and one-time winner) Leonardo DiCaprio was left out of the Best Actor category for his performance in Martin Scorsese’s Best Picture-nominated “Killers of the Flower Moon.” That’s what will be eating him today.
And “Barbie” star Margot Robbie didn’t make the cut for Best Actress either. (She produced “Barbie,” so she’s going.) Another ding for the doll: Greta Gerwig failed to get into Best Director. (She did for Original Screenplay, so she’s going.)
I refer to those as “snubs” because they are famous people who were nominated at other award shows this year. But the Academy giveth and the Academy taketh away — and rightly so. “Flower Moon” is hardly DiCaprio’s best work, even though he’s good, and Robbie frankly was better as Harley Quinn. “Barbie” is hugely overrated.
Regardless, the Warner Bros. film notched eight nominations, including Best Picture and a surprise Supporting Actress mention for America Ferrera, but its strongest chances are for Song and Costume Design.
It was a nasty morning for Netflix, too. Its critically admired “May December” was shut out of Best Picture, Director (Todd Haynes), Actress (Natalie Portman), Supporting Actress (Julianne Moore) and Supporting Actor (Charles Melton) — and only managed an Original Screenplay nod. It won’t win.
And while the streamer’s “Maestro,” directed by and starring a hammy Bradley Cooper, was nominated for Best Picture, Actor (Cooper), Actress (Carey Mulligan), Original Screenplay, Cinematography and Sound, a Hollywood insider said the Leonard Bernstein biopic’s only real shot is for Makeup.
“It’s the ‘Maestro’ Academy campaign to win Best Nose!”, said the insider. “Because that’s all they’ll win, and they probably spent $15 million.”
Cooper was the Best Actor front-runner for months, but he’s been repeatedly burned for playing Bernstein and hasn’t had a major victory all season. He lost to Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) at the Golden Globes and Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”) at the Critics Choice Awards. If he falls short again at the SAGs, Cooper’s cooked.
Giamatti is now in the lead, and humbly so. The cost of his pricey campaign was a $7 trip to In-N-Out.
Juicier than his burger is the only exciting category: Best Actress. And so far, it’s been a race between Stone and ‘stone.
Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) and Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) both won at the Globes — Gladstone for drama actress and Stone for comedy actress — and Stone triumphed at the Critics Choice Awards.
But Sandra Huller (“Anatomy of a Fall”) could shock everybody, thanks to a record number of international voters, and pull an Olivia Colman.
The other two nominees, Mulligan (“Maestro”) and Annette Bening (“Nyad”), will have a nice night out.
As for “Oppenheimer,” yes it’s true that the movie with the most nominations doesn’t always win. Recent years’ January top scorers “1917,” “La La Land” and “The Power of the Dog” all took a tumble by March.
However, “Oppenheimer” is more evenly admired than any of those. The industry views it as a work of art and a blockbuster that made $952 million at the worldwide box office during a challenging time for the movie industry. And its competitors are shakier and more divisive. There are no “Parasite”s or “Moonlight”s here.
Could “The Holdovers” have a last-minute surge and become this year’s “CODA”? Er, maybe. After “Oppenheimer,” it’s the movie that would benefit most from the Oscars’ ranked choice voting system.
But I’d bet on the bomb.