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Last evening, the list of nominees for the Academy Awards dropped and long before the actual ceremony (on 11th March), the Oscars are making history this year. The nominations include Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), making her the first Native American actress to be nominated in the Best Actress category. Colman Domingo, who secured a nomination for his performance in Rustin (2023), is the first Afro-Latino actor to have been nominated in the Best Actor category. The Best Picture category includes three films directed by women (whether this makes up for only one woman director being nominated in the Best Director category is for you to decide), which is a new record for this award. Additionally, four out of 10 films in the Best Picture list are comedies (American Fiction, Barbie, The Holdovers and Poor Things) which is unusual. More predictably, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is leading the charts with 13 nominations, followed by Poor Things, which secured 11 nods, and Killers of the Flower Moon which has 10 nominations.
(Poor Things is among the Oscar nominated films that have not had theatrical releases in India. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that they make their way to us before the awards ceremony.)
Fans of Barbie, the highest-grossing film of last year, have taken to the internet to complain that director Greta Gerwig was snubbed and pointed out the irony of a man (Ryan Gosling as Ken for Best Actor) being nominated over the women helming the film. Gosling has reportedly penned a strongly-worded letter to the Academy, championing Gerwig and Margot Robbie, who played Barbie and has produced the film. Also feeling snubbed are fans of May December, which perplexingly is not available to Netflix subscribers in India despite being a Netflix film. (It seems the platform figures its Indian audience would rather watch a rebooted He-Man than a Todd Haynes film, with Natalie Portman in the lead.)
Film history geeks will point out that the Oscars are not necessarily a barometer for quality cinema, but over its 95-year history, the Academy has garnered a reputation of excellence. The Oscars represent the best of mainstream cinema and after going through the list of nominations, we’ve picked our favourites and made predictions for the major categories. Film Companion’s favourite picks are in bold. The films with an asterisk next to them are the ones we’re predicting as winners.
American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
FC Note: Of the 10 Oscar-nominated films, only five are available or have had theatrical releases in India. We’re hoping that number will rise to seven since The Holdovers and The Zone of Interest are expected to release over the coming weeks.
Justine Triet — Anatomy of a Fall
Martin Scorsese — Killers of the Flower Moon *
Christopher Nolan — Oppenheimer *
Yorgos Lanthimos — Poor Things
Jonathan Glazer — The Zone of Interest
FC Note: WHERE IS ALEXANDER PAYNE? Payne, who reunited with his Sideways (2004) collaborator Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers, deserved a nomination. However, don’t ask us who to drop from this otherwise excellent list of nominees to include Payne.
Bradley Cooper — Maestro *
Colman Domingo — Rustin
Paul Giamatti — The Holdovers
Cillian Murphy — Oppenheimer *
Jeffrey Wright — American Fiction
Annette Bening — Nyad
Lily Gladstone — Killers of the Flower Moon *
Sandra Hüller — Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan — Maestro
Emma Stone — Poor Things
Snubbed: Greta Lee in Past Lives. There’s no denying Gladstone’s performance is incandescent and she deserves to be tipped as a favourite, but Lee deserved a nomination.
Sterling K. Brown — American Fiction
Robert De Niro – Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey Jr. — Oppenheimer *
Ryan Gosling — Barbie
Mark Ruffalo — Poor Things
Snubbed: Willem Dafoe for Poor Things.
Emily Blunt — Oppenheimer *
Danielle Brooks — The Color Purple
America Ferrera – Barbie
Jodie Foster — Nyad
Da’Vine Joy Randolph — The Holdovers
American Fiction, written for the screen by Cord Jefferson
Barbie, written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach *
Oppenheimer, written for the screen by Christopher Nolan *
Poor Things, screenplay by Tony McNamara
The Zone of Interest, written by Jonathan Glazer
FC Note: Barbenheimer redux, the Oscar edition.
Anatomy of a Fall, screenplay by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari *
The Holdovers, written by David Hemingson
Maestro, written by Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer
May December, screenplay by Samy Burch; story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik
Past Lives, written by Celine Song
El Conde – Edward Lachman
Killers of the Flower Moon – Rodrigo Prieto
Maestro – Matthew Libatique
Oppenheimer – Hoyte van Hoytema *
Poor Things – Robbie Ryan
“The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot, music and lyric by Diane Warren
“I’m Just Ken” from Barbie, music and lyric by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt
“It Never Went Away” from American Symphony, music and lyric by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson
“Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon, music and lyric by Scott George *
“What Was I Made For?” from Barbie, music and lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell
Barbie – Jacqueline Durran *
Killers of the Flower Moon – Jacqueline West
Napoleon – Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
Oppenheimer – Ellen Mirojnick
Poor Things – Holly Waddington
American Fiction – Laura Karpman
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — John Williams
Killers of the Flower Moon – Robbie Robertson
Oppenheimer – Ludwig Göransson *
Poor Things – Jerskin Fendrix
The After, Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham
Invincible, Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron
Knight of Fortune, Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk
Red, White and Blue, Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Wes Anderson and Steven Rales
FC Note: To be honest, the only short film we’ve watched in this category is The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. But also it’s Wes Anderson (come on).
Snubbed: Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life.
Bobi Wine: The People’s President, Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp and John Battsek
The Eternal Memory, Maite Alberdi
Four Daughters, Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha
To Kill a Tiger, Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe and David Oppenheim
20 Days in Mariupol, Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath *
FC Recco: Anand Patwardhan’s The World is Family. The director turns the camera on his parents, and the film is an emotional recounting of a generation that was there for the birth of modern-day India, and the many shades of patriotism and idealism that informed their lives.
Io Capitano (Italy)
Perfect Days (Japan)
Society of the Snow (Spain)
The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany)
The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom) *
The Boy and the Heron, Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki *
Elemental, Peter Sohn and Denise Ream
Nimona, Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary
Robot Dreams, Pablo Berger, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé and Sandra Tapia Díaz
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal
Snubbed: We’re glad the Academy looked beyond the obvious to shine a light on the brilliant Nimona (it’s available on Netflix), but Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume is a beautiful homage to earthquake-ravaged Japan, and is arguably the auteur’s best work.
Barbie, production design: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer *
Killers of the Flower Moon, production design: Jack Fisk; set decoration: Adam Willis
Napoleon, production design: Arthur Max; set decoration: Elli Griff
Oppenheimer, production design: Ruth De Jong; set decoration: Claire Kaufman
Poor Things, production design: James Price and Shona Heath; set decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek
Anatomy of a Fall – Laurent Sénéchal
The Holdovers – Kevin Tent
Killers of the Flower Moon – Thelma Schoonmaker
Oppenheimer – Jennifer Lame
Poor Things – Yorgos Mavropsaridis
FC Note: Best of luck to the Academy for choosing one winner among these stellar nominations.