When it was all said and done this morning, we got all of the nominations for the 96th Academy Awards. Overall in my predictions, I did ok (43/55). There were a lot of surprises, so let’s just get into who is happy right now, who is bummed out, and who is feeling… well, kind of muddled.
WINNER- OPPENHEIMER
No film got more nominations than the thirteen Oppenheimer pulled down, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. Just one more nomination and the film would have been tied for the most nominations ever (Titanic, La La Land, All About Eve), and that is even with Sound Mixing and Sound Editing being smushed into one category. to put it bluntly, where Oppenheimer could have been nominated, it got nominated.
WINNER- THE ZONE OF INTEREST
This year’s foreign entry that made a big splash was Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest, about the family of a Nazi officer and their house which is next to a concentration camp. With nominations for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Best Director, this film is a lock to win the Best International Feature Oscar.
WINNER- NETFLIX
With nominations for both Rustin and Nyad, Netflix has taken the step from being a quirky company lucky to get one nomination for one film into a force to be reckoned with at the Academy. Will this help put the streaming service in the same sentence as a studio like A24? It seems unlikely, but with the talent Netflix gets to direct movies, you cannot count them out.
LOSER- MAY DECEMBER
The latest Todd Haynes film seemed to have a ton of buzz going into the awards season. Then the film faded and faded fast. It still got nominated for Best Original Screenplay, but Charles Melton and Julianne Moore seemed like locks for nominations a month ago and got nothing this morning.
LOSER- TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM
There were lots of big omissions, and we’ll get to two of the biggest soon. But perhaps the biggest snub was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the Best Animated Feature category. This film, besides looking amazing, had a sweetness and humor to it that I certainly didn’t expect and made it one of the best movies of 2023. Quite upset to see this one left out.
WINNER & LOSER (?!?!?!)- BARBIE
It is hard to say that a movie with eight Oscar nominations was a disappointment. But Barbie, for the first time, has underperformed. Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie somehow both got snubbed in their categories and there was a lot of below the line nominations that just didn’t happen (costume, cinematography, editing). This film just didn’t have the punch I was expecting it to on Oscar morning.
However, there is some silver lining. America Ferrera got a Best Supporting Actress nomination, which is definitely deserved. And Ryan Gosling is not only nominated but a lock to perform “I’m Just Ken”, which was nominated for Best Original Song.
So, there is a silver lining there. We can be grateful for that.
Fancy Boys Club 