The Oscars 2024: Nominations
So here we are with Oscar nominations. It was predictable in most cases, especially if you follow the award season. But there were also a couple of grand snubs.
The biggest one is, of course, Barbie. The Best Actress category was strong and I can accept that a doll isn’t desirable in the world of serious filmmakers but… how come Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera(!) got their nominations and Margot did not? I haven’t seen Nyad yet but I’m disappointed.
Moreover, Greta’s nomination had been an obvious one for me, but instead, they put Jonathan Glazer who I reckon is too weird for the Academy. But his film is about Holocaust so they granted him a spot. Oh, and there already was one woman in the category (obviously Triet for Anatomy of a Fall). There’s a limit, you know.
I am genuinely happy for Best Supporting Actor because I got both Ryan Gosling and Mark Ruffalo. Even though Robert Downey Jr is the most possible win, the fact that Ruffalo got acknowledged for his performance in Poor Things is extremely important to me. I feel that he’s not experimenting enough and he actually can do something more than getting angry from time to time.
The Best Animation was another strong category and I still consider Elementals (Disney) to be there only because of the company recognition. The film just kind of was there and then it wasn’t and this is all I remember about it. The rest is valid with a huge congratulations to Nimona. (The fight is between Spider-Man and The Boy and the Heron).
Internationals left me absolutely devastated since none of my favourites got to the top five. I am currently rooting for Perfect Days but I am still not fully capable of choosing since I watched only two (the rest are planned!). Fallen Leaves is always in my heart!
In the case of Maestro, I can’t say a good word about it. Except for Mulligan’s Best Actress nomination, I believe it was all just nostalgia for a brilliant composer. Bradley is still a better actor than a director or a producer and I think he’s falling into self-adoration too much. For what it’s worth, I prefer this thing over Napoleon any day.
That gets me to visual effects which were in a way surprising. Even though all choices are understandable there was still Society of the Snow (that won EFA in this category) but I suppose Napoleon scored this one out of popularity and that’s about it.
In the other visuals (production design, make-up, and costumes) there were not too many surprises. Music – John Williams’ Indiana got me gasping for a second. Song – gladly “I’m just Ken” is in place. Screenplays are almost 1:1 best pictures except that “Killers of the Flower Moon” got snubbed for “May December” (but these were in different screenplay categories).
The Best Picture couldn’t get more obvious, really. The fact there are 10 pictures each year these days, makes it quite easy to guess. If there were five to choose there might have been some sort of complications, but with ten there are only a couple of choices. I only guessed May December instead of Maestro.
It is mostly ironic by the way. I’m aware of how the voting works (and I hope it actually works, lol).
