2024 Oscar Nominations Reactions: Expectations, Surprises, And Snubs

Another year of cinema has gone by and with it another batch of snubs and surprises that both enrage and excite. While the Academy can never get it 100% right, there is nothing glaringly upsetting with ten Best Picture nominations that all deserve to be on the list, even if they were expected. Ranging from Box Office titans and culture touchstones to little seen artistic pieces, this year's nominations run the gamut of movies in 2023, but there are still definite winners and losers.

Greta Gerwig’s snub for her direction in Barbie is not entirely surprising as Best Director is often reserved for the films that are more artsy and less commercial films, even though Gerwig really accomplished a great deal and deserved the nomination. The nomination she was expected to get most likely instead went to the more international project of Anatomy of a Fall and female director Justine Triet. It shouldn’t be out of line to ask for two female directors to be nominated in the same year, but that has yet to be an accomplishment. Past Lives, Barbie, and Anatomy of a Fall, all directed by women, also received Best Picture nominations, which is the most female directed films to be nominated for Best Picture, a step in the right direction.

Barbie still had a great showing with eight nominations including the expected Picture, Director, Screenplay, Supporting Actor, two songs, and several technicals but with a huge surprise for America Ferrera in Best Supporting Actress. Margot Robbie missed out on a deserved nomination for Best Actress but that was one of the most competitive races this year, with Anette Benning coming out of nowhere and grabbing a nomination for her performance in Nyad, disappointing both Robbie and Greta Lee from Past Lives. 

You can’t mention the Oscars this year without mentioning the frontrunner of Oppenheimer being nominated for 13 Oscars. It is normally difficult to be the front runner for this long with some other film slipping into the top spot and winning the top prize before the big night, but it does not look like any film will be doing that this year. 

Killers of the Flower Moon was the victim of Barbie's Best Adapted Screenplay flip, losing the nomination to the much less seen Zone of Interest. Leonardo DiCaprio also missed a Best Actor nomination for this film but the film still scored ten nominations that were expected and deserved including a surprise nomination for Best Original Song. Original Song was a category that also continued to amaze, showing that Diane Warren will literally get nominated every year she writes a song with the nomination for her song in Flamin’ Hot. Additionally, the other somewhat surprising nomination was for American Symphony, which is strange considering it did not get the nomination for Documentary. 

Best Documentary was easily the most unpredictable category with easily the worst snub of American Symphony but also Still: A Michael J Fox Story missing the nomination. 20 Days in Mariupol and Four Daughters being the only expected nominations and are now the current front runners. Best International Feature was also full of surprises with snubs for the popular Taste of Things and Fallen Leaves for Io Capitano and The Teachers’ Lounge,  but also Zone of Interest, Society of Snow, and Perfect Days grabbing expected nominations. 

May December scored a Best Screenplay nomination and then nothing else including a somewhat surprising snub for Charles Melton, which gave way to a welcome surprise nomination for Sterling K Brown in the same category for his performance in American Fiction. American Fiction is definitely a film that should feel fairly satisfied getting nominations for Picture, Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actor, and a surprising nomination for Score, further proving that scores for Comedies could succeed in this category.

Poor Things performed very well at the nominations but could have done better with frequent flier Willem Dafoe missing out on a nomination in Supporting Actor and it also missing for Best Visual Effects. However, Visual Effects was a much more interesting category with humble films like The Creator and Godzilla Minus One being the front runners and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning finally getting a nomination for Effects and Sound for a franchise that frequently misses out on these nominations.

The nominations for Best Animated Feature were very telling of that industry with a snub for the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and The Super Mario Bros Movie for the more artsy Robot Dreams. It also represents a new type of animated studio being the front runner with Wish not only being snubbed but not even being a surprise for both the animated category… and missing for Best Original Song, which would usually be locks for the Disney Animation.  

Despite its surge in online popularity over the holiday break, Saltburn failed to garner any Oscar nominations which is not a complete surprise but does solidify the rebellious nature of this film. Maestro, Anatomy of a Fall, and The Holdovers all achieved expected success in their possible nominations with them being potential challengers and front runners for many categories that will be explored in the coming weeks. 

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