A Complete Guide to the 96th Academy Awards

You and I reader might not see eye to eye on all of my opinions on film.  You might disagree with my opinions on Saltburn (a terrible film), or perhaps you heard Cory and I talk on the podcast about Poor Things and you weren’t as taken with Lanthimos’s most recent film as we were, perhaps you love the films of Zack Snyder, or maybe more damningly you loathe the films of Paul Thomas Anderson. 

Disagreement is a good thing, the beauty of art, any art, is the discussions it inspires—unless those discussions are about Saltburn (a terrible film).  You should always be wary of anyone that you find agreeing with all your opinions on art, that person has no thoughts of their own; or they’re about to ask you to join their MLM scheme.  But whether we mostly agree or mostly disagree I hope I’ve proven over the years to you, reader, to at least be an educated source on cinema.  Beware of anyone that watched five movies last year but also has very strong opinions on what should win best picture, they too have a health, beauty, and home care business that you just must hear all about.  I watch as much film as I can, both good and bad and everything in between because I am enamored with the medium—some might say obsessed, not me though, this is all very healthy.

The Documentaries

I am not a documentary guy, I try to watch about 200-300 movies a year, and on average about five of them are documentaries, usually all watched in quick succession in a week in February after the Oscar nominations are announced.  For me to pretend I have strong opinions on these categories would be disingenuous.

Best Documentary Feature

Nominees Alphabetically

20 Days in Mariupol: Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, and Raney Aronson-Rath 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

Remember when I said I watched these all in quick succession in a week; tough week that was.  Five fascinating subject matters certainly but what a distressing collection of films.  20 Days in Mariupol has taken the most awards of the five including many of the big awards including the BAFTA and the DGAs, often the best indicators of this award but Four Daughters has had a lot of recent success winning the most awards in the last two months including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature.  By contrast the other three films have seen less success which suggests this is a two horse race but I would bet 20 Days in Mariupol will prevail especially considering the timely nature of its subject matter.

Best Documentary Shorts

Nominees Alphabetically

The ABCs of Book Banning: Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic The Barber of Little Rock: John Hoffman and Christine Turner Island in Between: S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien The Last Repair Shop: Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó: Sean Wang and Sam Davis

Once again most awards so far this season have been shared between The Last Repair Shop which took home the Critics’ Choice Best Short Documentary Award and Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó which won at AFI Fest and SXSW although Vegas seems to know something I don’t because “The ABCs of Book Banning” has the highest odds to win on the night.  Safe not to bet against Vegas here, especially as “The ABC’s of Book Banning” is certainly the most poignant film to an American audience in 2024.

The Lesser Awards

In an effort to spare myself from writing a novella for one of these Oscar previews as I always seem to, I’ve split the awards for the narrative films up into three categories: the ones about I have little to say, the awards I have a lot to say about, and the awards I can’t shut the fuck up about.  It’s all a matter of opinion at the end of the day, what makes one award more important than the other.  I imagine there are tens, maybe even dozens, of people who will tune into the Oscars this weekend, waiting with baited breath, on the winner of Best Original Score or Best Makeup and Hairstyling.  I just am not one of them.

Best Original Song

Nominees Ranked

1. “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony: Music and lyrics by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson 2. “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon: Music and lyrics by Scott George 3. “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie: Music and lyrics by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell 4. “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot: Music and lyrics by Diane Warren 5. “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie: Music and lyrics by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt

I wake up in a cold sweat dozens of nights throughout the year thinking about how we still have a best original song Oscar but no best stunt coordination or best new director; but the fact that “I’m Just Ken” is nominated in this category suggests that the Academy is treating it with the respect it deserves.  If voters were considering the sequences these songs appeared in in their films “Wahzhazhe (A Song for my People)” would be the easy winner, the closing shot to Killers of the Flower Moon, is one of the best sequences of the year and is the cathartic release of emotions that washes over the viewer after the harrowing three and a half hour epic.  But in a vacuum it’s hard to imagine anyone by Billie Eilish taking this home on the night.

Best Original Score

Nominees Ranked

1. Poor Things: Jerskin Fendrix 2. Oppenheimer: Ludwig Göransson 3. Killers of the Flower Moon: Robbie Robertson (posthumous nomination) 4. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: John Williams 5. American Fiction: Laura Karpman

Ironically placed in the “Lesser Awards” section by someone who will remain nameless—Best Original Score is one of the stronger categories on the night, with five worthy winners.  I loved Fendrix’s dissonant melodies that evoke a haunted dollhouse in Poor Things and Göransson’s swelling strings that beautifully compliment the gravity and grandiosity of Oppenheimer and Robertson’s pounding drums and folk guitar that sparsely score Killers.  With the legend, John Williams, and a beautiful and buoyant jazz score from Laura Karpman, it’s hard to pick a single winner here.  I feel more and more as we approach the day that Oppenheimer is going to clean up, especially in these technical categories so I am leaning, slightly, toward a Göransson win, but a posthumous win for Robbie Robertson or Williams taking down his sixth award can’t be ruled out.

As I said, five worthy winners, these are five of probably the six or seven best scores I heard this year which is rare in any category for the Academy.  My only complaint is that Mica Levi’s work in The Zone of Interest wasn’t recognized.  Levi’s score is easily my favorite of the year, although it’s not a huge shock considering. Levi’s score is extraordinarily minimal even in comparison to Robertson’s, but it is so effective and haunting and is a vital part of the success of one of the best films of the year.  I believe it to be some of the best sound work I’ve heard in a film in years, would have loved to see it at least get nominated.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Nominees Ranked

1. Society of the Snow: Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí and Montse Ribé 2. Poor Things: Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston 3. Maestro: Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell 4. Golda: Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby and Ashra Kelly-Blue 5. Oppenheimer: Luisa Abel

Society of the Snow manages to pull off a number of miracles in its formation; it’s no small feat that a movie grievous as this, whose story the audience is so intimately familiar with already should be as compelling as it is.  A large part of that is how believably portrayed the real-life events were on the screen the make-up and hairstyling team managed expertly to communicate every second of the traumatic 72 days on the boys’ faces.  Anyway, the scene where the boys hear they are finally to be rescued and they brush and gel their hair in preparation should be enough for the film to win this award.

It’s weird Barbie isn’t nominated here right?  Maybe I’m missing something obvious but the inclusion of Oppenheimer in this category seems weird in a vacuum but when you consider neither Barbie, Beau is Afraid, nor Saltburn (a terrible film) were included in this list is strange it’s all the stranger.  The Academy loves to give this award to big stars making unrecognizable transformations on screen; see recent previous winners The Whale, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Vice, and The Darkest Hour.  That would suggest Maestro is the likely winner on the night considering for a number of reasons Helen Mirren’s transformation in Golda seems unlikely to receive any praise.  Which in itself is odd considering the half-hearted controversy that swirled around the film in the lead up to its release about Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose.  All of this in combination making this quite a strange award; which will ultimately mean Oppenheimer continues its domination of the technical awards in this category as well.

Best Costume Design

Nominees Ranked

1. Poor Things: Holly Waddington 2. Barbie: Jacqueline Durran 3. Killers of the Flower Moon: Jacqueline West 4. Napoleon: Janty Yates and Dave Crossman 5. Oppenheimer: Ellen Mirojnick

There’s not a lot of interesting discussion to be had about this category.  Barbie will win the award, it’s a film in large part about clothing and women and young girl’s relation to clothing and their bodies; no one, least of all me will shed a tear when Poor Things loses in this award Sunday night.  But if we’re all honest with ourselves we know deep down who the real winner should be… I mean, see above.

Best Visual Effects

Nominees Ranked

1. The Creator: Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts and Neil Corbould 2. Godzilla Minus One: Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima 3. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One: Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland and Neil Corbould 4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams and Theo Bialek 5. Napoleon: Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco and Neil Corbould

The Creator is a very flawed film; it’s narratively flat, poorly casted, and ultimately less than the sum of its parts.  But one thing that is undeniable is how good it looks.  I think, based on my anecdotal experience, and its box office return, The Creator, when it was seen, was mostly seen by people at home.  As a theater experience the visual effects in The Creator were stellar and considering the relatively shoestring budget for a blockbuster sci-fi film (less than half of the reported budget for Dune: Part Two) an impressive feat as well.

Best Animated Short Film

Nominees Ranked

1. Pachyderme: Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius 2. Letter to a Pig: Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter 3. Ninety-Five Senses: Jared and Jerusha Hess 4. War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko: Dave Mullins and Brad Booker 5. Our Uniform: Yegane Moghaddam

What a relief this batch of shorts is, after last year which was so mediocre I was somewhat dreading the trip to the theater to see the animated shorts this year.  Imagine my surprise when I got to see six good shorts including Wild Summon, one of the honorable mentions shown in the theatrical run of the animated shorts.  “Our Uniform” while beautifully animated and well-written just feels too short to compete against the other four in this category; it’s a well executed idea that I simply wish was expanded on more.

“Pachyderme” is subtle and unnerving and beautifully animated; Stéphanie Clément has a deft touch that will leave viewers with a lingering sense of disquiet that will haunt them for some time after, even if for some the larger themes are lost on them.  I also loved “Letter to a Pig” and “Ninety-Five Senses” which are tonally quite different but thematically similar about men reflecting on their lives and the moments that transformed them for better or worse; I’ve never seen an art style quite like that of Tal Kantor’s but he executes it to perfection, his use of white space an harsh lines is visually gripping and unique.  Which brings us to the eventual winner of the award, “War is Over!” or I suppose its full title, “War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko,” once those names flashed across the screen in the opening credits it was obvious who would win come awards night but as they say, don’t hate the player.  “War is Over!,” of the five, is the least interesting animation style and the broadest story but is executed well and the battle sequences are well rendered making it still far and away a more deserving winner than Apple’s bribe job from last year, “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” which as you can see I’ve certainly gotten over.

Best Live Action Short Film

Nominees Ranked

1. Knight of Fortune: Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk 2. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: Wes Anderson and Steven Rales 3. Invincible: Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron 4. The After: Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham 5. Red, White and Blue: Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane

This year’s live action group is a showcase of five stellar lead performances, my favorite of which is David Oyelowo’s performance in The After, although the directing and the narrative’s lack of subtlety undercuts his excellent work at times.  I loved the Wes Anderson Dahl shorts from last year, the idea of our best filmmakers experimenting in a shorter medium in order to try things out in between their films is very exciting to me, I do wish there was a way they could all be submitted at once because I think as a collection the visual and stylistic motifs throughout the shorts is a very rewarding watch.  But as a standalone short while “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” is very good it’s hard for it to compete with the dark and funny melancholic beauty of “Knights of Fortune.”  Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk are fascinated by the humor and joy we can find in the darkest moments of life and it makes their short the most elegant of the group, despite the fact that it is shot within the callous walls of a morgue.

Best Animated Feature

Nominees Ranked

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal 2. The Boy and the Heron: Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki 3. Robot Dreams: Pablo Berger, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé and Sandra Tapia Díaz 4. Nimona: Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary 5. Elemental: Peter Sohn and Denise Ream

Elemental is quite poor, and were it made by anyone besides Disney it wouldn’t be within a hundred miles of this list.  Robot Dreams and Nimona are both very cute and fun watches.  But this is a really a category of two, Hayao Miyazaki, arguably the greatest maker of animated film, with his final and most introspective film looks to capture only his second oscar of all time up against the hugely satisfying sequel to maybe the best animated film of all time, and in it’s own right a masterpiece.  It feels almost unfair that one of these two movies will go home empty on the night but such is the nature of these things.  The Boy and the Heron seems a more likely winner because it is Miyazaki’s final film and it’s contemplative nature lends itself more to the tastes of award voters than the beautifully crafted action-chaos of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, but it’s hard to be upset with either potential outcome.

The Big Time Awards

Remember when I said I wasn’t going to write that much?

For the bigger awards, the ones I have some personal investment in, I thought I would also give my top five nominations in each category, because the Academy rarely gets it 100% right or even mostly right some of the time and it’s only right that someone remedy that.  Some might argue it shouldn’t be me, but here we find ourselves.

Technical

I’ve split some of the technical awards into the big time category, for no other reason besides personal taste. What can I say; I like sets and cameras more than make up and hair. I’m a dumb boy and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I do believe many of these awards have more to do with the quality of a film than those in the lesser award category. I whole-heartedly believe great costumes can elevate a good movie to a great movie, but I think even the most diehard costume fan would admit it’s more important for a film to be shot and edited well than have good costumed.

Best Production Design

One of more surprising omissions from the nomination list was Wes Anderson’s most recent feature film, Asteroid City, opinions differ on it’s merit as a film, while I still enjoy it as much as I do most of Anderson’s recent work, it’s impossible to argue that it’s not made with the same precision and artistry that he has exhibited throughout his career and the cartoonish desert setting reminiscent of a movie soundstage is one of my favorite sets of his in years.

One of the more frustrating things about the Academy is their lack of creativity when it comes to below the line awards.  It seems like every year despite the ever increasing breadth of films released in a year across the globe it seems like every award pulls from the same list of fifteen or so movies.  I loved Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon and they both exhibit well done period specific sets but is there anyway those are two of the five best examples of production design in 2023 cinema?

The absence of Beau is Afraid and Saltburn (a terrible film) are less surprising, two of the year’s most divisive films, but I find Fiona Crombie and Suzie Davies work respectively on the two films to be exemplary.

Best Sound

Nominees Ranked

My Nominees

1. The Zone of Interest: Johnnie Burn and Tarn Willers 2. Oppenheimer: Willie Burton, Richard King, Kevin O’Connell, and Gary A. Rizzo 3. Maestro: Richard King, Steven A. Morrow, Tom Ozanich, Jason Ruder, and Dean Zupancic 4. The Creator: Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic 5. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One: Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor

1. The Zone of Interest 2. Oppenheimer 3. Godzilla Minus One 4. Maestro 5. Leave the World Behind

A lot of my favorite theater experiences this year were from loud movies that explored quite human experiences, Oppenheimer, Godzilla Minus One, Maestro three movies that couldn’t be less similar but wield crescendo and silence to equal effect as they weave between scenes of nuclear explosions and roaring symphonies and scenes of men suffering silently with their PTSD and contemplating the totality of their lives.  But I believe one film stands clearly above them all, because of how unafraid of silence it ultimately is.

The Zone of Interest on its face is a trick, a story about a normal mid-20th century German family with normal problems about work and their garden and the city they live in.  But through the artifice the film still effectively conveys the real evil and callous nature of its subjects primarily through sound design, the sickening roar of a furnace faintly heard in the background of scenes that roars to life, impossible to ignore, in the night.  The murmuring between rooms as the family’s countless and seemingly interchangeable servants filter through scenes of seemingly innocuous life.  All of it sharply cut through by violent roars and unearthly sounds.  Jonnie Burn and Tarn Willers’ job on the film is about walking the impossible tight walk of capturing ordinary life and conveying extraordinary evil and they execute it masterfully.

Best Film Editing

Nominees Ranked	My Nominees
1. Oppenheimer: Jennifer Lame 2. Anatomy of a Fall: Laurent Sénéchal 3. Killers of the Flower Moon: Thelma Schoonmaker 4. Poor Things: Yorgos Mavropsaridis 5. The Holdovers: Kevin Tent	1. Oppenheimer 2. Anatomy of a Fall 3. The Teachers’ Lounge 4. Killers of the Flower Moon 5. Past Lives

A great editor can add tension and suspense to the most ordinary subject matter.  There is no world where Oppenheimer, a movie about scientists sitting in rooms talking to each other and then politicians sitting in rooms talking to each other, should have been as gripping as it was.  It’s a testament to Lame’s talent that Oppenheimer feels as fast paced as it does.

You’ll see similar qualities in the five films I chose, films about real life that ooze tension.  There’s a sequence in The Teachers’ Lounge that I haven’t stopped thinking about since I saw the film.  Early on, before everything goes truly to shit, there is a scene of a child accused of stealing sitting in a room with his parents and a teacher from the school and Gesa Jäger’s off kilter editing in the scene leaves the audience unmoored and on edge for the tension coming later in the film.  Jäger edited for Unorthodox in 2020 a show that exhibited a similar slow burn of unease and tension that also played pitch perfectly in that miniseries.

Best Cinematography

Nominees Ranked	My Nominees
1. Maestro: Matthew Libatique 2. Poor Things: Robbie Ryan 3. Killers of the Flower Moon: Rodrigo Prieto 4. Oppenheimer: Hoyte van Hoytema 5. El Conde: Edward Lachman	1. Maestro 2. Fallen Leaves 3. Poor Things 4. Killers of the Flower Moon 5. Tótem

Last year the gimmick I did for this piece was a betting guide to the Oscars, I pivoted this year to shy away from predictions for a number of reasons.  First, because the explosion of legal betting in the US has meant that the odds market has pretty much solved the Oscars, Vegas was unsurprised last year and will be unsurprised this year I imagine.  And secondly because it seems like once again we have a single monster film that is going to dominate.  Oppenheimer looks increasingly posed to dominate not just above the line but in the technical categories as well.  I’m torn, because I thought Oppenheimer was great; I had it in my top 10 movies of the year and I love Hoyte van Hoytema’s work.  He’s shot many movies I think look incredible in recent years: Ad Astra, Dunkirk, Nope, The Fighter, and Tenet, to name just a few.  And maybe recognizing great work, even if it’s not the absolute best the year in film has to offer should be enough for me.

But it’s not.  Perhaps it’s the sickness of personal taste distracting from objective evaluation but I cannot get over the way that Maestro and Fallen Leaves are shot.  Two wholly distinct approaches to stories of the human experience but with equal effect of turning the audience into voyeur.  Fallen Leaves is a story of love that seems cosmically doomed.  A tender deadpan romantic comedy about two lonely people trying desperately to find someone, to find each other.  And Timo Salminen’s use of film, color, light, and a mostly stationary flattens the look of the film making it feel ethereal and dreamlike.  The effect lends itself well to a touching and sweet movie that still manages to challenge its audience.

Maestro on the other hand is a personal story of a man reflecting on his life, but throughout Cooper’s film it becomes clear that he believes Bernstein, despite what he man claim outwardly, is a closed off man and the film and Cooper never let the audience get close enough to really unearth the truth of its subject. Matthew Libatique’s camera executes that vision perfectly, shooting Berstein with his wife and children and past loves through bushes, from across the room, unmoving in conversation as if the audience is stuck just on the outside and can’t quite reach in.  The effect is equal parts rewarding and unnerving as it allows Cooper and Mulligan to fill the scenes as they see fit.

Acting

It was an excellent year for performances on the big screen, for the most part (with one noted exception) the Academy did a good job of recognizing that. But even with the best possible collection of nominees twenty slots is just not enough to celebrate this past year in acting.

Best Supporting Actor

Nominees Ranked	My Nominees
1. Mark Ruffalo in Poor Things as Duncan Wedderburn 2. Robert De Niro in Killers of the Flower Moon as William King Hale 3. Ryan Gosling in Barbie as Ken Robert Downey Jr. in Oppenheimer as Lewis Strauss 5. Sterling K. Brown in American Fiction as Clifford “Cliff” Ellison	1. Mark Ruffalo in Poor Things 2. Robert De Niro in Killers of the Flower Moon 3. Ryan Gosling in Barbie 4. Charles Melton in May December 5. Sterling K. Brown in American Fiction

Despite this being one of the stronger set of nominations among the acting awards this year, five excellent performances, including a heel turn from Downey Jr. that he claims saved his confidence and possibly career, I do believe Melton can feel a bit aggrieved to not receive a nomination, as well as Harris Dickson or Jeremy Allen White from The Iron Claw.

It was a very deep year for strong supporting male performances; but in a year so deep that John Magaro couldn’t sniff the top five for his excellent performance in Past Lives nor Ben Whishaw in Passages to name just a few, three performances stand apart from the rest, Ruffalo, De Niro, and Gosling.  Three performances in a category all their own, three men coincidentally perhaps, playing with the nature of masculinity in their respective role, balancing buffoonery, malice, and braggadocio to form characters that are at times as clownish as they are evil.  

Ruffalo’s performance in Poor Things serves as the mirror image to Emma Stone’s as we watch her grow and realize her own agency, we watch Ruffalo’s outwardly measured demeanor give way to his true infantile nature before being callously discarded by the film.  Today I have Ruffalo’s performance first but tomorrow I could have De Niro or Gosling, the performances are so different and yet so intertwined and for three excellent actors, some of the best of their careers.

Best Supporting Actress

Nominees Ranked	My Nominees
1. Da’Vine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers as Mary Lamb 2. Jodie Foster in Nyad as Bonnie Stoll 3. Emily Blunt in Oppenheimer as Kitty Oppenheimer 4. America Ferrera in Barbie as Gloria 5. Danielle Brooks in The Color Purple as Sofia	1. Claire Foy in All of Us Strangers 2. Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon 3. Julianne Moore in May December 4. Da’Vine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers 5. Hong Chau in Showing Up

This is one of the worst collections of nominations I’ve seen at the Oscars in my memory.  There is no benefit to harping on it, but I admit it’s been driving me a bit insane.  Despite the fact that I found Brooks in The Color Purple, and the film as a whole, objectionable I understand her nomination.  It’s a big performance in an “important” movie and there weren’t many opportunities this year for the Academy to honor black films and they took what little chances they had.  But what, I ask, is America Ferrera doing here?  I understand the decision to put Lily Gladstone up for lead instead of supporting isn’t the Academy’s fault and certainly threw a wrench in the whole category; I’m just not sure how Jodie Foster’s performance in Nyad is supporting but Gladstone is a lead in Killers.  But even considering that, this category is a disaster, it takes very little effort at all to come up with a dozen performances better than most celebrated here, and that’s without Sandra Hüller’s performance in The Zone of Interest.  I thought about doing a completely separate five nominations just to show my distaste for what the Academy did but Da’Vine Joy Randolph is a deserving nominee.

It seems, mercifully, that Randolph will take home the award.  But I still find it odd that All of Us Strangers was completely shut out at the Oscars, and this won’t be the last time you hear me mention it.  I am constantly taken with Foy’s ability on screen to be equal parts warm and welcoming and cold and distant in seemingly the same scene.  Her powers are put to excellent use in All of Us Strangers as she plays the physical representation of a man’s complicated relationship with his mother as he struggles with contending the good memories with the painful ones.  Foy is magnificent and is one of the best performances of the year outright, not just supporting.

Best Actor

Nominees Ranked	My Nominees
1. Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer as J. Robert Oppenheimer 2. Bradley Cooper in Maestro as Leonard Bernstein 3. Jeffrey Wright in American Fiction as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison 4. Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers as Paul Hunham 5. Colman Domingo in Rustin as Bayard Rustin	1. Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer 2. Andrew Scott in All of Us Strangers 3. Bradley Cooper in Maestro 4. Kôji Yakusho in Perfect Days 5. Jeffrey Wright in American Fiction

Do you think the Academy members didn’t see All of Us Strangers? Or maybe they thought it wasn’t eligible and were hoping to nominate it next time around.  I am perplexed; two different acting nominations, a screenplay, editing, and a best picture nomination for The Holdovers which was a pretty good Christmas movie, and zero for All of Us Strangers, a formatively daring portrayal of modern loneliness, mental health, love, and regret.  I would say in almost every single way All of Us Strangers is a superior film including Andrew Scott’s lead performance which is gut-wrenching and beautifully subtle.

It will be nice however to see Cillian Murphy, someone we’ve all loved for years, finally get his recognition from the Academy.  And for a performance deceptively complex, Murphy is playing a powder keg, J. Robert Oppenheimer is stoic in the face of hardship and plagued by self doubt but refuses to let it show up; it all explodes out (pun intended) and must be tamped down again.  He’s all but run away with the race which is for the best because he is the deserving winner.

Best Actress

Nominees Ranked	My Nominees
1. Emma Stone in Poor Things as Bella Baxter 2. Carey Mulligan in Maestro as Felicia Montealegre 3. Sandra Hüller in Anatomy of a Fall as Sandra Voyter 4. Annette Bening in Nyad as Diana Nyad 5. Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon as Mollie Burkhart	1. Emma Stone in Poor Things 2. Carey Mulligan in Maestro 3. Greta Lee in Past Lives 4. Sandra Hüller in Anatomy of a Fall 5. Michelle Williams in Showing Up

I don’t think I’ve quite come to terms with the fact that Gladstone is going to win this award.  Don’t get me wrong I think she’s a fantastic performer and is very good in Killers of the Flower Moon but it is the nature of the film that she doesn’t get to do much as we watch in horror as this handsome, idiotic, parasite sucks her dry.  It’s a performance rich in pathos but not in complexity and certainly not screen time.  I do hope this seemingly inevitable win leads to more roles for Gladstone because I do think she’s a great performer.  But even having her in this list of nominations is preposterous in such a strong year for leading ladies, much less winning the whole thing.

I continue, all these months later, to be torn by Mulligan and Stone’s performances.  I think Mulligan’s is classically beautiful, joy and heartbreak, love and death, all stretched out across a life.  Mulligan explores every aspect of Felicia Montealegre in her performance and taps into humanity that is the driving force of the film.  Maestro claims, falsely, to be a film about Leonard Bernstein but it becomes clear in the third act whether by Cooper’s own design or because Mulligan wrestled the film from his hands that this has always been her film.  Possibly the best single scene of acting this year is Mulligan’s unbroken monologue to the camera as she’s speaking with Shirley Bernstein (Sarah Silverman) about her relationship with Leonard and her hubris in believing she could be satisfied.  Mulligan continues to prove that she is one of the greatest living performers; it’s just wild that she made this and Saltburn (a terrible film) in the same year.

While Mulligan’s performance in Maestro is full of clips, excellent scenes and beautiful monologues; Emma Stone’s performance as Bella Baxter is a complete character study unlike I’ve seen on camera in years.  In a film that is so intentionally goofy and fantastical by design Stone keeps Poor Things grounded with a wholly believable transformation.  Stone and Lanthimos are walking a tightrope, by all rights this performance in this movie should have never worked (if you’re curious how this looks when it goes poorly check out the last 20 years of Tim Burton’s career), but Stone’s pitch perfect performance holds everything together.  In an otherwise extravagant and outrageous film, Stone’s subtle transformation works beautifully as the audience watches almost unaware as she goes from stumbling child to a fully realized adult.

Writing

I don’t know why, but about once a week I think about an argument, played for comic effect, in an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Terry is arguing with someone about Breathless, the 1960 collaboration between legendary French filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. And the argument centers around whether film is a directors’ medium or a writers’. And I often think the answer is far less binary, it’s a marriage of both, an amazing director can transform a mediocre script into a good movie and a shit director can take an amazing script and turn it into a forgettable mess. You need the combination of both to spark something transcendent.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Nominees Ranked

My Nominees

1. The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer; based on the novel by Martin Amis 2. Poor Things by Tony McNamara; based on the novel by Alasdair Gray 3. Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan; based on the biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin 4. American Fiction by Cord Jefferson; based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett 5. Barbie by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach; based on characters created by Ruth Handler

1. The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer 2. Poor Things by Tony McNamara 3. All of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh 4. Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan 5. BlackBerry by Matt Johnson and Matthew Miller

I know the academy is allergic to comedies and refuses to acknowledge them—unless they make a billion dollars.  But it has always seemed to me like the screenplay categories would be the place to do it if they were, often not particularly well directed or containing the kinds of performances that the Oscars rewards but some of the best scripts this year were comedies: Theater Camp; Nicole Holofcener’s You Hurt My Feelings; Rye Lane; Kelly Fremon Craig’s Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. adaptation; Fallen Leaves;  Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents; and a film I’m very evangelical about, BlackBerry.  Matt John and Mattew Miller’s screenplay is equal parts funny, touching, and insightful, and for a film about a failed phone company it has no right to be as good as it is. In a year of good comedy scripts BlackBerry stands ahead of the pack with its rich characters and propulsive pacing, at its best BlackBerry feels like a combination of Silicon Valley and The Big Short, a fantastically enjoyable movie that contains some shocking heart as well.

All that being said, The Zone of Interest stands alone, a masterpiece of film writing for all the reasons I’ve said previously.  The ability of Glazer to juggle the two diametrically opposed elements of this film so expertly is why this should take home the award.

Best Original Screenplay

Nominees Ranked	My Nominees
1. Past Lives by Celine Song 2. Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari 3. May December by Screenplay by Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik 4. Maestro by Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer 5. The Holdovers by David Hemingson	1. Past Lives by Celine Song 2. Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari 3. May December by Samy Burch 4. Maestro by Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer 5. The Teachers’ Lounge by Johannes Duncker and İlker Çatak

The question of Past Lives’s screenplay versus Anatomy of a Fall’s is a question of dialogue versus story.  Anatomy of a Fall marks (hopefully) the triumphant return of the courtroom drama, a once beloved drama that is known for memorable lines and inflammatory dialogue.  The back and forth in the courtroom scenes sing allowing Hüller and Antoine Reinartz to chew up the scenery and Justine Triet and Arthur Harari’s punchy dialogue reaches a head in possibly the most realistic and agonizing altercation rendered on screen.  The scene between Sandra Voyter (Hüller) and Daniel Maleski (Milo Machado-Graner) is the apex of the film where Triet and Harari explore the callous and calculating nature of their protagonist as well as her honesty and humanity.  It is one of the best scenes of the year, an excruciating watch, that demands you to look away.

Past Lives is a familiar narrative elevated to new heights, a story of lost love and love triangle that treats all its characters with respect.  It’s difficult to execute a narrative like this which is so heartbreaking but where all of its characters act rationally and with dignity.  Celine Song’s screenplay spans so many topics expertly in such a short amount of time: the pain of searching for belonging, the need to reconnect with your history, the search for the new, the comfort of stability, and the warmth of new love.  It’s a romantic movie that has as much to say about humanity at large as it does about its characters and the complexity of the relationships leave the film bouncing around the audience’s head even after leaving the theater.

Best International Feature Film

Nominees Ranked	My Nominees
1. The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom) – directed by Jonathan Glazer 2. Perfect Days (Japan) – directed by Wim Wenders 3. The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany) – directed by İlker Çatak 4. Society of the Snow (Spain) – directed by J. A. Bayona 5. Io capitano (Italy) – directed by Matteo Garrone	1. The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom) 2. Perfect Days (Japan) 3. The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany) 4. The Delinquents (Argentina) 5. Society of the Snow (Spain)

For my nominations I only pulled from the films submitted to the Academy for consideration, because for some strange and frankly antiquated rule each country only can submit one film which the respective country’s film industry believes to be its best film.  So it’s not really a complete list of all the international films which is why Restore Point, the absolute ripper from Czechia isn’t eligible. And of course there is one other notable absence… How did the French fuck this up so hard?  Anatomy of a Fall clearly walks this category, but the French film institute submitted The Taste of Things which is a good film, if a bit plodding at times and then suddenly very abrupt.  Even as a recovering Francophile myself I’m not sure how you see those two films and pick The Taste of Things, a meticulous love letter to the history of French cuisine and French women, over Anatomy of a Fall, a propulsive courtroom drama about the inherent sexism and xenophobia plaguing modern French culture.  Oh… I see what happened here.

The category is a foregone conclusion obviously, only one of the films has also been nominated for Best Picture and thus The Zone of Interest will take home the award, and deservedly so.  But this is a very strong category for another year in a row.  World cinema continues to evolve and excel even outside of Europe and Asia which is very exciting.

The Pinnacle Awards

And here we arrived, the final two awards, the awards, only reserved for the best films of the year (although this year it’s starting to feel really tragically like it’s just going to be one film isn’t it?).

Best Director

Nominees Ranked	Likelihood to Win	My Nominees
1. Yorgos Lanthimos: Poor Things 2. Jonathan Glazer: The Zone of Interest 3. Martin Scorsese: Killers of the Flower Moon 4. Justine Triet: Anatomy of a Fall 5. Christopher Nolan: Oppenheimer	1. Christopher Nolan: Oppenheimer 2. Martin Scorsese: Killers of the Flower Moon 3. Jonathan Glazer: The Zone of Interest 4. Yorgos Lanthimos: Poor Things 5. Justine Triet: Anatomy of a Fall	1. Yorgos Lanthimos: Poor Things 2. Jonathan Glazer: The Zone of Interest 3. Celine Song: Past Lives 4. Martin Scorsese: Killers of the Flower Moon 5. Justine Triet: Anatomy of a Fall

I’ve said a number of times how strong many of the categories we’ve discussed have been, and that in large part is because 2023 was a great movie year, this list of directors could easily be 10 or 20 names long.  Wim Wender, Bradley Cooper, David Fincher, Greta Gerwig, Todd Haynes, Alexander Payne, Kelly Reichardt, Wes Anderson, all established filmmakers with excellent directorial performances this year that didn’t make my or the Academy’s top five.  Not to mention newer faces Daniel Goldhaber for How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Molly Walker for How to Have Sex, İlker Çatak for The Teachers’ Lounge, or Lila Avilés for Tótem.  It was an excellent and diverse—not just in who was making the movies but in types of films—year in film which brings me to the atomic bomb sized elephant in the room.  Nolan and Oppenheimer look poised to clean up, for the second year in a row a single film looks like it’s going to dominate the night.  Oppenheimer is an excellent movie, and Nolan had an amazing directorial showing, maybe the best of his career.  And maybe that should be enough, perhaps the a very populous movie that is also very good should win a bunch of Oscars, maybe in 20 years we’ll look back on this year in film and it will seem right that Christopher Nolan finally captured his first directing Oscar that so many people were waiting so long for him to get.  Perhaps.

But perhaps the daring and fun Poor Things is more deserving; maybe Jonathan Glazer’s unique portrayal of the holocaust and humanities capability for cruelty is the most deserving, maybe Celine Song—who didn’t even receive a nomination—for her enriching and beautifully melancholy debut film should take home the prize.  Maybe I worry too much about the Oscars because despite the fact that I think Oppenheimer is fantastic but not the best movie of the year or the best directing performance of the year is not nearly as important as getting the general public excited about film.  Maybe.

Best Picture

Nominees Ranked	Likelihood to Win	My Nominees
1. Poor Things 2. Past Lives 3. Anatomy of a Fall 4. The Zone of Interest 5. Killers of the Flower Moon 6. Maestro 7. Oppenheimer 8. American Fiction 9. The Holdovers 10. Barbie	1. Oppenheimer 2. Killers of the Flower Moon 3. Anatomy of a Fall 4. The Holdovers 5. The Zone of Interest 6. Poor Things 7. Maestro 8. Past Lives 9. Barbie 10. American Fiction	1. Poor Things 2. Past Lives 3. Anatomy of a Fall 4. The Zone of Interest 5. Perfect Days 6. Killers of the Flower Moon 7. Maestro 8. Oppenheimer 9. The Teachers’ Lounge 10. The Killer

I feel as though I’ve said everything I possibly can about all these movies at this point but it also feels silly to end this with, “man I love movies I hope you do too.” And call it a day, I’ll endeavor to muster some parting thoughts for the Academy’s ten best films of the year, in ascending order.

10. Barbie

Barbie as a cultural phenomenon is exciting.  It’s fun to see people who don’t usually get blockbuster movies made for them get one, and a good one at that.  It’s exciting to see talented women in film get a chance to make the movies they want to make.  It’s exciting to see where Gerwig goes from here after this massive success—I’m just hoping it’s not onto Barbies 2, 3, 4, and 5.  I can’t say Barbie excites me personally as a film, but I think it’s a good thing that not all movies are made for me, a 30-year-old straight man.

9. The Holdovers

I remain surprised by the response to this movie, Alexander Payne is obviously a legend and is a filmmaker’s filmmaker so maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised that what I would call a touching if uninventive holiday movie got five Oscar nominations including for best picture.  Perhaps it’s that we’re all so starved for good Christmas movies and this filled such a needed void, and filled it well, but I struggle to see how this is one of the 10 best movies of the year.

8. American Fiction

Funnier and more clever than I had expected, especially based on the source material, American Fiction, is a beautifully complex modern comedy anchored by outstanding performances from Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown.

7. Oppenheimer

Nolan’s least Nolan film, there isn’t even any time bullshittery in this one.  Oppenheimer is a masterclass of acting and screenwriting, tied together with gripping editing and pounding sound design.  Nolan and Murphy, both giving career performances, breathe a layered story into the life of an oft misunderstood figure of history. 

6. Maestro

Bradley Cooper might just be the real deal.  Maestro is a triumph of directing that is elevated to greater heights by a gentle and subtle lead performance by Cooper and an unparalleled showing from Carey Mulligan.  The peaks and valleys of Bernstein’s life are on full display reaching a crescendo inside Ely Cathedral, a sequence that stands among the year’s best.

5. Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese’s pursuit of personal epics in the final act of his career continues to reward.  Killers of the Flower Moon is yet another masterwork from a filmmaker who has made some of the best films in six consecutive decades.  Scorese does what he does best in Killers, tapping into an unrelenting depravity in humanity and crafting it into a riveting epic of America’s original sin that only the creator of Taxi Driver and Goodfellas could achieve.

4. The Zone of Interest

I don’t think I’ll ever see a movie like Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest ever again.  I was lucky enough to see this at the AFI European Film Festival in December, and this film was introduced by a member of the British embassy and she spoke about Glazers unique approach to directing, Łukasz Żal’s voyeuristic cinematography, and Mica Levi’s skin crawling and hair raising score.  But one thing she said has stuck with me, she closed her remarks on the film by saying, “I’m not sure I can wish you to ‘enjoy’ The Zone of Interest, but I hope you will experience it.”  Glazer created something that is unrelenting and that burrows into your head and won’t leave you alone; since I have seen The Zone of Interest the first time, it continues to raise in my estimation with each rewatch and passing day I find it more an astounding feat of filmmaking.

3. Anatomy of a Fall

Back-to-back Hüllers!  Sandra Hüller is so good in Anatomy of a Fall, playing Triet’s complex and at times inscrutable character to perfection.  Anatomy of a Fall feels both modern and of a bygone era, revitalizing the courtroom drama with a delicate approach to the complex themes of modern life all built on the foundation of one of the best screenplays of the year.

2. Past Lives

I could watch Greta Lee and Teo Yoo walk around the streets of New York City for eight hours.  Past Lives is so wonderfully human and vulnerable and simultaneously joyous and excruciating.  Past Lives is truly a complete film, a combination of expert directing and writing from Celine Song, an undeniable lead performance from Greta Lee, beautifully shot by Shabier Kirchner, fantastic supporting performances by Teo Yoo and John Magaro, and deft editing from Keith Fraase.  All expertly crafted to lead up to the best final shot of the year to add an exclamation point to this bewitching film. 

1. Poor Things

Poor Things in a lot of ways is sort of inexplicable.  It’s an experience that you have to lend yourself over to without expectation or judgment and let Stone and Lanthimos take your hand and guide you.  On its surface a silly fun sexy ride but with each layer you peel pack the film reveals more and more about itself and the world it’s aping.  Poor Things has more to say about humanity and the human experience than any film of the last year and feels ever more timely by the day.  A story about female agency and male entitlement, about how goodness can overcome all, about how innocence is to be cherished but knowledge is more valuable than any currency.  A surprisingly optimistic film from Yorgos Lanthimos the man who brought us The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, perhaps he is softening as he ages.  If this is what is in store though I am excited.  Anyone who can craft a movie to allow Emma Stone to deliver a performance as uproariously fun and multifaceted as this has my attention for a long time to come.

Man I love movies I hope you do too.