For the most part, the nominations for the 2024 Oscars went as expected. Oppenheimer and Barbie received best picture nods, as did such favorites as The Holdovers, Poor Things and Killers of the Flower Moon.
Two songs from Barbie were nominated for best original song – “I’m Just Ken” (written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt) and “What Was I Made For?” (written by Billie Eilish and Finneas). Barbie is the first film to spawn two best song nominees since La La Land seven years ago. “City of Stars” and “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” were both nominated. “City of Stars” went on to win.
The late Robbie Robertson was nominated for best original score for Killers of the Flower Moon. This was the 12th and last Martin Scorsese film that Robertson worked on. Robertson, who died in June at age 80, is the first composer to be nominated in this category posthumously since the legendary Bernard Herrmann was cited in 1976 for both Obsession and Taxi Driver.
But not everything went according to pundits’ predictions, as you will see.
Jimmy Kimmel is set to host the 2024 Oscars, which will be held March 10 at its usual home, the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. It will mark Kimmel’s fourth time as host.
The Oscar ceremony, which will air on ABC, will be executive produced by Raj Kapoor, Molly McNearney and Katy Mullan, with Kapoor also serving as showrunner. Hamish Hamilton will serve as director.
Here are notable snubs and surprises in the 2024 Oscar nominations.
Robbie was passed over for a nod for best actress, while Gerwig was passed over for a nod for best director for their work on the year’s biggest box-office hit, Barbie. Fortunately, both women are nominated in other categories. Robbie was among the film’s producers, so she is nominated for best picture. Gerwig co-wrote the screenplay with her husband and creative partner, Noah Baumbach, so she is nominated for best adapted screenplay.
George was nominated for best original song for writing “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. The song is performed in the film by Osage Tribal Singers. The film did well in the nominations, with Scorsese nominated for best director and Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro nominated in acting categories.
Kravitz’s “Road to Freedom” from Rustin was passed over for a best original song nod. This is especially surprising because Colman Domingo, who played the largely unsung civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in this film, was nominated for best actor. Kravitz is a four-time Grammy winner for best male rock vocal performance, but his dream of performing his nominated song on the Oscar stage ended this morning.
Pemberton’s score for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was passed over for a nomination, even though the film was nominated for best animated feature. Pemberton, who has scored more than 30 films since 2009, has yet to receive a scoring nomination, though he was nominated for best original song three years ago for co-writing “Hear My Voice” from The Trial of the Chicago 7. Among Pemberton’s other films are Steve Jobs, All the Money in the World, Motherless Brooklyn and Ferrari.
Brooks was nominated for best supporting actress for her role in the musical version of The Color Purple, while such actresses as Julianne Moore (May December) and Sandra Hüller (The Zone of Interest) were passed over. Brooks’ nomination makes up for the fact that Fantasia Barrino was passed over in the crowded best actress category for her lead role in The Color Purple.
American Symphony, the acclaimed Netflix film about a year in the life of Jon Batiste, was passed over for a nod for best documentary feature, but Batiste received his first best original song nod for co-writing the film’s “It Never Went Away” with Dan Wilson. Batiste won an Oscar three years ago for best original score for collaborating with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on Soul. Batiste and Wilson are also nominated for song of the year at the Feb. 4 Grammys, but with a different song – “Butterfly” from Batiste’s album World Music Radio.
Two of the actors in Payne’s The Holdovers were nominated – Paul Giamatti for best actor and Da’Vine Joy Randolph for best supporting actress. (Both are favored to win in their categories.) But Payne was passed over for a nod as best director, a category in which he has been nominated three times, for Sideways, The Descendants and Nebraska. Also passed over was the third member of the core cast, Dominic Sessa, who had a good shot at a supporting actor nod. Sessa is just 21, so he has time.
Diane Warren received her seventh consecutive nomination for best original song, the longest continuous streak of nominations in that category since Sammy Cahn was nominated eight years running, from 1954 to 1961. (Cahn’s songs are more famous than his name is at this point, especially to younger fans. Among his songs nominated in that streak: “Three Coins in the Fountain,” “All the Way,” “High Hopes” and “The Second Time Around.”) It’s certainly not a surprise when Warren is nominated year after year, and yet it is, in a way. All strings end sometime, except, apparently, Warren’s.
If not a surprise, it’s certainly a breakthrough: This marks the first time in Oscar history that three films not in English — Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives and The Zone of Interest – are best picture nominees. This marks the sixth consecutive year that one or more films in a language other than English has received a best picture nomination. To think that as late as 2019 the Oscars had a category called best foreign language film, and few thought twice about that name. In 2020, the category was renamed best international feature film.