A preview into the 2024 Oscars

With the 2024 Oscar nominations out, what can we tell from this year’s slate?

By James Diss

March 11 is deeming to be reckoning day for Christopher Nolan and his star packed team after they are secured 13 Oscar Nominations. Following in second is Yorgos Lanthimos’s impressive ‘Poor Things”.  While this year’s Oscars have broken vast record’s it has yet been overshadowed after the major snubs for Margo Robbie for her hit performance in Barbie and her producing partner Greta Gerwig’s snub for directing on the film.

Yes, this year’s categories are strong, and we will get into that but arguably the right attention has been directed towards ’Oppenheimer’. While Barbie’s impressive eight nominations, with America Ferrera receiving a surprise nod for best supporting actress is a huge success for the gamble paid. It can be argued that the success for Oppenheimer (Highest grossing world war II related film, highest grossing biographical film and second highest grossing R-Rated film) would not have been achieved if it was not for Barbie, I mean “Barbenheimer” will go down in movie history.  But aside from this there are milestones, surprises and also apprehension. Let’s get into it all. 

With the 96^th Academy Awards only a few hours away, there also comes several milestones with it. Most prominently, Lily Gladstone becomes the first indigenous American to be nominated for Killers of the Flower Moon, while at age 81 her director Martin Scorsese earned his tenth nomination which gives him more nominations than anyone alive. Wes Anderson and Cooper both join the Oscar five club while there was first time nominations all around for Emily Blunt, Danielle Brooks, Sterling K. Brown, Colman Domingo, America Ferrera, Cillian Murphy, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Sandra Hüller and Jeffrey Wright.

While there are many records broken there are also important topics that have been recognised, “American Fiction”, which stars Brown and Wright are the first black actors in the best actor and best supporting actor role. While Willie D. Burton cemented himself as the most nominated black below the line crew member

The presenters for this year’s academy awards also consist of a vast list of A-list celebrities from the likes of Zendaya, Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino. The big acting categories will be traditionally presented by last year’s winners, with Brendan Fraser “The Whale” and Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis will all be present for “Everything Everywhere All At Once”. We will also see winners from previous years present with Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight” and “Green Book”, Matthew McConaughey “Dalles Buyers Club”, Jessica Lange “Tootsie” and “Blue Sky”, Sam Rockwell “Three Billboards of Ebbing Missouri” and Lupita Nyong’o “12 Years Of Slave”, all present. 

We will also see all five of this year’s academy nominated songs be performed. Mark Ronson, Ryan Gosling, Finneas O’Connell, Billie Eilish, Becky G, Jon Batiste, Scott George and the Osage singers will all be performed. 

Starting at 7 p.m./ 4p.m from the Dolby Theatre, tonights event is hopeful of a few surprises, while the show will be available on ABC, in over 200 countries worldwide. 

If you’re in the UK, the Oscars will be free to watch on ITV1 and ITVX, unlike previous years, when they were aired on Sky.