As part cinephile, part man of the people, I have taken it upon myself to watch every film relevant for the Oscars 2024. Based on this, I have then predicted the nominees and winners within each of the eight most relevant categories and conveniently summarised it for you in an article. The categories are: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay. I have never attempted this before, but I am fairly confident in myself. The nominees are made official on Monday the 23rd, and by then we will see if I have any talent within predicting the future or not. Let us begin: 

Best Picture: 

1. Oppenheimer. ⭐
2. Killers of the Flower Moon.
3. Barbie.
4. Anatomy of a Fall.
5. The Holdovers.
6. Poor Things.
7. Past Lives.
8. The Zone of Interest.
9. American Fiction.
10. Maestro.

First out, the most honourable category, and the only one with ten nominees. Sadly, this year there is no competition because Christopher Nolan has shat out another “masterpiece”, and nothing except a landslide victory can be expected. 

Do we really need any more self-biographies? Everybody gets one nowadays, no matter how dull their life has been or whether they have had an impact or not. I am not saying that Robert Oppenheimber did not have an impact on our world, more than most people for sure, but that does not make his life interesting!!! At least not enough to deserve a 3-hour long film about it. The one interesting thing about this man is how it must feel to have created such a destructive weapon and to dwell on the psychological aspect of that, but the film only touches on that briefly. The remaining 2 hours and 45 minutes focuses on him cheating, him having leftist sympathies (read communist if you are American) and this other very uninteresting man played by Robert Downey Jr that gets like an hour of the film?! 

As if that was not enough, the script is absolute shit as it feels like everyone is talking in one-liners and the cutting within the first 1,5 hours is so fast it gives the impression of scrolling Tiktok. Needless to say, I am sick of Nolan being praised for everything he does despite every movie he releases being worse than the previous one. I believe that credit should be where credit is due and Oppenheimer was immensely unimpressive. I would personally rather see The Zone of Interest or perhaps Poor Things take this award, but I think the only feasible competition comes from Killers of the Flower Moon and I personally do not think that will win against Oppenheimer. Shame!

Best Director:

1. Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer. ⭐
2. Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest. 
3. Greta Gerwig, Barbie. 
4. Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things. 
5. Martin Scorcese, Killers of the Flower Moon.

Sadly, Best Director is closely intertwined with Best Picture and out of the 89 films that have won Best Picture, 68 also won Best Director, so therefore there is no competition really. Despite this grim reality though, there have been very fine performances from multiple directors this year that deserves credit. Yorgos Lanthimos especially has created another highly unique film, and Poor Things is definitely one of my favourites from 2023. Many have also praised Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest and the eerie atmosphere it encapsulates its viewers in so vividly. I think the most feasible competition within this category once again comes from Martin Scorcese and his Killers of the Flower Moon though. While Killers of the Flower Moon was not bad by any means, it is just a very typical Scorcese-flick and it would be quite boring to see him win for this over the other less popular directors that deserve it more. 

Best Original Screenplay: 

1. The Holdovers, David Hemingson. ⭐
2. Past Lives, Celine Song.
3. May December, Samy Burch & Alex Mechanic. 
4. Anatomy of A Fall, Justin Triet & Arthur Harari. 
5. Maestro, Josh Singer & Bradley Cooper.

Finally! A category in which neither Killers of the Flower Moon nor Shittenheimer can compete. Thus we can dwell into some of the more original content released this year which is refreshing in an industry dominated by remakes. My personal favourite, and also tipped winner in this category, is David Hemingson for The Holdovers. A slightly sad but heart-warming story about the unlikely connection between an outcast teacher and an outcast student when they are forced to spend the Christmas holidays left at a boarding school together. Another strong contender is definitely Celine Song with the beautiful “what if”-love story in Past Lives that has received a lot of praise for its realistic look on relationships. These two are probably the ones competing most fiercely, but one should not overlook the absolutely messed-up script about the relationship between an adult and a minor in May December or the mystical and thriller-esque script in Anatomy of a Fall, as they deserve a lot of praise as well. 

Best Adapted Screenplay:

1. Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan (Based on the book “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin). ⭐
2. Killers of the Flower Moon, Eric Roth & Martin Scorcese (Based on the book by David Grann).
3. Poor Things, Tony McNamara (Based on the book by Alasdair Gray).
4. Barbie, Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig (Based on the toys by Mattel). 
5. The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer (Based on the book by Martin Amis). 

Back again within a category where Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon are allowed to compete and thus they are the two only real contenders here. The competition between them can be interesting though, I personally think that Oppenheimer will win this one as well but it is close between them. It would be crazy to let Killers of the Flower Moon pass on through without a single win in a director or production-esque category and thus this could be the one where they are awarded, but it remains to be seen. Barbie could have been a favourite if it had ended up in the original screenplay category but for some reason the Oscar committee have decided to treat it as an adapted screenplay, and thus it probably will not win anything due to the fiercer competition within this category. 

Best Actor in a Leading Role:

1. Bradley Cooper, Maestro. ⭐
2. Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers. 
3. Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer. 
4. Leonardo Dicaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon. 
5. Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction. 

Despite being a category where Oppenheimer is nominated, I actually do not think it will win. This one I think is instead a fight between Bradley Cooper for his role in Maestro and Paul Giamatti for his role in The Holdovers. While Maestro was the dullest, most insipid film I have seen in a long time, it did stand out in one instance and that was Bradley Cooper’s impersonation of Leonard Bernstein, a famous American composer known for works such as West Side Story. Bradley Cooper did this role incredibly well and it was by far the best acting I have ever seen from him. Other than that I can say that if Oppenheimer was not interesting enough for a three-hour long biopic about himself despite creating the atomic bomb, Leonard Bernstein, whose only characteristic seems to be that he “loves too much” (I.e is bisexual and cheats occasionally), is not interesting enough for a biopic at all. Now before you cancel me, I am not saying that in a discriminating way, I am saying it in a “it is so normalised by now that it does not qualify for being the only plot-point”-kind of way. See my point? Anyhow, Bradley Cooper will get a run for his money thanks to Paul Giamatti’s wonderful role as Paul Hunham in The Holdovers where he delivers an incredible performance that is both touching and funny. Despite this though, I think that the committee will reward Bradley Cooper because this probably is his role of a lifetime, whereas Paul Giamatti most likely will get another chance. 

Best Actress in a Leading Role: 

1. Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon. ⭐
2. Emma Stone, Poor Things.
3. Carey Mulligan, Maestro. 
4. Margot Robbie, Barbie. 
5. Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall. 

Since female lead characters are not Nolan’s forte, this is another category where other films this year will get a chance to shine. That shine is quite short lived however because despite female lead characters not being Scorcese’s forte neither, his leading actress will snag a nomination even though she only has a fairly mellow, background role in the film. Now I am not saying that Lily Gladstone performed poorly or anything like that, but it feels like she will win mainly because the film touches on an important topic and because it is lacking wins in other categories, rather than her winning for making an outstanding performance, which is boring. If they were to reward outstanding performances though, this award should go to Emma Stone. Her performance in Poor Things is unique, confident and incredibly well delivered. It is impactful and the film would not have been the same without her. This will surely end up among the best roles of her career and is the type of acting I think should be rewarded. 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:

1. Robert Downey Jr, Oppenheimer. ⭐
2. Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things.
3. Robert DeNiro, Killers of the Flower Moon. 
4. Charles Melton, May December. 
5. Ryan Gosling, Barbie. 

Out of nowhere came Charles Melton and knocked it out of the park with his role as a naive, young, manipulated adult in May December. The actor that previously was not known for much more than a smaller role in Riverdale, here acted between two giants, Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, and outperformed them totally. He definitely deserves the win in my opinion, but we must not forget that Shittenheimer was released this year and therefore Robert Downey Jr. will probably snatch it from him. Now I am once again not saying that Robert Downey Jr. did not perform well, but in contrast to Charles Melton that put on a stellar performance out of nowhere, he does not deserve it this year. Hopefully I am wrong and Charles Melton does win the Oscar, but we will see, the true fight is between the two of them anyhow. Robert De Niro’s role was great but it was nothing outstanding, just a classic Robert De Niro role where you received exactly what could be expected. Mark Ruffalo made a great role as well but nothing particularly noteworthy and Ryan Gosling simply did not put on an Oscar performance. 

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:

1. Da’vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers. ⭐
2. Julianne Moore, May December. 
3. Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer.
4. Jodie Foster, Nyad. 
5. Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple.

If you do not think that women are underrepresented in Hollywood then try to come up with candidates for Best Supporting Actress this year. It was difficult. They have really grasped for actresses to nominate as The Color Purple and Nyad have not even been present in the discussions regarding the best movies of 2023 and will most likely not end up nominated within anything else. I have not even seen them I must be honest to say, and had to do research online about which people that others thought would be nominated as I personally could only come up with two names: Da’vine Joy Randolph and Julianne Moore. These names were enough though as Da’vine Joy Randolph will with almost a 100% certainty win this. Her performance was outstanding and dwarfed every other performance within the movie, and mind you that Paul Giamatti will most likely also be nominated for his role in the film, so it is not like there was not any competition. Besides Da’vine Joy Randolph, I guess Julianne Moore’s performance was good but her character felt a bit flat and underdeveloped in May December, so I cannot see it winning. Also Shittenheimer will have to step back within this category because Emily Blunt’s performance just was not Oscar-worthy, she will simply be nominated because they need women to fill out the category with and it is a shame that the representation is that low.  

So there we have it! The Oscar nominations and wins for the Oscars 2024. If it turns out I was completely wrong then forget all I said. If however, it turns out that my predictions were right, then remember where you heard it first! If that is the case, I would appreciate it if you in the future would refer to me as the oracle. Thank you in advance.