Oscars 2024: Best Actor and Best Actress

Demi Moore in The Substance; Timothee Chalamet in A Complete Unknown

We’re saving our analysis of the Best Picture race for tomorrow, but for today, a quick confession: Of all of the Oscar categories that I run through every year—and so far in 2024 we’ve looked at the supporting actors, the screenplays, the big techies, and some odds and ends—the lead acting fields are always my favorite. Not because they’re competitive (though both races this year are more intriguing than typical), but because they yield the ceremonial creation of my own ballots—a torturous annual exercise, but one I find valuable as a historical matter. It’s easy to exclaim that a specific performance was “snubbed,” or to express bewilderment that a certain actor has never been recognized in their entire career. It’s harder, or at least requires more precision, to point to a rigid five-person field in a given year that you assembled and memorialized at the time. So when I declare that Saoirse Ronan should have received nine Oscar nods already, I’m not (just) randomly raving; I also have the (subjective) data to back it up. Take that, internet!

BEST ACTOR

NOMINEES
Adrien Brody—The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet—A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo—Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes—Conclave
Sebastian Stan—The Apprentice Read More

Oscars 2024: The Screenplays

Ralph Fiennes in Conclave; Yura Borisov in Anora

We’re moving right along in our analysis of this year’s Oscars. Having previously weighed in on the supporting actors, plus various below-the-line categories, it’s time to wrestle with the world’s dumbest profession: writing. People get paid to do this? Seems absurd.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

NOMINEES
A Complete Unknown—Jay Cocks and James Mangold
Conclave—Peter Straughan
Emilia Pérez—Jacques Audiard
Nickel Boys—RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes
Sing Sing—Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, and John “Divine G” Whitfield

WILL WIN
Conclave. No multiple rounds of voting required. Read More

Oscars 2024: The Supporting Actors

Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain; Zoe Saldana in Emilia Perez

Now we’re cooking. The past few days, we’ve looked at 2024’s miscellaneous Oscar categories great and small, which means it’s time to dig into the races that might actually interest normal people. First up, the supporting actor races, where the outcomes are virtually assured but my personal preferences are rather less clear.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

NOMINEES
Monica Barbaro—A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande—Wicked
Felicity Jones—The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini—Conclave
Zoe Saldaña—Emilia Pérez

WILL WIN
Saldaña. It helps that she’s the lead of her movie, but that’s not her fault. You can make a half-convincing case for Grande (also a co-lead) if you argue that the Emilia Pérez backlash will preclude Academy members from voting for it in any major category. But Saldaña has been saying all the right things on the circuit, where she’s been scooping up every trophy in sight. With luck, she’ll use her speech to accuse the audience of acting like a baby, making noise, don’t know what to do. Read More

Oscars 2024: The Big Techies

Ariana Grande in Wicked

Yesterday, we looked at seven miscellaneous Oscar categories that most people tend not to care about. Today, we’re changing pace and focusing on five incredibly sexy filmmaking disciplines that get even the most jaded viewer’s heart pumping. Better strap in.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

NOMINEES
The Brutalist—Lol Crawley
Dune: Part Two—Greig Fraser
Emilia Pérez—Paul Guilhaume
Maria—Ed Lachman
Nosferatu—Jarin Blaschke Read More

Oscars 2024: The Odds and Ends

A scene from Flow

Welcome to Oscars week! Over the next five days, we’ll be walking you through all 20 feature categories at the 97th Academy Awards, providing predictions, preferences, and assorted gripes. Now before you grumble that the Oscars don’t matter, let me stop you and say: I agree. The notion that bestowing a trophy on a particular work of art somehow imbues it with greater value is, of course, nonsense.

But while the Oscars can’t change how you feel about a particular movie, they do serve a valuable historical function, providing a snapshot in time of the industry’s collective consciousness. Some decisions hold up well, others age horribly, but the point is that they’re there—etchings in stone to be commended or condemned as the decades pass. Read More