Some of these films and artists have a shot at winning an Academy Award, while others were surprisingly not on the list.
The Oscars, one of the most anticipated film award ceremonies, announced its nominations on Tuesday, January 23. Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid hosted the event from the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California.
According to Janet Yang, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, they had an incredible voter turnout this year, with ballots coming in from a record-breaking 93 countries.
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Here are some of the most notable nominations as well as films and artists that could have been in the running too.
Potential Winners
People of color are making waves at the Oscars this year, and rightfully so because of their stellar performances.
Lily Gladstone, star of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, is the first Native American to be nominated for Best Actress. She recently won in the same category at the Golden Globes and the National Board of Review gala.
For Best Actor, Colman Domingo became the first Afro Latino nominated in the category. Domingo plays the titular character in the civil rights drama Rustin.
Two Black women were also nominated for Best Supporting Actress. These are Danielle Brooks for The Color Purple and Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers. They’re joined by Barbie’s America Ferrera, who is only the ninth Latina to be nominated in the category.
Celine Song, director and screenwriter of Past Lives, made history with her debut film as the first Asian woman nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
Domingo also made Oscar history along with Jodie Foster (Best Supporting Actress nominee for Nyad). It’s the first time in the award ceremony’s history where two openly LGBTQ+ actors are nominated for playing LGBTQ+ characters.
It’s also the first time that three out of ten of the Best Picture nominees are directed by women. This is the most in the Academy Awards’ history. These are Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, and Song’s Past Lives.
Aside from these individual achievements, this is the first time where more than one movie primarily spoken in a foreign language was nominated for Best Picture. Those films are Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives, and The Zone of Interest.
Glaring Omissions
While three women-directed films are nominated for Best Picture, only Triet was included in the Best Director category. It was quite a surprise that Barbie’s director Gerwig and even the film’s star Margot Robbie weren’t nominated for their roles.
Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the same movie. However, he had conflicting thoughts about the recognition. “There is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally-celebrated film,” he said in a statement given to People.
“No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit and genius,” he continued. “Against all odds with nothing but a couple of soulless, scantily clad, and thankfully crotchless dolls, they made us laugh, they broke our hearts, they pushed the culture and they made history. Their work should be recognized along with the other very deserving nominees.”
While Ferrera was grateful about her nomination, she also expressed her disappointment over the Gerwig and Robbie snubs with Variety. “Greta has done just about everything that a director could do to deserve it,” she said. Ferrera also had nothing but praise for her co-star Robbie, saying “In my book, she’s a master.”
Other actors who were surprisingly not nominated in their categories include Charles Melton for May December, Willem Dafoe for Poor Things, Leonardo DiCaprio for Killers of the Flower Moon, and Greta Lee for Past Lives.
Coming Soon
Overall, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer received the most nominations with 13. Poor Things starring Emma Stone followed with 11 and Killers of the Flower Moon got 10. While snubbed in some major categories, Barbie still came out with eight nominations.
The 96th Academy Awards will take place on March 10, 2024, with host Jimmy Kimmel.
Banner image via Instagram @barbiethemovie.
