After the most successful year for movies since 2019, it is once again, Oscar season. The nominees were announced on Jan. 23 and the ceremony is to take place on March 10. As always, there has been much controversy surrounding the films and artists that received or did not receive nominations. On the other hand, there are still many people excited to celebrate their favorite movies of the year.
This year, 10 movies were nominated for the Best Picture award, those films being: “American Fiction,” Anatomy of a Fall,” “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Oppenheimer,” “Past Lives,” “Poor Things” and “The Zone of Interest”. “Oppenheimer” also received the distinction of getting the most nominations this year with 13 total. It is followed by “Poor Things” with 11 nominations and “The Killers of the Flower Moon” with 10. “Killers of the Flower Moon” has also made history, the legendary Martin Scorcese, received a nomination for best director, and at 81 years old he is the oldest to ever be bestowed this honor.
In the Best Actor and Actress categories, many notable names including Bradley Cooper, Cillian Murphy, Jeffrey Wright, Lily Gladstone and Emma Stone were nominated. Margot Robbie, the leading actress in the highest grossing movie of the year, “Barbie” and the movie’s director, Greta Gerwig, notably did not receive Oscar nods. Even though Robbie didn’t, her fellow “Barbie” stars, Ryan Gosling and America Ferrarra, received nominations in the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories along with the movie receiving 8 nominations. This choice prompted some controversy seeing as “Barbie’s” themes of gender equality had essentially been ignored by the academy with these nominations.
In the music categories, John Williams received the 54th nomination of his career, bringing him ever closer to the current record of 59. “Barbie” additionally became the 18th movie in Oscar history to receive two Best Song nominations, with both “I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For?” receiving nods.
Sony’s “Spiderman Across the Spider Verse” and Studio Ghibli’s “The Boy and the Heron” were nominated for Best Animated Feature as many expected. Fans also pointed out irony in the fact that while Disney’s “Wish” did not receive a nomination, the movie that Disney had attempted to keep from being released, “Nimona,” did. There was also controversy surrounding the fact that although “Spiderman” was the highest rated film of the year, this was its only nomination. The Oscars have a history of being heavily biased against animation, and “Spider Verse” was yet another universally beloved film that did not receive enough attention because of the medium that it was created in.
About 20 million people are expected to tune into the award ceremony to see which of their favorite filmmakers will receive the most prestigious award in movies. The Oscars has and most likely will continue to receive harsh criticism from all corners of the film industry for a variety of reasons, but it will still always be a way for people to come together and celebrate the things that make movies special.
