'Oppenheimer' dominates 2024 Oscar nominations, 'Poor Things,' 'Killers of the Flower Moon' get many nods
Cillian Murphy is up for best actor for his role in "Oppenheimer," which is also nominated for best picture. Credit: Universal Pictures via AP / Melinda Sue Gordon
Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” dominated the Academy Award nominations, coming away with 13 nods, including best picture, direction and best actor for Cillian Murphy as the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Coming in second with 11 nominations was “Poor Things,” a surrealist comedy starring Emma Stone as a dead woman revived, followed by Martin Scorsese’s historical epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” with 10 nods. “Barbie,” Greta Gerwig’s cotton candy-colored comedy featuring Margot Robbie as a Mattel doll, came in fourth place with eight nominations.
The top tier of the Oscar nominees — announced Tuesday morning by Jack Quaid and Zazie Beetz at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California — contained few major surprises. “Oppenheimer” has already been a big winner at the Golden Globes (with five awards) and the Critics’ Choice Awards (eight), and it goes into February’s BAFTA awards — the U.K. equivalent of the Oscars — with 13 nods. “Poor Things” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” both have been embraced by critics’ groups around the country.
Ryan Gosling earned an Oscar nod for his performance as Ken in "Barbie," but not Margot Robbie, who played the title role. Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures via AP
“Barbie,” meanwhile, hasn’t yet parlayed its massive commercial and cultural impact into awards-season gold. The movie won only two Golden Globes — one for Billie Eilish’s closing-credits ballad, “What Was I Made For?” and the other for a newly established “popular” award called Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. At the Oscars, Gerwig will not compete in the directing category — despite being the first woman to direct a worldwide billion-dollar movie — and Robbie will not compete for leading actress, though Ryan Gosling, who played Ken, is up for supporting actor. One unexpected bright spot for “Barbie” is a supporting actress nod for America Ferrera, whose monologue about the pressures of womanhood became the movie’s most talked-about moment.
The Oscars’ treatment of “Barbie” can’t be entirely chalked up to what Ken might call the patriarchy, however. Justine Triet, the French writer-director behind the psychological thriller “Anatomy of a Fall,” earned a nod for directing and (with her partner, Arthur Harari) for original screenplay. Her movie also became the rare international feature nominee to earn a spot on the coveted best picture list. Also on that list is another female-led movie, Celine Song’s indie romance, “Past Lives.” Song also earned a nod for original screenplay.
The list of nominees revealed some surprisingly strong showings — and some unexpected oversights.
“American Fiction,” a sendup of the Black literary world, became one of the Oscars’ biggest underdog stories, snagging an impressive five nominations, including best picture, leading actor for Jeffrey Wright and supporting actor for Sterling K. Brown. “The Zone of Interest,” a somber drama about a Nazi family, also made an outsize impact with five nominations, including international feature and best picture. “The Holdovers,” a bittersweet comedy set at a boarding school, earned five as well, including for best picture, leading actor for Paul Giamatti and supporting actress for Da’Vine Joy Randolph. (Both actors won in their respective categories at the Golden Globes.)
“The Color Purple,” a well-received musical version of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, earned only one nomination, for supporting actress Danielle Brooks. Her co-star, Colman Domingo, didn’t get a nod for his supporting role as an abusive husband; instead, he earned a nomination for his starring role in “Rustin,” a biopic of the overlooked Civil Rights icon Bayard Rustin.
Another surprise: Matthew Heineman’s documentary “American Symphony,” which follows musician Jon Batiste through a year of personal highs and lows. Despite rave reviews and a Critics’ Choice Award, the film earned a nod only for the original song “It Never Went Away.”
The 96th annual Oscars ceremony will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast live on ABC on March 10. The show will start one hour earlier this year, at 7 p.m.
NOMINEES IN TOP CATEGORIES
Picture
“American Fiction”
“Anatomy of a Fall”
“Barbie”
“The Holdovers”
“Killers of the Flower Moon”
“Maestro”
“Oppenheimer”
“Past Lives”
“Poor Things”
“The Zone of Interest”
Actress
Annette Bening (“Nyad”)
Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”)
Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”)
Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”)
Emma Stone (“Poor Things”)
Actor
Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”)
Colman Domingo (“Rustin”)
Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”)
Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”)
Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”)
Supporting actress
Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”)
Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple”)
America Ferrera (“Barbie”)
Jodie Foster (“Nyad”)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”)
Supporting actor
Sterling K. Brown (“American Fiction”)
Robert De Niro (“Killers of the Flower Moon”)
Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”)
Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”)
Mark Ruffalo (“Poor Things”)
Director
Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”)
Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”)
Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”)
Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”)
Justine Triet (“Anatomy of a Fall”)
