1. Inside Out 2
2. Deadpool & Wolverine
3. Wicked
4. Moana 2
5. Despicable Me 4
6. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
7. Dune: Part Two
8. Twisters
9. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
10. Mufasa: The Lion King
Keeping with recent tradition, I saw virtually all of these, missing only Sonic 3 (is this good...I generally like Jim Carrey, so should I get caught up on these?). In terms of box office I also missed Bad Boys: Ride or Die, It Ends With Us, and Venom: The Last Dance, but saw virtually every major awards contender (save for Lee with Kate Winslet...again, is it good?), including, of course, the Oscar nominees. Let's look back on 2024, remembering a time when a Democrat was in the White House, when the President-Elect briefly faced justice for his crimes, and when we were all flipping for Simone Biles & the sexy nerd aesthetic of Stephen Nedoroscik. And of course, let's remember the movies...
Note from John: When I did this series during the time when I wrote individual articles, and had this blog be a daily part of my life, I made a point of highlighting each nominee in my many write-ups. While I will be writing these every time I complete a year (hopefully monthly going forward), I can't make that time commitment, either in terms of number of articles or in terms of giving each nominee their due with a mention. I promise, though, that I have given each nominee their due under the confines of the specific category while making my rankings (and of course I've seen every single nominated picture), including giving higher rankings to movies I didn't like if the craft was better than ones I did like (Oscar should consider that). Hopefully you enjoy the trimmed-down, but still devoted to the original concept version of the OVP we'll have going forward!
1. Dune: Part Two
2. Nickel Boys
3. The Brutalist
4. I'm Still Here
5. Conclave
6. Anora
7. A Complete Unknown
8. Wicked
9. The Substance
10. Emilia Perez
The Lowdown: I'll start out by saying something that I suspect gets repeated in this article-I did not think that 2024 was a particularly impressive year for the movies. In fact, I thought it was the dullest year for movies since 2020, a combination of slavish over-praise of the Oscar fare (which was largely middling more than grand), and many of the blockbusters being underwhelming. That said, I do really admire the first 3 films on this list. Dune is better than the original, even if it's not quite as non-descript, Nickel Boys is an experiment that largely works, and The Brutalist is truly perfect until the intermission card comes up. The rest...well the order speaks for itself, and because Oscar can only focus on ten movies in a given year anymore...we'll get to them all more in detail below.
1. Brady Corbet (The Brutalist)
2. Sean Baker (Anora)
3. Coralie Fargeat (The Substance)
4. James Mangold (A Complete Unknown)
5. Jacques Audiard (Emilia Perez)
The Lowdown: Without Denis Villeneuve, this contest becomes considerably easier. Corbet botches the ending to The Brutalist, but that's more an issue with the writers and one key supporting actor than the direction, which is really the cornerstone of the movie. He deserves the win, with Baker second over Fargeat because I think that his story feels easier to get off the rails (and also I liked Anora better than The Substance even though I'll own that Anora is more a writer's movie and The Substance is more a director's picture). I still can't believe that James Mangold, after years of attempting the same route (middle-of-the-road AMPAS fare like Walk the Line, Girl Interrupted, & Ford v. Ferrari that has no directorial signature) managed to grab a nomination.
1. Adrien Brody (The Brutalist)
2. Timothee Chalamet (A Complete Unknown)
3. Ralph Fiennes (Conclave)
4. Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice)
5. Colman Domingo (Sing Sing)
The Lowdown: This is as good of a time as any to remind you of two things: 1) The OVP is made in a vacuum, so I do not consider whether someone has an Oscar or not when handing out trophies and 2) I have a My Ballot where I pick my own nominees, and in that I also decide in a vacuum who should win. This isn't about career awards, so under those circumstances I have no problem handing Adrien Brody a second statue for his luminous work in The Brutalist even if in real-life I might have thrown a bone to the fine work of Chalamet and Fiennes, who are both still hunting for their first Oscar. I don't think that Sebastian Stan's film choice would impact his ranking (A Different Man would also get him 4th, for the record), though I will admit I'm excited by this direction of his career, as I love a handsome man finding his inner character actor.
1. Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here)
2. Mikey Madison (Anora)
3. Demi Moore (The Substance)
4. Cynthia Erivo (Wicked)
5. Karla Sofia Gascon (Emilia Perez)
The Lowdown: With or without the scandal, it's an easy call to put Gascon's performance in fifth. Emilia Perez is a dreadful, cinematic abortion of a movie (virtually nothing redeemable in it...the worst nominee since Bohemian Rhapsody), and she is not up to snuff as the lead. For the actual win, I'm going with Torres, whose quiet determination in I'm Still Here has the added bonus of a script that always knows where she's headed, which you cannot say for Madison's (solid) Anora. Demi Moore's role in The Substance has a lot of fans, and while I think she's better than the movie (which badly overshoots its ending), she can't carry it through & makes Elizabeth too unknowable.
1. Yura Borisov (Anora)
2. Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain)
3. Guy Pearce (The Brutalist)
4. Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice)
5. Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown)
The Lowdown: This is a quick reminder that I will always dock a point for any actor who is obviously the lead but is committing category fraud to improve their Oscar chances. If I was judging based on total performances, I might give it to Culkin's really strong work as a broken man filled with overflowing charisma, but under these rules, there's no way he takes out Borisov's sensitive, brooding security guard in Anora, a scene-stealing performance that makes the movie. Guy Pearce is the only actor who seems capable of holding together The Brutalist in its back half, but I have him in third both because his competition is good (expect a few repeat names when we get to the My Ballots tomorrow), as well as because I don't think he lands the final moments of the picture quite well enough. I didn't get what Strong or Norton were doing, and feel like this was a nomination for being showy more than being good.
1. Ariana Grande (Wicked)
2. Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown)
3. Isabella Rossellini (Conclave)
4. Felicity Jones (The Brutalist)
5. Zoe Saldana (Emilia Perez)
The Lowdown: Once again, Saldana loses a point because she's the lead (without that I think she is ahead of Jones given she at least understands the film's tone). You could make an argument that Grande is also the lead, but because there's an argument I keep her in first, and honestly even without that I might keep her there due to a weak field. Barbaro's Joan Baez looks the part, but I wanted a bit more of the ambition of someone who is more famous than Dylan having him usurp her throne, and the lack of resolve there shows how difficult a Dylan biopic was always going to be. Grande's work is in her wheelhouse, and sometimes borders into parody of Kristin Chenoweth (who is the better actor), but she's so good it's hard to fault feeling indebted to the original.
1. Nickel Boys
2. Conclave
3. A Complete Unknown
4. Sing Sing
5. Emilia Perez
The Lowdown: I have not read Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning source material (though a copy of it is sitting behind me...the eternal nagging of the books on my shelf that I've never read continues to haunt my dreams), but what comes across on the film is spectacular. A meditative, thoughtful look at how hard it is to beat the system, and how life can find a way...and a plot can find a way even as you mine Terrence Malick for inspiration. Conclave would make a worthy winner as well, giving us a really scrumptious 1990's-style thriller that is virtually impossible to find in 2024.
1. A Real Pain
2. Anora
3. The Brutalist
4. The Substance
5. September 5
The Lowdown: Jesse Eisenberg's look at how we keep certain people in our lives and in our hearts years after they stop feeling like they fit into whom we became is really wonderful. I know the focus is on grief, and the mourning that happens when we lose someone we can't replace, but that juxtaposed against the question mark of the friendship that's core to the film is really why this is something special. Anora and The Brutalist both have wonderful sections, but they don't know how to inform key characters (specifically their female leads) and The Brutalist doesn't know how to make its ending work (which is not the case for Anora-that ending lands the film), so I can't seriously put them against A Real Pain in this field (Eisenberg wins handily).
1. The Wild Robot
2. Flow
3. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
4. Memoir of a Snail
5. Inside Out 2
The Lowdown: It's become depressing how predictable this category is, with even the off-beat or independent films heavily telegraphed the entire season so there's no surprises on nomination morning. One of many reasons why I wish this was only a three-wide like I'll do at tomorrow's My Ballot for 2024. But taking that out of the equation, this is a solid list, particularly the top two which are completely different looks at how nature cannot endure the touch of humanity. I went with The Wild Robot because I felt its story more, but either would make a worthy winner. I will note, that in the first 19 years of this category, Disney/Pixar only got the #5 slot once (2002's Lilo and Stitch)...in the past five years it's gotten it 80% of the time. This is not an appealing trend for the Mouse House.
1. The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany)
2. Flow (Latvia)
3. I'm Still Here (Brazil)
4. The Girl with the Needle (Denmark)
5. Emilia Perez (France)
The Lowdown: As I said above, I wrote this before the Oscar ceremony, so I don't know any winners, and this is the category I'm most curious to see where it landed (it might not be the most shocking win, but it's the one I am trying to guess if the Emilia Perez buzz has died enough to allow for a different Best Picture nominee instead). Really, though, this shouldn't be a contest. While I admire I'm Still Here's look at how sins shouldn't necessarily be forgiven if they're heinous enough (and sure as hell shouldn't be forgotten), and the gorgeous computer game aesthetic of Flow, The Seed of the Sacred Fig was one of the best movies of 2024, full stop. An engrossing look at fascism and the way that it strips away any shred of humanity you have...assuming you had much to begin with (because fascism also numbs you to such horror).
1. Dune: Part Two
2. The Wild Robot
3. A Complete Unknown
4. Wicked
5. Emilia Perez
The Lowdown: I still miss when the Sound categories were split in two, but honestly...I get why looking at this. I will own that I am not giving these statues to the same movie, but it's hard to argue with Dune being the dominant choice here, its gorgeous elevation of the sounds of the deserts of Arrakis combined with new special effects and great crowd work. Behind it are The Wild Robot (I love the nature sounds, combined with strong music & vocal work) and the concert recreations of A Complete Unknown. Solid lineup overall, honestly, and I want to say that as most of it I don't repeat tomorrow-lots of good choices this year.
1. The Brutalist
2. The Wild Robot
3. Conclave
4. Emilia Perez
5. Wicked
The Lowdown: This is the first of only two times that an Emilia Perez nomination isn't in last place (the next category is the other one), and there's a reason for that-the musical score of Wicked is lovely, but it's not original...I can't pinpoint anything in the score that isn't borrowing from Stephen Schwartz's fabulous Broadway composition, and so this nomination feels like a cheap way to up Schwartz's (and the film's) Oscar count, even if the actual score is better than Emilia Perez. That said, the other three scores are all wonderful, and will show up tomorrow with my My Ballot, best of them being the atypical, confrontational work of The Brutalist.
1. "Like a Bird" (Sing Sing)
2. "Never Too Late" (Elton John: Never Too Late)
3. "El Mal" (Emilia Perez)
4. "The Journey" (The Six Triple Eight)
5. "Mi Camino" (Emilia Perez)
The Lowdown: I do not think the music in Emilia Perez, even the lauded numbers like "Mi Camino" is any good. The singing is not strong, the music feels too conversational, and the lyricism is dreadful (the best of the bunch, "La Vaginoplastia" is at least catchy and visually interesting). That said, "El Mal's" problems are more so the way it's staged (bad lighting & dance direction) than it being a bad song. Honestly, none of these are that good, both because 2024 wasn't a great year for film tunes, and because Oscar needed to get creative to come up with a decent lineup in a year where there weren't many good choices. I picked "Like a Bird" because it's fitting to the film and doesn't feel as disposable as Elton John's "Never Too Late," a song that has his great vocals but feels like a cheap ending after hearing so many actual classics in the documentary.
1. The Brutalist
2. Dune: Part Two
3. Maria
4. Nosferatu
5. Emilia Perez
The Lowdown: We'll get into the Best Picture nominee that I can't believe didn't make this lineup tomorrow when we discuss the My Ballot, but for today let's all be thankful for the two deserved nominees that DID make it. Between The Brutalist and Dune: Part Two, I'm favoring The Brutalist more so because it's truly inventive and it pays off...getting experimental with a movie can always be a risk, so when that risk pays off, you need to use it to break the tie, but both are sensational. That Emilia Perez is nominated here, given that they literally couldn't even get the lighting cues right during the centerpiece musical number, is insanity to me-other than Best Actress, maybe the worst nomination from the film?
1. Wicked
2. Conclave
3. A Complete Unknown
4. Gladiator II
5. Nosferatu
The Lowdown: Best Cinematography is my favorite of the My Ballot lineups I pulled together, while Costume is unfortunately my least favorite. That isn't meant as a slight to the winner here, Wicked, which I have made room for in tomorrow's My Ballot, but it is a sign that the costume work here wasn't as great as it could've been (I would've loved us to maybe stray a bit more from the pink-and-green motif, which is why one of my favorite costumes last year was Michelle Yeoh's celestial lilac-colored gown...but this is still great & Wicked's worthiest tech nomination). Conclave's repeated costumes and twists on the cardinal outfit are a worthy runner-up, and lovingly-detailed.
1. The Brutalist
2. Conclave
3. Anora
4. Wicked
5. Emilia Perez
The Lowdown: The invisible art, film editing for me came down to the quick plot-pacing of Conclave, and then the avant garde approach of The Brutalist. Of the two, I was most smitten with the sheer scale & confidence of The Brutalist, a movie that I liked better, and while I will quibble with the ending, I don't think you can blame that even a little bit on editing, as even in the worst scenes I was struck by how it kept pulling the viewers into the movie, cavernous in its approach. The nomination for Wicked, given that it's only half a movie, feels odd & maybe the most confounding (and coattails-driven) citation in 2024.
1. The Substance
2. Wicked
3. A Different Man
4. Nosferatu
5. Emilia Perez
The Lowdown: Horror so rarely gets into this category (which is odd because An American Werewolf in London was the first film to win the statue), and given how quintessential makeup is to the success of the genre, it's kind of exciting to see its return (the last horror film to be cited was 2010's The Wolf Man). But it's more exciting to be able to give it the crown because it's genuinely good. Whatever issues I had with The Substance, the makeup wasn't one of them, giving us the ruthless destruction of poor Demi Moore's Elizabeth Sparkle, which is more impressive than the "borrowing from past experience" work in Wicked or the drawing a real-life comparison in A Different Man, which take the runners-up positions.
1. The Brutalist
2. Dune: Part Two
3. Conclave
4. Nosferatu
5. Wicked
The Lowdown: In my opinion the best lineup that Oscar pulled together in 2024, none of these are stinkers, and while I won't copy this list verbatim to my My Ballot tomorrow, every one of these feels like an appropriate Oscar nominee. I am not immune to the Oscar crutch of honoring a movie because it's about a specific production aspect, and indeed, the gorgeous work in The Brutalist (inexplicably on a $10 million budget) is hard to deny. Dune: Part Two does a great job of expanding this world, and I was in awe of the (also weirdly inexpensive) palatial estates of Conclave, but I have to hand this one to the team from The Brutalist.
1. Dune: Part Two
2. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
3. Better Man
4. Alien: Romulus
5. Wicked
The Lowdown: I grade these on a 5-star system, and I generally dock a star whenever a lead performance is in supporting or an end credits song with no presence otherwise in the movie is up, so as to even the playing field without sacrificing the nominee's chances entirely. I think I will start to do that for movies that use dead actors without their permission (I don't care if the estate said yes...I still think it's morally repugnant). Much of Alien: Romulus is gorgeous, and it would be higher-ranked (possibly in My Ballot territory) if they hadn't used Ian Holm the way they did (both uncanny valley and using a dead man in this way is gross). Certainly above Better Man, which tried to cover its VFX budget with dark cinematography. The Top 2 are indisputable-two of the most spectacular franchises around living up to their reputations once again.
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