With the Golden Globes taking place on January 7, a clearer picture emerged of who might be successful in claiming an Oscar statuette – the most coveted awards in Hollywood.
The biggest award, Best Picture, recognises the best film of the year, and was last year awarded to Everything Everywhere All at Once. The films most likely to receive a nomination are Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, Barbie, Poor Things and The Holdovers. Of these, Oppenheimer seems to be the favourite to win among critics and betting sites alike.
The award for Best Director usually goes hand in hand with Best Picture. Following on from the Best Picture predictions, we can probably assume that Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer), Martin Scorsese (KotFM), Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things), and Greta Gerwig (Barbie) will all receive a nod. Nolan will more than likely emerge victorious, earning him his first win at the Oscars.
Moving over to the acting categories, for Best Actor, possible nominated actors will include Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), Bradley Cooper (Maestro), Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers), Leonardo DiCaprio (KotFM), and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction). Barry Keoghan could be a wildcard pick for his performance in Saltburn, as he received a Golden Globe nomination for his role. Murphy and Giamatti both won Golden Globes for their respective performances, so one of these two should be bringing home the Oscar.
There were a lot of captivating female performances in the past year, so the Best Actress category could be one of the most competitive this year. Lily Gladstone delivered a beautiful performance in Killers of the Flower Moon, and would be a worthy winner. If she wins, she would be the first Indigenous American actor to win an Academy Award.
Other nods will probably go to Emma Stone (Poor Things), Carey Mulligan (Maestro), Margot Robbie (Barbie) and Natalie Portman (May December).
For Best Supporting Actor, the race will be between Robert Downey Jr (Oppenheimer) and Charles Melton (May December). The competition for Best Supporting Actress will more than likely go to Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers.
In the two Best Screenplay categories, Best Original Screenplay could see The Holdovers and Past Lives fighting for the statuette. Best Adapted Screenplay will be a tight race between Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon, which were adaptations of non-fiction books by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, and David Grann, respectively.
Best International Film could see either French courtroom thriller Anatomy of a Fall or Spanish Society of the Snow, a film about the Uruguayan 1972 Andes flight disaster, crowned winners.
For Makeup and Hairstyling, Maestro is a shoe-in. Kazu Hiro worked on the prosthetics for the film, and has previously worked on Darkest Hour and Bombshell, winning Oscars for both.
For Costume Design, Barbie or Poor Things are likely to win. Barbie’s costumes were designed by Jacqueline Durran, who worked with Gerwig on Little Women, for which Durran won an Oscar. Poor Things’ costumes were designed by Holly Waddington, who was already received a number of nominations this awards season.
It is hard to know who will receive nominations, and more interestingly, who will win Oscars this year. All will be revealed when the nominations are announced on January 23, and when the awards ceremony is held on March 10.
Emma van Oosterhout is a News Co-Editor for Student Independent News for the year 2023/2024. She is a Third Year Global Media and History student in the University of Galway. Emma has written for SIN since January 2023.