There are certain rituals that always come with Oscar nominations morning — waking up early, placing your bets on whether this year’s nominations hosts will say all the names right, and then listening not just for the names that are announced, but the names that aren’t. The 2024 Oscar nominations recognized some great films and artisans, but as always the full list contains plenty of misses on the Academy’s part, and now is the time to complain about them!
But this isn’t going to be all negativity, as there were also some glorious surprises across multiple categories, especially as the Academy continues to diversify in terms of the films it considers Oscar-worthy. Who knows how the actual winners will shake out on March 10th, when the 96th Academy Awards are handed out. But for some of the below, just the nomination is the real victory.
SNUB: Charles Melton for Supporting Actor
May December (Netflix)
The May December breakout’s omission from the list Tuesday morning also qualifies as a shock and a surprise, because the former Riverdale star has been a force in this category all awards season, winning the Gotham Award along with multiple critics honors. Was he likely to beat out Robert Downey Jr.? Probably not, as the Oppenheimer star is the current frontrunner. However, getting bumped for Robert De Niro… there’s a certain kind of honor in that. Not as big an honor as actually getting a nomination, but still.
SURPRISE: Nimona Shifts Its Way to a Nomination
Nimona (Netflix)
It feels likely that Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron is going to take the top prize in Animated Feature Film this year, yet we can still be happy that Netflix’s beautifully rendered sci-fi/fantasy film, featuring the voices of Chloë Grace Moretz and Riz Ahmed, picked up a nomination in the category. Another surprising nominee was Disney’s Elemental, a film with its charms, though these inclusions did mean…
SNUB: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Gets Stuck in the Sewers
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Paramount)
One of 2023’s most charming animated films, from the voice acting to the rough hewn animation, couldn’t break in, maybe proving Mutant Mayhem’s point that “Humans are the demon scum of the Earth. Avoid them. Don’t say hi. They lust to murder that which is different from them. To interact with them is to die.”
SURPRISE: Godzilla Minus One Roars to a Visual Effects Nomination
Godzilla Minus One (Toho)
This is the first Japanese language film to receive a Visual Effects nomination ever, which is pretty neat, and also do you know what the total budget was for Godzilla Minus One? Approximately $10-15 million. That’s how much Marvel might spend on one car chase. That’s probably what one stunt in the Mission: Impossible-verse costs. And for that price you get a captivating period drama and a movie in which Godzilla wrecks the crap out of Japan! Let it win.
SNUB: Alexander Payne for Director
The Holdovers (Focus Features)
The Holdovers’s multiple nominations include Paul Giamatti for Lead Actor and Da’Vine Joy Randolph for Supporting Actress — and spoiler alert, they’re currently two of the favorites to win. However, the man who directed those performances couldn’t make the cut in the Direction category, despite the fact that Alexander Payne has been nominated three times before.
NOT REALLY A SURPRISE: No Love for Saltburn
Saltburn (MGM)
If you love Saltburn, you really love Saltburn. But if you don’t… well, you’re probably in the majority, as Emerald Fennell’s demented social satire remains the most polarizing film of 2023. It would have been incredible to see Barry Keoghan sneak into the Lead Actor category, or Fennell be recognized for Original Screenplay… But that would have required a lot more people liking the movie at all.
SNUB: Did No One Watch Their Priscilla Screener?
Priscilla (A24)
Speaking of movies starring Jacob Elordi — Sofia Coppola’s nuanced portrait of Priscilla Presley went nomination-less on Tuesday morning, even in the hair and makeup category. (Congrats to Bradley Cooper’s Maestro nose, one supposes.) Priscilla felt like it could have at least made a dent in technical categories, but no luck.
SURPRISE: El Conde Recognized for Its Flying Vampires
El Conde (Netflix)
Okay, technically the Chilean horror dramedy, imagining a reality in which dictator Claude Pinoche (Jaime Vadell) is a literal vampire draining the blood of his subjects, is nominated for Edward Lachman’s stark yet elegant black-and-white cinematography. The film’s visuals really come alive, though, during the extended sequences of vampires swooping over the mountains and cityscapes of Chile — it’s beautiful work that might have gotten ignored, in another year.
