The 96th annual Academy Awards will take place on March 10, 2024, and will see Jimmy Kimmel returning as host for the fourth time. Although nominations have yet to be formally announced yet, we have had a lot of thoughts on 2023’s class of movies (and what an exemplary year it was).
In 2022, Steven Spielberg told Tom Cruise that he saved Hollywood with Top Gun: Maverick, which grossed over AED 5.5 billion worldwide, and was not only Tom Cruise’s highest grossing film, but Paramount Pictures as well. This year, the title of Movie Theatre Savior goes to Barbenheimer, specifically Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan for their respective Barbie (AED 5.3b) and Oppenheimer (AED 3.5b) epics (honourable mention is The Super Mario Bros Movie [AED 5b], which made a fortune at the box office, and I don’t think anybody saw that coming).
This year also saw the first cracks in the seemingly impenetrable armour of the refusing-to-expire superhero franchise, specifically Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, and most recently, Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom, all of which can be described with one word: yawn. Does this mean the capes will finally be hung up for good? We can only hope. But good news is that 2023 was one of the best years in a long time not just for the box office, but for original storytelling as well, both ‘indie’ pictures and big budget studio films.
Here are our predictions for the 2024 Oscar’s, as well as how to watch them in the UAE.
Best Picture
Poor Things or Oppenheimer
Much like Martin Scorsese until The Departed, Christopher Nolan is the one director for whom an Oscar is long overdue, and this year’s Oppenheimer might just have swung it for him. That, or Yorgos Lanthimos’s highly lauded Kafkaesque nightmare which, depending on how adventurous the academy feels this year, might take it instead.
Best Director
Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig or Yorgos Lanthimos
Before you get annoyed that we can’t make up our mind, just hear us out. As previously mentioned, like Scorsese, Nolan is long overdue, and could and should have won it for any one of his previous masterpieces. For that reason alone, he’s viable to win. Although (sorry) Barbie misfired when it could have soared more often than not, Gerwig deserves praise for being the first female director to surpass 1B at the box office. And as for Lanthimos, when it comes to sheer cinematic direction, nobody today is as innovative as him.
Honourable mentions: Jonathan Glazier for Zone of Interest and Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall. Both films had the critics swooning at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but whether it’s enough for the little gold man might be a stretch.
Best Screenplay
Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall
Indie pictures always sweep the screenplay category, and rightfully so, because where a big budget lacks, you have to put all your chips on dynamic storytelling. Justine Triet is only the third woman to ever win top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and we hope her creativity is rightfully acknowledged.
Best Leading Actor
Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer
Come on. Who else? (Leo was great in Killers of the Flower Moon, arguably the best of his career, but Cillian…come on)
Best Leading Actress
Emma Stone for Poor Things or Lilly Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon.
Sure, Emma already has one, but this performance is being lauded as the best of her career, and (unpopular opinion) LaLa Land was kind of lame. And for the latter, much like the Margot Robbie explosion after 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street, 10 years later, Lilly Gladstone too got the honour of working with (arguably) cinema’s greatest living director, Martin Scorsese. And flex her acting chops she did. It’s a toss up between the two actresses, but our guess goes with Stone.
Honourable mentions: Natalie Portman for May December.
Best Supporting Actor
Robert Downey Jr for Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan specifically implored RDJ to abandon every single trope that has made his career: the wit, the charm, the Tony Stark-isms that we know and love. And it paid off. The Marvel universe died with Iron Man, long live RDJ the serious actor.
Best Supporting Actress
Da’Vine Joy Randalph for The Holdovers
Much to everyone’s relief, after the disastrous Downsizing, Alexander Payne has soberly returned to great form with the new Christmas classic, The Holdovers. And it has made a star of Randalph.
How To Watch the Oscar’s in the UAE
Audiences in the region can stream and watch the Academy Awards on OSN, OSN+, and Dubai One. Contrary to previous editions, the 2024 Oscars ceremony will begin one hour early, starting at 7pm (ET).
More info on the Oscar’s here
