Oscars 2024: Oppenheimer, Poor Things, and Killers of the Flower Moon are the ones to watch

The Golden Globes made it pretty clear that unexpected upsets weren’t out of the question during this year’s entertainment awards season, and the 2024 Oscars are going to be packed with opportunities for the Academy to surprise us with its votes.

During a brief livestream this morning, actors Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid announced the nominees for this year’s Academy Awards, and while the presentation began with an unexpected Best Supporting Actor nomination for Sterling K. Brown’s performance in American Fiction, this year’s crop of buzzy frontrunners still loomed large in the overall pool of potential winners. The nomination for Brown, Jeffrey Wright’s Best Actor nod, and nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, and Best Picture ultimately brought American Fiction’s potential Oscar tally up to five. 

But awards season juggernauts like Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon are poised to make a pretty good showing at this year’s Oscars. All three films are up for both Best Picture and Directing and it seems very much like either Lily Gladstone or Emma Stone may take home a Best Actress statue. Despite Oppenheimer’s dominance this year, Cillian Murphy — who’s up for Best Actor — is facing strong competition in the category from Wright, Paul Giamatti for his turn in The Holdovers, Colman Domingo’s performance in Rustin, and Bradley Cooper’s in Maestro.

And while Da’Vine Joy Randolph has seemed to be an odds-on favorite for Best Supporting Actress up to this point, Emily Blunt, Danielle Brooks, America Ferrera, and Jodie Foster could also end up taking the category. With its nine nominations including Best Picture, Production Design, Costume Design, and Adapted Screenplay, Barbie’s also going to be one to watch, and with the film’s “I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For?” both being up for awards, we can expect to hear some rather inspired performances of the songs when the Oscars airs on March 10th.