The Oscars 2024 Best Picture (Who Won and Why)
This Oscar season was filled with significant artistic and box office achievements, announcing the return of cinema to the center of our pop culture. The vaunted summer season was anchored by two behemoths — Barbie and Oppenheimer. Both films were unique expressions of their makers, though very different movie-going experiences.
In the end, Oppenheimer went home with the most gold. It garnered 13 nominations, winning a jaw-dropping seven statues. Among these were the most prestigious: Best Picture, Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), and Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.).
To get a full appreciation for the competition this year, let’s look at all the movies that were nominated for Best Picture.
American Fiction
This send-up of the state of our literary culture saw Cord Jefferson triumphant in his directorial debut. The film follows a novelist-professor who, in a last bid for sanity and in an act of frustration, writes a satire that is mistaken for a genuine literary masterpiece. Hilarity (and thoughtful insight) ensue.
Anatomy of a Fall
Justine Triet’s crime drama premiered at the illustrious Cannes Film Festival. There, it took home the top honor — the Palme d'Or. That made this French film a must-see around the world. The cast pulls off a Hitchcock-style thriller that reflects modern life.
Barbie
Greta Gerwig helmed this big-budget comedy adventure that took the coveted Barbie IP and turned it into a pop-feminist, surreal masterpiece. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling have stand-out performances, with the entire effort allowing plenty of interesting ideas to bubble up inside the joyfully absurd world of the movie.
The Holdovers
This movie captures winter break at an English boarding school, a time when it is populated by only those few people with no one to go home for the holidays. What unfolds in Alexander Payne’s film is a heartbreaking and heart-expanding exploration of loners — how they're made, why they hurt, and what happens when they find each other.
Killers of the Flower Moon
At 81, Martin Scorsese has released yet another masterpiece, showing that he has powerful skills and vitality, rivaling those of directors half his age (and younger). This Western crime drama features the real-life story of a series of harrowing murders of Osage tribe members once oil was discovered on their land in the 1920s.
Maestro
This biopic of the legendary composer Leonard Bernstein is directed and co-written by its star, Bradley Cooper. The result is an epic take on a major figure, one that celebrates the transcendent and human qualities of the man who composed notable works such as West Side Story and conducted at historic events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Oppenheimer
In this masterpiece, Christopher Nolan combines his chops as a blockbuster director with his ability to use expressionist techniques to evoke the interior experience of his characters. The result is a film that can connect to the deeply personal as well as the historical. This film won the 2024 Oscar for Best Picture, and it’s easy to see why.
Poor Things
Yorgos Lanthimos is no stranger to directing moving films with odd stories. Poor Things fits this mold, following an infant whose brain was transplanted into her mother's body. It’s a Victorian magical realist tale that revels in total cinematic bombast.
For more information on the Oscars and the full list of winners, visit: https://www.oscars.org/