In the dynamic landscape of the film industry in 2024, remarkable achievements and unexpected twists have characterized the year. From the resounding success of Super Mario dominating the box office to the emergence of viral sensations like Barbenheimer, and the enigmatic escapades of Saltburn’s Barry Keoghan, every moment has left an indelible mark.
Yet, amidst the whirlwind of excitement, all eyes inevitably turn towards the Oscars, the pinnacle of cinematic excellence. Reflecting on the buzz surrounding Oscars 2024, one can’t help but marvel at the swift transformations that define Hollywood’s fortunes.
Consider Margot Robbie’s remarkable journey. Merely a year ago, she graced the screens in “Bab,on,” a film that failed to garner attention and Oscar acclaim. Now, she shines as the emblematic figure of “Barbie,” the blockbuster phenomenon of 2023, nominated across eight prestigious categories, poised for potential triumph on the grandest stage of all.
The anticipation surrounding the Oscars reverberates throughout Hollywood, with luminaries converging at the esteemed Academy Awards luncheon for the iconic class photo. As the nominations undergo meticulous scrutiny, we unearth a treasure trove of 17 captivating facts, eccentricities, and monumental possibilities that may unfurl on the illustrious night of the ceremony.
Oscars 2024:
1. Emma Stone could join an exclusive club
The Poor Things star could become the eighth actress to win two Oscars by the age of 35, having previously won for La La Land in 2017.
She would follow in the footsteps of Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, Luise Rainer, Olivia de Havilland, and Hilary Swank. No male actor has ever achieved the same feat.
Stone is also only the second woman to be nominated for both acting and producing for the same film, following Nomadland’s Frances McDormand in 2020.
But Stone’s best actress win is far from guaranteed; the category is seen as a dead heat between her and Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone.
2. The Holdovers has achieved a Christmas miracle
The Holdovers is the first Christmas film to be nominated for best picture since the original Miracle on 34th Street in 1948. (It’s A Wonderful Life was nominated a year earlier.)
The film tells the story of a grumpy teacher who must stay at his boarding school over Christmas to supervise the children who aren’t going home for the holidays.
Starring best actor nominee Paul Giamatti and best supporting actress favourite Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers is set at Christmas, features Christmas trees and decorations, and has plenty of Christmas songs on its soundtrack.
So naturally, the studio released it in the UK in the middle of January.
3. Barbie’s soundtrack might have a better chance of winning a trophy than its director
Despite missing out on best director and best actress, Barbie’s nominations have already made Oscar history.
Greta Gerwig, who directed and co-wrote the film, is the only director to have her first three movies nominated for best picture: Lady Bird, Little Women, and Barbie.
However, it’s possible that Barbie will only win one of the eight prizes it is nominated for: best original song for What Was I Made For? by Billie Eilish.
That would mirror the path of 2018’s A Star is Born, the Bradley Cooper film, which also got eight nominations but only won in the song category for Lady Gaga’s Shallow.
4. Cillian Murphy is set to break a decade-long trend
Oppenheimer is expected to sweep the Oscars, with likely wins in major categories, including Best Picture.
If Irish star Cillian Murphy wins too, it will be the first time since 2012 that the same film has won both best actor and best picture. The last was The Artist and its star, Jean Dujardin.
It’s a different story in best actress, which recently has been matching up with best picture more often.
Two of the last three best picture winners, Nomadland and Everything Everywhere All At Once, also won best actress for their stars, Frances McDormand and Michelle Yeoh, respectively.
5. There are four Oscar-nominated couples this year
Best director nominee Justine Triet is also recognised alongside her partner Arthur Harari in the original screenplay category.
The pair are jointly nominated for writing Anatomy of a Fall, one of five nominations the film has.
At the Golden Globes, Triet explained that the pair had written the film “Stuck in Our Apartment” during the pandemic, and “strangely,” she joked, they didn’t kill each other as a result.
Meanwhile, Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas are both nominated as producers on Oppenheimer as part of the film’s best picture nod.
Elsewhere, Barbie’s Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach are jointly nominated for the film’s screenplay, while Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley are nominated as producers in best picture.
6. Bradley Cooper is the fifth most nominated living person to have won an Oscar
The actor, who shot to fame after appearing in The Hangover, has been nominated 12 times, thanks to his work acting, directing, and writing a variety of films.
But he has never won any of the prizes he has been nominated for.
The only people to have scored more nominations without a win are sound engineer Greg P. Russell (16 nominations), composer Thomas Newman (15), songwriter Diane Warren (15), and special effects supervisor Daniel Sudick (13).
Cooper is unlikely to break his streak this year, as his film Maestro isn’t predicted to win in the categories he’s nominated for: best actor, best picture, and best original screenplay.
7. One nominee previously directed music videos for Jamiroquai
The Auschwitz drama The Zone of Interest has five nominations at the Oscars, including one for its British director Jonathan Glazer.
Glazer has had a long and varied career. Three decades ago, he was directing advertisements for Stella Artois and Guinness.
He was also behind music videos for songs by Radiohead, Massive Attack, Blur, and, perhaps most notably, Jamiroquai.
The band’s video for Virtual Insanity memorably saw singer Jay Kay trying to avoid being hit by furniture in a room with moving floors.
We hope Glazer wears a giant Jay Kay-style hat to the Oscars in tribute.
8. Two nominees have set a record for gay actors
For the first time ever, two openly gay actors are nominated for playing openly gay characters.
They are Rustin’s Colman Domingo, who portrays civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, and Nyad’s Jodie Foster, who plays swimmer Diana Nyad’s friend and coach Bonnie Stoll.
The only other time an openly gay actor has been nominated was for Gods and Monsters in 1998, which was also for playing an openly gay character.
9. Martin Scorsese is the oldest ever nominee for best director
Marty was nominated for his 10th Oscar this year, setting a new record for a living director and overtaking Steven Spielberg.
If you include dead directors, Ben Hur’s William Wyler holds the record, with 12.
At 81, Scorsese is also the oldest ever nominee in the category. The previous record holder was John Huston, who was nominated in 1985 for Prizzi’s Honor when he was 79. The oldest winner is Clint Eastwood, who was 74 when he won Million Dollar Baby.
This year’s oldest nominee overall, however, is composer John Williams, recognised in the original score category for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the grand age of 92.
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10. The average best picture-nominated film this year is 138 minutes long
Past Lives and The Zone of Interest are just 1 hour, 44 minutes each, but Oppenheimer from director Christopher Nolan (pictured left) is three hours, and Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is a ridiculous 206 minutes.
A film that long could probably do with an interval, right?
Not according to Paramount and Apple TV+, who cracked down on several cinemas that attempted to insert a break in the middle of the film so audiences could go to the bathroom.
11. Lily Gladstone is the first Native American to be nominated for best actress
The 37-year-old isn’t the first indigenous performer to be nominated for best actress; Whale Rider’s Keisha Castle-Hughes and Roma’s Yalitza Aparicio preceded her.
But the Killers of the Flower Moon star is the first from the US. The actress comes from a Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northern Montana.
She has already won prizes at the SAG Awards and Golden Globes, and in both acceptance speeches, she briefly spoke Blackfeet, her native Algonquian language.
12. There are 10 first-time nominees in this year’s acting categories
Emily Blunt (pictured), Danielle Brooks, Sterling K. Brown, and Colman Domingo all received their first Academy Award nominations this year.
America Ferrera (pictured), Lily Gladstone, and Cillian Murphy are also up for an Oscar for the first time.
The other first-time acting nominees are Sandra Hüller (pictured), Jeffrey Wright, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
13. American Fiction has already broken a record
The nominations for Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown mark the first time two black actors have been nominated in the lead and supporting categories for the same film.
American Fiction tells the story of a frustrated black author who jokingly writes a book that plays up to racial stereotypes and tropes, only to find publishers falling over themselves to release it.
14. May’s single nomination for best original screenplay keeps an Academy trend alive
A whopping 20 of the last 22 Oscar ceremonies have all seen at least one film nominated for screenplay, but nothing else.
This year, May December is nominated for its script, written by Samy Burch (pictured), but the film missed every other category.
The Julianne Moore movie joins previous nominees Knives Out, Borat, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Molly’s Game, and Straight Outta Compton in pinning all its Oscar hopes solely on its screenplay.
15. Robert Downey Jr is almost certainly going to win an Oscar, thanks to Christopher Nolan
Which makes a change from 2008 and Downey Jr.’s previous best supporting actor nomination for Tropic Thunder.
That year, he lost to Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan.
This year, Downey Jr. is almost certainly going to win, thanks to his performance in Oppenheimer, a film coincidentally also directed by Christopher Nolan.
16. One composer died before his Oscar nomination was announced
Canadian musician Robbie Robertson, also known as a member of rock group The Band, composed the soundtrack to Killers of the Flower Moon.
Robertson and director Martin Scorsese collaborated on several films over decades, but the composer sadly died last August, before Killers had even been released.
The musician also worked on the music for films including Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, The Color of Money, Casino, Gangs of New York, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Irishman.
He is posthumously nominated for best original score, and Scorsese dedicated Killers of the Flower Moon to Robertson’s memory.
17. There would be no Oppenheimer without Twilight
Christopher Nolan decided to make the film about J. Robert Oppenheimer after working on Tenet with Twilight star Robert Pattinson.
The actor gave Nolan a collection of Oppenheimer’s speeches as a gift when they finished filming, and when Nolan read them, he was inspired to make the film.
Edward Cullen, we owe you.
As the excitement builds toward Oscars 2024, these 17 facts offer a glimpse into the rich tapestry of talent, creativity, and perseverance that defines the world of cinema. With each nominee poised on the brink of potential glory, the stage is set for an unforgettable night that will shape the future of filmmaking for years to come.
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