2024 Academy Awards Predictions

Fifteen (!) years ago, I wrote an Oscars preview for The Perry County News around the same time I started this site. Back then, the Oscars meant a lot to me. I was very passionate when movies and performances I loved not only lost, but weren’t even nominated. Over the years, I’ve made my peace with the fact that my tastes and the Academy’s rarely align. But after years of catching crap for not being diverse enough, the Academy has expanded its membership, and because of this, more deserving and interesting nominations have been made. There will always be snubs and undeserving nominations thanks to the campaigning individuals and studios do, but overall, it seems like the Oscars are moving in a better direction. For instance, this year six of the Best Picture nominees made my personal top ten list, which I don’t think has ever happened.

As usual, the bulk of this will just be a listing of my prediction for the winner, my favorite of the nominees, and my favorite overall (which includes actors and movies that weren’t nominated). I’m too lazy to list all the nominees here, so just Google it, or click here for that. 

Also, as usual: Hi, Mom! She’s the only person I’m certain will read this, so that’s why I still do it each year even though I’m typically terrible at predicting these.

Best Cinematography

Prediction: Oppenheimer

My Pick and Overall Favorite: Poor Things

Best Original Score

Prediction, Pick, and Overall Favorite: Oppenheimer

Best Original Song

Prediction: “What Was I Made For? - Barbie

My Pick and Overall Favorite: “I’m Just Ken” - Barbie

Best Visual Effects

Prediction, Pick, and Overall Favorite: Godzilla Minus One (Full disclosure: I still haven’t seen this one, but I’m in the middle of watching every single Godzilla movie right now, and I feel safe saying I’m going to be blown away by Minus One.)

Best Original Screenplay

Prediction: Anatomy of a Fall

My Pick and Overall Favorite: The Holdovers

Best Adapted Screenplay

Prediction: Oppenheimer

My Pick and Overall Favorite: Poor Things

Best Documentary

Prediction, Pick, and Overall Favorite: 20 Days in Mariupol

Best Animated Feature

Prediction: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

My Pick and Overall Favorite: Robot Dreams

Best International Feature

Prediction, Pick, and Overall Favorite: The Zone of Interest

Best Supporting Actor

Prediction: Robert Downey, Jr.

My Pick and Overall Favorite: Mark Ruffalo

Best Supporting Actress

Prediction: Da’Vine Joy Randolph

My Pick and Overall Favorite: Emily Blunt

Best Actor

Prediction, Pick, and Overall Favorite: Cillian Murphy

Best Actress

Prediction, Pick, and Overall Favorite: Emma Stone

Best Director

Prediction, Pick, and Overall Favorite: Christopher Nolan

Best Picture

Prediction: Oppenheimer

My Pick and Overall Favorite: Poor Things

As always, I have no confidence in my predictions, but for the first year in a long time, I don’t think any winner will be undeserving. I was equally split with my top two movies this year with Poor Things and Oppenheimer, so anything they win will make me happy. But I also loved Barbie and The Holdovers, and damn near every nominee. Usually, there’s one or two nominations that straight up piss me off, but nothing fired me up too much this year because snubs don’t matter to me when they had no chance of winning, anyway. For instance, people got big mad about Greta Gerwig not being nominated for Director. I get it, and I think she deserved a nomination, but I can’t pick one of the five to toss out for her, and it doesn’t matter anyway since Nolan is one of the only locks I can think of this year. While I’m thinking about it, though, I wish the Academy would just expand the directing category and just automatically nominate the director of each Best Picture nominee. 

So that finally ends the 2023 movie season (in March of 2024, for some reason). A lot of people like to casually shit on the movies these days, but I thought 2023 was an awesome year for movies, and surprisingly, the Oscar nominations reflect that. So check the Oscars out this Sunday and see how terrible I am about picking the winners!