While blockbusters like “Dune: Part Two” and cultural phenomena like “Challengers” dominated at the box office and in the public’s hearts and minds, when placed in between years chock-full of hits like 2023 and the promise of 2025 releases, 2024 seems meek in comparison.
Going into awards season, sheer mediocrity made clear consensus impossible. With the Academy Awards capping a season marked by shifting consensus — where each weekend crowned a different frontrunner — all eyes turned to the Academy to definitively determine the best films and performances from last year.
By last Sunday, I had seen about as many movies as the Academy voters had — half of the nominees. However, after watching the year’s major players, here are my thoughts.
Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Zoe Saldana, “Emilia Perez”
My pick: Felicity Jones, “The Brutalist”
The nominations for “Emilia Perez” baffle me. Once again, the year was weak, but surely not this weak. The film follows a Mexican former cartel leader who transitions in secret with help from a lawyer played by Zoe Saldana. The premise sounds promising, but the poor execution likely stems from the fact that a straight French man who doesn’t speak Spanish wrote it.
In one of the most bizarrely boring movies I have ever seen, each song feels ham-fisted and devoid of emotion or musical creativity. Despite the Academy somehow nominating it twice and even awarding it Best Original Song, this “music” has made the world undeniably a worse place.
While it’s not her fault, Zoe Salanda’s performance of these awful songs makes her win unjustifiable. As I stated in my review of “The Brutalist” earlier this year, the Academy may not have gotten around to seeing Felicity Jones as Erzsébet in the latter half of the film. In her limited screen time, she makes us feel every emotion with her, completely engulfing the audience in her performance.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner: “Conclave”
My pick: “Nickel Boys”
“Conclave” picks up its only Academy Award win with Best Adapted Screenplay. The film details the twists and turns of the conclave organized to elect a new pope. A political thriller with Catholicism instead of democracy could be a hit or a dull miss, but I believe it was compelling.
Screenwriter Peter Straughan adapted the novel’s multi-faceted characters and enough drama to keep your eyes glued to the screen without feeling soap-operatic. I am not nearly as opposed to this win as I am to the one previous, but “Nickel Boys” deserved stronger consideration. Adapting a sensitive and intimate source material, especially without turning it into another film drowning in Black suffering, is a testament to the grace and lyricism of screenwriters RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes.
Best Director
Winner: Sean Baker, “Anora”
My pick: Coraline Faraget, “The Substance”
Sean Baker earning a Best Director win, when directors like Kubrick, Lynch and Tarantino do not, has kept me awake at night for the past week. While I certainly do not hate “Anora,” Baker’s direction is not even close to innovative. This is the same direction, if not worse than, in his previous films.
The direction in Coraline Faraget’s “The Substance” is a visceral, contemporary triumph. Even with the complaints of the movie being too long, the atmosphere she immediately creates is unlike anything I have ever seen. But allowing a female horror director to win Best Director? The Academy could never.
Best Snub
Winner: “Challengers,” directed by Luca Guadagnino
The Academy glaringly overlooked, or intentionally ignored, one undeniable bright spot — “Challengers.” The romantic tennis drama featuring a love triangle of Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor was the film of the summer. While popular does not always mean good, “Challengers” was far better than “Emilia Perez.”
In my view, the Academy should have nominated “Challengers” for Best Picture over the former, and they also robbed it of well-deserved wins in Best Editing and Best Score. The final tennis match, accentuated with cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, and “Yeah x10” by powerhouse duo Trent Renzor and Atticus Ross, alone, are a class far above the winners in their respective categories.
Best Picture
Winner: “Anora”
My Pick: “Nickel Boys”
My first words, through laughs of shock following “Anora” winning Best Picture, were, “Are these people serious?” And this was before I watched “Nickel Boys.” Even with my own mixed opinions about “The Brutalist,” I would have swallowed that win with a lot less difficulty than “Anora.” Sean Baker’s new installment to his “I’m a white guy compelled to tell stories about sex workers” cinematic universe is not bad — just neither revolutionary nor year-defining.
“Nickel Boys,” however, is both. It follows the story of Nickel Academy, a fictional counterpart of the Dozier School for Boys, one of many abusive reform schools in the 1960s. Shot in a first-person POV of our main characters, Elwood and Turner, the film is topical, visually stunning and utterly narratively stimulating — much more befitting of a Best Picture win than what went home with the award. However, Amazon MGM’s dedication to not allowing anyone to see this movie may have prevented widespread support for the best film of the year.
Best (and biggest) Loser
Winner: Audiences everywhere
Academy voters made decisions based on false beliefs, not finishing movies and other nonsensical ideas. While this might not be everyone, the fact that these voters felt comfortable enough to tell us is indicative of the culture in the Academy. When this tweet with the ideas I state in the title circulated for the first time, I was convinced if that was the case, I’d wake up to Challengers sweep and a Timothée Chalamet Best Actor win — sorry Timmy, maybe next year.
However, while these wins may be overly representative of the … sexual preferences of the voter base, at least they completed the movies necessary to make their decisions. Ultimately, the Oscars exposed a harsh truth — when the Academy’s aversion to actively engaging with art collides with a year without a handbook for winners, we receive a show to forget.