Knock on Wood

If you had control over the Academy Awards…what would you nominate? It’s a question that’s almost certainly run through the minds of every cinephile, and instead of hopelessly dreaming this year, I decided to put them into words. Today, I will take you through my dream Oscar nominations, including my dream winners and picks for award categories that the Academy doesn’t recognize (yet!). There are some categories I couldn’t include, but I hope my invented categories (some of which should be recognized by the Academy) make up for the lack.

Best Picture

• Anatomy of a Fall
• All of Us Strangers
• The Holdovers
• Past Lives
• Godzilla Minus One
• Oppenheimer
• The Zone of Interest
• Barbie
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
• Killers of the Flower Moon

Winner: Past Lives

The films nominated for Best Picture should be culturally emblematic of the year, in addition to being the best of the best. After all, their nomination instantly solidifies their historical significance, and thus, the rank of ten should be filled with films that fit that criteria. Oppenheimer and Barbie were not only the biggest films of the summer (and the year!) box office-wise, but they are both symbolically linked with our cultural attitude when it comes to their subject matter and are important viewing besides; additionally, even though All of Us Strangers and The Zone of Interest were done a disservice when it came to their limited releases, both are valuable pieces of art and crucial stories to be told in the 21st century.

Best Director

• Celine Song, Past Lives
• Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers
• Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
• Greta Gerwig, Barbie
• Wes Anderson, Asteroid City

Winner: Christopher Nolan

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Asteroid City, but it cannot be denied that Wes Anderson has a vision and is wholly committed to bringing that vision to life in his small little desert town. Gerwig, Haigh, and Song all bring intensely personal tales to life in their respective features, but it’s Nolan who achieves what many thought to be impossible: a three-hour biopic about the father of the nuclear bomb that maintains its tension and momentum throughout. It’s a wildly impressive feat, and one deserving of the highest award.

Best Actor in a Leading Role

• Bradley Cooper, Maestro
• Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers
• Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
• Kôji Yakusho, Perfect Days
• Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers

Winner: Andrew Scott

What the Succession cast is to the Emmys is what the cast of All of Us Strangers should be for the Oscars. Everyone is deserving of a nomination, but most of all Andrew Scott, whose storied career comes to a head with the incredibly nuanced work in Andrew Haigh’s sadly underseen masterpiece. Giamatti, Cooper, and Murphy have been considered awards contenders since even before their films debuted, but Kôji Yakusho is the clear standout of Wim Wenders’ contemplative slow-burn Perfect Days, and I believe justly deserves to be recognized as such. His performance (especially in the film’s final scene) is deeply emotional and incredibly moving.

Best Actress in a Leading Role

• Cailee Spaeny, Priscilla
• Greta Lee, Past Lives
• Sophie Wilde, Talk to Me
• Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
• Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

Winner: Lily Gladstone

Talk about a stacked category – in an “awards show” full of inexorable talent. This year featured breakthrough performances from so many actors, including the five listed here, each with a titanic presence that absolutely commands the screen. Lily Gladstone is my pick to win (and it seems she may take the actual Oscar, too), but it’s an incredibly tough race this year. Sophie Wilde is the biggest wild(e) card – her role in Australian independent horror film Talk to Me requires so much, but major awards ceremonies don’t tend to recognize horror performances in general, so the chance she would actually be nominated anywhere is very low. But I love the movie and I was enthralled by her performance, and I believe she deserves a nod.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

• Charles Melton, May December
• John Magaro, Past Lives
• Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer
• Ryan Gosling, Barbie
• Jamie Bell, All of Us Strangers

Winner: Robert Downey Jr.

I had to limit myself here, especially when it comes to Oppenheimer – one of the biggest releases of the year with one of the largest ensemble casts, naturally with a ton of standouts – but Downey Jr. is the natural pick. His performance anchors the entire film, and Lewis Strauss’ diametric opposition to Oppenheimer is what centers the narrative. Jamie Bell, who has not yet received a single nomination from any awards body for his heart-wrenching performance in All of Us Strangers, is another one of my favorite performances from this year, along with Charles Melton and John Magaro. They may not be the conventional picks, but if it was up to me, they would be.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

• Rina Sawayama, John Wick: Chapter 4
• Claire Foy, All of Us Strangers
• Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
• Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
• Rachel McAdams, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Winner: Da’Vine Joy Randolph

Another loaded category – most have been receiving the attention they deserve, but others are overlooked for a variety of reasons. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. was horrendously underseen, and Rachel McAdams is a brilliant actor who has yet to actually win an Oscar, but I fear she won’t receive at the very least a nomination for her emotionally intelligent and empathetic work as Barbara Simon. And it’s also worth it to spotlight Rina Sawayama, whose intense character work in John Wick: Chapter 4 shouldn’t be overlooked, despite that film being the opposite of your traditional Oscar contender.

Best Original Screenplay

• Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie
• Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott, Bottoms
• Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, Talk to Me
• David Hemingson, The Holdovers
• Celine Song, Past Lives

Winner: Celine Song (Past Lives)

The original screenplay category is chock-full of genre; from the cozy wit of The Holdovers to the chilling nature of Talk to Me to the laugh-out-loud insanity of Bottoms to the clever satire of Barbie, there’s a lot of fun to be had here. My favorite is Celine Song’s delicate and sensitive debut feature Past Lives, which has some of the most intricate and perfect character work I’ve ever seen in a drama.

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
• Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers
• Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
• Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
• William Friedkin, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial

Winner: Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon)

While Andrew Haigh’s screenplay for All of Us Strangers is subtle and simple, but endlessly poetic (á la Past Lives) and William Friedkin’s script for his final posthumosu feature is bombastic in dialogue, intended to spotlight the wit of the words and the strength of the performances that would eventually inhabit its characters, Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Killers of the Flower Moon carries compelling characters across an epic and horrifying saga of death, betrayal, and family, all while maintaining a consistent momentum. Cord Jefferson’s hilarious debut American Fiction and Christopher Nolan’s expansive Oppenheimer are also not to be missed.

Best Animated Feature

• Migration
• The Boy and the Heron
• Nimona
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Winner: The Boy and the Heron

A latecomer to the race, Hayao Miyazaki’s triumphant return to form, The Boy and the Heron, embodies everything that Miyazaki stands for and acts as a symbolically sound coda for his decades of works. If you had asked me over the summer what would win this category at the Oscars, I would have answered “Spider-Verse, no question,” but Miyazaki’s latest is a purely emotional culmination of the themes that have proliferated his greatest animated films, propelled by characters whose lives you buy into through the sheer virtue of their existence. He cares, so we care. Nimona was a Netflix release that flew under the radar this summer, but it’s a lot better than most expected, especially in terms of its queer representation. Migration was a latecomer to the race, releasing in the last ten days of the year, but it’s a lot funnier and more structurally interesting than the majority of Illumination releases. And of course, this category wouldn’t be complete without the stellar Ninja Turtles reboot, Mutant Mayhem.

Best Horror Feature

• No One Will Save You
• Talk to Me
• Saw X
• Scream VI
• Evil Dead Rise

Winner: Talk to Me

Horror has always been notoriously shut out of the Oscars, and 2023 was another strong year for horror releases – in markedly better franchise entries and original films alike. The clear favorite is Talk to Me, which has a strong and unique visual language that acts as a brilliant metaphor for addiction. Brian Duffield’s No One Will Save You is another fascinating original story, told almost entirely without dialogue, and Saw X, Scream VI, and Evil Dead Rise are revitalizations of franchises in need of fresh concepts. It’s a shame Scream has since been irreversibly tainted by the actions of a desperate studio.

Best International Feature

• The Boy and the Heron
• The Zone of Interest
• Anatomy of a Fall
• Godzilla Minus One
• Perfect Days

Winner: Anatomy of a Fall

The cheeky subversion of true crime tropes and dynamite performances across the board ensure Anatomy of a Fall is one of the best movies of the year, and certainly the best to come from overseas, narrowly edging out The Zone of Interest. Everything is extraordinarily compelling — the investigation, the courtroom drama, the wrap-up, is remarkably thrilling in a very understated way. Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron and Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One are excellent additions to this category as well, with Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days an understated but also quietly spectacular entry.

Best Young Performer

• Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers
• Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
• Abby Ryder Fortson, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
• Milo Machado Graner, Anatomy of a Fall
• Joe Bird, Talk to Me

Winner: Dominic Sessa

Another category unrecognized by the actual Oscars, but one I think is necessary to spotlight rising stars who turn in particularly noteworthy performances (the Critics Choice Association has been awarding young performers in their own category since 1996). It’s no surprise the breakout performance from one of my favorite films of the year, The Holdovers, is my personal winner; Sessa’s vivacious sarcasm makes him the perfect Angus Tully, and (unlike some other high-profile talent this year) he avoids any anachronistic tendencies, fitting in perfectly with the ’70s aesthetic. Milo Machado Graner and Joe Bird are a close second and third, both doing incredibly nuanced work in films with upsetting and disturbing environments. Abby Ryder Fortson proves that she can stand on her own without Ant-Man in Are You There God? and since there was no singular standout from the main group of Ninja Turtles in Mutant Mayhem, I decided to make it a group nomination. They essentially function as one entity chemistry-wise, all while making each turtle’s personality distinct and recognizable.

Best Villain Performance

• Jason Momoa, Fast X
• Nicolas Cage, Renfield
• Chukwudi Iwuji, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
• Dermot Mulroney, Scream VI
• Alyssa Sutherland, Evil Dead Rise

Winner: Chukwudi Iwuji

This one’s purely for the blockbusters; a way to recognize what I believe to be great bad-guy performances that snooty mainstream awards would never deign to acknowledge. Jason Momoa and Nicolas Cage are the highlights of their respective films as the baddies of Fast X and Renfield, and Dermot Mulroney is expectedly sinister in his surprise role as one of three Ghostfaces in Scream VI. Alyssa Sutherland gives an intense performance as the possessed version of her character for most of Evil Dead Rise, and it’s such a stark difference from the loving mother she starts as. My winner is Chukwudi Iwuji, who plays the psychopathic High Evolutionary in the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy capper. Iwuji embodies the Evolutionary with chilling confidence, effortlessly selling his monstrously twisted morality. It’s not just one of my favorite villain performances, but one of my favorite of the year period.

Best Cameo

• Bradley Cooper, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
• Nicholas Braun, Dream Scenario
• Jeff Goldblum, Asteroid City
• Samara Weaving, Scream VI
• Gary Oldman, Oppenheimer

Winner: Gary Oldman

This is another indulgent category – sue me! I love seeing my favorite actors pop up in something entirely unexpected, and this year had many ripe opportunities: a Scream cold open, a Wes Anderson play-within-a-film, and several new entries in Marvel’s interconnected multiverse. My favorite was Gary Oldman, a Nolan regular, appearing in Oppenheimer as the snidely cruel President Truman. In a sea of brilliant performers, Oldman completely steals the scene.

Best Voice Performance

• Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
• Chloë Grace Moretz, Nimona
• Shameik Moore, Across the Spider-Verse
• Roger L. Jackson, Scream VI
• Oscar Isaac, Across the Spider-Verse

Winner: Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon

I initially envisioned this category as incorporating motion capture as well, but there wasn’t as much of that in 2023. Two leads from Across the Spider-Verse made the grade, though, and I had to give another nod to the four young actors who played the Ninja Turtles. Roger L. Jackson, for as long as he voices Ghostface, will always have a place in this category.

Best Ensemble Cast

• The Iron Claw
• Bottoms
• Oppenheimer
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline
• Godzilla Minus One

Winner: Bottoms

The ensemble cast award isn’t just about who is in the cast, but also about how they all work together to build the tone of their respective film. Each nominee in this category is incredibly different, but the cast of Bottoms managed to perfectly capture the vibe of the long-thought-dead surrealist R-rated teen comedy, and that’s incredibly commendable. Plus, they’re all hilarious, and that cast is chock-full of rising stars.

Best Cinematography

• Jamie D. Ramsay, All of Us Strangers
• Hoyte van Hoytema, Oppenheimer
• Shabier Kirchner, Past Lives
• Matthew Libatique, Maestro
• Simon Beaufils, Anatomy of a Fall

Winner: Jamie D. Ramsay (All of Us Strangers)

This was a tough decision. Every cinematic style in this list is so unique and stylish, expertly conveying the themes of the film through its visual language. But it was All of Us Strangers that I found genuine emotion in the camera’s eye, not only supporting the director’s vision but paving a vision for itself.

Best Original Score

• Daniel Pemberton, Across the Spider-Verse
• Marcelo Zarvos, May December
• Ludwig Göransson, Oppenheimer
• Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard, John Wick: Chapter 4
• Joe Hisaishi, The Boy and the Heron

Winner: Ludwig Göransson (Oppenheimer)

Another category in which every nominee is a heavy hitter. Joe Hisaishi, who has scored every one of Miyazaki’s feature films, has never even been nominated for an Academy Award, which almost feels like a mistake. How can you listen to his music from Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky and not consider it to be one of the best film scores, not just of the year, but ever? That having been said, Christopher Nolan’s new go-to composer, Ludwig Göransson, outdid himself with the kinetic score for Oppenheimer, which is not only extremely hummable but also key to maintaining the film’s pace.

Best Original Song

• “Can’t Catch Me Now,” The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
• “I’m Just Ken,” Barbie
• “In My Head,” Scream VI
• “Am I Dreaming,” Across the Spider-Verse
• “Peaches,” The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Winner: “Can’t Catch Me Now”

Yes, I understand that “Peaches” is intentionally bad, and “I’m Just Ken” isn’t necessarily meant to be a masterpiece, but I genuinely enjoy all five of these songs. “Am I Dreaming” and “In My Head” are great credits tunes that sum up the feelings the movies leave you with, but my favorite was Olivia Rodrigo’s “Can’t Catch Me Now,” which was an earworm even before the actual film released.

Best Sound

• Johnnie Burn, The Zone of Interest
• Richard King, Maestro
• Emma Bortignon, Talk to Me
• Richard King, Oppenheimer
• John Pospisil, Alec G. Rubay, and Kip Smedley, Across the Spider-Verse

Winner: Richard King (Oppenheimer)

Best Production Design

• Sarah Greenwood, Barbie
• Paul D. Austerberry, The Color Purple
• Jack Fisk, Killers of the Flower Moon
• Adam Stockhausen, Asteroid City
• Shona Heath and James Price, Poor Things

Winner: Sarah Greenwood (Barbie)

You’ll notice this is the first time Poor Things is mentioned in any category. As you might be able to guess, that’s because I didn’t gel with that movie very much, but the environment the film is working in is pretty spectacular. I just wasn’t a huge fan of the script…or the directing…or the story. Sorry, Yorgos.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Jo-Ann MacNeil, Priscilla
• Kazu Hiro, Maestro
• Ivana Primorac, Barbie
• Nadia Stacey, Poor Things
• Alexei Dmitriew and Cassie Russek, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Winner: Kazu Hiro (Maestro)

Best Costume Design

• Jacqueline West, Killers of the Flower Moon
• Holly Waddington, Poor Things
• Jacqueline Durran, Barbie
• Francine Jamison-Tanchuck, The Color Purple
• Milena Canonero, Asteroid City

Winner: Holly Waddington (Poor Things)

Best Editing

• Jonathan Alberts, All of Us Strangers
• Jennifer Lame, Oppenheimer
• Eddie Hamilton, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning
• Martin Walsh, Colin Goudie, and Ben Mills, Tetris
• Michael Andrews, Across the Spider-Verse

Winner: Jennifer Lame (Oppenheimer)

Best Visual Effects

• The Creator
• Godzilla Minus One
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
• Oppenheimer
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Winner: Godzilla Minus One

Best Practical Effects

• Barbie
• Evil Dead Rise
• Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
• Oppenheimer
• Five Nights at Freddy’s

Winner: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Best Stunts

• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
• Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning — Part One
• John Wick: Chapter 4
• Scream VI
• The Iron Claw

Winner: John Wick: Chapter 4

Stunts are a vital facet of filmmaking that’s long gone unrecognized by several major awards bodies, and after a push by industry folks after the release of the latest John Wick (which showcases the importance of stunt work in major motion pictures, especially those of the action variety).

And now, a category that’s purely for fun!

Best Trailer

• Furiosa
• Barbie
• Bottoms
• Dune: Part Two
• The Killer

Winner: Furiosa

Unsurprisingly, Oppenheimer led the pack with 14 nominations and 6 wins (the most on both counts), followed closely behind by box office counterpart Barbie, which holds the record for being nominated the most (10) but winning the least (1). Across the Spider-Verse, though, has the most nominations (8) with zero wins. Scream VI was an unexpected heavy hitter, scoring six nominations but winning none. Awards favorites like Poor Things and The Zone of Interest only scored three nominations each, with the former winning one and the latter winning none.

The actual Academy Award nominations will be announced tomorrow, January 23, and they are sure to inspire controversy of some kind, whether it’s a snub, an unlikely pick (á la Andrea Riseborough), or a surprise slam dunk. This isn’t necessarily a prediction, but I am confident that many of my selections will make the final round and will be in contention for the awards in March. Until then…stay strong, All of Us Strangers fans. And everyone else, too.