From „Barbie“ to „The Holdovers“ to „Past Lives,“ revisit our takes on the year’s Best Picture Oscar nominees
Nominations for the 2024 Academy Awards have been announced, and with them we now know which 10 films are competing for Hollywood’s vote in the race to the night’s top honor, Best Picture.
And the nominees are: “American Fiction,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Oppenheimer,” “Past Lives,” “Poor Things” and “The Zone of Interest.”
Of course, the Academy Awards is first and foremost a way to promote the movie industry, and even in the age of streaming the fabled “Oscars bounce” is still a thing. Which means these 10 films are also now competing for the votes of moviegoers looking to get caught up before the Oscars ceremony, which by the way airs on March 10.
Maybe you’re one of those people, but you don’t know where to begin? We got you covered. Read on for easy access to TheWrap’s reviews of every single Oscars 2024 Best Picture nominees.
Nominee: “American Fiction”
Director: Cord Jefferson
Starring: Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown
Based on the 2001 novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett, “American Fiction” stars Wright as a professor and author whose writing career has stalled. As the official description goes, “fed up with the establishment profiting from ‘Black’ entertainment,” he “uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.”
Part family drama and part social commentary/satire, in his review TheWrap’s Steve Pond said the film “does pull off the remarkable feat of being a lovely, charming comedy that makes damn serious points about representation and racial politics.” Read the full review.
“American Fiction” is not currently streaming — Find showtimes.
Nominee: “Anatomy of a Fall”
Director: Justine Triet
Starring: Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner, Antoine Reinartz, Samuel Theis, Jehnny Beth, Saadia Bentaieb, Camille Rutherford, Anne Rotger
This French legal thriller, which already won the Palm D’or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, stars Hüller as a writer who may or may not have murdered her husband.
“Part thorny family story, part whodunit, part courtroom drama and part meditation on the nature of truth and fiction,” TheWrap’s Steve Pond wrote in his review, the “tense, unbearably so at times” film is also “subtle and satisfying.” Read the full review.
“Anatomy of a Fall” is currently available to rent on most digital platforms and is in limited theatrical release. Find showtimes.
Nominee: “Barbie”
Director: Greta Gerwig
Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, Will Ferrell, Ariana Greenblatt.
“Barbie” is 2023’s biggest pop culture phenomenon and highest grossing film.
