Oscars 2024: Dissecting the nominations for this year's gongs

Taking place at LA’s Dolby Theatre on March 10, the 96th Academy Awards will see Hollywood’s finest get their gladrags on for a night of drinking and drama as the biggest and best films of 2023 are honoured in true American style – with big frocks, big smiles and big speeches.

At Weekend Towers, we love the Oscars, and after a year of stellar cinematic genius, we were excited this week when the nominees for the upcoming gongs were finally revealed.

In no great surprise, Oppenheimer – the epic biopic about atomic bomb creator J Robert Oppenheimer from Christopher Nolan – dominated the Oscar nominations with 13 nods, including one for best actor for Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy.

Murphy, who plays the title role, was nominated for his first Academy Award, alongside Emily Blunt in the best actress category, while their co-star Robert Downey Jr also received a nod for supporting actor.

The incredible three-hour drama was also recognised for best picture, while British filmmaker Nolan scored his second nod for best director. He will go head-to-head with another British director, Jonathan Glazer, for his film The Zone Of Interest, about a German family who live next to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The category also saw Justine Triet nominated for French courtroom drama Anatomy Of A Fall, Martin Scorsese being given a nod for western crime thriller Killers Of The Flower Moon, and Yorgos Lanthimos nominated for Poor Things.

Gothic fairytale comedy Poor Things scored 11 nods in total, including best picture, as well as nominations for Mark Ruffalo in the supporting actor category and best actress for star Emma Stone.

That prize sees British actress Carey Mulligan also in contention for her performance as Leonard Bernstein’s wife Felicia Montealegre in Maestro, alongside Sandra Huller for Anatomy Of A Fall, Annette Bening for Nyad and Lily Gladstone for Killers Of The Flower Moon.

Meanwhile Blunt, who has been nominated for her performance as Oppenheimer’s wife in the supporting actress category, faces competition from US actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who has won a slew of precursor prizes for her turn as a cook in The Holdovers.

The category also features Danielle Brooks for The Color Purple, based on Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Jodie Foster for her performance in sports drama Nyad about the life of athlete Diana Nyad, and America Ferrera for Barbie. Downey Jr has also landed his third Oscar nomination for his supporting role as Lewis Strauss, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, in Oppenheimer.

Other nominees include Ryan Gosling for his performance as Ken in Barbie, Robert De Niro for his role as William Hale in Killers Of The Flower Moon and Sterling K Brown for playing Cliff Ellison in American Fiction.

American Fiction also scored a nod in the best actor category for US star Jeffrey Wright, following his performance as a frustrated novelist who writes a book that propels him into the centre of the hypocrisy he disdains.

He will compete against Paul Giamatti, who has won plaudits for his performance as a cranky prep school teacher forced to remain on campus over Christmas with a troubled student in drama The Holdovers.

Bradley Cooper also landed a nomination in the category for his Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, which he also directed, alongside Colman Domingo for his performance as activist Bayard Rustin, adviser to Martin Luther King Jr.

Meanwhile, American Fiction also featured in the adapted screenplay category for first-time feature film director Cord Jefferson who adapted Percival Everett’s 2001 novel titled Erasure.

He will compete against Greta Gerwig and her husband and co-writer Noah Baumbach for box office juggernaut Barbie, alongside British screenwriter Tony McNamara for Poor Things, adapted from Scottish writer Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel.

British film-maker Nolan also features in the category for his adaptation of Oppenheimer, alongside Glazer for The Zone Of Interest.

The best picture Oscar 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.

Among the nominations for Oppenheimer and Poor Things were potential gongs for make-up and hairstyling, production design, film editing, cinematography, and costume design.

Both flicks were also nominated for best original score alongside American Fiction, Indiana Jones And The Dial of Destiny and Killers Of The Flower Moon.

Meanwhile best original song saw Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt nominated for I’m Just Ken from Barbie, alongside sibling song-writing duo Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell for What Was I Made For? from the same Margot Robbie-led hit film. It comes after the pair won the Golden Globe for the song, and two years after their Oscar win in the same category for James Bond theme song No Time To Die.

This year’s Academy Awards ceremony will air from midnight on March 11 in the UK.

Time to get the tux out and your speeches ready; the biggest party in town is not far away.