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MoviesAnn Hornaday Michael O'Sullivan
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THE BIGGEST 2024 OSCAR NOMINATION SNUBS AND SURPRISES


‘ORIGIN’ AND ‘MAY DECEMBER’ GOT THE COLD SHOULDER, AMERICA FERRERA GOT A
SURPRISE ‘BARBIE’ NOD, AND ‘AMERICAN FICTION’ AND ‘ANATOMY OF A FALL’ EARNED
LOTS OF LOVE

By Sonia Rao
and 
Jada Yuan
Updated January 23, 2024 at 11:08 a.m. EST|Published January 23, 2024 at 11:05
a.m. EST
2024 Oscar nominations: Surprises and snubs
1:45

Directors like Greta Gerwig and Celine Song aren't in contention for a 2024
Oscar, while Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer“ earned 13 nominations on Jan. 23.
(Video: Allie Caren/The Washington Post)
Skip to main content
 1. Surprise nominations for ‘American Fiction’ included Sterling K. Brown
 2. Leonardo DiCaprio got snubbed
 3. ‘May December’ got shut out of the acting categories
 4. Mark Ruffalo beat out Willem Dafoe in the supporting slot
 5. Justine Triet’s surprise best director nod over Greta Gerwig
 6. Margot Robbie got passed over — for Ken
 7. Ava DuVernay’s ‘Origin’ got zero nominations
 8. France whiffed it


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The 2024 Oscar nominations that rolled in bright and early Tuesday morning
leaned toward artsy, prestige fare — and away from more obvious blockbuster
success. When Greta Gerwig didn’t get nominated for best director for “Barbie,”
you could almost hear a collective gasp across the country.


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The love for “Barbie” seemed weak everywhere, with eight nominations compared
with 13 for “Oppenheimer,” 11 for “Poor Things” and 10 for “Killers of the
Flower Moon.” Despite hitting double digits, “Killers” also landed fewer nods
than many expected — with no recognition for best actor or adapted screenplay,
for instance. (Although Martin Scorsese just passed Steven Spielberg as the
most-nominated living director and Lily Gladstone made history as the first
Native American best actress nominee.) Surging movies? Those would be “American
Fiction” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” which seemed to rack up surprising nods in
every category academy members could think to nominate them for.



One important thing to note about Oscar nominations is that they’re voted on by
branch, which could explain some of this. Directors vote for directors, writers
for writers and so forth, while everyone votes on best picture. For the big
show, everyone in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences votes for
everything, so populist fare has a better chance of snagging some wins. Here’s a
breakdown of the major snubs and surprises for the 96th Academy Awards, which
will take place Sunday, March 10.


SURPRISE NOMINATIONS FOR ‘AMERICAN FICTION’ INCLUDED STERLING K. BROWN

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If you’d been at the Toronto International Film Festival screenings for
“American Fiction,” where Cord Jefferson’s racial satire debuted to a raucous
reception and won the audience award, you might have guessed that the movie
would receive a warm reception out in the world. Getting love from the academy,
though, wasn’t necessarily a given, especially because Jefferson is a first-time
director.

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On Tuesday, things started looking up immediately. Sterling K. Brown, a riot as
the chaotic gay brother in the film, was a surprise nominee for supporting actor
(edging out Willem Dafoe for “Poor Things” and Charles Melton for “May
December”), and then came the out-of-nowhere nomination for best score. Jeffrey
Wright for best actor and Jefferson for adapted screenplay were lovely but less
shocking. All in, the film got five nominations, with Jefferson joining Celine
Song (“Past Lives”) in the astonishing and rare feat of first-time directors
being nominated for best picture.


LEONARDO DICAPRIO GOT SNUBBED

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Best actor is essentially a race between Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) and Paul
Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), each of whom won a Golden Globe in his respective
genre category. But it’s notable that the remaining nominations went to Bradley
Cooper (“Maestro”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”) and Jeffrey Wright (“American
Fiction”) instead of Leonardo DiCaprio, who was snubbed for his lead performance
in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Perhaps we should have seen it coming: The
Screen Actors Guild nominated these exact five actors for its own awards show.


‘MAY DECEMBER’ GOT SHUT OUT OF THE ACTING CATEGORIES

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Despite starring heavyweights Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, Todd Haynes’s
“May December” landed its sole nomination in the original screenplay category.
The campy drama, inspired by the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal of the 1990s, has
been overlooked by several voting bodies this awards season. But breakout star
Charles Melton, who earned praise from critics for his sensitive performance as
a 36-year-old man who was pursued as a teenager by Moore’s character, managed to
secure a number of those industry nominations. He was snubbed in the Oscars’
supporting actor category, which went with more established performers this time
around. Better luck next time?


MARK RUFFALO BEAT OUT WILLEM DAFOE IN THE SUPPORTING SLOT

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While the SAG Awards tend to be a solid predictor of acting nominations, the
Oscars slightly differed in the supporting actor category. While the union
decided to nominate Willem Dafoe for his performance in “Poor Things” as the
eccentric scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter, the academy instead opted to recognize
Dafoe’s co-star Mark Ruffalo, who plays the blustering Duncan Wedderburn and
accompanies Emma Stone’s character on her coming-of-age journey. It seems more
likely that Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”) will win, though, so neither “Poor
Things” actor needs to lose too much sleep over it.

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JUSTINE TRIET’S SURPRISE BEST DIRECTOR NOD OVER GRETA GERWIG

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The big fear going into this morning would be that the male-dominated directors
branch, which typically shuns blockbusters and favors art-house and
international fare, would nominate zero women. Well, breathe a sigh of relief
that that didn’t happen.

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What was shocking, though, was to see French director Justine Triet get
nominated for “Anatomy of a Fall,” while Gerwig, whose “Barbie” is the
highest-grossing film from a female director of all time, is left on the
sidelines. Gerwig had seemed vulnerable in the days leading up to the
nominations, and she’s in good company with other snubbed American directors,
including Bradley Cooper for “Maestro” and Alexander Payne for “The Holdovers.”
The directing branch’s international bent also shone through with Jonathan
Glazer getting honored for the German-language “Zone of Interest,” which ties
“Anatomy of a Fall” (in French and English) with a very robust five nominations
each. They were the top two films at the most recent Cannes Film Festival.


MARGOT ROBBIE GOT PASSED OVER — FOR KEN

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We know box office success doesn’t always translate to Oscar nominations, but it
is remarkable how many times “Barbie,” the highest-grossing film of 2023, was
snubbed across the board. The most glaring of all might be the lack of
recognition for lead actress Margot Robbie, whose performance is instrumental to
the film, and for director Gerwig, who was previously nominated in 2018 for
“Lady Bird.” Rodrigo Prieto wasn’t nominated for the film’s cinematography,
either, though he did make the list for “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

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There was a surprise in Barbieland, though. We expected supporting actor Ryan
Gosling to be nominated, but who had supporting actress America Ferrera on their
bingo card?


AVA DUVERNAY’S ‘ORIGIN’ GOT ZERO NOMINATIONS

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The road to nominations for Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” was always going to be hard.
An adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s seemingly unadaptable nonfiction bestseller
“Caste,” it’s a movie, essentially, about a woman writing a thesis that links
Nazi Germany, the killing of Trayvon Martin and the plight of Dalits in India.
Its synopsis doesn’t sound like something academy members would rush to screen.

DuVernay, who financed the film independently through philanthropists such as
Melinda Gates and Laurene Powell Jobs, had trouble from the start. The movie
didn’t get picked up until the end of the Venice Film Festival, and didn’t hit
theaters until January. And while DuVernay has been running her tail off trying
to promote it this month, the players of the race already felt set in stone. It
was all just a little (or, really, a lot) too late.


FRANCE WHIFFED IT

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The big Oscar controversy this fall was when France decided to submit “The Taste
of Things,” a sumptuous food movie starring Juliette Binoche, as its official
selection for international feature over the Palme d’Or-winning “Anatomy of a
Fall.” France hasn’t won an Oscar in that category since Régis Wargnier’s
“Indochine” in 1993, and this, many thought, could be its year.

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Cut to now, when “The Taste of Things” didn’t make the cut, and “Anatomy of a
Fall” cleaned up with nominations for best picture, director, actress (for
Sandra Hüller), original screenplay and editing, the one category Oscar nerds
will tell you is crucial to be in contention to win the grand prize. Had it been
in international feature, it would be a front-runner, but now it looks as if
“The Zone of Interest” will easily triumph there.

correction

A previous version of this article incorrectly said that Lily Gladstone is the
first Indigenous best actress Oscar nominee; she is the first Native American
best actress nominee. It also incorrectly said that Martin Scorsese has received
the most Oscar directing nominations ever; he has the most of any living
director. Finally, the most recent Cannes festival was last year, not this year.
The article has been corrected.

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