Oscar nominations are mostly acceptable
With the exception of a handful of snubs and questionable inclusions, the 2024 Oscars seem to have given artistic merit some genuine consideration. As anticipated, Oppenheimer received the most nominations with 13 categories. While much of this year’s Oscar nods seem to have gone the way cinemagoers have expected, there were a few surprises.
While the highest grossing film of last year, Barbie, was nominated for eight Oscars, one major surprise was Greta Gerwig not being nominated for directing and Margot Robbie was not being nominated for best actress. However, they were both nominated, Gerwig for best adapted screenplay and Robbie as a producer in the best picture category. It is ironic that Ryan Gosling got nominated considering the themes of the film, but his recognition is far from unwarranted.
The biggest snub which didn’t make headlines is Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron lack of nomination in both the best original score- a category which holds one of the biggest nomination mistakes of the year. How on earth can the new Indiana Jones movie be nominated for “best original score” when the only piece of music I remember from the film is over forty years old and has been the theme song for five movies? That was by far the most disappointing part of the nominations to me, as Joe Hisaishi’s score for The Boy and The Heron is excellent and incorporates unusual ideas and motifs heightening an already impressive film which could be described in the same way. Undoubtedly Ludwig Göransson should win for Oppenheimer. I have listened to “Can You Hear the Music?” more times than I can count. It adds a rich layer of resonance, pressure, and synthesis to a film structured literally and metaphorically around these ideas. While Göransson deserves to win, Hisaishi’s creativity should have been favored over John Williams pressing “replay”.
Overall, I feel there is reason to be very optimistic about the Oscars this year. It seems that many films that deserve to be recognized will be. Oppenheimer will probably sweep most of the categories it was nominated for, some underdog film will likely get a surprise win, and Lily Gladstone might give a speech in the Blackfeet language. Whatever happens, I hope Hisashi gets an Oscar sometime soon.
