Last Sunday night, the 95th Annual Academy Awards took place at the Dolby Theatre. History was made when Everything Everywhere All At Once took home seven above-the-line awards, the first movie ever to accomplish this feat. After the ceremony, Hollywood’s elite attended various after-parties to celebrate their wins (or drown their sorrows) till the sun came up. One would think that anyone involved in the grind of the months-long awards race would take it easy the next day, maybe even take a couple of weeks off. But for some in the industry, Monday morning began with a new goal — Oscars 2024.
For the average moviegoer, the Oscars is just a one-night event; but for studios and PR agencies, it’s a year-long cycle that never ends.
There’s an entire cottage industry of specialist awards lobbyists and PR firms who are both beholden to and responsible for this perpetual motion machine.
The year in movies begins with the Sundance Film Festival in January, and this year was no exception. Actor Jonathan Majors cemented his star status a few weeks ago with back-to-back box office toppers Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), and Creed III (2023).
He’s also a shoo-in for the Best Actor race next year for his performance in Sundance breakout Magazine Dreams, in which he plays an amateur bodybuilder with ambitions of fame.
Magazine Dreams was acquired by Searchlight who are experts at the Awards circuit, with successes like Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and The Favourite (208), to name a few.
Searchlight also has Next Goal Wins starring Michael Fassbender and directed by Taika Waititi, who has delivered for the studio in the past with a screenplay win for Jojo Rabbit (2019).
Meanwhile, Apple TV+ is looking to repeat its CODA success with musical Flora and Son from John Carney whose Once (2007) won Best Original Song for Falling Slowly.
Flora and Son is a feel-good dramedy that revolves around a musician mother and her young son. The movie stars Eve Hewson (from TV’s Bad Sisters and The Knick), sure to ignite the nepo baby debate as her father is legendary U2 frontman Bono.
Apple has also put its considerable cash behind the juggernaut of the year, Martin Scorcese’s long-awaited Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jesse Plemons, Robert DeNiro and newly minted Oscar winner Brendan Fraser. With this pedigree, and Apple’s firepower, the film is sure to be a major contender at next year’s awards circuit. Apple has also stocked its arsenal with Ridley Scott’s period epic Napolean, starring Joaquin Phoenix.
Streaming giant Netflix had an unexpectedly good year with German-language All Quiet On The Western Front winning four Oscars off seven nominations. They are releasing the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro this year with Bradley Cooper writing, directing and starring as the famed composer. Cooper’s previous movie A Star Is Born (2018) garnered eight nominations and one win.
There’s also perennial bridesmaid David Fincher returning with The Killer starring Michael Fassbender. Michael Mann will come roaring back with Ferrari starring Adam Driver as Enzo.
The first female nominee for cinematography, Rachel Morrison, will make her directorial debut with Flint Strong, starring Best Supporting Actor nominee Brian Tyree Henry, and written by Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins. Meanwhile, Wes Anderson will take another go at the Oscars with Asteroid City which stars <deep breath> Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Edward Norton, Scarlett Johansson, Adrien Brody, Steve Carell, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, and so many more.
This weekend at SXSW will see the premiere of Air, the story of Nike signing Michael Jordan from director Ben Affleck. Affleck is reteaming with Matt Damon nearly 30 years after Good Will Hunting (1997) which received nine nominations and won for screenplay and supporting actor. Affleck himself has already won best picture for Argo (2012).
On the big-budget blockbuster side of things, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune 2 will try to replicate the success of the first Dune (2020), which won six Oscars from a whopping 10 nominations. The sequel is going all out, adding Florence Pugh and Austin Butler to an already star-studded cast with Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, and others.
Christopher Nolan will be back this year with Oppenheimer, telling the story of the atomic bomb. Nolan’s previous outing Dunkirk (2017) was nominated for eight Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, and won 3 awards. Oppenheimer with its stacked cast — Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Emily Blunt, Gary Oldman, and Casey Affleck, among others, is expected to perform even better than Dunkirk.
Opening alongside Oppenheimer on the same day is Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023) with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. That may sound frothy, but ignore her at your peril. Her previous two movies Ladybird (2017) and Little Women (2019) have 11 nominations and one win between them.
This is just a small sampling of movies that are expected to dominate the Oscars this year. The real competition starts in the final quarter of the year after these movies have actually been watched by critics and audiences. Meanwhile, studio execs and lobbyists are already hard at work shaping the narratives that voters and fans will be reacting to — the new star that cannot be ignored, the fairytale comeback, the minority, the little movie that could, the method actor, etc.
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