Despite my lateness, I have finally gotten around to watching all the Best Picture nominees for 2024, and I’m ready to rank them from worst to best. While there are definitely a few nominees that I probably wouldn’t have picked, I think that it’s a pretty decent lineup. It’s definitely among the better Best Picture nominee lineups, especially in recent years. 

I’m ranking these movies based on personal preference; I’ll give my brief thoughts on each movie, and also cover its Oscar chances. 

10. Maestro

For many, this is the odd one out of the 10 nominees, and I think that it is an odd movie in itself. On paper, it really looks like a generic and awards-baity biopic of Leonard Bernstein. It turned out to be one of the more confusing attempts of a biopic, for better and for worse. On one hand, it’s not just a Wikipedia page converted into a movie, where it attempts to lazily cram all the major moments in its subject’s life into a 2 hour film. That said, I came out of it not feeling like I learned much about Bernstein. Even with its interesting narrative and directing choices, it wasn’t the most engaging of stories, and I found it to be sluggish and tiresome. Even the love story at the center of the film isn’t that great. It’s a very jarring experience too, with a dreamlike yet aimless first half, and a more conventional but more focused and effective second half. That said, while the performances of Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan aren’t enough to elevate the movie to anything beyond decent, they are pretty good in their roles (particularly Mulligan). It is also directed fairly well, and Matthew Libatique’s cinematography is particularly gorgeous. I don’t think it’s a bad movie, but it’s by far the worst of the nominees. 

Maestro definitely isn’t going to win Best Picture, and I really don’t see it winning in many of its other categories either. Potentially Makeup and Hairstyling?

9. Barbie

The next nominee on this list is the highest grossing movie of the year. While I don’t love the movie as much as other people, I think it is pretty good on the whole. Director Greta Gerwig did an impressive job at making a live action Barbie movie, taking the concept of the popular toy and doing something interesting with it. With this more self aware and satirical approach, she gave the movie more substance than one would expect, tackling topics including existential crises, feminism and the patriarchy. So it is impressive, even though I’m pretty sure that adults would get more out of it than kids. Not that I don’t have issues with the movie. I did like the first half consistently, mainly with Barbie in Barbieland and when she and Ken were going out into the real world. However, I found that the second half took a shift for the worse. Everything involving Mattel just didn’t work for me, and I wasn’t that invested with the direction that the story goes in. The commentary is a bit of a mixed bag and a little clunky, though not as bad when considering that it’s based on a Mattel product for kids. It’s a fun enough movie, with humour that mostly hits, and good performances from Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. While the cinematography can look disappointingly flat at times (mostly the scenes set in the real world), the costumes and the production design in Barbieland are great, as are the music and dance numbers. Barbie is fun, vibrant, and well made, even if I think it’s one that I best leave with a single viewing. 

As popular as the movie was, Barbie is highly unlikely to win Best Picture. Some people have said that it could be the Everything Everywhere All at Once of this year, but it’s more like the Top Gun: Maverick of this year, a highly popular and highly grossing movie which will probably win a couple of technical awards. Currently it has best shots at Best Costumes and Best Production Design, maybe Best Adapted Screenplay too. 

8. Past Lives

This is definitely my most controversial placing of a nominee on this list. I definitely liked Past Lives, but I’m disappointed that I didn’t love it. As a bittersweet romantic drama about what ifs, it was engaging enough, and I liked watching the interactions of the characters. That’s helped by the solid writing, along with the very relaxed and tender vibe throughout. By the end of the film though, I felt that something was missing. I realised that the story just didn’t hit me as much as I thought it would. The narrative structure deliberately only showing snapshots of characters’ lives likely made it harder for me to be further invested in the story. The movie is a bit too short and I think it would have benefitted from a longer runtime, especially if we learned more about these characters. Still, it’s a good enough movie. Despite my mixed thoughts on the writing, it is helped by some fantastic, understated and nuanced performances from Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro, and Celine Song’s amazing direction in her debut film. While it’s a bit underdeveloped, Past Lives is a solid, quiet and intimate romantic drama, and does fit well among the nominees. 

As for awards estimations, unfortunately I don’t think Past Lives has a chance. While it has impressed in other awards shows, at the Oscars, it’s only nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture, and even the odds in the screenplay category aren’t on their side. 

7. American Fiction

This was the last Best Picture nominee I had left to watch, which is why it took me so long to finish this list. Thankfully the wait was worth it. A satirical dramedy about how black stories are told and consumed by white audiences, American Fiction is quite good. It’s witty, funny, the satire is on point, and it even has some surprising drama and depth. It’s not without its flaws, there are certainly times where the social commentary could’ve gone further. Most of all though, while it handles its two main plotlines well, one focusing on its protagonist creating a fake book which becomes unexpectedly successful, and the other focusing on his family life, the movie has great difficulty reconciling the two, and the film can feel uneven at times. On the whole though, it is a solid movie, made even better by the amazing performances, especially from Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown. 

American Fiction has been nominated for a number of awards but it’s unlikely to win most of them, and it’s highly unlikely that it’ll win Best Picture. However, it does have a decent shot at Best Adapted Screenplay. 

6. The Holdovers

Reminiscent of 70s comedy dramas, from the premise to its overall vibe with the production design, costumes, film grain and even the editing, The Holdovers has been appearing on a lot of “best movies of 2023” lists and it’s not surprising to see why. The amazing script is emotionally absorbing and sentimental, while also being genuinely funny. We become invested watching a few people bond together over the holidays, helped by the outstanding performances from Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. It’s a humorous, bittersweet yet heartfelt and sincere dramedy, and very much among the best movies of the year. 

As far as award chances go, The Holdovers does have some shots; it’s nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Paul Giamatti is the runner up for Best Actor, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph is almost certainly a lock for Best Supporting Actress. Though I’m not prepared to say that it has a great chance at Best Picture, even if its chances are higher than some of the other movies on this list. 

5. Anatomy of a Fall

Another one of the best movies of the year, Anatomy of a Fall is a brilliantly written and well crafted courtroom procedural and character study. It is excellently presented and plotted, and with its heavy emphasis on ambiguity, it is compelling and enthralling to watch play out. It’s made all the more better by the strong direction from Justine Triet, and the amazing performances from everyone, especially from Sandra Hüller in the lead role.

It is well deserving of its nominations, especially Best Actress, I’m not quite prepared to say that it has a shot at Best Picture. It does however have a good shot at Best Original Screenplay. 

4. Poor Things

Watching awards season play out, it wasn’t too surprising that Poor Things would end up as one of the Best Picture nominees, but it is still a little bit surprising to me that a movie this weird did get nominated. A bizarre and odd coming of age story that’s ambitious with what it’s trying to convey, there was plenty that could’ve gone wrong, so it’s all the more impressive that it actually works. With its fantastical world, over the top characters, dark comedy, off kilter nature, and the way it leans into the absurd and cartoonish side of things, it was entertaining from beginning to end. The acting from everyone is amazing, from Willem Dafoe to Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef and especially Emma Stone in possibly her best performance yet. Yorgos Lanthimos’s direction is outstanding, it’s gorgeous looking and effectively conveys the very gonzo vibe of the whole movie with the camerawork, costumes, production design and score. Wonderfully bizarre, entertaining, and with great performances, Poor Things is among my favourites from 2023. 

Poor Things received a lot of nominations; it has a good shot at some of the technical categories (makeup and hairstyling, production design and costume design), and Emma Stone is one of the Best Actress frontrunners. However, I’m not sure that it’s going to win Best Picture.

As for these next three nominees, if any of them won, I would consider them among the greatest Best Picture winners of all time. 

3. The Zone of Interest

The Zone of Interest is probably the most surprising movie out of these 10 to be nominated for Best Picture. While it is a historical movie about the Holocaust, the very experimental and unconventional filmmaking and approach to the narrative seems like the kind of thing that would turn some people off. The deceptively simple and minimalistic plot pulls you into its quietly harrowing experience, and by the end leaves you with a lot to think about. It is among the most uncomfortable portraits of human evil seen in a film; by never showing the horror of the Auschwitz concentration camp on screen, you are forced to view its subjects as people and not just as monsters. Nevertheless, the sounds of what’s happening right next door is constant throughout, and we are presented with what these characters hear and see in their daily lives and choose to accept or ignore. This portrayal of all too familiar and real evil is further helped by the fantastic performances from Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller. This whole experience is really made possible by Jonathan Glazer’s amazing direction, it’s one of the most flawlessly crafted films of the year. All the elements (particularly the cinematography and sound design) come together to create a haunting, chilling, captivating and visceral experience of a film. One of the most important movies of 2023, but not an easy one to watch. 

The Zone of Interest has a very good chance at being the most positively reviewed movie of the 10 nominees. It is almost certainly going to get Best International Feature, and has a good chance at Best Sound. I’m not sure that it would win Best Picture, but it is one of the nominees most likely to be the runner up in that category. 

2. Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese continues his recent streak of making films that end up being among his all time best. This bleak and brutal story about American greed, violence and complicity was compelling to watch, effective in the way that it portrayed all the atrocities that were committed against the Osage nation during the Reign of Terror. It’s unsurprisingly an excellently crafted film, very dense in its writing, and its 3.5 hour runtime was absolutely worth it. Scorsese’s direction is outstanding as usual, everything is incredible from the cinematography to the editing, production design, and score. Finally, the massive cast of talented actors deliver some great work, especially Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro. It’s a devastating, monumental and uncompromising historical crime epic, and one of the best films of 2023. 

I think Oscar momentum for Killers of the Flower Moon has unfortunately lowered a little, despite winning big in some other awards shows. Its biggest chance is Best Actress and hopefully it receives that at the very least. 

1. Oppenheimer

With Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan has crafted his best film of his career, and one of the best crafted biopics I’ve seen. It’s an ambitious project, and one that might be a difficult sell to audiences: a 3 hour long historical film about the man who built the atomic bomb, mostly dialogue based and featuring black and white sections. While this is just an aside to the quality of the actual film, it’s satisfying to see such a skillfully made movie get the audience attention and resonance that it deserves. Focussing on one of the most controversial figures of the 20th Century, this historical thriller and character study is captivating throughout, with its non linear structure and storytelling, it is complex, yet isn’t difficult to follow. Repeat viewings only solidify how incredibly well put together it is. Nolan’s direction is spectacular and the movie is a technical masterpiece, with stunning cinematography, on point editing, sound, visual effects and Ludwig Göransson’s perfect score. It’s also helped by the ridiculously stacked and talented cast, with a phenomenal Cillian Murphy in the lead role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, and the incredible supporting performances from the likes of Robert Downey Jr, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Jason Clarke, David Krumholtz, and more. Oppenheimer is the best film of the year, and the best of the 10 Best Picture nominees from 2024. 

This movie is the reason why I couldn’t really settle down on Best Picture runner ups. In most years, there are at least 2-3 frontrunners for the award. However, watching this award’s season, I couldn’t even settle on any other nominee which had an actual chance of winning over Oppenheimer. It’s locked for a number of awards, from technical to acting and it’s almost certainly a lock for Best Picture; it would genuinely be a shock if it didn’t win.

How would you rank these 10 Best Picture nominees?