Every year at the Oscars, plenty of attention is given to the films nominated for the major categories, particularly Best Picture and the acting categories. But we often forget that there are 23 awards within the Academy Awards, each with brilliant films that are often underseen and underappreciated, yet bring us exciting new filmmakers and performers. Your next favorite director could be getting their start in the shorts category, or the next major director could’ve made one of the International Feature nominees. The Oscars aren’t just about the major names that we hear all the time, it’s about celebrating every facet of filmmaking, from sound to makeup and hairstyling to directing. Because of that, some great movies this year won’t get the attention of a Barbie or an Oppenheimer.
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To give equal attention to all the nominees this year, we’ve rounded up every single film nominated at the 2024 Academy Awards and ranked them from best to worst on their own. With 53 different films nominated at this year’s Oscars, let’s rank every nominee in all 23 categories.
53 ‘War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko’
1 nomination – Animated Short Film
Image via ShortsTV
Considering how many talented people are involved with War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko, it’s shocking how completely laughable the animated short is. War Is Over! is directed David Mullins, who did additional directing on Up and won this category previously for his Pixar short Lou. The short also includes a score by Thomas Newman of The Shawshank Redemption and Finding Nemo fame, and is co-written by Sean Lennon, who also executive produces with Yoko Ono. But despite this lineup, War Is Over! is the weakest nomination of the 2024 Oscars. Centering around a chess game played by both sides, thanks to a carrier pigeon delivering each player’s moves, War Is Over! has the most lackluster animation (it also uses animation and visual effects from Wētā FX, and Unreal Engine was used in creating the short), and a laughable needle drop to tie the whole thing together (take a wild guess what song it is). The result is a short whose message is essentially “war is bad,” and is presented as though Yoko Ono and John Lennon came up with that concept. In an incredibly strong year for the animation short category, both in terms of boundary-pushing animation and intriguing narratives, War Is Over! is a massive disappointment.
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52 ‘Golda’
1 nomination – Makeup and Hairstyling
Image via Bleecker Street
Related
‘Golda’ Review: Helen Mirren Is Stuck in Stuffy Historical Drama
There is a chapter in history worth exploring here, but this film is not the one to do it.
Director Guy Nattiv made one of the least nuanced and most absurd Oscar winners in recent memory, with his laughable live-action short, 2018’s Skin. After seeing that short, it’s not a surprise in the least that Nattiv brings that same lack of depth to Golda, a film that is basically a blander version of The Darkest Hour, but with Helen Mirren in offensively over-the-top makeup to make her look like the former Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir. Golda feels like the type of biopic the Oscars would’ve piled awards on years ago, but the Academy has since (mostly) moved past this type of dry drama. At the very least, Golda does do a decent job of showing the immense stress that making decisions in war would have on a person, a suffocating reality that so many similar films gloss over. But beyond that, Golda is a fairly basic historical drama, and the type of story we’ve seen handled in much better films.
Golda
Focuses on the intensely dramatic and high-stakes responsibilities and decisions that Golda Meir, also known as the ‘Iron Lady of Israel,’ faced during the Yom Kippur War.
Release Date August 25, 2023
Director Guy Nattiv
Cast Helen Mirren , Henry Goodman , Emma Davies , Claudette Williams
Runtime 100 minutes
Watch on Fubo
51 ‘The After’
1 nomination – Live Action Short Film
Image via ShortsTV
The After, from director Misan Harriman, is a short that relies on big, over-the-top moments, and that isn’t to its benefit. The short follows, Dayo (David Oyelowo), who loses his family in a horrible tragedy, and much later, faces his grief during his new job as a rideshare driver. The inciting incident which comes out of nowhere is mostly absurd, these eighteen minutes feel like they’re spreading a thin idea out as much as possible, and the film’s finale is just as exaggerated as the aforementioned incident. Thankfully, The After’s saving grace is that it has Oyelowo, who does his best work here in silence, as he quietly deals with the various people he drives around. When the final family enters his car, it’s clear exactly where Harriman’s story is going, but when Oyelowo is given the opportunity to discreetly explore his grief, The After shows that it’s better in the silent moments than its grandiose choices.
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50 ‘Rustin’
1 nomination – Actor in a Leading Role (Colman Domingo)
Image via Netflix
Related
‘Rustin’ Review: Colman Domingo Does What He Can to Save Stiff, Generic Biopic
From director George C. Wolfe, ‘Rustin’ is a by-the-numbers biopic that at least makes Colman Domingo a rightful star.
Rustin isn’t bad, but it is the type of by-the-numbers biopic that so many great stories have been stuck in that do a disservice to these incredible people. It’s a damn shame considering the team behind this, which includes director George C. Wolfe of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and is written by Julian Breece and Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black. Naturally, the saving grace to Rustin is Colman Domingo’s performance as civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, but isn’t Domingo always great in everything from Zola to The Color Purple? That’s not to take away from Domingo finally getting his much-deserved flowers, but beyond his strong take on Bayard, Rustin is just too much like countless other biopics to do its title character—or Domingo—justice.
Rustin
Activist Bayard Rustin faces racism and homophobia as he helps change the course of Civil Rights history by orchestrating the 1963 March on Washington.
Release Date November 17, 2023
Runtime 106 minutes
Watch on Netflix
49 ‘The ABCs of Book Banning’
1 nomination – Documentary Short Film
Image via ShortsTV
Directed by Sheila Nevins, the former President of HBO Documentary Films, The ABCs of Book Banning attempts to show the frustrations of book banning from the viewpoint of the children. Certainly, some of the short’s best moments come from children reading banned books and questioning why such literature would not be allowed—a clear example of stunting the education of children and stealing knowledge due to fear. While it’s important that The ABCs of Book Banning shows this perspective that is often ignored—from the children who suffer the most from such actions—Nevins’ documentary also doesn’t delve too much into the why and who behind the book banning. Instead, Nevins focuses on the books themselves, pointing out lines that likely helped in getting them banned in what essentially equates to a PowerPoint presentation. Banning books is, of course, an important topic to discuss, but Nevins’ approach doesn’t have the depth to change any hearts or minds on this matter.
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48 ‘Flamin’ Hot’
1 nomination – Music (Original Song)
Image via Searchlight Pictures
Related
‘Flamin’ Hot’ Review: Eva Longoria’s Directorial Debut Trades Honesty for Heart
While not as good as Flamin’ Hot Cheetos themselves, this is one movie that gets to the burning question about what snack is profitable for Frito-Lay.
Yes, a song from the movie about Flamin’ Hot Cheetos is nominated for an Oscar. But hey, compared to the other awful films that have received their sole nominations because Diane Warren wrote a bad song for them (Tell It Like a Woman, Four Good Days, Breakthrough, etc.), Flamin’ Hot is one of the better ones. In a year that was packed with films about how beloved products from Tetris to Nike shoes were made, Flamin’ Hot is not bad, as director Eva Longoria knows how to make a decent crowd-pleaser, while the film’s lead JesseGarcia is a delight. Is the 2024 Oscars going to end with a song about Cheetos winning an award? Almost definitely not, but Flamin’ Hot is a decent film for a story about the creation of a cheesy snack.
Flamin’ Hot
This is the inspiring true story of Richard Montañez who, as a Frito Lay janitor, disrupted the food industry by channeling his Mexican heritage to turn Flamin’ Hot Cheetos from a snack into an iconic global pop culture phenomenon.
Release Date June 9, 2023
Runtime 99 minutes
Watch on Hulu
47 ‘Island in Between’
1 nomination – Documentary Short Film
Image via ShortsTV
In one of the more personal documentary shorts, Island in Between has Taiwan-born director S. Leo Chiang exploring Kinmen, a series of islands that belong the Taiwan but are only 2 miles from China. Chiang discusses the conflict between Taiwan and China from his and his family’s experiences. For example, when he finally visits China—which only takes a 30-minute ferry ride to get to—he finds that the culture isn’t too different from his own, and we see the difficulties that still exist in going from one country to another. Despite being told from Chiang’s perspective, Island in Between is one of the more unobtrusive documentaries in its category, as Chiang mostly remains an observer throughout the short, a choice that can make this film feel a bit lighter than maybe it should.
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46 ‘Our Uniform’
1 nomination – Animated Short Film
Image via ShortsTV
As the shortest of all the shorts, Our Uniform by Yegane Moghaddam, has plenty of style, but not enough time to give much of a story. Our Uniform shares what it’s like to go to school in Tehran, with mandatory hijabs, animated by embroideries and animations on clothes. The short is succinct and smart, pointing out that in going to school, “I became female, nothing more, nothing less.” Moghaddam (the first Iranian filmmaker ever nominated in this category) utilizes her time effectively, giving us a quick look at what growing up in that culture is like, and does so through a truly unique animation style—a rare accomplishment to bring something wholly new to this category.
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45 ‘Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó’
1 nomination – Documentary Short Film
Image via ShortsTV
2024 has already been a big year for director Sean Wang, as his feature debut, Dìdi won two awards at this year’s Sundance, and now, he’s earned his first Oscar nomination for Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó. Easily the most lighthearted of the doc shorts, Wang shows the daily life of his two grandmothers, who became so close that they decided to live together, and even share the same bed at night. The two joke that they are only as wild as they are because Wang is there to visit, and he definitely captures that spirit that keeps them young at heart, as they arm wrestle, joke about their smelly farts, and watch Superbad together. Wang’s grandmothers only barely touch on the rest of their lives, hinting that they had hard childhoods, and discussing the difficulties of being old. Which, especially in the doc shorts category it’s nice to have nominees that aren’t inherently bleak, but while Wang’s grandmothers are a delight to spend time with, Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó can’t help but feels like just a series of well-shot home movies.
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44 ‘Pachyderme’
1 nomination – Animated Short Film
Image via ShortsTV
Stéphanie Clément’s Pachyderme has a simmering danger right underneath the surface. The narrator (Christa Théret), an older version of the character Louise, discusses her summer visit with her grandparents in the countryside when she was nine-year-old. Early on, she states that she doesn’t like it when her parents leave her, and through beautiful, yet slightly off animation, we learn why Louise feels this way. Pachyderme is incredibly subtle, often hinting at where her fear might come from, without overtly stating the obvious. In eleven minutes, Pachyderme gives us a strong glimpse of what this ten-day vacation was like, while Clément lets the fear hide right underneath the surface. Pachyderme is probably the most understated animated short in the category this year, but it still leaves a staggering impact.
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43 ‘The Barber of Little Rock’
1 nomination – Documentary Short Film
Image via ShortsTV
With The Barber of Little Rock, directors John Hoffman and ChristineTurner follow Arlo Washington, who started the Washington Barber College in Little Rock—which has helped over 1,500 licensed barbers—and now, has created the People Trust, a non-profit loan fund to help fight the racial wealth gap. Hoffman and Turner divide the doc into these two focuses, which leaves both sides feeling half served. The more interesting segment of the two, the barber college, gets glimpses of the incredible work Washington is doing to help create opportunities in his community. Whereas the People Trust section sort of ends right when it should be starting. Washington is an incredible figure doing what he can to make his neighborhood even better, but The Barber of Little Rock is fairly unremarkable beyond what Washington brings to it. The story is great to hear, but as a film, it’s a bit lacking.
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42 ‘The Creator’
2 nominations – Sound and Visual Effects
Image via 20th Century Studios
Related
‘The Creator’ Review: Gareth Edwards Takes a Stand for AI, Not Humans
The latest film from the director of ‘Rogue One’ is neither a masterpiece nor a complete misfire.
Ever since his 2010 debut, Monsters, Gareth Edwards has always been a director who knows how to build a universe and make it look good—even with a substantially smaller budget than most films. As his first non-IP film since Monsters, Edwards builds an impressive world where mankind is in a war against AI. However, despite the richness of this universe, The Creator tells a fairly basic story of a man transporting a young girl that he starts to grow attached to that we’ve seen countless times in recent years. The Creator also makes some fairly questionable statements about AI in 2023, as well as some amalgamating of Asian cultures. It’s excellent that Edwards is showing that mid-budget films can succeed in this landscape, and his film absolutely would be deserving to win either of its two nominations, but The Creator is a great environment, but without a great story to back it up, unfortunately.
The Creator
As a future war between the human race and artificial intelligence rages on, ex-special forces agent Joshua is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI. The Creator has developed a mysterious weapon that has the power to end the war and all of mankind. As Joshua and his team of elite operatives venture into enemy-occupied territory, they soon discover the world-ending weapon is actually an AI in the form of a young child.
Release Date September 29, 2023
Watch on Hulu
41 ‘Io Capitano’
1 nomination – International Feature Film
Image via Cohen Media Group
Related
‘Io Capitano’ Review: Young Performers Excel In Harrowing Circumstances
Though it has a great lead performance, the Oscar-nominated Io Capitano is standard fare in terms of its filmmaking and narrative.
In director Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano, the promise of a better life in another country is almost an impossible goal. As we watch the two teenagers Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall) attempt to travel from Senegal to Italy, they are taken on a journey that is nothing but nonstop trials, as every day, they risk the chance of dying a horrific death—whether its dying alone in the ocean, or getting shot after attempted blackmail. Exhausting journeys are nothing new in the International Feature Film category, and Io Capitano mostly stands out from this lineup thanks to the winning performances by Sarr and Fall, and the brief touches of fantastical elements from Garrone. But in a particularly stacked year for this category, and with many great films not making the cut from the shortlist, Io Capitano just happens to be the weakest of these five International Feature nominees.
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40 ‘NYAD’
2 nominations – Actress in a Leading Role (Annette Bening) and Actress in a Supporting Role (Jodie Foster)
Image via Netflix
Related
‘Nyad’ Review: Annette Bening and Jodie Foster Swim To Crowd-Pleasing Depths
Based on Diana Nyad’s epic swim, Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s feature is a riveting sports drama.
The fascinating true story of something that probably never actually happened the way the film tells it. Free Solo directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are sort of the perfect choices to direct NYAD, another film about an athlete, Diana Nyad (Annette Bening), who isn’t great with social cues that wants to push themselves to the limit in a way that seems both absurd and selfish. Regardless of what is fact and fiction, NYAD throws in an odd mixture of recreations of the past and documentary footage that doesn’t really add anything to this story, often feeling like a sloppy collection of ways to present this story without much focus. But this is a film that you watch because Bening and Jodie Foster are great, and they’re both quite good here—especially Foster, who as Nyad’s friend and trainer, Bonnie Stoll, has a naturalism and charm that makes up for Nyad’s still, often frustrating attitude. Bening and Foster excel together, NYAD is completely fine, a film that’s perfect for throwing on Netflix and half paying attention to.
Nyad
Nyad tells the remarkable true story of athlete Diana Nyad who, at the age of 60 and with the help of her best friend and coach, commits to achieving her life-long dream: a 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida.
Release Date November 3, 2023
Director Jimmy Chin , Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Runtime 121 minutes
Watch on Netflix
39 ‘Maestro’
7 nominations – Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role (Bradley Cooper), Actress in a Leading Role (Carey Mulligan), Cinematography, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound, and Writing (Original Screenplay)
Image via Netflix
Related
‘Maestro’ Review: Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan Are Magnificent in Musical Portrait
Thankfully, ‘Maestro’ is not your typical biopic, despite what the trailer might have you think.
Structurally, Maestro is sort of a fascinating approach to the biopic.Bradley Cooper and co-writer Josh Singer seemingly are trying to avoid any of the major moments in the lives of Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) and Felicia Montealegre (an excellent Carey Mulligan) that a typical biopic would focus on. We hear about their accomplishments in passing, but Maestro isn’t tackling these one-by-one in the way that so many biopics do—and that’s actually kind of an interesting way to tackle a major figure. But in doing that, Maestro becomes so surface-level, lacking any introspection of depth whatsoever, to a point that it almost feels like one isn’t learning anything about its main characters. Cooper absolutely impresses behind the camera, Matthew Libatique’s cinematography is naturally gorgeous, and the third act finally brings Maestro to an interesting place. But while Cooper knows what he’s doing on a technical level, on the script level, Maestro has no soul. In fact, Cooper’s second film as a director is a bit shallow.
Maestro
This love story chronicles the lifelong relationship of conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein and actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.
Release Date December 20, 2023
Runtime 129 minutes
Watch on Netflix
38 ‘Knight of Fortune’
1 nomination – Live Action Short Film
Image via ShortsTV
The Danish short Knight of Fortune, from Lasse Lyskjær Noer, explores the weird, darkly funny, and unexpected nature of grief, capturing how losing someone in and of itself is a strange process that often feels unbelievable. Leif Andrée stars as Karl, who is saying goodbye to his recently passed wife. He meets Torben (JensJørnSpottag), a man who is also grieving, and the two form an unlikely bond that has them both coming to grips with their pain. That being said, Knight of Fortune manages to take this terrible time in any person’s life and find the comedy within it. The film reminds of another previously nominated Danish short, On My Mind, from 2021, which also found the light in the dark. Knight of Fortune is taking on a difficult blend of tones that any feature would likely struggle with, but Noer is able to give us a beautiful mixture of emotions, all in a little over 20 minutes.
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37 ‘Red, White and Blue’
1 nomination – Live Action Short Film
Image via ShortsTV
There are probably two ways that most people will experience Nazrin Choudhury’s Red, White and Blue—and the deciding factor relies on the film’s twist. On one hand, some might see this moment as emotionally manipulative, pulling the rug out from under the audience in a way that betrays the sympathy we already have for our lead character, Rachel (played by an excellent Brittany Snow). On the other hand, Red, White and Blue’s twist will seem necessary, a gut punch that makes you feel a fraction of how these characters, Rachel and her daughter, Maddy (Juliet Donenfeld) must feel. I, personally, fall into the latter category, in this film about a single mother struggling to make ends meet in Arkansas, who has to drive eight hours out of the state to get an abortion. Red, White and Blue does an incredible job of showing the immense struggle that getting an abortion is—let alone when the nearest doctor is in another state—and the performances from Snow and Donenfeld truly make this short tremendous. Choudhury takes a difficult path to explore a difficult situation, and does so brilliantly.
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36 ‘The Last Repair Shop’
1 nomination – Documentary Short Film
Image via ShortsTV
The directors of The Last Repair Shop—Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers—have become mainstays in the Documentary Short category in the 2020s. Proudfoot won this category in 2021 with The Queen of Basketball, while Proudfoot and Bowers were both nominated for A Concierto Is a Conversation the year before that. It seems entirely likely that this pair will win for their latest collaboration, which focuses on a workshop dedicated to craftspeople who maintain over 80,000 instruments for students in the Los Angeles area. Proudfoot and Bowers focus on the impact music has had on those repairing the instruments, as the film delves into their backstories and how they came to this position, as well as the joy that these repaired instruments bring to the students themselves. Oddly, it’s the score throughout The Last Repair Shot that at times gets too cloying and emotionally manipulative during the major emotional moments. Still, the stories themselves and the passion for making one’s life better through music makes this a likely winner in the documentary short category.
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35 ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’
1 nomination – Music (Original Score)
Related
‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Review: An Uneven, Bonkers, but Thrilling Final Ride
Director James Mangold takes the reins on the final act of this iconic action series, which is steeped in nostalgia and weak in story.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny feels like the iconic action series saying goodbye to itself, a pastiche of ideas from the past that culminates in a fairly okay conclusion for Harrison Ford’s Indy. At a period where it seems like Ford is going around wrapping up playing his famous character, this final adventure for Indy gives us a solid Ford performance—one that even manages to turn a reference of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull into an emotional moment. Also, no one would be mad if Phoebe Waller-Bridge continued this series, and Mads Mikkelsen is having a ball as the film’s key Nazi representation. But it’s the bonkers final third where Dial of Destiny is extremely satisfying, with Indy actually time-traveling, and a beautiful send-off with the help of Karen Allen’s Marion. It’s no Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it’s a better conclusion than passing the series off to Shia LaBeouf.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history.
Release Date June 30, 2023
Runtime 142 minutes
Watch on Disney+
34 ‘American Symphony’
1 nomination – Music (Original Song)
Image via Netflix
American Symphony
In this deeply intimate documentary, musician Jon Batiste attempts to compose a symphony as his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, undergoes cancer treatment.
Release Date November 29, 2023
Runtime 104 minutes
Director Matthew Heineman’s documentary American Symphony follows musician Jon Batiste during a period of great success, while he and his wife, Suleika Jaouad, are also navigating her cancer treatment. Unfortunately, American Symphony too often gets away from this relationship, focusing more on Batiste and his rapid rise in popularity as he wins the Grammy Album of the Year. But American Symphony also gets away from the massive piece of music that Batiste is writing that shares its name with this film, a composition that attempts to capture American history within one piece of music. By the end of American Symphony, we’ve gotten a greater understanding of Batiste as a person and artist, but the music and his wife’s story have taken the backseat a little too often.
Watch on Netflix
