The Oscars
Best picture: who will go home with the Oscar?
Olivia Solorzano '26
Content Designer
Happy Oscars season! In case you don’t know, the Oscars, or the Academy Awards, is an award show put on by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding excellence in the film industry. The 96th Oscar Awards were held on Sunday, March 10, 2024, and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
This year, the competition was fierce, with many highly rated films competing against each other for Best Picture. I watched all ten nominees for the category and made my predictions on who had the best chance of winning:
“American Fiction” was a fictional comedy following the life of a novelist who is fed up with the stereotypes regarding the Black community. Although it was hilarious and carried a powerful message, I doubted it would emerge victorious, despite my personal admiration for it.
“Anatomy of a Fall” is a foreign film that follows the trial of a woman who is being prosecuted for the supposed murder of her husband. The movie was entirely dialogue, but the storyline was fairly interesting. I thought it had a good chance of winning, but in comparison to all the other movies, I didn’t expect it to win.
“The Zone of Interest” and “Maestro” were good movies, but overall not very entertaining or outstanding in the cinematography field, so they were pretty low on my ranking of who would win.
“Poor Things” starred Emma Stone as the “creation” of a mad scientist, and she runs away to travel. This was a great movie and thoroughly entertaining, but in comparison to the rest of the nominees, I didn’t think it stood out.
“The Holdovers” is a coming of age film that tells the story of a grumpy history teacher at an all boys boarding school who spends his winter break babysitting the boys who have nowhere to go. He ends up forming a true bond with a troublesome, but damaged, student. I loved everything about this movie, and it is my favorite out of the ten, but I didn’t think it would win Best Picture.
“Barbie” follows Barbie as she travels from Barbie Land to the real world, where she discovers the reality of the human world. This movie was beautiful in every way, so I thought it had a very high chance of winning due to its popularity and overall excellence.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” is based on the true story of the Osage nation, who were murdered by men trying to steal their wealth and land. This film was a three hour long emotional masterpiece, but I didn’t think it would win due to the small controversies regarding the movie.
One of my favorites, “Past Lives,” was centered around two childhood best friends who are reunited after being separated for years. It told a beautiful love story, and I thought it should win because so many aspects of the film were completely perfect.
A recreation of the "Past Lives" movie poster.
“Oppenheimer” stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who fathered the atomic bomb. It told the true story of the creation of the nuclear weapon that forever changed the course of history. The acting was phenomenal, the visuals were breathtaking and the story left you to ponder the future of our world. It also was a major box office hit, and contained many famous actors, so I thought this film has the best chance of going home with the award.
“Oppenheimer” went home with six other awards as well, including Best Cinematography. Congratulations to all the nominees in every category and the winners; this year had some of the best films that deserve to be celebrated!