The 97th annual Academy Awards are almost here, coming to cap off an awards season that has been...eventful, to say the least. To be held just weeks after the historic L.A. wildfires, this year's ceremony will celebrate the film industry, and honor L.A. "as a city of dreams, showcasing its beauty and resilience." The awards show will also forego some Oscar traditions, following controversies among the year's frontrunners that threw a wrench in the ceremonies' planning.
Still, 2024 was a stellar year for cinema, filled with instant classics that found passionate fanbases (shoutout to the Conclave hive!) and genuine global blockbusters like Inside Out 2, Dune: Part Two, and Wicked. This year's Best Picture category is the most unpredictable in recent years, with a joyous musical (Wicked), a gruesome body-horror (The Substance), a sex-worker Cinderella story (Anora), and a three-plus hour epic (The Brutalist) among the frontrunners.
