While last year’s strikes led some films to be pushed off the schedule, when the Oscar race fully came into view, it felt as competitive as any other year, if not more. The summer success of Barbenheimer meant that we had two early frontrunners, a rarity given how the industry usually backloads its prestige bets, and with Cannes giving us three more, after Sundance already gave us one, there was little room for others to break through.
Here are this season’s also-rans:
Priscilla
While Sofia Coppola is not someone the Academy has always favoured – it was just 2003’s Lost in Translation that really broke through, bar a best costume design win for Marie Antoinette since – her latest, Priscilla, had more Oscar-suited on-paper credentials. It was the story of a real person, known by millions, someone who had been married to a music legend whose life was captured in a recent film that scored eight nominations. Like Elvis, it followed the same route with a glitzy festival premiere but unlike that admittedly grander and more formulaic film, it failed to spark in the same way, with star Cailee Spaeny (who did pick up a Golden Globe nod) hampered by an unusually competitive best actress category.
Air
A reunion for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who graced the Oscar stage back in 1998 winning the original screenplay award for Good Will Hunting, briefly seemed like a contender, albeit one with an outside chance. The 80s-set Nike drama Air, directed by Affleck and starring himself and Damon, had many of the ingredients the Academy often gravitate toward – true story, period setting, Viola Davis – and while it did attract the attention of enough critics, some of whom became sure it would make the shortlist (especially after two major Golden Globe nods), it fell at the last hurdle, perhaps a victim of its early release back in the awards dead zone of April.
Napoleon
After the shock success of Coda, which won best picture back in 2022 after being purchased at the previous year’s Sundance film festival, Apple became thirsty for more. The streamer hoped that the crowd-pleaser Cha Cha Real Smooth would follow the same route from Utah to Hollywood, paying $15m and giving it a summer release, but it fizzled without trace while the Will Smith-led big bet Emancipation came and went along with its whopping $120m budget. But this time around, partnering with the Oscar magnet Martin Scorsese, whose films have amassed over 100 nominations in total, paid off with Killers of the Flower Moon nabbing 10. While not entirely left in the shade – it scored recognition in three technical categories – Ridley Scott’s Napoleon failed to feature as prominently as hoped, with nothing for its stars Joaquin Phoenix or Vanessa Kirby, a politely received almost in a fiercely competitive year.
Chevalier
There was something of a Miramax glow to the sparky period biopic Chevalier, in both good and bad ways, perhaps the kind of film that might have appealed to voters back in the 2000s. It told the little-known story of French-Caribbean musician Joseph Bologne who became known as “Black Mozart” in the 1700s as one of the few men of colour to weave his way through France’s restrictive high society. The film offered a plum role for Kelvin Harrison Jr as well as a fun, bitchy supporting turn from Minnie Driver (see: Miramax) but despite Searchlight backing, it had a muted Toronto premiere and an April release, never really finding its way through the noise, unable to even secure a costume design nom.
The Iron Claw
While some on the list couldn’t quite squeak through because of a quality issue, Sean Durkin’s robust wrestling tragedy The Iron Claw feels like it was more the victim of timing. Unveiled late last year outside of a festival setting, it was met with the mix of tears and cheers most Oscar movies dream of but at a stage when many races already felt sewn up, a case of too little too late for a film that otherwise could have made a big impression with voters. It’s certainly done so with audiences, becoming one of the distributor A24’s biggest films ever, and boasting a celebrity fan in the shape of Adele who praised it recently during a show.
Ferrari
A splashy auteur-made true story starring Adam Driver as an Italian again struggled to find its way to impress Oscar voters as the actor went from leading a fashion brand in House of Gucci to an auto empire in Ferrari. Reviews were better this time around, for Michael Mann’s handsomely made passion project, but again it was Driver’s female co-star who stole attention away. Last time Lady Gaga just missed out on a best actress nom (after racking up Golden Globe and Bafta nods) and this time it was Penelope Cruz who seemed close to joining the best supporting actress category (after a Screen Actors Guild nom). But the film was slightly swallowed up during the December scrum, also disappointing at the box office.
Origin
The director Ava DuVernay has a strong track record with awards voters – her third film Selma scored a best picture nom and made her the first African American female nominee of a best director Golden Globe, her documentary 13th scored a best documentary Oscar nom, her Netflix series When They See Us boasted 11 Emmy noms with one win – but her latest, the investigative drama Origin, couldn’t quite connect. The film, an unusual adaptation of best-selling non-fiction book Caste which premiered at the Venice film festival, even received a last-minute push from some A-listers including Angelina Jolie leading some to predict a To Leslie-level shock but in a busy year, it was a bit too late to register.
Flora and Son
Back at last year’s Sundance film festival, the premiere of the Once director John Carney’s musical drama Flora and Son brought the house down with such wild, in-the-room energy that Apple quickly snapped up the rights soon after, clearly envisioning it as its next Coda. But the same mix of warmth, humour and music didn’t quite spark this time despite a deserving lead performance from Eve Hewson, who was unable to share her charm with the wider world with the film receiving a release as the strikes forced actors to stay quiet. A later campaign, wisely pushing her out front, was then too late with the best actress category tougher than it’s been in years.
The Boys in the Boat
Ever since George Clooney’s acclaimed journalism drama Good Night and Good Luck scored him a best director nomination back in 2006, his films have pretty much become a mainstay of lists like this. Star-led, Oscar-aiming projects such as The Ides of March, The Monuments Men, Suburbicon, The Midnight Sky and 2021’s The Tender Bar have been mostly met with a tepid response, all the ingredients in place for awards glory yet a certain magic missing. The same was true with last year’s The Boys in the Boat, strong source material never really turning into something of note and despite becoming a surprise sleeper hit at the box office, it’s yet another Oscar also-ran for Clooney.
Freud’s Last Session
After being nominated for The Two Popes and then winning for The Father, Anthony Hopkins was suddenly vaulted from the hell of DTV action thrillers back into the awards conversation. It meant that a role playing the iconic psychoanalyst in Freud’s Last Session was then deemed noteworthy and the movie was rushed from a January 2023 start date to an AFI festival premiere months later but reviews were patchy and the film was a non-starter. It might have also pushed the actor’s far more deserving work in second world war drama One Life into a thankless early 2024 premiere in the US, a shoulda been a contender performance essentially taken out of consideration.
• This article was amended on 7 February 2024. An earlier version said that Priscilla premiered at Cannes but it premiered at Venice. This has now been changed.
