With 13 and 11 Oscars nominations respectively, Oppenheimer and Poor Things are set to dominate the 96th Academy Awards. They're up against each other in all but two of the Big Five categories, including best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay, while leads Cillian Murphy and Emma Stone are amongst the favourites to take home the best actor and best actress awards.
But which of these polar-opposite entries will win big on the night? Will it be Christopher Nolan's commercial mega-hit, or Yorgos Lanthimos' opinion-splitting peculiarity?
Oscars nominations
Below we've listed the Oscars 2024 nominees for the five main categories: best picture, best director, best actor, best actress and best original screenplay. We've also listed the number of Oscars 2024 nominations for each movie.
Oscar 2024 nominations by movie
- Oppenheimer: 13 nominations
- Poor Things: 11 nominations
- Killers of the Flower Moon: 10 nominations
- Barbie: 8 nominations
- Maestro: 7 nominations
- American Fiction: 5 nominations
- Anatomy of a Fall: 5 nominations
- The Holdovers: 5 nominations
- The Zone of Interest: 5 nominations
- Napoleon: 3 nominations
- The Creator: 2 nominations
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One: 2 nominations
- NYAD: 2 nominations
- Past Lives: 2 nominations
- Society of the Snow: 2 nominations
Best picture nominations
- American Fiction
- Anatomy of a Fall
- Barbie
- The Holdovers
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Maestro
- Oppenheimer
- Past Lives
- Poor Things
- The Zone of Interest
Best actress nominations
- Annette Bening – NYAD as Diana Nyad
- Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon as Mollie Burkhart
- Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall as Sandra Voyter
- Carey Mulligan – Maestro as Felicia Montealegre
- Emma Stone – Poor Things as Bella Baxter
Best actor nominations
- Bradley Cooper – Maestro as Leonard Bernstein
- Colman Domingo – Rustin as Bayard Rustin
- Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers as Paul Hunham
- Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer as J. Robert Oppenheimer
- Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction as Thelonious "Monk" Ellison
Best director nominations
- Justine Triet – Anatomy of a Fall
- Martin Scorsese – Killers of the Flower Moon
- Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
- Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things
- Jonathan Glazer – The Zone of Interest
Best original screenplay nominations
- Justine Triet and Arthur Harari – Anatomy of a Fall
- David Hemingson – The Holdovers
- Bradley Cooper & Josh Singer – Maestro
- Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch & Alex Mechanik – May December
- Celine Song – Past Lives
Oscars predictions 2024
Without fail, at each and every Oscars the rules decree that a victory for one film must be framed as a snub for another.
Since "Barbenheimer" was such a strange and all-enveloping commercial ploy that many still find themselves unable to let go, the tepid response that's likely to greet Barbie will be another stain on the conscience of one man: J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Will Emma Stone win best actress Oscar?
Emma Stone is one of the favourites for the best actress Oscar, having played Bella Baxter in Yorgos Lanthimos' characteristically disturbing black comedy, Poor Things. Stone picked up a best actress award at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards and the Golden Globes.
However, she's expected to face major competition from Lily Gladstone, whose dignified portrayal of Mollie Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon came from the opposite end of the performance spectrum. Gladstone took home a best actress award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Golden Globes.
Will Cillian Murphy win best actor Oscar?
Cillian Murphy is the outright frontrunner for the best actor Oscar, thanks to his depiction of J. Robert Oppenheimer, for which he's already won a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor.
It's the 47-year-old's first ever Oscar nomination, and his main competition is expected to come from Paul Giamatti, whose portrayal of cantankerous school professor Paul Hunham in Alexander Payne's understated comedy-drama The Holdovers burnished his credentials as one of the industry's most underappreciated talents.
It's the first time the 56-year-old has been nominated for a best actor Oscar, though he was in the running for best supporting actor in 2006, for playing Joe Gould in Cinderella Man.
Will Christopher Nolan win best director?
Despite being one of Hollywood's heavyweights, Christopher Nolan has never taken home an Oscar, having previously been nominated five times, for Memento, Inception and Dunkirk.
He's up against Martin Scorsese in the best director category, but seeing as Killers of the Flower Moon fell a little flat, the greater threat comes from Yorgos Lanthimos, whose surreal black comedy Poor Things is exactly the type of entry that could cause a tremendous shock.
Will Oppenheimer or Poor Things win best picture?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences went very left-field with its best picture award last year, selecting the wacky Everything Everywhere All at Once over The Banshees of Inisherin, All Quiet on the Western Front and Top Gun: Maverick.
It was a decision that raised many eyebrows, and it's tempting to draw similar philosophical parallels between Oppenheimer, a traditional blockbuster, and Poor Things, a genre-blurring, fiercely divisive curio.
Oppenheimer is undoubtedly the favourite, but Poor Things is precisely the kind of offbeat choice the Academy has form for every once in a while.
Oscars odds: what are the bookies saying?
Of the "Big Five" categories (best picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay – original or adapted), the bookmakers expect the best original and adapted awards to be the most closely fought. DraftKings has Anatomy of a Fall at (-280), a nose ahead of The Holdovers (+200) in the former, and American Fiction (-250) ahead of Oppenheimer (+200) in the latter.
The favourites for each of the Big Five awards are Oppenheimer (-5,000), Christopher Nolan (-5,000), Cillian Murphy (-1,000), Lily Gladstone (-175), Anatomy of a Fall (-280), and American Fiction (-250). Maestro (+15,000) is the biggest outsider for best picture.
Where and when
We have a page dedicated to the when and where of the Oscars 2024, including global information on what time the Oscars starts where you are. But here are the broad strokes of the evening:
When are the Oscars 2024 taking place?
The Oscars take place on Sunday, March 10 at 7pm ET / 4pm PT / 11pm GMT. That's 10am AEDT on Monday, March 11 for viewers in Australia.
Where will the Oscars be held?
The 2024 Oscars are taking place at the Dolby Theatre, a lavish cinema on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. It's hosted every Oscars ceremony since 2002, when it was called the Kodak Theatre.
Previous editions have been held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Ambassador Hotel, Biltmore Hotel, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Shrine Auditorium, Academy Award Theatre, Pantages Theatre, NBC International Theatre, NBC Century Theatre, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
Who's hosting the Oscars this year?
Jimmy Kimmel has been kept on as the Oscars host, having previously anchored proceedings in 2017, 2018 and 2023.
He took a light-fingered approach last year, and with numerous hosts going down like lead balloons at recent high-profile awards shows, playing it safe again might not be the worst idea.
Kimmel has, however, been locked in a heated online feud with NFL star Aaron Rodgers, and he might not be able to resist taking a swipe from the Oscars stage.
Who will perform at Oscars 2024?
The 2024 Oscars are expected to incorporate five musical performances, two of which are nods to Barbie.
The show-stealer is likely to be Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson's rendition of "I'm Just Ken", while Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell will perform "What Was I Made For".
Becky G will belt out "The Fire Inside" from Flamin' Hot, Jon Batiste will take centre-stage with "It Never Went Away" from American Symphony, and Scott George and The Osage Singers will perform the entrancing "Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)" from Killers of the Flower Moon.
If those acts aren't doing it for you, several surprise cameos have also been promised.
Oscars FAQ
Here's everything you wanted to know about the Oscars 2024 with FAQs on everything from previous winners to the little golden statues themselves.
Who won the Oscars 2023?
Everything Everywhere All at Once was the surprise big winner at last year's Oscars, scooping up four of the six biggest awards to leave the likes of All Quiet on the Western Front, Top Gun: Maverick, Elvis and The Banshees of Inisherin in its shadow.
It was named best picture, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won the best director award, Michelle Yeoh took best actress, and it was also awarded best original screenplay.
Brendan Fraser took home the best actor award for his work in The Whale, and best adapted screenplay went to Sarah Polley for Women Talking.
Who has won the most Oscars?
The Walt Disney Company has won 135 Oscars, with 22 of them (16%) being awarded directly to its founder, Walt Disney.
Walt Disney's 22 Academy Awards make him the most successful person in Oscars history.
He also holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a person (59), the most nominations and awards for a person in a single year (six and four), and the longest unbroken run of awards at consecutive Oscars (10 awards in eight consecutive years).
What is the Oscars trophy made of?
The Oscars statuette is easily the most iconic trophy in showbiz.
Depicting a knight stood atop a reel of film and clutching a crusader sword, it was designed by Cedric Gibbons and sculpted by George Stanley.
The statuettes are made from solid bronze and plated in 24-karat gold, and the current design measures in at 13.5in and 8.5lb.
Officially named the Academy Award of Merit, numerous figures have claimed credit for nicknaming it the "Oscar", and the murky origin story has fed its own legend.
