By Julia Kelm
Oscar nominations were announced in the early morning of Jan. 23. It was the first thing I saw once I opened my eyes and unlocked my phone.
Then, almost immediately, I found myself rolling them at the predictable — yet disappointing — selections for the 97th Academy Awards.
There are a few things that I’m happy about, but as per usual, I’m mostly mad that all the Oscar-baity, forgettable-whatever films made nominations, while other more deserving films in my book did not.
Feel free to throw tomatoes at me if at any moment you disagree with me. For instance, I think adapted scripts based on pre-existing popular media don’t deserve the best picture spot.
I know this is not a popular opinion, but I think original scripts intended for the silver screen are superior and deserve the highest Academy Award over adaptations of pre-existing stories.
Don’t get me wrong, I do think Wicked (2024) and Dune: Part Two (2024) deserve nominations such as best visual effects, best costuming, or best actor, just not best picture.
I would’ve replaced those best picture nominations with original stories like Sing Sing (2024) or Challengers (2024).
Since I’ve now brought up Challengers (2024), I just want to mention how pissed off I am that Luca Guadagnino received ZERO nominations for both Challengers and Queer (2024).
Challengers was my favorite film of last year, as it surprised me by how good it was. It should have at least received a nomination for best original soundtrack, and at most a nomination for best original screenplay.
Instead, The Brutalist (2024) gets 10 nominations, despite using AI to create aspects of the film.
Personally, I think it should’ve been disqualified when that was revealed, but alas, I do not control the academy, no matter how hard I try to blow them up with my mind.
I’m not even going to say much about the dumpster fire that got 13 nominations. If you know, you know.
Moving on from my gripes, which I could honestly go on and on about, I am relatively happy about the best actress and actor nominees. Fingers crossed that Demi Moore wins her first Oscar, and I don’t care who wins best actor as long as it’s not Adrien Brody.
Also, the animated films nominations were all great choices! I didn’t know the Academy had it in them to not put Moana 2 (2024), but they pulled it off.
Also, Conan O’Brien is hosting the Oscars, which is something I literally jumped up with joy over when I heard the news (I hate you, Jimmy Kimmel).
Regardless of my opinions, I will be tuning in on March 2 at 4:00 PM PST — this is essentially my Superbowl, considering I hate sports.
Julia is a journalism major at Cal Poly Humboldt. She loves film and is a regular on Letterboxd. To quote Robin Williams in her all-time favorite movie, Dead Poets Society, “The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”
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