Oscars: Eight films and people that should've been nominated

We are coming to the end of one of the more interesting Oscars races in recent years. Oppenheimer seems poised, if not locked, to be the big winner of the night. Other talents, chief among which Da’Vine Joy Randolph, seem to be in a similar position. 

But while going through this year’s nominees, we couldn’t help but feel that there are a number of films or talents who have been snubbed from the Oscars entirely, or in certain categories. This is normal for the Oscars, and we’ve already got a lot of great nominees, so we’re not complaining (too much). Still, it would be fun to look at what could’ve been. Here are the eight films and people that should've been nominated for the 2024 Oscars.

1. The Boy and the Heron should’ve been nominated for Best Picture

(Credit: Hollywood Reporter)

Let’s start with the big one. The Boy and the Heron is one of the best films that the legendary director Hayao Miyazaki has ever made. There is an argument to be made that it is objectively his best film, combining the whimsical quality of his films from My Neighbor Totoro with the philosophical musing of The Wind Rises, expressed in a plot that feels like a call-back to his masterpiece Spirited Away. 

Aside from the quality of the film, one criterion that a Best Picture winner should meet is social significance. This is why even though Past Lives is my pick for favorite film of the year, it isn’t my pick for Best Picture. It hasn’t gained a legacy of social impact on the level of Oppenheimer yet. But The Boy and the Heron is a critique of war, a melancholic meditation about the cyclic nature of humanity, a call to protect youth, and the questioning of the role of art and artists in achieving those missions. Given the state of the world right now, The Boy and the Heron should be up there competing with Oppenheimer.

1. Celine Song (Past Lives) should’ve been nominated for Best Director 

(Credit: FOX 2)

If Past Lives was not nominated for Best Picture, it wouldn’t surprise me much, as I’ve explained above. But the fact that Celine Song’s absolutely perfect direction of the film is not recognized here is a big missed opportunity. Song is a debut director who can design, block, and craft shots that say so much with subtle poetry. Her shots convey loneliness, confusion, and alienation, sometimes not only of individuals but pairs and groups. She can guide the performers to give subtle performances across language barriers. These are feats that should’ve been recognized by the Oscars.

1. Monster for Best Original Screenplay

(Credit: Festival De Cannes)

I am not alone in thinking that Yuji Sakamoto’s screenplay for Monster is the best of the year. This movie had already won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival. But it was not nominated for any category at the Oscars. Monster is basically a Rashomon-style story where a single event unfolds from different perspectives. But unlike Rashomon, where the fact of what happened is the focus, in Monster the Screenplay is guiding us towards a boy who is misunderstood and unable to communicate. The Screenplay uses the omnipotent perspective of cinema to say the unsayable, transcend social boundaries and make us understand the struggle of someone who feels that they are misplaced in society and thus cannot speak. This is one of the cases where I am not only sure that this film should be nominated, but I also think it should win. 

1. Koji Yakusho (Perfect Days) for Best Actor

(Credit: Indie Cinema)

My favorite to win the Oscars for best actor this year is Cillian Murphy. It is about time that he gets some awards and recognition for his work as an amazing but up-until-now criminally underrated actor. So, Murphy should definitely win. 

But at the very least, Koji Yakusho should’ve been nominated. In Perfect Days, Yakusho plays a toilet cleaner. We observe his day-to-day life as he goes about his chores, sometimes interacting with people. The majority of Yakusho’s performance is silent and thus has a Chaplin-esque quality to it. During this sustained and subtle character work, Yakusho inserts moments of happiness, anger, frustration, grief, and regrets, all in brief moments that evaporate once morning comes. All this builds to a crescendo that many have already cited as the clip that should’ve gotten him some awards. But I think that moment only works in the context of the totality of his performance. It is not just acting. It is a character study. 

1. Charles Melton (May December) for Best Supporting Actor

(Credit: Decider)

Ryan Gosling did not need to be nominated here. Simple as that. Nominating him here makes light of his far superior works for which he was not nominated – The Place Beyond the Pines, The Nice Guys, Blade Runner 2049, to name a few. 

This spot should have gone to Charles Melton, whose performance as a victim of an abusive relationship who grew up to marry his abuser combines tragedy and comedy so well that you don’t know when to laugh or cry. But either way, you feel his pain, his entrapment, his frustration. His emotional growth having been stunted, has a child-like quality that masks a memory that only becomes traumatic in hindsight. If he had been nominated, he would also be my pick to win.

1. Sophie Wilde (Talk To Me) and Alyssa Sutherland (Evil Dead Rise) for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress

(Credit: Games Radar)

(Credit: Looper)

Unlike the Best Supporting Actor category, I have no problem with the nominees for the Actress awards. I find that the front runners for both awards are deserving. They would be my pick to win as well. I’ve already mentioned Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who should be spending most of her time drafting her acceptance speeches at this point. And I am rooting for Lily Gladstone to take this one home as well.

Instead, I want to spotlight two actresses whose performances should have been in the running, but probably wouldn’t beat the two front runners. I am also using it to spotlight a genre that has historically been excluded from the Oscars: Horror. 

Sophie Wilde and Alyssa Sutherland both play characters that become possessed in their respective films. Playing a possessed individual is very hard; you are channeling a different character trying to inhabit another character and sometimes playing the original character fighting back. They must balance contempt and fear, and sometimes humor. And if you’ve seen Talk to Me and Evil Dead Rise, you would agree that both Wilde and Sutherland did a great job, not only in the possession part but also in the parts where they play their characters. All in all, I just want Horror to get a bit more love from the Academy.

1. Suzume by Radwimps for Best Original Song 

(Credit: J Rock News)

I saved this one for last because this is a travesty of a snub. The Fire Inside is a fine song but honestly doesn’t seem like a song that adds much to the film. Barbie has two nominations out of the five available spots. While both Barbie songs were good, I wonder if the Academy was just trying to fill up the spots. 

Meanwhile, Radwimps have been making jaw-droppingly amazing songs for Makoto Shinkai’s epic trilogy Your Name, and they have never once been nominated. In all the past two films Shinkai has made, Radwimps’ songs are essential to the storytelling. Many sequences play like a music video, sometimes to the film’s detriment, but mostly to its benefit. 

But in Suzume, Radwimps’ music is integrated into the film’s score in a much more seamless way. The song Suzume sees Radwimps play with musical motifs that evoke a sense of myth and religion. The lyrics convey the position of an individual stuck in the crossbow of destiny and nature. It conveys the gist of Shinkai’s trilogy, while also being horrifyingly catchy. It should’ve been nominated and it should’ve gone on to win.