by Henry Knowles ’26
March 7, 2024
The 96th Academy Awards, or the Oscars, will be hosted on March 10. It will honor all movies released in 2023.
Last year’s Academy Awards will go down in history as a result of some unforgettable moments, such as Ke Huy Quan’s emotional acceptance speech after winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. But the lineup of movies that year was also extremely impressive, including films such as Tár, The Banshees of Inisherin, and Everything Everywhere All at Once. The star of the show last year was undoubtedly Everything Everywhere All at Once, which won the awards for best directing, film editing, writing, and best picture. Many actors from this movie were also nominated for individual awards.
Looking back, it will be hard to top last year’s Oscars. However, 2023 was a very exciting year for film, especially with the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, which led to the ‘Barbenheimer’ movement. The juxtaposition of these two movies led to lots of hype surrounding them. While those two movies stole the spotlight in Hollywood, they are not the only two we must consider during award season.
The Oscars are decided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, hence the name the Academy Awards. In order to join the academy, you must be a proven member of a specific area of film, such as writing, directing, special effects, etc.
Each year, the Academy has twenty-four different categories to vote on. Five, in particular, are seen as the most coveted: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. If a film manages to win all of these awards, it’s called an Oscar sweep.
Since the Oscars began in 1929, only five movies — One Night (1934), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991) — have won all five awards.
Although the big five are the most desired, many other categories have become the viewers’ favorites. These categories include Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature, and Best International Feature Film.
As the show is quickly approaching, movie fans from all over are waiting to see who will take home the golden statuettes. On March 10th, I predict Oppenheimer will dominate the Oscars; however, the Christopher Nolan film might fall short of the desired Oscar sweep as it does not have a nomination for Best Actress.
