Oscar Shortlists Analysis: Big Wins for Academy and Streamers, Mixed Messages for ‘Barbie’ and ‘Color Purple’

In the aftermath of Thursday morning’s announcement of shortlists for 10 Oscar categories, here are my main takeaways…

Winners

1) The Academy

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Has there ever been a best original song shortlist more stacked than this one?

Among the shortlisted songwriters are Billie Eilish and Finneas (“What Was I Made For?” from Barbie), Olivia Rodrigo (“Can’t Catch Me Now” from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), Jon Batiste (“It Never Went Away” from American Symphony) and Dua Lipa (“Dance the Night” from Barbie) — in other words, people behind half of the nominees for the song of the year Grammy that will be presented on Feb. 4 — plus Mark Ronson (“I’m Just Ken” from Barbie), A$AP Rocky (“Am I Dreaming” from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), Lenny Kravitz (“Road to Freedom” from Rustin) and Halle Bailey (“Keep It Movin'” from The Color Purple), among others.

If, prior to or during nomination voting (Jan. 11-16, 2024), the Academy doesn’t rent out the Hollywood Bowl and invite each of the people behind a shortlisted song to perform it there (all would accept and it would be the hottest ticket of the year for something other than Taylor Swift), and if ABC doesn’t telecast said concert, then I will really have to question how much they want people to tune in to the Oscars telecast on March 10. There could be no greater way to raise awareness and excitement, folks!

2) Two streamers

Last season, Netflix’s awards efforts underwent a major shift after the shortlists announcement, which demonstrated just how much support All Quiet on the Western Front had, and after which the streamer concentrated its efforts much less on Bardo and the like, and much more on the German-language World War I film, which wound up with a best picture Oscar nom, among many others.

For Netflix, this year’s All Quiet on the Western Front may be the Spanish-language Society of the Snow. J.A. Bayona’s film about the 1972 Andes flight disaster showed up on four shortlists, one more than even the presumed best international feature frontrunner The Zone of Interest: international feature (Spain), original score, makeup/hairstyling and visual effects.

Netflix also showed tremendous strength for Matthew Heineman’s Jon Batiste documentary American Symphony, which landed on three shortlists: documentary feature, as expected, but also original score and original song (Batiste’s “It Never Went Away”). No other doc performed as well — although Kino Lorber’s Four Daughters showed up on the doc feature and international feature (Tunisia) lists.

Finally, Netflix also scored shortlist mentions for Stamped From the Beginning (doc feature), Rustin (original song) and Maestro (makeup/hairstyling — so much for Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose being an issue), plus a doc short — Camp Courage, about Ukrainian refugees — and two live-action shorts, Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and The After, starring David Oyelowo.

Another streamer also had a big day: Apple. Its big-budget Martin Scorsese pic Killers of the Flower Moon made the shortlists for makeup/hairstyling, sound, original score and even original song (“Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)”), quite a showing. Its two other finalists are Davis Guggenheim’s Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie for doc feature and Flora and Son for original song (both “High Life” and “Meet in the Middle”).

So much for a post-strikes backlash against the streamers!

3) Two small non-streamers

Two small non-streamer companies really punched above their weight and each landed three titles on the shortlists. Shoutout to MTV Documentary Films, which scored with the doc feature The Eternal Memory and the doc shorts The ABCs of Book Banning (84-year-old doc legend Sheila Nevins’s directorial debut) and Last Song from Kabul. And to The New Yorker, which scored with the doc shorts The Barber of Little Rock (which includes Dwyane Wade as an EP) and Deciding Vote (a wonderful look at the dramatic way in which New York passed the first abortion rights bill in America) and the live action short Knight of Fortune.

4) Poor Things

Yorgos Lanthimos’s movies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but his latest — which is essentially Frankenstein meets Barbie — seems to be going over just fine with the Academy. The Searchlight title made it onto three shortlists: makeup/hairstyling (Willem Dafoe’s character’s face alone merited that), original score (Jerskin Fendrix) and visual effects. I’m sure the filmmakers would have loved to make the sound shortlist, as well, but that’s still a pretty formidable showing.

5) Japan and France

These two countries’ best international feature Oscar selection committees took plenty of flack for their entries. Japan submitted Perfect Days, a Neon film from the German filmmaker Wim Wenders, over Japanese masters Hirokazu Kore-eda (Monster) and Hayao Miyazaki (The Boy and the Heron), while France went with Anh Hung Tran’s The Taste of Things, a delectable IFC film, over this year’s Palme d’Or-winning murder mystery, Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, which has been cleaning up with other precursors. If either Perfect Days or The Taste of Things had missed the shortlist, those countries’ committees would be eating a lot of crow. But both made the cut.

Mixed

1) Barbie

Greta Gerwig’s critically acclaimed summer blockbuster scored more shortlist mentions than any other film, five. But three of them came on one shortlist, original song (the other two are for original score and sound). And the film missed a couple of shortlists that it was widely thought to have a good shot at making, best makeup/hairstyling and best visual effects. I think one has to call this a split-decision.

2) The Color Purple

It was a somewhat disappointing morning for the Warners hopeful. The music from Blitz Bazawule’s pic was recognized with a spot on the score shortlist and two spots on the original song shortlist (for “Keep It Movin'” and “Superpower (I)”). But it came up short with two lists that it had been widely expected to make, makeup/hairstyling and, most troublingly for a musical, sound (a category which, it must be noted, Poor Things and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse also missed).

Losers

1) Best picture contenders hoping for VFX recognition

On the heels of excluding Oppenheimer from its longlist, the VFX branch has now turned away Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon from its shortlist, opting instead for, among other titles, the animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The lone top-tier best picture contender that did make the final 10 for the category: Poor Things. Given that three of the last four winners of the best visual effects category were best picture nominees, could this be a tell that Poor Things is the frontrunner for the VFX Oscar and stronger overall than previously believed?

2) Songs from animated movies

Other than “Am I Dreaming” from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, no songs from animated movies were included on this year’s best original song shortlist. Not “Peaches” from The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which was nominated for the corresponding Golden Globe and Critics Choice awards. Not “This Wish” from Wish, which was nominated for the corresponding Critics Choice Award. And not “For the First Time” or “The Scuttlebutt” from The Little Mermaid, “Better Place” from Trolls Band Together or “Steal the Show” from Elemental. Kind of weird.

Meanwhile, in other music-related oddities…

Alexandre Desplat, long a favorite of the Academy, didn’t make the original score shortlist for either The Boys in the Boat or Nyad.

But, sure as day follows night, Diane Warren is back in the final 15 for best original song, this time for “The Fire Inside” from the otherwise forgotten Flamin’ Hot.

3) Makeup/hairstyling hopefuls

In addition to excluding Barbie and The Color Purple, one has to wonder what the branch found lacking in the makeup for Nyad and the hairstyling for Priscilla. Even people who hate those movies acknowledge that those aspects of them are impressive. So, at this point, it’s hard to imagine them landing recognition in other categories.

Oscar nominations — the final five in each of 23 categories — will be announced on Jan. 23, 2024.

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