Joshua Sonnenberg ’25

2023 was an excellent year for movies and pop culture in general, but with a limited number of nominations and victories, very few are commemorated for their successes on the silver screen.

One movie widely acknowledged in this year’s nominations is Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, the three-hour marathon based on the 2005 biography, American Prometheus. Despite Christopher Nolan’s great success and wide regards across cinema, he has not yet won an Oscar for any movie he has been a part of creating. Oppenheimer took home the most nominations, and, in my opinion, will likely bring home many awards, like Best Picture, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Director (Christopher Nolan), and Best Original Score (Ludwig Göransson.) With a great commitment to historical accuracy—and some career-best performances with Murphy, Downey Jr., and Emily Blunt—Oppenheimer is sure to sweep the Oscars come March, likely beating out movies like Maestro, (a movie with which Bradley Cooper was hoping to secure Best Actor).

However, much of the Oscar’s contention has been sparked over Margot Robbie’s amazing performance in Barbie and why she was not nominated for Best Actress for her role as Barbie. This year’s “Best Actress in a Leading Role” was a very difficult spot, with many amazing performances like Lily Gladstone’s in Killers of the Flower Moon, or Emma Stone in Poor Things. Despite Robbie’s performance, there aren’t any women in this spot I think deserve the recognition “less,” with my prediction lying with Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon, as the first Indigenous woman to be nominated for an Oscar.

Despite Robbie not being nominated for Best Actress, Barbie still received some recognition, as Robbie’s co-star America Ferrara was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Ferrara gave an outstanding performance, specifically with her monologue towards the end of the film. Ferrara is almost sure to secure a victory as Best Supporting Actress.

The bulk of the Oscars this year will be a battle between Opphenheimer and Barbie for awards, as the two films have been nominated for the vast majority of categories. The two movies were never-seen-before cultural phenomenons. Despite many excellent performances, set designs, costume designs, soundtracks, directing and production, much of the Oscars will be a clash between the movie giants.