Blog: If We Were Oscar Voters 2024

We are back for a fourth year in a row proving that Rachel and Dakota have better taste than Oscar voters. We made our own list of nominees and winners for each category and added a little commentary for each of our picks. Enjoy some gentle teasing and ruthless evisceration! Who would you have picked for the Oscars? 

Read our previous picks from 2023, 2022 and 2021.

Let’s start with acting categories to keep your interest level up high.

Best Supporting Actress

Dakota: We love our Toronto queen! It’s a shame that Are You There God? was completely shut out by the “real” Oscars, but glad we gave her her dues. I really loved Tilda in The Killer, but the part just wasn’t big enough for me. I know you don’t like Wes Anderson movies, but I think ScarJo gave probably one of the best ever performances in a film from him. 

Rachel: Wes Anderson is a director who makes films, this is true. Also, Rachels always support Rachels.

Best Supporting Actor

Rachel: I don’t understand why there’s not a single major awards body in Hollywood that has yet to recognize the Golden God. I want a nomination for him. I want that recognition. I want it now. If Hollywood does not give Glenn Howerton some respect as soon as possible then I will come down on this industry like the hammer of Thor. The thunder of my vengeance will echo through Hollywood Boulevard like the gust of a thousand winds.

Dakota: That got intense. But you’re also not wrong. The Canadian Screen Awards better not mess this up. Also love your double Oppy love, there were lots of great supporting actors to choose from in that movie.

Best Actress

Dakota: I really wanted to include Alma Pöysti, but she just missed the cut. Considering the buzz that Kitty Green’s debut The Assistant got, I’m shocked that The Royal Hotel seemingly was ignored by every awards body and critics group, only getting nominations/wins from Australia’s version of the Oscars and a small handful of regional festivals. 

Rachel: I liked The Royal Hotel but didn’t love it. Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick were both great in it though!

Best Actor

Rachel: Honestly I could go with either Cillian Murphy or Andrew Scott (Ireland, stand up); I thought they were both tremendous. Also, it’s not like me to leave off Nicolas Cage, especially in something as good as Dream Scenario but this category was incredibly strong.

Dakota: I’m still crushed that Zac Efron, much like how you eloquently stated for Glenn Howerton, has been almost completely snubbed. Maybe it is because neither actor has a history of serious dramatic performances. But Efron in The Iron Claw destroyed my emotions, I was not expecting that turn from him and hope it wasn’t a one-off.

Let’s switch gears to things that need to be written, like scripts and scores.

Best Original Score

Rachel: I like your inclusion of They Cloned Tyrone! I was worried after Han Zimmer dumped Nolan for Denis, but Nolan’s new bestie, Ludwig Göransson, has been doing some incredible work. 

Dakota: They Cloned Tyrone was a sneaky great movie, especially everything on the production side of things. Oppenheimer gets the award for both best and most score this year!

Best Original Song

Dakota: Rachel’s least favourite category! At least you included more than one movie this year to nominate (See: Rachel just nominating 5 songs from Entergalatic last year). “Camp Isn’t Home” turned a pretty funny joke that felt like something improvised to one of the biggest tearjerker moments in the finale of Theater Camp. 

Rachel: Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches.

Best Original Screenplay

Rachel: I have no comment about your chosen film; however, I do love The Teachers’ Lounge screenplay — complex and layered. There’s always talk about no original ideas existing anymore, but there were plenty of interesting offerings last year.

Dakota: Last year was a great year for original films! Our list contains 9 different movies! The only people that say Hollywood doesn’t make any original movies are the people who never cared to look for original movies in the first place.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Rachel: BlackBerry is such a great shout! Turning corporate happenings and mild intrigue into something palatable and even funny isn’t an easy feat. 

Dakota: This was the year of the corporate biopic between BlackBerry, Air, Flamin’ Hot, Tetris, The Beanie Bubble and I’m sure others. I can’t believe just how amazing Are You There God? ended up being. For a book published in 1970 and not even 150 pages long to be one of the most thoughtful movies about growing up is nothing short of a miracle. 

Let’s go to some more technical awards to hand out.

Best Cinematography

Rachel: I need people to give John Wick: Chapter 4 some more love. Those scenes in Japan in particular were gorgeous and actually delivered in helping boost the narrative. Keanu also helps with any film’s cinematography, but I digress.

Dakota: Three of my films are either partially or fully shot in black and white. I’m a simple man, I see strong monochromatic photography, it will make my list. Glad to see you included Dream Scenario here despite snubbing Nicky Cage earlier. 

Best Sound

Dakota: I’m hoping the “real” Oscars do the right thing and award The Zone of Interest Best Sound, because it adds so much to the film. Not saying that Oppenheimer didn’t have great sound (as evident with both of us putting it at number two), but the impact of hearing but not seeing Auschwitz was so haunting. 

Rachel: It’s rare to see a movie use sound with such effect as The Zone of Interest has done. I hate this saying, but it really is a character in the movie.

Best Costumes

Rachel: I should’ve rated Air higher. The ‘80s aesthetic was done perfectly, not too overdone with just the right amount of track suits and gross feet.

Dakota: I loved how the costume designers on Barbie managed to faithfully recreate so many iconic looks from the Mattel doll. The Afro retro-futurism of They Cloned Tyrone was such a breath of fresh air. It was a contest between Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris for who got to wear the prettier outfit. Also I’m very surprised that you put The Killer for Best Costumes, but not for Best Sound.

Best Hair and Makeup

Dakota: I don’t know if we can be actual friends anymore if you willingly include Golda here. I guess you have to rate this category purely on the HMU, but was that movie ever god-awful. I’m still mad the “real” Oscars snubbed GotG V.3 after they set the record for the most prosthetics ever done for the Orgocorp raid section. 

Rachel: Terrible movie, but very impressive hair and makeup! I also feel like haircuts as a way of aging characters was done particularly well last year, a la Oppenheimer and Past Lives.

Let’s go back to some more fun categories with another set of big three, Animated, Documentary and International.

Best Animated Feature

Dakota: Robot Dreams was the second last movie I watched before submitting my picks and wow what a gut punch of a movie that is. I think it impacted me even harder as I recently had to put my own dog down (a greyhound and seeing the bus driver was a greyhound almost made me cry). Shout out to TMNT for being so damn funny and actually getting that the characters are supposed to be teenagers.

Rachel: I’m a little disappointed in the animated feature offerings overall. Robot Dreams is a tremendous film of course, but compared to years past there wasn’t a strong crop — and I love me some animated films.

Best Documentary

Rachel: Someone Lives Here feels like an incredible homer pick from me, but I was just so touched and connected with what Khaleel Seivwright attempted to achieve in Toronto. Zack Russell did a great job capturing the fight and the complications behind it, highly recommend.

Dakota: I know Someone Lives Here was a movie you came out of Hot Docs (I think), raving about, then I promptly forgot about it and it disappeared from my radar. My homer pick is Satan Wants You. Getting to interview the directors Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams was a highlight from this past year for me. 

Best International Film

Dakota: This might be the most stacked year for International Films ever in my opinion. Four of my picks appear in my Best Picture lineup, and I could have easily included another ten movies. Screw it, I’m naming them because it was such a great year. Beyond Utopia, Godzilla Minus One, Perfect Days, Tautuktavuk (What We See), The Promised Land, Four Daughters, Roleless, El Conde, 20 Days in Mariupol and La Chimera.

Rachel: Agreed. Hollywood’s definitely floundering at the moment, and other countries are stepping up and picking up the slack. Shout out to Falcon Lake (and Solo) for being excellent Canadian films that could’ve been submitted to the Academy in place of Rojek. 

Let’s go back to technical categories, but the super duper important ones.

Best Visual Effects

Dakota: I really think Nolan pissed off the VFX branch at the “real” Oscars by saying he didn’t use any visual effects, which I get was to highlight the practical work done, but also a damn lie because every single movie these days has visual effects. Despite his stubbornness, the work done both by the bomb and the fusion graphics are stunning.

Rachel: Butt hurt VFX artists ruin award shows. Although I get their point.

Best Production Design

Rachel: Fallen Leaves has one of the most underrated production designs. All these misplaced objects that create confusion in the time period but also somehow go together seamlessly. Well done on the Renfield pick, by the way. Dracula’s lair deserves more love.

Dakota: Thanks! I know a lot of people really hated Renfield, but it was one of my favourite comedies from last year and Dracula’s lair had an incredible design. I probably could have filled out this entire category with Asteroid City and the four Roald Dahl shorts that Wes Anderson made. Some of the best work that has ever appeared in his films.

Best Film Editing

Rachel: I’ve been riding with Beyonce since 1997 so I may be biased here but, truly the way the concert footage was edited together to show off the many (many) costumes and told a story at the same time. 

Dakota: Tension is playing with time are the two aspects I rate highest for editing, and looking at my picks I have two very dramatically intense films and three that play with non-linear storylines. Glad to see The Zone of Interest make your cut as it was essentially staged like a play with multiple hidden camera catching actors coming and going and needing to make it coherent is not an easy editing job.

Now it’s time for the big ones. First up is the directing award.

Best Director

Rachel: Let 2024 be the year of Christopher Nolan. 

Dakota: This is the year that he both finally gets his flowers but it is also for a film that he deserves it too. After I was mixed on Shoplifters, my first Kore-eda movie, he’s made back to back all timers for me (Broker being the other one). 

Best Picture

Rachel: I fall in line with all the awarding bodies this year — Oppenheimer isn’t just one of my favourite movies of the year, I think it’s the most technically proficient film by a long shot. Cheers for including The Iron Claw, too. A24 fumbled that movie so poorly it’s impressive. That movie deserved a lot more recognition but it was oddly just forgotten.

Dakota: We only have three films that overlap, Oppenheimer, The Zone of Interest and The Iron Claw, but I have several of your picks just outside my top 10 including Poor Things, The Holdovers and Fallen Leaves. I think we can safely say we are out of the pandemic era of movies being delayed or having compromising visions. 2023 was a spectacular year for movies. A couple movies I want to shout out that didn’t get any recognition from either of us include A Haunting in Venice, Sometimes I Think About Dying, Bottoms and Master Gardener.