Arguably the biggest surprise at the 2024 Oscars occurred when Poor Things‘ Emma Stone won best actress over Killers of the Flower Moon‘s Lily Gladstone. While both delivered lauded performances and had won precursor awards during a close race this season, Gladstone was many high-profile Oscar pundits’ pick for most likely to win, having notably taken the SAG Award for best actress. However, Stone did win the BAFTA award for best actress; Gladstone wasn’t nominated.
Still, Gladstone is far from the first actor to lose the Oscar despite winning the SAG Award, a list that includes Denzel Washington (Fences), Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation), Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) and Viola Davis twice (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Help).
After Gladstone’s loss, Killers director Martin Scorsese was spotted consoling his star and giving her a big hug.
That loss, though, was just one of many that Killers of the Flower Moon experienced on Oscars night. The film went into the evening up for 10 awards but was shut out.
Also going home empty-handed after seven noms was Bradley Cooper’s Maestro portrait of Leonard Bernstein, whom Cooper played in the film he also directed and co-wrote. Some pundits thought the film could triumph in the makeup and hairstyling category, but that award, like a number of other craft prizes, went to Poor Things.
Indeed, Poor Things also won best costume design and production design, two categories where some pundits expected Barbie to prevail.
Indeed, after the Oscars famously left Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie out of the best director and actress categories, respectively, some people had suspected perhaps Barbie would triumph with a best picture win or even an adapted screenplay prize for Gerwig. But instead, the film missed out on wins in six of the seven categories for which it was nominated (two of the nominations were in the same category), bringing the film’s awards season run to a disappointing end.
Another surprise occurred in the animated feature category, where Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron triumphed over predicted winner Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The Sony film had won numerous precursor awards, including topping the Annie Awards and receiving the Producers Guild award for animated feature. And its predecessor Into the Spider-Verse won best animated feature at the 2019 Oscars.
But as with Gladstone and Stone, both were lauded contenders and the competition was close, and as with Stone, The Boy and the Heron won the BAFTA award.
Sophie Anderson, a UK-based writer, is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
