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How Boston.com predictions stacked up against 2024 Oscars wins
Boston.com and reader predictions were pretty accurate in the major categories.
The 96th Academy Awards aired Sunday night and, as always, the show came with its fair share of expected wins, snubs, and surprises. Only three films left with more than one award: nuclear epic “Oppenheimer” won seven, gothic comedy “Poor Things” left with four, and the historical “The Zone of Interest” won two. “Barbie,” undeniably the biggest movie of 2023, only won the award for Best Original Song, while the Best Actress category left everybody in the audience and at home on their toes all night.
Back in January, we shared predictions from readers, while staff writer Kevin Slane shared his own predictions last week. Here’s how Boston.com and readers stacked up against the actual 2024 Oscars winners.
Best Picture
Winner: “Oppenheimer”
Your prediction: “Oppenheimer”
Boston.com prediction: “Oppenheimer”
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Everybody was in agreement about who would win the biggest award of the night. “Oppenheimer,” the three-hour summer blockbuster about the man who made the first atomic bomb, went home with the top prize. With 51 percent, “Oppenheimer” overwhelmingly won our reader poll, with the second-place movie, “Barbie,” receiving 12 percent of the vote.
Best Director
Winner: Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”
Your prediction: Christopher Nolan
Boston.com prediction: Christopher Nolan
Nolan won his first Academy Award for directing “Oppenheimer,” which didn’t come as a surprise to 63 percent of readers (or Boston.com). Slane said Nolan “deserves his flowers” for creating such an ambitious film. In his speech, Nolan thanked the Academy for believing he is a “meaningful part” of the film industry.
Best Actor
Winner: Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”
Your prediction: Cillian Murphy
Boston.com prediction: Cillian Murphy
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Although Cillian Murphy had some competition in the category, namely Paul Giamatti of “The Holdovers,” Murphy left the night with the Oscar in his hand. “For better or for worse, we are all living in Oppenheimer’s world,” Murphy said during his speech, “so I would really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere.”
Best Actress
Winner: Emma Stone, “Poor Things”
Your prediction: Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Boston.com prediction: Lily Gladstone
This year, the Best Actress category was one of the most contested of the entire show, as both Emma Stone and Lily Gladstone had won their fair share of awards leading up to the Oscars. In our reader poll, Gladstone (42 percent) eked out the win over Stone (36 percent), but it was the “Poor Things” actress who ultimately won.
Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Robert Downey Jr., “Oppenheimer”
Your prediction: Robert Downey Jr.
Boston.com prediction: Robert Downey Jr.
Forty-two percent of readers correctly predicted that Robert Downey Jr. would win his first Oscar for playing Lewis Strauss in “Oppenheimer.” Downey Jr. gave one of the more lighthearted speeches of the night, where he thanked his wife, agent, stylist, entertainment lawyer, and his “terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order.”
Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”
Your prediction: Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Boston.com prediction: Da’Vine Joy Randolph
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The night’s first award was given to Da’Vine Joy Randolph, the emotional core of “The Holdovers,” but this came as a surprise to nobody. Randolph has been sweeping awards season with her performance of a mourning cafeteria worker, and deservedly so — in Boston.com’s predictions list, Slane wrote that her performance “perfectly presents a portrait of stoic grief.”
Best Original Screenplay
Winner: “Anatomy of a Fall,” Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
Your prediction: “The Holdovers,” David Hemingson
Boston.com prediction: “Anatomy of a Fall”
French legal drama “Anatomy of a Fall” brought home its only award of the night for its screenplay, but readers thought that the Massachusetts-based film “The Holdovers” would bring home the gold. Slane accurately predicted “Anatomy of a Fall” calling writer-director Justine Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari’s, “taut script one of the film’s greatest strengths.”
Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner: “American Fiction,” Cord Jefferson
Your prediction: “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan
Boston.com prediction: “American Fiction”
For readers, the Adapted Screenplay race was neck-and-neck between “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” — only seven percent of the reader vote went to the satirical comedy “American Fiction.”
Readers may be shocked by the fact that “Oppenheimer” (43 percent) or “Barbie” (39 percent) didn’t win the award for Adapted Screenplay. Cord Jefferson’s satirical comedy “American Fiction” took home the award, as only seven percent of readers predicted it would. As Slane accurately predicted this category, “Given that it won’t win any of its other five nominations, Jefferson’s adaptation of Percival Everett’s complex, imaginative novel “Erasure” seems like a good spot.”
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Here is the full list of 2024 Oscar winners, as well as the night’s most memorable moments.
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