Oscar Shortlists Revealed for 10 Categories, with “Barbie” Leading the Pack

The 96th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed the finalists in 10 different categories.

Though it received five nominations overall, Greta Gerwig’s meta-comedy “Barbie” received the most: sound, original song for three of its contributions from Billie Eilish (“What I Was Made For?”), Dua Lipa (“Dance the Night”), Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“I’m Just Ken”), and original score from the latter pair. The area that produced the most surprises was makeup and hairstyling, where “Barbie” made a major mistake.

“Barbie,” “The Color Purple,” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” were among the titles that did not reach the shortlist. Rather, the branch chose the strange summer horror movie “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” from Universal Pictures and the quirky movie “Beau is Afraid” from A24.

Daniel Pemberton (“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”), Ludwig Göransson (“Oppenheimer”), and the late Robbie Robertson (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) have composed pieces that are included in the music categories. A good number of veterans are also among us, such as John Williams (“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”) and Thomas Newman (“Elemental”).

The diversity of the composers on the shortlist is noteworthy; among them are nonbinary Oscar nominee Mica Levi (“The Zone of Interest”), Black composers Jon Batiste (“American Symphony”) and Kris Bowers (“The Colour Purple”), and legendary musician Laura Karpman (“American Fiction”). It was unexpected when Mark Orton was selected for “The Holdovers,” as many people thought the film wasn’t good enough to be submitted. A wise decision made by the branch.

Two tracks from each of the Warner Bros. productions “The Color Purple” (Halle Bailey and Fantasia Barrino singing “Keep It Movin'” and “Superpower”) and Apple Original Films “Flora and Son” (High Life and “Meet in the Middle”) were included in the original song. Along with Lenny Kravitz (“Road to Freedom” from “Rustin”) and, unexpectedly, Wes Anderson, who co-wrote “Dear Alien” from “Asteroid City,” Olivia Rodrigo’s smash song “Can’t Catch Me Now” from “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” also gets closer to an Oscar nomination. Anderson’s short film “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” and Pedro Almodovar’s “Strange Way of Life,” starring Pedro Pascal, were both included on the live-action shortlist.

You already knew Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” wouldn’t advance in the competition when Variety exclusively announced the 20 visual effects finalists to the finalists earlier this month. Nevertheless, the film’s makeup, sound design, and score all had strong points. From the remaining ten films, which include the cartoon ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’, Zack Snyder’s epic ‘Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire’ and Toho’s monster movie ‘Godzilla: Minus One’, the Visual Effects Branch will have to choose five candidates.

Other films with strong showings include J.A. Bayona’s “Society of the Snow,” which could follow in the footsteps of last year’s unexpected hit “All Quiet on the Western Front,” which went on to win four Oscars, and Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which received four mentions overall, including an original song.

Numerous front-runners for documentary feature notices were taken, including “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” from Apple Original Films, “American Symphony” from Netflix, and “The Eternal Memory” from MTV Documentary Films. “The Mission” from National Geographic was surprisingly left off the schedule, but “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” was included. Further excluded were Magnolia’s “Kokomo City” and “Little Richard: I Am Everything,” as well as Janus and Sideshow’s “Anselm” by Wim Wenders, which did not receive enough votes.

Apart from Chile’s “The Settlers” and Romania’s “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World,” there were not many shocking exclusions in the foreign feature competition. The typical suspects are all involved, such as Spain’s “Society of the Snow” and the United Kingdom’s “The Zone of Interest.”

The official nominees will be announced on January 23, while the Oscar nomination process will take place from January 11–16.

Check out the list of films that is provided below.

Documentary Feature

• “American Symphony”
• “Apolonia, Apolonia”
• “Beyond Utopia”
• “Bobi Wine: The People’s President”
• “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy”
• “The Eternal Memory”
• “Four Daughters”
• “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project”
• “In the Rearview”
• “Stamped from the Beginning”
• “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie”
• “A Still Small Voice”
• “32 Sounds”
• “To Kill a Tiger”
• “20 Days in Mariupol”

Documentary Short Subject

• “The ABCs of Book Banning”
• “The Barber of Little Rock”
• “Bear”
• “Between Earth & Sky”
• “Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games”
• “Camp Courage”
• “Deciding Vote”
• “How We Get Free”
• “If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis”
• “Island in Between”
• “The Last Repair Shop”
• “Last Song from Kabul”
• “Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó”
• “Oasis”
• “Wings of Dust”

International Feature

• Armenia, “Amerikatsi”
• Bhutan, “The Monk and the Gun”
• Denmark, “The Promised Land”
• Finland, “Fallen Leaves”
• France, “The Taste of Things”
• Germany, “The Teachers’ Lounge”
• Iceland, “Godland”
• Italy, “Io Capitano”
• Japan, “Perfect Days”
• Mexico, “Totem”
• Morocco, “The Mother of All Lies”
• Spain, “Society of the Snow”
• Tunisia, “Four Daughters”
• Ukraine, “20 Days in Mariupol”
• United Kingdom, “The Zone of Interest”

Makeup and Hairstyling

• “Beau Is Afraid”
• “Ferrari”
• “Golda”
• “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• “The Last Voyage of the Demeter”
• “Maestro”
• “Napoleon”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “Poor Things”
• “Society of the Snow”

Sound

• “Barbie”
• “The Creator”
• “Ferrari”
• “The Killer”
• “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• “Maestro”
• “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
• “Napoleon”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “The Zone of Interest”

Original Score

• “American Fiction”
• “American Symphony”
• “Barbie”
• “The Boy and the Heron”
• “The Color Purple”
• “Elemental”
• “The Holdovers”
• “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”
• “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• “Oppenheimer”
• “Poor Things”
• “Saltburn”
• “Society of the Snow”
• “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
• “The Zone of Interest”

Original Song

• “It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony”
• “Dear Alien (Who Art In Heaven)” from “Asteroid City”
• “Dance The Night” from “Barbie”
• “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie”
• “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie”
• “Keep It Movin’” from “The Color Purple”
• “Superpower (I)” from “The Color Purple”
• “The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot”
• “High Life” from “Flora and Son”
• “Meet In The Middle” from “Flora and Son”
• “Can’t Catch Me Now” from “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes”
• “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon”
• “Quiet Eyes” from “Past Lives”
• “Road To Freedom” from “Rustin”
• “Am I Dreaming” from “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”

Animated Short Film

• “Boom”
• “Eeva”
• “Humo (Smoke)”
• “I’m Hip”
• “A Kind of Testament”
• “Koerkorter (Dog Apartment)”
• “Letter to a Pig”
• “Ninety-Five Senses”
• “Once Upon a Studio”
• “Our Uniform”
• “Pachyderme”
• “Pete”
• “27”
• “War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko”
• “Wild Summon”

Live Action Short Film

• “The After”
• “The Anne Frank Gift Shop”
• “An Avocado Pit”
• “Bienvenidos a Los Angeles”
• “Dead Cat”
• “Good Boy”
• “Invincible”
• “Invisible Border”
• “Knight of Fortune”
• “The One Note Man”
• “Red, White and Blue”
• “The Shepherd”
• “Strange Way of Life”
• “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”

Visual Effects

• “The Creator”
• “Godzilla Minus One”
• “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”
• “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”
• “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
• “Napoleon”
• “Poor Things”
• “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire”
• “Society of the Snow”
• “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”