Marshall's 2024 awards checklist

Assignment viewing for cinephiles

The New York Film Festival is drawing to a close (you might recognize a certain someone papped below)…

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…which means we’re exiting the fall festival stage of the movie year and headed rapidly toward awards season. By now, most of the biggest titles have premiered, and the shape of the race is starting to firm up. 2024 seems quite open in comparison to years dominated by Oppenheimer and Everything Everywhere All at Once, so it behooves you to do your homework to be ready for the major awards ceremonies in under 3 months.

So here’s my annual piece of service journalism for awards season, tiered by the priority with which you should watch them if being conversationally fluent in the year’s cinema at your Oscars party is the priority. (These are sorted alphabetically, so don’t think you’re getting anything in the way of real predictions from me, either!) Looking back at last year’s list, I nailed all 10 Best Picture nominees … so it seems I might have a pretty good handle on this whole thing.

USER GUIDE: If you haven’t heard of one of the movies or don’t know much about it, click on the title and you’ll be taken to watch the trailer on YouTube. Get curious!

The Brutalist, 2024. © A24

BEST PICTURE FRONTRUNNERS

• Anora (in theaters 10/18)

• The Brutalist (in theaters 12/20)

• Conclave (in theaters 12/25)

• Dune Part Two (available to stream on Max)

• Emilia Pérez (available to stream on Netflix 11/13)

• A Real Pain (in theaters 11/1)

• The Room Next Door (in theaters 12/20)

• Saturday Night (in theaters now)

A Complete Unknown, 2024. © Searchlight

STILL UNSEEN (WHICH COULD MEAN NOTHING)

• A Complete Unknown (in theaters 12/25)

• Here (in theaters 11/1)

• Juror No. 2 (in theaters 11/1)

• Gladiator II (in theaters 11/22)

• Moana 2 (in theaters 11/27)

• Mufasa: The Lion King (in theaters 12/25)

• Nosferatu (in theaters 12/25)

• Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (available to stream on Netflix 12/25)

• Wicked — Part I (in theaters 11/22)

The Seed of the Sacred Fig, 2024. © NEON

COULD CONTEND FOR MAJOR PRIZES

• All We Imagine As Light (in theaters 11/15)

• Hard Truths (in theaters 12/6)

• His Three Daughters (available to stream on Netflix)

• Hit Man (available to stream on Netflix)

• Nickel Boys (in theaters 12/13)

• The Seed of the Sacred Fig (in theaters 11/27)

• September 5 (in theaters 11/29)

• Sing Sing (available to stream)

Queer, 2024. © A24

MOSTLY A PERFORMANCE PLAY

• Babygirl (in theaters 12/25)

• Blitz (in theaters 11/1, streaming on Apple TV+ 11/22)

• Challengers (streaming on Amazon Prime Video)

• A Different Man (in theaters now)

• Maria (in theaters 11/27, streaming on Netflix 12/11)

• Nightbitch (in theaters 12/6)

• The Outrun (in theaters now)

• The Piano Lesson (in theaters 11/8, streaming on Netflix 11/22)

• Queer (in theaters 11/27)

• The Substance (in theaters now)

• Thelma (available to stream)

Dahomey, 2024. © MUBI

LIMITED TO SPECIALTY CATEGORIES

• Dahomey (in theaters 10/25)

• Daughters (available to stream on Netflix)

• Flow (in theaters 11/22)

• The Girl with the Needle (in theaters 12/6)

• I’m Still Here (in theaters TBD 2024)

• Inside Out 2 (available to stream on Disney+)

• Kneecap (available to stream)

• Martha (available to stream on Netflix 10/30)

• Memoir of a Snail (in theaters 10/25)

• No Other Land (in theaters 11/1)

• Piece by Piece (in theaters now)

• Santosh (in theaters TBD December)

• Sugarcane (in theaters now)

• Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (in theaters now)

• Universal Language (in theaters TBD February 2025)

• The Wild Robot (in theaters now)

• Will & Harper (available to stream on Netflix)

Better Man, 2024. © Paramount

MAYBE SOME BELOW-THE-LINE LOVE

• Better Man (in theaters 12/25)

• Civil War (available to stream on Max)

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (available to stream on Max)

• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (available to stream on Hulu)

• Longlegs (available to stream)

• Sasquatch Sunset (available to stream on Paramount+)

• Twisters (available to stream)

The Order, 2024. © Vertical

FUTURE “THIS HAD OSCAR BUZZ” EPISODES

• The Apprentice (in theaters now)

• The Bikeriders (available to stream on Peacock)

• Bird (in theaters 11/8)

• Dìdi (available to stream on Peacock)

• The End (in theaters 12/6)

• The Fire Inside (in theaters 12/25)

• Heretic (in theaters 11/8)

• Joker: Folie à Deux (in theaters now)

• Kinds of Kindness (available to stream on Hulu)

• Lee (in theaters now)

• Megalopolis (in theaters now)

• The Order (in theaters 12/6)

• The Return (in theaters 12/6)

• Unstoppable (in theaters TBD 2024)

• We Live in Time (in theaters now)

• Wolfs (available to stream on Apple TV+)

• Woman of the Year (available to stream on Netflix 10/18)

Have something fun and personal coming tomorrow for a special day.

Up in the Air, 2009. © Paramount Pictures

Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall