Over the past couple of years, I’ve found myself wildly out of step when it comes to picking winners at the annual Academy Awards. Naturally, I’m convinced it’s the world, not me, that keeps getting it wrong. My mistake has been to try to nominate the best film, when it would have been smarter to go with the most likely – but even this raises problems. The two previous winners of the Best Film award – CODA and Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, gathered huge momentum towards the end of the voting. This year, it seems nothing can halt Oppenheimer’s stampede to victory.

The 10 films shortlisted for 2024 are: Oppenheimer, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things, The Holdovers, Maestro, Zone of Interest, Past Lives, Anatomy of a Fall, and American Fiction. Australian audiences are at a disadvantage with the last on the list, as it’s viewable only on Amazon Prime. It’s also the only movie I’ve yet to review in these pages, but I’m hoping to correct the omission soon. It’s a good list, with nothing that feels like it doesn’t belong.