Every A24 Movie Nominated For Best Picture At The Oscars, Ranked Worst To Best

Every A24 Movie Nominated For Best Picture At The Oscars, Ranked Worst To Best


The prestigious production and distribution company A24 has a total of seven Best Picture nominations at the time of writing, ranked here from worst to best. A24 has solidified itself as the leader and standard of trending independent cinema and also one of the most reliable producers and distributors of original horror content. Some of the best A24 horror movies, including Ari Aster’s Midsommar (2019) and Hereditary (2018), Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse (2019) and The Witch (2016), and Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), are also among the best films of the 21st century.




A24 rose to new levels of prestige after Moonlight won Best Picture at the unforgettable 89th Academy Awards in 2017. Moonlight was also the first film that A24 produced in-house and ignited a renaissance of instant modern classics such as Lady Bird (2017), which earned five Oscar nominations, Eighth Grade (2018), which earned a near-perfect 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, Uncut Gems (2019), which arguably features the best performance of Adam Sandler’s career, and Everything, Everywhere, All At Once (2022), which won seven Oscars including Best Picture. There is also an exciting slate of A24 movies releasing in 2024 that span across all genres.

The seven Best Picture nominees that were either produced or distributed by A24 include Room (2015), Moonlight (2016), Lady Bird (2017), Minari (2020), Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022), The Zone Of Interest (2023), and Past Lives (2023). Of these celebrated films, only two – Moonlight and Everything Everywhere All At Once – have won Best Picture. This is certainly subject, and even expected, to change in the coming years as A24 continues to churn out high-quality and deeply original movies. Two A24 films, Sing Sing and The Brutalist, are currently projected to be nominated for Best Picture at the 2025 Oscars.



7 Minari (2020)

Lost to Nomadland

Minari follows a Korean-American family who moves to Arkansas during the 1980s to try and realize the American dream as farmers. Despite the ambitious and hopeful intentions, the family, led by Steven Yeun’s Jacob, realizes that bringing the dream to life is immensely more difficult than it sounds. Lee Issac Chung, who went on to direct the 2024 blockbuster Twisters, wrote and directed the Best Picture nomination which was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Score, and won Best Supporting Actress for Youn Yuh-jung.


Minari is a simple yet profound story about family ties and the roots that bound them. The highlights of the film are the gripping performances by its lead actors and its effective ability to create an immersive, ironically serene at times atmosphere despite the daily struggles of the protagonist’s family. Despite its ambiguous and divisive ending, Minari beautifully blends comedy and drama to create a lifelike portrait full of vigor and truisms. The screenplay is one of the strongest qualities of Minari. However, its arguably hollow ending is one of its biggest detriments.

6 Room (2015)

Lost to Spotlight


Room became the first A24 movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the 88th Academy Awards in 2016. The psychological drama starring Brie Larson features a remarkable performance from 8-year-old Jacob Tremblay, who is now 18 years old and has appeared in Wonder (2017) and Luca (2021). Directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Frank, Normal People), Room is written by Emma Donoghue, who also wrote the 2010 novel of the same name. Apart from Best Picture, Room was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director. Brie Larson won Best Actress.

Room is, in a word, devastating, but also delicately profound. Larson is in top form and is arguably elevated by the outstanding talents of Tremblay’s Jack, who has a wonderfully creative mind that is captured through intricate and well-written voiceover. It’s impossible not to feel for Larson’s Ma and Jack, who have been held captive for years by a deranged man. The film masterfully blends two contrasting forces – a childlike tenderness and a scarred sense of hopelessness – that create a fascinating thematic dichotomy. While the film suffers from a lack of plot logic in some areas, the sheer impact of the film makes it unforgettable.


5 Past Lives (2023)

Lost to Oppenheimer

Past Lives was one of two A24 films to be nominated for Best Picture at the 96th Academy Awards in 2024. Written and directed by Celine Song, Past Lives is a romantic drama about a married writer living in New York who reconnects with her dearest childhood friend from South Korea. The film stars Greta Lee as Nora, who immigrated to the United States when she was a child with her parents, leaving Teo Yoo’s Hae Sung behind. Through her development as a writer, she met and fell in love with a novelist named Arthur (John Magaro). Past Lives was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.


Past Lives is a poetic and thoughtful film that plays out a what-could-have-been scenario with narrative poise and refinement. The natural chemistry of Lee and Yoo makes it near-impossible not to root for them in the name of fairytale romance, emphasized by the contrasting modern circumstances of Nora’s marriage with Arthur, who shares her career and interests. Past Lives is instantly relatable because its subtle premise can happen to anybody and evokes palpable personal feelings of lost love and what-if scenarios that keep people up at night. It’s also a stunning directorial debut for Song.

4 The Zone of Interest (2023)

Lost to Oppenheimer


2023’s The Zone of Interest was the other Best Picture entry at the 2024 Oscars. The film is directed by Jonathan Glazer, who also adapted the screenplay based on the Martin Amis novel of the same name and is known for directing 2013’s Under the Skin as well as several Radiohead music videos, including “Karma Police”. Led by the standout performances of Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller, the latter of whom was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest was also nominated for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and won the Oscars for Best Sound and Best International Feature.

The Zone of Interest leaves an indelible mark and is a cold reminder of the darkest side of humanity. While it’s not quite on the level of previous movies that tackle the harrowing subject matter of the Holocaust like Schindler’s List, The Zone of Interest is still hauntingly effective in its stark thematic juxtaposition and its demonstration of the banality of evil. It’s a brutal yet crucial film not only for its message but for its achievements in cinematic design. The premise alone is nearly unfathomable, but once you realize that the film is based on true events, an internal shift occurs that can’t be shaken. The Zone of Interest is an unforgettable and essential piece of filmmaking.


3 Lady Bird (2017)

Lost to The Shape of Water

With a near-perfect 99% Rotten Tomatoes score, Lady Bird is often considered one of the greatest coming-of-age movies ever made. Featuring an all-star cast led by 4-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan, Lucas Hedges, Beanie Feldstein, and Timothée Chalamet, Lady Bird is written and directed by Great Gerwig, who would go on to direct 2023’s highest-grossing movie, Barbie. Lady Bird was nominated for a total of five Oscars, including Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress, but did not walk away with any victories at the 90th Academy Awards held in 2018.


Lady Bird is arguably the premier product in the 2010s era that was overflowing with coming-of-age films like The Edge of Seventeen and The Perks of Being A Wallflower. An excellent blend of traditional teen comedy mixed with the sharp edges of family drama, Lady Bird is fueled with passion and originality that gives it a true cinematic voice. The titular protagonist is defiant, idealistic, and messy in an endearing way that makes audiences root for her success as well as her impending reality check. Lady Bird arrived with resounding character development and a whole lot of heart, which made it an instant classic.

2 Moonlight (2016)

Won Best Picture


Moonlight was the first A24 film to win Best Picture in what would become a historic night at the Academy Awards due to the infamous La La Land mix-up. Barry Jenkins, who directed the upcoming Mufasa: The Lion King, wrote and directed the Best Picture winner, which also won Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali. The film was nominated for a total of eight Oscars, including Best Director, Best Cinematographer, Best Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Supporting Actress for Naomie Harris. Trevanate Rhodes stars as Black, one of the three iterations of Moonlight’s protagonist.

Moonlight is nearly perfect in its structure and should be considered Jenkins’ masterpiece. A simple story of intensely complex emotions and formations of identity, Moonlight is a tragically beautiful film about how societal expectations can shape and suppress an individual, particularly a disadvantaged black man. Visceral at times while blissful in others, Moonlight represents the unspoken truths and the unrealized dreams of oppressed people and groups. Overflowing with themes of human empathy and the yearning for true connection, Moonlight touches on the most primal human desires and needs and illustrates how external factors can make it hard for people to simply be themselves.


1 Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Won Best Picture

Everything Everywhere All At Once is A24’s biggest achievement to date. Not only is it the company’s highest-grossing movie of all time with a worldwide box office of just under $111.5 million but it also received the most Oscar nominations (11) and wins (7) out of all A24 films. Apart from winning Best Picture, Everything Everywhere All At Once also won Best Original Screenplay and Best Director for Daniel Kawn and Daniel Scheinert, Best Editing, Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh, Best Actor for Ke Huy Quan, and Best Actress for Jamie Lee Curtis. It was also nominated for Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Costume Design.


There’s no question that Everything Everywhere All At Once is A24’s most impressive feat on paper. The film deserves its slew of accolades for having one of the most creative and fun movie concepts of the 21st century. Apart from the obvious outstanding performances and great characters, the visuals in Everything Everywhere All At Once are breathtakingly innovative and extremely well-executed. The film stretches itself to cover multiple themes and seamlessly blends action and comedy without losing its reverting plot and arriving at its profound conclusion. Everything Everywhere All At Once cohesively captures authentic aspects of the human experience using a superhuman methodology, making A24’s greatest film thus far.

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