Oscars 2024 Review: 10 Ups & 6 Downs

7. Maestro Goes Home Empty Handed

It may not be very sporting to root against movies winning awards, but it's also fair to say that Bradley Cooper's Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro was the categorical "Oscar villain" of this year's awards circus.

Cooper's drama, which was nominated for seven Oscars, ultimately went home with nothing - even losing out on Best Makeup and Hairstyling, for which it was deemed the frontrunner yet ended up losing out to Poor Things.

And it's ultimately a fitting fate for Cooper's awards-eager drama - a well-made, persuasively acted film that nevertheless failed to get to the heart of who Bernstein was, and so just didn't earn enough passion from voters to score any wins.

In years past it's easy to picture the Academy tripping over themselves to give Maestro all the flowers, so it was refreshing to see them shut out what was ostensibly the year's most obviously Oscar-baiting film.