What movie is the bookies' favourite to win Best Picture at the Oscars?

The 96th Academy Awards will occur on 10 March 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

The Oscars ceremony is dedicated to celebrating the best of film each year whether it be from an artistic or technical point of view. It is generally considered to be the most prestigious movie award ceremony in the world and has been running since the first ceremony took place at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in 1929.

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The most coveted awards are for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director though each of the 23 awards given on the night comes with its own degree of prestige.

Each category winner is awarded a copy of a golden statuette as a trophy, officially called the 'Academy Award of Merit' though it is colloquially known now as simply an 'Oscar'

With regards to the Best Picture award, there is one major front-runner, according to betting website Oddschecker.

Oscar Odds 2024

Oppenheimer - 1/20

Christopher Nolan's epic drama Oppenheimer is the overwhelming favourite to win the Best Picture Award at the Oscars.

Official premise:

'During World War II, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. appoints physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work comes to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witness the world's first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history.'

Oppenheimer cast: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Benny Safdie, Jason Clarke and Tom Conti.

The Zone of Interest - 18-1

The Zone of Interest is a historical drama film written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis. 

Official premise:

'The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife, Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.'

The Zone of Interest cast: Christian Friedel, Sandra Huller, Johann Karthaus, Luis Noah Witte and Nele Ahrensmeier

Poor Things - 20/1

According to our own MovieMeter community, the best movie of the year is Poor Things.  Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone, the official premise reads:

'A young woman, Bella, is brought back to life by her guardian, the scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter. Initially naïve, Bella is eager to learn about the world around her, albeit under Baxter's protection. Wanting to see more, she runs off with Duncan Wedderburn, a slick and debauched lawyer, and travels across continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella demands equality and liberation.'

Poor Things cast: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, and Jerrod

American Fiction - 80/1

American Fiction is a comedy drama written and directed by Cord Jefferson based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett.  It was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the American Film Institute

Official premise:

'Monk is a frustrated novelist who's fed up with the establishment that profits from Black entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, he uses a pen name to write an outlandish Black book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.'

American Fiction cast: Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, and Sterling K. Brown.

Killers of the Flower Moon - 100/1

Killers of the Flower Moon is directed and co-written by Martin Scorsese and is based on the non-fiction novel 'Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI' written by David Grann. 

The official premise reads:

'Members of the Osage tribe in northeastern Oklahoma are murdered under mysterious circumstances in the 1920s, sparking a major BOI investigation directed by a 29-year-old J. Edgar Hoover and former Texas Ranger Tom White, described by Grann as "an old-style lawman."'

Killers of the Flower Moon cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser.

The entire list of movies nominated are Oppenheimer, The Zone of Interest, Poor Things, The Holdovers, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, American Fiction, Killers of the Flower Moon, Past Lives and Maestro.