The speculation surrounding the 2024 Best Picture at the 96^th Academy Awards has intensified following the recent releases of Oppenheimer and Barbie. In what’s known as the 'Barbenheimer Effect', cinema-goers all over the world have been flocking to see the much-awaited movies, and it’s the former that is the current favourite to win the big prize in March 2024.

The Christopher Nolan-directed Oppenheimer, with a star-studded cast and Cillian Murphy in the lead role, has propelled to the top of the betting with UK betting sites for Best Picture at the 2024 Oscars. If it is to do so, it will have to buck the trend of Best Picture winners being released in summer months. November release dates have resulted in more Best Picture winners than any other month, with 15. 

June and July, with five winners each, aren’t typically the months you want your Best Picture nominee to be released. If Oppenheimer, or indeed Barbie, is to become the sixth July release to win, they would be the first to do so since Forrest Gump in 1994.

Killers Of The Flower Moon remains well-respected by the Oscar bookmakers that have opened their markets already, with Past Lives, Lee, Blitz, The Color Purple and Maestro also potential shortlist material. 

Oppenheimer Likely to Pack a Punch With Academy Judges

It’s little surprise to find Oppenheimer trading as the market leader with the best betting apps to win 2024 Best Picture. We’re likely to see this film generate plenty of awards at the turn of the year, with Christopher Nolan returning to the fore with a picture that spans a full three hours and focuses on the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was crucial to the development of the first nuclear weapons.

Nolan has already been nominated for five Academy awards for pictures including Inception and Dunkirk, although perhaps he will be a winner for the first time with a movie that features Cillian Murphy swapping the flat cap of Tommy Shelby for the fedora of Oppenheimer. 

The fact that Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jnr. and Florence Pugh are also in the cast means that the film will pack a significant punch, and the initial reviews are favourable. Having premiered in July 2023, this could be perfect timing when it comes to the awards season where the judging panel might find it difficult to discount the movie.

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Barbie Could Be an Oscars Contender Based on the Odds

Perhaps we should underestimate Barbie at our peril, with this movie certainly not a child’s movie. The fact that Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are the lead actors demonstrate that this is picture that can deliver a great movie for cinema lovers. Initial reviews have been favourable for this film, which is based on the Barbie fashion dolls by Mattel.

The American fantasy comedy movie has seen movie lovers flock to their local cinemas to see this Greta Gerwig-directed affair. The director has already received critical acclaim with previous films such as Little Women, Lady Bird and Mistress America.

The extensive marketing campaign surrounding Barbie means that it was accompanied by plenty of hype in 2023 when the film was eventually released. In the first weekend, it grossed more at the box office than any other picture that had a female director, with the meta humour of the film being highly praised, along with Robbie’s overall performance as Barbie.

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Killers Of The Flower Moon Could Shine at Oscars

Whenever Martin Scorsese releases a new movie, everyone sits up and takes notice, including the best betting sites. That is certainly the case with Killers Of The Flower Moon, which might have what it takes to usurp Oppenheimer and Barbie to land the 2024 Best Picture Award, with Leonardo Di Caprio and Robert De Niro teaming up with their old ally in this one.

The film is a Western crime drama, and Scorsese was also the co-writer of the screenplay along with Eric Roth. The plot concerns a set of murders committed during the 1920s in Oklahoma, and the movie has already received rave reviews from those who saw it at the Cannes Film Festival in May this year.

With Apple TV distributing the movie in the autumn of 2023, there is sure to be a buzz around a film that might benefit from hogging the limelight vacated by Oppenheimer at an earlier stage, with Scorsese, De Niro and Di Caprio often making for a killer combination with audiences.

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Past Lives Also Among 2024 Oscar Favourites

There are Oscar-winning movies that come with huge spends and marketing campaigns, while there are those pictures that fly under the radar. Past Lives certainly falls into the latter category, and it’s the first film that has been directed by Celine Song and stars Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro.

This American romantic drama has been attracting positive reviews since being released at the Sundance Festival in January 2023, with the movie then available to a United States audience in June this year. It’s the sort of picture that Academy Award judges will gravitate towards, and it would be little surprise to find it on the shortlist and near the top of many betting apps.

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Anatomy Of A Fall Could Also Challenge for Best Picture

Could a French thriller upset the market favourites and win the 2024 Best Picture? Stranger things have happened, with Justin Triet and Arthur Harari having combined to great effect with a screenplay directed by the former. It involves a writer aiming to prove her innocence when accused of her husband’s death.

What makes matters more difficult is that the couple’s blind son is the only person present at the death, with the film being met with universal acclaim when it was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and we might see a big swell of support for the film when it debuts in France in August.