This year’s Best Picture nominations fall into uncommon genre categories

With the field of Oscar contenders open to 10 nominations per category, this year’s Best Picture hopefuls offer something for everyone. Historically, that’s been relatively uncommon, given that the drama, biography, historical drama and comedy drama genres have dominated the field in recent years: 77% of the nominees since the 2010 ceremony have been assigned one or more of these four genres. While not absent from the ballot, these traditionally recognized genres have some competition from some less-frequent challengers: musical, family and horror.

Just how rare are these genres in the Best Picture category?

Wicked is the first family film nomination in more than 40 years since E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). This film also has a musical genre (as does Emilia Pérez), and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hasn’t awarded Best Picture to a musical in more than 20 years (Chicago; 2002). Only five musicals released between 1980 and 2023 have been nominated for Best Picture.

The Substance is the other unique nomination, in that it’s only the fourth film in the horror genre to be considered for a Best Picture award. And while Get Out (2018) and Jaws (1975) were previous Best Picture nominations in the horror genre¹,The Substance is the first since the Exorcist back in 1973 to only have a horror genre. Get Out has three genres and Jaws has five.

In an ever-growing landscape of video content, genre, along with other descriptive metadata, will become increasingly important for both content discovery journeys and contextual advertising opportunities. In total, this year’s 10 nominated films include 14 different genres. Historically, the films nominated for a Best Picture award have included a total of 28 different genres.

Drama has been the most common genre among Best Picture nominations, as 41% of the 611 contenders in this category have fallen into the drama genre since the first Oscars ceremony was held back in 1929. No other genre dominates the Best Picture nomination competition like drama, as historical drama (12%), comedy drama (11%), biography (10%), adventure and romance (7%) round out the six most common genres in the category. Each of these genres is present this year except romance, which has gone out of fashion in recent years with only two Best Picture nominations at the last six Oscars: Past Lives (2023) and West Side Story (2021).

Biography films are frequent Best Picture nominations, but rarely take the prize. A Complete Unknown and I’m Still Here are included in this year’s Best Picture nominations, making it the ninth successive year in which at least one biography film was nominated. While biopics don’t usually win in the Best Picture category. Oppenheimer beat the odds and won Best Picture last year, but it was the only biography film out of 30 nominated between 2004 and 2024 to claim the glory. In total, 60 different films with a biography genre have been nominated for Best Picture.

While only 10 films can be nominated for the Best Picture award, a total of 207 were eligible to receive nominations. In looking at the films that were eligible for a nomination, it’s clear that certain genres are less likely candidates than others. Conclave, for example, is the only film with a thriller genre to be nominated for Best Picture, despite the genre’s prominence among eligible films, and none of this year’s nominations has a comedy genre. Anora does have a comedy drama genre, however.

So, how do the genres of the historical Best Picture nominees line up with the winners of the award? Musicals are the clearest overperformers in the Best Picture category, as 9% of the winners of the award have had this genre, whereas only 5% of the nominees were musicals.

Musicals were much more popular with the Academy in the first four decades of the Oscars. Eight of the nine musicals to win Best Picture and 21 of the 30 musical nominees before this year’s pair were released before 1969. The only musical winner since the 1960s was Chicago (2002).

Drama, despite receiving the most Best Picture nominations, is slightly underrepresented among the winners of the award. Thirty-six percent of winners have been dramas, compared with 41% of nominees. The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave and Nickel Boys are this year’s drama nominees.

Ninety of the 96 Best Picture winners have also been nominated for Best Director. Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Emilia Pérez and The Substance have been nominated for both of these awards this year.

A win for The Brutalist or A Complete Unknown would give the drama genre its fourth Best Picture win at the last six Oscars and its 35th of the 97 in total. A Complete Unknown is also a biography and music film. The biography genre has one victory from its last 30 nominations, while the music genre has never won. Anora would be the 11th comedy drama winner, Emilia Pérez would be the 10th musical, and seventh crime drama to win Best Picture. However, a musical hasn’t won since Chicago (2002) and the last crime drama to win was No Country for Old Men (2007). A victory for The Substance would make it the first ever horror film to win Best Picture.

Eleven of the last 13 Best Picture winners have had at least one of drama, biography, historical drama or comedy drama among their genres. The Shape of Water (2017) and Everything, Everywhere All at Once (2022) were the exceptions.