Here in the final stages of the 2024 Oscars season, several Academy Awards voters told Gold Derby who they voted for — and why. They asked us not to reveal their identities, but they were otherwise eager to share their views of the year’s best films. Now that voting has concluded, we’ll share a few with you. The comments below by Voter #2 for each category are part of the thought process in choosing these potential winners.

BEST PICTURE: “Oppenheimer”From the get-go, there is magic when you’re watching Oppenheimer. It’s the kind of movie that will drive people to theaters the way that the big event movies do. As I said, day one, when I saw Oppenheimer, I just knew I saw the best picture of the year. Second place is “The Zone of Interest.” Third place is “The Holdovers.”

BEST DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”)It’s not just anyone who could orchestrate what he did, everything from building the complex from scratch and having the vision that he clearly did. When they would go from the black and white back to color and then we have some of the images from the explosions and stuff. And then getting the strength of the performances that they received from the actor, it was just quite the project and I think he delivered on every level.

BEST ACTRESS: Emma Stone (“Poor Things”)The challenges the part presented her as an actress and the growth that she demonstrated were phenomenal. It was really the best of all the roles I’ve seen her in and probably one of her most talented. My other choice would be Sandra Huller. Both of them are worthy of the award, but I just feel momentum is with Emma. There’s no doubt about it.

BEST ACTOR: Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”)I can tell you when I first saw Oppenheimer, the time flew by and a lot of it was due to him. It was the physical resemblance, which was really amazing, but the overall quality of the performance, the scope of it and the emotions that he had to portray when in a lot of those situations. It’s the part of a lifetime. In another year, I would have voted for Jeffrey Wright because it’s so refreshing to see him in a part that he really seemed great playing and gave him a full range of emotions, but there’s no way he can compete against the this one.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”)It was, as always, the toughest category because every performance and the supporting role is always phenomenal. But I think Da’Vine so often contrasts Paul Giamatti’s performance, which was no small feat number one. Plus you felt for her that you felt everything that she went through to get to that point with her son and how strong a woman that she is and certainly not to take away from any other performers that are not. She just blew me away!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Robert Downey, Jr. (“Oppenheimer”)Once again, when I saw that film, I said I’ve that seen Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. That’s how convinced I was right off the bat. And there the maturity of him in playing that part, if you didn’t know it was him, you probably wouldn’t have known it was him. He became so much a part of the character and you couldn’t really take your eyes off him when he was on camera.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: “Oppenheimer”It’s not a book I probably would have ever read, but I did read the script and, and he was really able to take the words and make them much larger on the screen. And they were pretty large on the page.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: “The Holdovers”I love the movie! It’s just once again unfortunate in the year where Oppenheimer is dominating the world, but the script had so much humanity to it. When you see that kind of old story, that’s an old style movie and that’s what I loved about it more, you know, the look of it was old school. Certainly the performances and all of that are dictated by the screenplay.

PREDICT the 2024 Oscar winners through March 10

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