Thanks to its Oscar nominations, Killers of the Flower Moon is on its way to breaking a 19-year Martin Scorsese streak. Based on the 2017 non-fiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and The Birth of the FBI, the movie follows a Scorsese trend of telling a true story of betrayal, love, greed, and murder. Killers of the Flower Moon takes viewers back to 1920s Oklahoma to meet Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his uncle, William “King” Hale (Robert De Niro), the benefactor of the Osage people who was looking to steal their wealth.
As part of his plan, Hale manipulated Ernest and convinced him to marry Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), whose family owned much of the oil headrights. Hale’s plan went as far as killing Mollie’s family and poisoning her, which, along with other mysterious deaths among the tribe, led the Bureau of Investigation to look into what was going on. Killers of the Flower Moon became one of the best movies of 2023 and is the second movie with the most nominations at the Academy Awards 2024, and it can finally break a Martin Scorsese Oscar streak.
Killers Of The Flower Moon Ending Explained: The Osage Murders Trial & Outcome
Killers of the Flower Moon follows the serial Osage murders that occurred in the 1920s. We break down the film’s ending, true story changes & more.
Killers Of The Flower Moon Could Have The First Acting Oscar Win For Scorsese Since The Aviator
Martin Scorsese’s movies have been recognized by the Academy for decades, but that doesn’t mean they have won in the biggest categories. After five nominations for Best Director, Scorsese finally won the Oscar in this category in 2007 for The Departed, also taking home the Oscar for Best Picture. However, there are other big categories in which Scorsese’s movies haven’t been big winners: the best actor and actress categories, including supporting actor and actress.
The first time a Scorsese movie won the Oscar for Best Actor was in 1981 thanks to Robert De Niro’s performance in Raging Bull, and the last time an actor won in these big categories for a Scorsese movie was Cate Blanchett for The Aviator, in the category of Best Supporting Actress. Blanchett played legendary actress Katharine Hepburn, who became romantically involved with Howard Hughes (DiCaprio). Blanchett’s win was 19 years ago, but Killers of the Flower Moon can break this drought thanks to Lily Gladstone.
Among the 10 Academy Awards nominations that Killers of the Flower Moon got is Best Actress thanks to Gladstone’s performance. At the time of writing, Gladstone has won in this same category in other awards, such as the Golden Globes, the Boston Society of Film Critics, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. Gladstone is the favorite to win the Oscar for Best Actress, putting an end to this specific streak in the history of Scorsese’s movies.
Why No Actor Has Won An Oscar For A Martin Scorsese Movie In 19 Years
Cate Blanchett was the last actress to win an Oscar for her performance in a Scorsese movie, but that doesn’t mean she was also the last to be nominated. Mark Wahlberg was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Departed, DiCaprio was nominated for Best Actor and Jonah Hill for Best Supporting Actor for The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Irishman earned Best Supporting Actor nominations for Joe Pesci and Al Pacino.
For some reason, the other main actors of The Departed were overlooked, as was De Niro in The Irishman, and DiCaprio had big chances of winning for The Wolf of Wall Street but was beaten by Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club. Lily Gladstone is now the clear favorite to take the Oscar for Best Actress, but it’s to be seen if other Scorsese streaks will be broken by Killers of the Flower Moon, especially the Best Director one.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon is the next film from director Martin Scorsese, based on the non-fiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, initially captured by David Grann. When members of the Osage tribe are murdered in the 1920s via mysterious circumstances shortly after the discovery of oil on Native-American soil, the FBI is established to uncover the true reason behind them.
- Director
- Martin Scorsese
- Cast
- Leonardo DiCaprio , Louis Cancelmi , Jillian Dion , Scott Shepherd , Jesse Plemons , JaNae Collins , Robert De Niro , Jason Isbell , Cara Jade Myers , Lily Gladstone
- Runtime
- 200minutes
