Oscar nominations rarely make anyone sit up the way this year’s have. Was it a classic preference for serious cinema or an old gender bias that swayed Hollywood’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? Of last summer’s two most hotly raved-about movies, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, the award contenders picked for 2024 display a clear tilt towards the biopic of a scientist credited with the world’s first nuclear weapon. It was nominated this week for awards in 13 categories, including for Best Picture and Best Director, the two big ones, while the feminist remake of an...