The Enduring Leonardo DiCaprio-Martin Scorsese Trend

The Enduring Collaboration

An unfortunate trend with Martin Scorsese's Leonardo DiCaprio-starring movies is very likely to continue with their most recent cinematic collaboration, Killers of the Flower Moon. Scorsese and DiCaprio are one of Hollywood's most compatible actor-director duos who have created some legendary movies together. Over more than two decades, the pair have worked together on six feature films and one short film. The frequent collaborators joined forces again for 2023's Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Scorsese and starring DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart. Killers of the Flower Moon is based on the book of the same name by journalist David Grann, who tells the true story of the Osage murders.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart frowns at Jesse Plemons as Tom White in Killers of the Flower Moon.

Despite its rave reviews and overall positive reception, Killers of the Flower Moon has been slightly overshadowed by some of this year's other big films, like Oppenheimer. The film's female lead, Lily Gladstone, has gotten some well-deserved recognition for her performance as Mollie Burkhart by receiving tons of awards, including the Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Motion Picture. Gladstone is a frontrunner for the Best Actress Oscar, but it doesn't look like her male co-lead in Killers of the Flower Moon will be joining her.

Leonardo DiCaprio Winning An Oscar For Killers Of The Flower Moon Is Looking Less Likely The SAG Awards nominations put DiCaprio's Oscars chances at risk Though he delivered a great performance in Killers of The Flower Moon, it's unlikely that DiCaprio will win for Best Actor at the 2024 Oscars. He was nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Motion Picture at the 2024 Golden Globes but lost to Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer. Despite this loss, DiCaprio remained a likely Oscar nominee for Killers of the Flower Moon, until his SAG Awards snub.

The Unfortunate Oscar Trend

DiCaprio's performance in Killers of the Flower Moon is notably and surprisingly absent from the recent SAG Awards nominations, which significantly lowers his chances of winning or even being nominated at the 2024 Oscars. With his SAG snub combined with his loss at the Globes, the odds of DiCaprio winning the Oscar for Killers of the Flower Moon are slim to none at this point. Although it's also rare for an actor to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor without also getting the SAG nomination, it's not completely unprecedented. DiCaprio could still get the Oscar nomination, but it's looking more and more out of reach.

DiCaprio Has Never Won An Oscar For A Martin Scorsese Movie He's been nominated for two Scorsese movies Although he has delivered some of his best work in Scorsese's projects, DiCaprio has never won an Oscar for any Scorsese movie. He's been nominated for Best Actor for two Scorsese film roles, both for playing real-life people. The first was in 2005 for playing Howard Hughes in The Aviator, and the second was in 2014 for playing Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street. However, neither of these Oscar nominations earned him a win.

Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) atop a plane in The Aviator.

The Future of Scorsese-DiCaprio Collaborations

In fact, DiCaprio didn't win his first Oscar until 2016 for his role in The Revenant, a non-Scorsese film. He's been nominated again since then but has yet to add another win to his name, and the chances of him taking home the gold at the 2024 Oscars are virtually dead. DiCaprio could still win an Oscar for a Martin Scorsese movie in the future, but it looks like Killers of the Flower Moon isn't going to be the Scorsese-DiCaprio joint venture that finally breaks this long-running trend.

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