The Completely Unauthorized Eater Oscars for Food Excellence in Film

What were the best food moments in movies this year? The envelope please...

Monica Burton is the deputy editor of Eater.com, where she has covered restaurants, food policy, and the intersection of food and culture since 2017.

The 97th Academy Awards ceremony is happening Sunday, March 2, honoring what a number of entertainment industry elites have deemed to be the best in movies this year (whether or not moviegoers agree is another matter entirely). At Eater, we’ve made our own appraisals, and while none of the year’s films making the awards campaign circuit qualified for a spot on our list of the best food films of all time, they nonetheless included some memorable moments starring our favorite subjects: food, restaurants, and the act of eating.

Because such specificity is woefully neglected by the Academy, we took it upon ourselves to join the awards season fray and honor these films for their contributions to the cinematic culinary canon. Sure, we don’t have statues to hand out, but take our word for it that these are the most compelling uses of food on film of 2024. Congratulations to all the winners, be they human, edible, or otherwise inanimate. (And it should go without saying, but spoilers for this year’s slate of films ahead.)

Best performance of eating by an actor

Dennis Quaid, The Substance

In mere seconds, Dennis Quaid, in his role as Harvey, obliterated the warm feelings of goodwill I’d had toward him after a lifetime of loving The Parent Trap (1998). The Substance begins with Harvey firing Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), from her longtime TV role over a power lunch full of shrimp. (It should be noted that only Harvey is eating in this scene.) The intense close-ups and mouth sounds — squelching, crunching, and chewing, dialed-up to the point that I suddenly understood misophonia — of Quaid demolishing pounds of head-on shrimp perfectly set up the absurd body horror of The Substance. His character is a sleazy chauvinist who sees women as interchangeable and disposable; Harvey’s grotesque approach to eating is further proof of his greed and lack of care. Bravo to Quaid for making eating shrimp so off-putting and to director Coralie Fargeat for creating one of the movie’s most unsettling scenes at the dining table. — Bettina Makalintal, senior reporter at Eater.com

Best kitchen appliance cameo

The espresso machine, Conclave

One brilliant thing about Conclave is its commitment to ugliness: These wannabe popes are drinking their wine out of plastic cups in a fluorescent-lit cafeteria, riding in sprinter vans and vaping while looking at Instagram on their phones. Nowhere was this more apparent than when Tremblay (John Lithgow) offers Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) an espresso from an instant machine in his appointed quarters, which loudly clangs and rattles as Lawrence attempts conversation about the intensely important decision at hand — so much so that you can barely hear them. It’s so unholy, so cheap, and a clear reminder that the process of electing a pope is about gross, material politics, not anything as beautiful as faith. — Jaya Saxena, correspondent

Best performance by a sweet snack (comedy)

The churro, Challengers

It’s only fitting that Challengers director Luca Guadagnino — whose 2017 film Call Me By Your Name might’ve previously won this award for Most Creative Use of a Peach — would employ a churro in a hormone-drenched physical representation of thick sexual tension. In what may be the horniest use of a fried pastry in cinematic history, super-competitive tennis players Patrick (Josh O’Connor) and Art (Mike Faist) aren’t just duking it out on the court, they’re trying to win the affections of the excruciatingly perfect Tashi Donaldson (Zendaya). As this testosterone-fueled arms race heats up, a single bite of a churro is the inflection point that inspired countless thirsty TikToks and Reddit threads, and that’s a whole lot of work for a churro to be doing. — Amy McCarthy, reporter

Best performance by a sweet snack (drama)

The candy, Hard Truths (2024)

Director Mike Leigh’s London-set drama overflows with anxiety and tension courtesy of Pansy Deacon (played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste). She’s a relentless source of rage and unhappiness because she feels like the world — including her own family — is always against her. But it’s her sweet yet socially awkward son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) who offers a respite of hope. During one of his escapist jaunts through the city, Moses sits down at a bustling fountain when a woman asks to sit next to him. She offers him some of her strawberry lace candy, prompting him to take off his headphones. They toast with their candies — so cute — and begin talking; that act of sharing turns into an unexpected moment of connection with a stranger. Of course it’s candy that offers a flash of optimism in a film awash with misery. — Nadia Chaudhury, editor, Eater Northeast

Best cafeteria choreography

“What Is This Feeling,” Wicked

One of the joys of seeing the musical Wicked adapted to the big screen (even if it takes nearly three hours to get through the first half) is seeing the tricks that director Jon M. Chu can pull off when unencumbered by the limits of the stage. In numbers like “What Is This Feeling?”, a rivalry face-off between witches Elphaba and Galinda, the characters can dazzlingly transition from a split screen, bedroom-set roommate battle to an epic, large-scale production dance number that shifts seamlessly from cafeteria to classroom to martial arts practice. The cafeteria setting in particular allows the witches and their classmates, with golden cafeteria trays and silverware in hand, to slice, spear, and toast their way through Christopher Scott’s energetic choreography. The effect is all very thrillifying. — Missy Frederick, cities director

Best food or drink erotica

The milk, Babygirl

There has been so much divisive chatter around cow’s milk recently, and while much of it has been orbiting around regressive tradwives, raw milk enthusiasts, and the dangerously misleading beliefs of RFK Jr., Babygirl’s erotic milk scenes have given me hope for the ongoing dairy discourse. The film was both written and directed by Halina Reijn (Bodies, Bodies, Bodies), who weighs out the perfect amount of sex appeal, realistically clumsy dialogue, and adrenaline-pumping scenes in her erotic thriller. Here, the horniest moments hinge on milk; in one scene, Nicole Kidman’s CEO character guzzles down a big ole glass from her intern/soon-to-be dom, played by Harris Dickinson. (Not long after, we also watch her lap up milk from a dish on the floor in a hotel room during foreplay.) I thank the heavens for Nicole Kidman every day, but I especially thank her for wrangling cow’s milk away from the boring clutches of Republican drips, and back into the hands of lovable, kink-positive perverts. — Francky Knapp, commerce writer

Best animated meal

The fish-catching scene, Flow

The beautifully animated, Oscar-nominated Latvian movie Flow has plenty of memorable scenes. As the titular cat is traveling by boat through mysterious lands — accompanied by a capybara, Labrador, and ring-tailed lemur, naturally — one thing remained in the back of the mind: When is Flow going to eat? We see the skinny, charcoal-colored cat get plenty of chances as birds drop bait, and we know the waterways are teeming with possible meals. But about halfway through the meditative movie, Flow finally gets brave enough to dive into the water and sneak up on some electric-colored fish. It’s a thrilling, cyclical scene of dive, catch, and return sequences that leaves the animals with a pile of scrumptious fish back on the boat, which they proceed to share in one of the movie’s most satisfying and heartwarming scenes. — Jess Mayhugh, managing editor

Best ensemble performance at a group dinner

A Real Pain

A Real Pain is about my personal nightmare of traveling with a bunch of strangers. Will they like you? Will they be annoyed if you stop to use the bathroom too often? What if they’re all bigots and now you’re on a boat together and can’t get off? Benji (Kieran Culkin) and David (Jesse Eisenberg), cousins who are on a Jewish heritage tour through Poland in the wake of their grandmother’s death, don’t do much to convince me I’m wrong: Benji is distraught, while David is mostly there because he feels bad for his depressed, aimless cousin. And at a group dinner in Lublin one night, these underlying tensions come to a head. Benji is rude and emotionally raw, while David tries to keep the peace, all while everyone else looks wildly uncomfortable. Imagine having to deal with someone storming off from the table and angstily playing the restaurant’s piano and he isn’t even your friend! What do you even say to the waiter after that? Even as you watch their tour mates express genuine sympathy, it’s painfully awkward to watch. — JS

Best performance by a beverage

The Water of Life, Dune 2

It feels a little strange to give an “award” to a “drink” that is in fact poison, made from the biliary excretions of a dying young sandworm. But after the near-death experiences — and wild, hallucinogenic, power-unlocking, plot-driving vision quests — of Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and later Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), it’s clear: This is some eye-opening shit. The blue raspberry-colored liquid is extracted via syringe from inside the late sandworm by a presumably highly skilled Maker Keeper (what’s the certification process like for this gig?), and when Lady Jessica takes a sip, it’s only a few seconds before she’s writhing on the ground on a trip that will change the fate of the universe.:The Water of Life allows Lady Jessica to become a Reverend Mother, unlocking a series of events that leads directly to war. But as I was watching her drink, one question kept running through my head: What does that worm juice taste like? — Ben Mesirow, associate editor, travel

Additional photo credits: Mubi / Amazon MGM Studios / Niko Tavernise / AP / Getty Images