The biggest snubs and surprises from the 2024 Oscar nominations
It's a big day for Barbie, but not so much for Greta Gerwig or Margot Robbie as the Academy's selections send out shockwaves
Film Features Oscar
Charles Melton in May December, Margot Robbie in Barbie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Teo Yoo and Greta Lee in Past Lives Photo: Netflix, Warner Bros., Apple Original Films, A24
Try as they might, the Academy Awards will never get it 100 percent right. The 2024 list of nominees, which Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid announced this morning in Los Angeles, was full of plenty of the usual suspects; huge hits Oppenheimer and Barbie earned 13 and nine nominations, respectively, while critical darlings Poor Things and Killers Of The Flower Moon earned 11 and 10 nominations. Across acting, directing, and screenplay categories, however, there were some pleasant surprises and some fairly upsetting snubs.
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We’ve known for a while now that Oppenheimer would be excluded from the visual effects category, but I’m once again here to say that that is dumb. It’s best visual effects, not best special effects. If they achieve most of the effects practically, it should still count.
Not to get all whataboutist on you but the fact that Nolan got a fucking screenplay nod is also DUMB.
Right? How did anyone know what the screenplay contained, given that we couldn’t hear the dialogue?
You know I’m normally sympathetic to this complaint but there’s literally one line in this film that’s a bit hard to hear and it’s when the guy’s asking Oppenheimer the same question over and over while he’s having a freakout imagining a nuclear blast, so like, you can kinda infer it.
it was by far nolan’s clearest movie.
“literally one line”I’m glad you got to have clearer audio when you saw the movie. The theater I saw it in, evidently, wasn’t as good; the people I saw it with (ranging from 15 to 76 years old) all had the same complaint, that a lot of the dialogue was buried under the audio mix and certain lines were hard to make out.
My complaint is very specific. According to interviews about the script he wrote all the scene and action description in first-person POV, which is the most fucking aggravating thing I have ever heard about a screenplay.
WHAT.THE.ACTUAL.FUCK?
RIGHT??? What a jagoff.
I know, I was making a joke about his sound editing.The first-person thing, I don’t know why that would aggravate you, you didn’t have to read the script. And also, so what? Maybe it’s pretentious but I think Christopher Nolan of all people has earned the right to do some wacky Creative™ things.
I didn’t have to read it, no. But I do have to read scripts by young screenwriters who may be influenced by that bullshit and who may decide that if HE can do it, so can they. And no, they can’t. Because he shouldn’t have either. He’s the director so it doesn’t particularly matter if the script is a bunch of twee bullshit, he’ll be doing a lot of the preproduction work anyway. But that’s not always the case and you make everyone’s job ten times harder by choosing to be a pretentious twat and writing in first person. You write scripts in third person so they can be broken down into production drafts and given to all the below the line folks. And what is the benefit of first person scene description? Maybe Cillian Murphy gets a better idea of how Oppenheimer thinks and feels but that’s exposition anyway. Scripts are written the way they are for a fucking reason and going off that out of some misplaced artistic impulse is the fucking worst. Fuck him and fuck this nomination.Christopher Nolan of all people is a director who thinks he can write. And he can’t. He sucks.
Oh boy, pity anyone that has to submit a screenplay to you. Jesus Christ, you’re pathetic.
Well that’s a lot of pity since I’ve been a professional story analyst for over 15 years and teaching screenwriting for around 6.Do people not understand that being a hyperbolic crank online is not how most of us who offer feedback professionally approach the artists who come to us? Sir, this is a Wendy’s. You’re on the internet.But sure, I’m “pathetic”.
It’s basically a reverse Tron, 40+ years later.
Here’s a (technical and vocabulary) FYI… ‘Special Effects’ (SPFX) are FX which happen ‘live on set’, in front of the camera and ‘Visual Effects’ (VFX) are the FX which are created digitally on computer after the scene is filmed. Yes, there are many scenes in cinema which combine live-action special effects with VFX, though the specific category awarded at the Oscars is for Visual FX and unfortunately for all of the Special Effects Supervisors and SPFX Technicians, there is no Oscar category for this work.
They weren’t visual effects at all, Nolan built and detonated a bunch of actual atomic bombs, for realism. By the way, if you attended that movie’s premiere, please see an oncologist.
Greta Lee is the only egregious acting snub. Leo did ok with a role that was totally wrong for him.
Greta’s snub will be more and more shameful as time goes by.
Apparently it’s a bad year at the Oscars for women named Greta.
Really only for the one who truly deserved the nom – Greta LEE.
Or… some people didn’t think Barbie was the unique amazing movie you think was.
Buttsoup Barnes: uncontested master of stating the obvious.
To clarify, I meant Greta Lee, though I certainly think Greta Gerwig was snubbed as a director. (I haven’t see Zone of Interest, so I’d place GG over Justine Triet).
The Gerwig snub is the worst of the lot. She did something that showed remarkable creativity and craft based upon a doll that already had a bunch of silly little-kid cartoons associated with it. The only anyone didn’t think it would be a disastrous idea from the very beginning was that her name was attached to it. I don’t feel like Leo was asked to do a ton with FM. He’s dimwitted and easily manipulated but there’s not a ton of range required. I felt the same way about his Revenant award, which very much felt like a make-up since Glass was a pretty one-note character. Tom Hardy was the one you couldn’t look away from in that movie. I haven’t seen Saltburn but it’s seemingly been polarizing enough that it’s not surprising it couldn’t muster enough votes to be nominated.
I’m not saying one way or the other re: Gerwig as I’ve never quite understood what standards the awards use to determine these noms. But I will say that the qualities of the movie you’re discussing seem much more in line with the screenwriting as opposed to the directing. I totally agree with your assessment but it sounds mostly like a narrative discussion rather than visualization/performance.
True but what’s onscreen has to pull together so many different elements, and the performances work in support of the story, that ultimately I call the director’s role as the lynchpin of the whole thing.
as I’ve never quite understood what standards the awards use to determine these nomsWhat standards? The Academy’s various branch members (thousands of them) vote for who they think should be nominated.
Well sure. But they have to be using *some* rationale for it. I have a general impression that it’s a bit of a subjective popularity thing but surely anyone who takes it even a little bit seriously has to have a rubric of some kind. When I think of “directing” I largely think of visualization and performance. Whereas what bfred was talking about I think of as the purview of the screenplay/writer. Now maybe the director folks also think of the story stuff and if so that’s kinda dumb but… well, I don’t know if they do or don’t.
I have a general impression that it’s a bit of a subjective popularity
thing but surely anyone who takes it even a little bit seriously has to
have a rubric of some kind.Sure, but it’s not different than any other kind of vote/election. Some people think Big Serious Thoughts about their votes while other people just vote for their friends or who they like on a surface level.
MOST people only consider the narrative aspect for all awards.
Is it really a snub though? This year was so strong for film that BD could have expanded to 10 nominations with ease. It is not so much a snub so much as it is just a result of the year in film being so strong.
I call it that because I do feel that someone who created something so unique deserves to be listed among the best of the year. There are always good movies but there’s no denying Barbie was a standout for a bunch of reasons.
Barbie does not even make my top ten. Hell, i have seen top 20 lists that did not place it on. That is not to say it was a bad movie, it was still really good, and there is not a single issue with it making it in for BP. It is just that 2023 was a ridiculous strong movie year.
I agree with you about Leo. While you could blame the script for making the Earnest character so uninteresting, it’s the actor’s job to find some depth there, and he didn’t. That final scene with Molly where Earnest couldn’t tell the last truth should have heartbreaking on his part, but it was only Lily that had any depth.
I haven’t seen Saltburn but it’s seemingly been polarizing enough that it’s not surprising it couldn’t muster enough votes to be nominated.Having watched Saltburn a few times (it’s a movie I enjoy but a movie that gets worse the more you think about it critically), the only two people who would’ve reasonably been up for an award were Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike, for Best Actor and Supporting Actress, respectively.
Unfortunately for Keoghan, amongst the nominees we did get, I don’t think there’s anyone you can really replace. Cillian Murphy, Giamatti, and Bradley Cooper were locks for nominations, and the remaining two (Colman Domingo and Jeffrey Wright) are two multi-talented heavyweights who happen to be black and/or openly gay (and that simply counts for something in this day and age). Colman played a legendary black, gay figure in a prestige biopic, and Jeffrey Wright played a hell of a role in a fictional tale about nuances of being a talented black man in a field rife with personal, political, and financial landmines.
In short, it’s hard to find a place for Keoghan. He also suffers because it’s clear this was a year for “older” Best Actor nominees. All the guys nominated are well into the 40+ camp (with Wright being the oldest at 48), and I don’t think Saltburn as a movie was good enough or was elevated by the enormity of Keoghan’s performance to replace any of the guys nominated. Also, not for nothing, the person who probably number 6 on the list is Leo, and I don’t think Keoghan took votes from Leo, so at best, Keoghan was in the top 10, but would’ve never gotten a nomination over Leo, let alone the guys who did get a nomination.
With Rosamund Pike, I think she was held down by the polarizing nature of Saltburn. Her performance was so relatively subdued compared to certain moments by Keoghan (licking up bath water after Felix masturbated in the bath, humping his Felix’s fresh grave, dancing fully nude at the end) that I think it got overshadowed. That being said, there’s an easy choice for who to replace out of the nominees for Supporting Actress: Emily Blunt. Oppenheimer was my favorite movie of the year, but I honestly completely forgot that Emily Blunt was in the movie. Rosamund Pike was unforgettable, as were all of the other nominees in that category, so I’d replace Blunt with Pike.
Almost like the academy doesn’t like women directors
In any other year, i would say yes. This year given the quality and number of people who could have been nominated, i would be less likely to say “yes” The category could have been expanded up to ten with ease. There is no egregious inclusion on the list. There are plenty of female directors that could be on this list, just as there are other male directors that could easily be on the list.
“ah ah ah, if you’ll look closely you’ll see the Academy has sustained its habit of ignoring women for good reasons.” leans back, folds arms
Again, in any other year there has been issues. This year there could be what 15 directors easy that could fit into those 5 slots. This year was so strong among all the categories the margins of difference between being and out is minuscule. There is a strong issue around looking at the academy’s nomination of women. Maybe that transferred over to this year as well, however the case is early non-existent simply based on the work of this year. It was a roll of the dice for who was going to get in. The academy has issues it needs to look at. This years crop of directors does not lend itself to evidence of the issue. It would have been great to see 2-3 of the noms be women directors, but it is not egregious given the pool to draw from this year.
The problem is that whenever there were too many good directors in a given year, and it was just a roll of the dice who gets in, and the margins between who gets the nom or not is minuscule, it’s usually the woman who gets left out.Given the accolades that Greta got this year, I do find it a bit egregious she didn’t get it. It was already fucking egregious when she didn’t get the nom in 2020 for Little Women.
But Barbie was a sh!tty movie.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if some of the Academy voters think that Noah Baumbach functioned as a sort of shadow “co-director”, since he’s both her husband, her co-writer, and an award-winning director in his own right (although not credited). If that’s the case, it certainly wouldn’t have been helped by the reports that they essentially each took and wrote half of the movie by themselves and then put it together (in other words, if Baumbach’s half is his writing vision, how could Greta translate that vision without Baumbach’s dual input as a writer and as a director in his own right?)
Not saying that latter is necessarily the case, but I do think the former came into play in the minds of some voters.
Problem is, the “there were just too many good directors this year” argument gets used *every* year. And it’s usually true that there’s a lot of good directors, but the fact that this happens year after year just emphasizes the fact that the Academy’s approach is “nominate the dudes first, then maybe we can consider leaving a slot or two for the women IF there’s room.”
Not to mention, “has this female director been nominated before, and in the last decade? If so, she can’t get another so soon!”
Did you watch all the films nominated for best director?Who would you remove from the list?
Just one at a time for the Academy, apparently (a woman – Justine Triet – did not get nominated for Best Director). Gerwig getting a director nod was a gimme I thought. That’s the only real “surprise” in these nominations, to me.
…meant to say that Justine Triet DID get nominated.
Spielberg wasn’t nominated when “The Color Purple” got 11 nominations. It was weird, but nobody blamed it on him having a dick. It’s not like this is the first time this has happened.
Yes, absolutely, which is why they’re only been 1 female director that’s actually won, 8 only Nominated in 95 years? It’s the Directors ( almost all men) who select who is nominated. They split the Supporting and Best actors by Gender, if they did for director, in say 15 years, they’d have a more diverse pool of people choosing the nominees.
We saw Barbie in the theatre and again here at home a few weeks ago. We like it a lot. I’m surprised about Gerwig’s snub but not Robbie’s. Ferrara and Gosling (especailly) delivered performances that really got to your heart or showed a wide range.I wonder if Ferrara’s big monologue were somehow given to Robbie, she would have been nommed instead. Also, we loved Nyad and happy to see Bening get nommed. Figured Foster was a lock so this was a nice surprise.
This doesn’t make much sense. The point of the movie is that Ken was being overlooked.It’s hard to compare categories. Robbie and Gosling weren’t competing against each other for nominations; they were competing against the actors or actresses in their categories. But, for what it’s worth, I think it’s perfectly credible to say that Gosling is more deserving of an award than Robbie. He had the weirder, more challenging role, where he has to be villainous, truly aggrieved, peppy, pathetic, and funny, often all at once.
Also, Lead Actor are the toughest fields to crack. Robbie had the best performance in the movie for me but she had the stiffer competition in trying to break the nominee field, hence the snub.
Exactly.
The question that people need to ask is, “Okay, if you put Margot in, who do you take out?” Looking at the nominations, the immediate two names are Annette Benning and Sandra Huller. Mulligan, Stone, and Gladstone are too good in their respective roles (and I think Gladstone is a lock), while Nyad and Anatomy of a Fall were both very niche movies where those performances could be overlooked.
As someone else said, Margot Robbie was good in Barbie, but her performance wasn’t groundbreaking. Frankly put, she was much better in films like I, Tonya and The Wolf of Wall Street (two films where she also played a role against male actors whose characters were hapless ne’er-do-wells).
Margot unfortunatelly suffers from the fact that the big roles she’s taken have kept her within a certain range that works (the movies are successful), but they tend to play up how beautiful and bubbly she is personality-wise. Even in I, Tonya, where she’s playing someone who did something absolutely despicable, she’s so damn charming that it works. That’s a good quality to have, but it’s really, really hard to stand out when your competitors are given performances that are viewed as more nuanced (rightly or wrongly). She might have to go the Charlize Theron route ala Monster if she really wants to make the breakthrough and pick up not just a nomination, but a win.
This doesn’t make much sense. The point of the movie is that Ken was being overlooked.That’s the point that you got out of the Barbie movie?
Maybe not the point of the movie, but definitely what motivated ken to act out and overcompensate in the way that he did
He also arguably had a co-leading-ish role… which gave him an advantage over other supporting actors.There is no way Gosling would have been nominated for Best Actor.
Margot Robbie didn’t get snubbed, I don’t think. She was perfectly good and did exactly what the role required, but it was hardly groundbreaking stuff. It’s exactly what you would expect from an A-list actor in a studio film.
Exactly, and same for Leo. There can be only five nominees per category, and neither of them did better in their respective roles than the five actors whose performances got the nods. Both DiCaprio and Robbie are People’s Choice type actors whose “snubs” will always spur dumb lists like this one, but it’ll be the right call every time.
No way did DiCaprio deserve a nod this year. Leo is not owed nominations just because does a movie every few years. When and how that just became an assumption is beyond me – way more competition these days and with truly dynamic actors who have actual range.
Yep. DiCaprio has the range of a stalled Vespa.
He was just about the best thing in that movie. So there’s that. (Half his previous nominations have been damn-near inexplicable to me. I hardly think he always deserves one.)
Um, no. It’s an incredible performance both from a comedic perspective and a dramatic one, not something many could pull off and make look so effortless in the process.
I think that’s both true in that Robbie makes it looks effortless, and probably the reason for the snub – the Academy usually rewards performances where you can see the effort. Hence Gosling, who was also completely deserving of a nom, they both were.
it can be all that and still not be worth nominating. she’s already been nominated twice and is up as a producer for barbie.it’s just been a fucking crazy year for movies, period. there was a time not so long ago that the idea of a movie like barbie getting any nominations would be a joke.
There are no more jokes in America. Everyone and everything is a viable alternative- sane or not, worthy or not. Movies are the least of it.
It’s really not. You just have low standards.
But on the flip side, what you’re saying Margot did in Barbie, Emma Stone did the same thing for La La Land. And not only did Emma get nominated, she beat many others who were more deserving, including Amy Adams who didn’t even get nominated.
The issue is that people at the time said that Emma didn’t deserve to win, let alone that Adams got snubbed. That doesn’t invalidate that Margot, while good in the movie, played a role that didn’t necessarily require her to exhibit groundbreaking acting talent or go outside of her range. Hell, if you look at Margot’s three biggest roles of her career so far: Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, Naomi in The Wolf of Wall Street, and Harley Quinn across the various DC properties, was her turn as Barbie either better than those roles, or did it elicit elements that were outside of what she’d already shown us in those roles? I don’t think so.
As I said to someone else in a different reply, her bubbly personality is so strong on film, that it’s difficult to separate Margot Robbie from the characters she portrays (accent notwithstanding). Her Barbie wasn’t so different from any of her other major roles to make you go, “Wow, that was a great performance”. It was a good performance, but one tailor-made for what Margot Robbie can do. She, like other performers before her who either have looks that are unmistakable, or personalities that are very powerful and distinct, really has to go way against type to put in a notable performance. Think Tom Hanks going from comedies to dramas, Denzel playing an evil motherfucker in Training Day, or Charlize Theron playing the despicable and downright hideous Aileen Wournos in Monster.
The same can be said of Gosling. Didn’t keep him from getting a nom.
So what’s the consensus on Greta Lee?Is she hot? Or is this a Hilary Swank type situation?I personally think shes really hot. But can see the argument against it.
My Snub list:1. Melton – May/December
2. Nick Huoy (editor) – Barbie
3. Daniel Pamberton (score) – Spider-Man (also would have taken Barbie, The Boy and The Heron, or The Holdovers over the score for Indians jones)
4. Gerwig – Barbie
5. Sessa – The Holdovers
6. Robbie – Barbie
7. Moore – May/December
8. Andrew Scott — All of Us Strangers
9. May December – Best Picture
10. Adam Stockhausen (production design) – Asteroid City (but I also would have taken Zone of Interest, Priscilla, or Beau is Afraid over Napoleons nomination)
11. TMNT – animated feature
12. Spider-Man – best VFX
13. Gretta Lee – Past Lives
Totally forgot to mention Sessa in my post. He was the heart and soul of that film. The other two certainly did more acting, but they didn’t grab me the way he did (in his first movie role, no less).
Here is the thing. Are they really “snubs” that would mean that someone got in that should nto have over them. I dont think that is the case for most of your list. This year was one of the strongest years in the history of film. They are not so much snubs as it is more so many legit condensers with limited space to fill. Most categories this year could have been expanded too 10, even beast picture probably could have gone up to 15-20 and all legitimate.
Here’s a simple one: Greta Lee instead of Annette Benning in yet another boilerplate biopic that glosses over some very real issues with the subject matter to make her a generic “hero”.
I totally agree. Annette Bening was okay but not spectacular. The best part of Nyad was Rhys Ifans.
The “Nyad” noms are among the ones that make me go “ehhhh okay” I would have rather seen others in especially Great Lee. But other than a few small examples like the Nyad noms, i dont think there is a lot of egregious noms this year.
Nyad likely appealed to the older academy voters who have a soft spot for a legendary, but older actress like Annette. Frankly, there’s always at least one older actor (talking about age 70+) who gets a nomination seemingly out of nowhere for a movie that very few people likely watched. Not to take anything away from the performance (such as Anthony Hopkins winning Best Actor a few years back over Chadwick Boseman), but there’s always gonna be a contingent of voters who feel that someone of that vintage deserves a nomination in one of the major acting categories (for example, out of all 4 acting categories, Annette Bening, Jodie Foster, and De Niro are the only nominees over the age of 60).
Yeah look i’m not up in arms about any of it, but i’ll give you my replacements and just to note, but everything I mentioned was in contention one way or the other, like none of my replacements are out of left field. 1. Melton replaces Sterling K. Brown
2. Nick Huoy (editor of Barbie) replaces Kevin Tent for The Holdovers, although he could replace Schoonmaker for Killers of the Flower Moon.
3. Daniel Pamberton (score) replace John Williams for Indiana Jones
4. Gerwig – Barbie replaces Justine Triet or Glazer
5. Sessa – The Holdovers replaces De Niro
6. Robbie – Barbie replaces Bening for Nyad
7. Moore – May/December replaces America. Fererra for Barbie
8. Andrew Scott — All of Us Strangers replaces Colman Domingo for Rustin
9. May December – Best Picture, personally it would replace Maestro
10. Adam Stockhausen (production design) – Asteroid City replaces Arthur Max for Napoleon
11. TMNT – animated feature replaces Elemental, but could also replace Robot Dreams
12. Spider-Man – best VFX replaces Napoleon
13. Gretta Lee – Past Lives replacing a 2nd Actress is hard, but I’d replace Mulligan…unless we want to get into a conversation about Gladstone being a supporting actress…2
No way The Holdovers should be shut out of Best Editing, those fade cuts were absolutely wonderful. They really captured a feeling in a way most of the other nominees didn’t.
All of those i would agree with, but that is the thing this year. I would have added in The Killer in VFX after seeing that VFX reel that was put out. None of your replacements nor the noms are out of place. There is enough strong contented that multiple “replacement” lists could be made and be completely understandable. Personally there are some I would have swapped out for what was nominated, but I am more than okay with that came out, except in a few of the categories. Like TMNT not getting a nom, that was maybe the biggest “shock” This year was just so damn strong.
4. Gerwig – Barbie replaces Justine Triet or GlazerWhat?No.
unless we want to get into a conversation about Gladstone being a supporting actress…I don’t think there’s much of a discussion: she’s a lead performer.
My criterion has always been pretty simple. If we experience significant parts of the movie through your POV, you should be a lead unless there’s a another POV character of the same gender/sex in the movie.
It’s not foolproof, and there are some movies that invariably screw themselves and the performers over by how they’re written and structured. Having just watched it again last night, I immediately think of Collateral, where Jamie Foxx was nominated for Best Supporting instead of Best Actor, even though he was the primary POV character. Of course, that nomination happened because he was up for Best Actor that same year for Ray, and Tom Cruise was the bigger name in the movie.
The area where my criterion really falls apart are true ensemble films, but they tend to get shafted anyways when it comes to individual nominations.
Pretty good year, I guess, but one of the strongest years in the history of film??!! Let me introduce you to pretty much any year in the 1970’s! Those movies were groundbreaking, and not because they finally figured out how to make a movie starring a popular doll.
It would seem a little strange to nominate an animated movie like Spider-Man for visual effects. What part of it is the “effect?” All of it? Spider-Man certainly had an impressive visual style, but I’d still say there’s an animated category to deal with especially impressive animated movies.
There’s precedent; Kubo and the Two Strings earned a Visual Effects nomination.
That’s fair, and I’m not saying it’s utterly precluded from the category. Kubo was stop motion, which feels a little more “effects-y,” but I’d say that I don’t think of Kubo as being a film worthy of a special effects award either. What makes Spider-Man worthy of an effects award compared to any other animated movie that might be visually striking?
Yeah so Across the Spider-Verse was on the short list by the VFX branch. Kubo & Nightmare Before X-mas had VFX nominations (in those two cases it was for comboing stop motion photography with VFX elements to complete the film). I think the broad stroke is that Across the Spiderverse has mixed frame rates and A LOT of compositing and blending of background and foreground elements to make the film work, not to mention the transition sequences…BUT you are right I can’t answer for you why the VFX branch is more behind Across the Spiderverse having to break a lot of new ground via various programs, over Pixar’s accomplishments over the years with hair/water scripts, and 3D modeling programs. Anyway this article break down a lot of what went into Across the Spiderverse: https://beforesandafters.com/2023/06/28/this-was-the-first-cg-animated-movie-ive-ever-heard-of-that-actually-had-a-dedicated-inking-team/
I’ve been shocked at the lack of recognition May/December has received. All three actors were incredible. Melton blew me away in an extremely tricky role.
Man, FUCK Nolan getting a nom for adapted screenplay. His dumb first person scene description bullshit should be disqualifying for any kind of fucking writing awards.
Get Bradley Cooper and his fake schnoz out of there and nominate Nicolas Cage for Dream Scenario, you cowards.
Well, they didn’t nominate him for Pig previously, and that was probably the best movie/performance of his distinguished career, so chock it up to another rock on the “Oscars don’t know shit” pile.
he also already has a best actor oscar.
That is true, and you if look at it as “hey, at least he has one,” then I guess it’s not such a galling fact as I made it out to be.At the same time, though, the guy spent almost a decade and a half being a critical punching bag because, in order to make up for the market crash of ‘08 suddenly turning all his real estate investments into debts, he took any and every shitty movie role that came his way just so he could avoid bankruptcy.And while I think Mandy marked the turning point where he was mostly out of the clear and could be choosier about picking more quality projects, Pig was the one that really seemed to herald that Nicolas Cage the Hack was past and Nicolas Cage the Artist was back and more soulful than ever. As someone who didn’t even always like his performances back in his “heyday” of the 90’s and 00’s, it absolutely hit me in a way none of his other performances had.While I know that all that metatextual history shouldn’t figure into a nomination or a win, in this case…? Because I think the performance was worthy of a win even without all that backstory, factoring it in makes me feel even more like he was robbed that year, previous win or not.I feel like he certainly deserved it more than Anthony Hopkins for Nomadland, that’s for sure.
Honestly not even his best movie work this year. Nominate him for Rocket in Guardians 3
It’s like they wanted to give the host a hand in the monologue.
Other than Gerwig, I’m disappointed Zac Efron didn’t get more love for the Iron Claw.
I’m still bitter that Iron Claw didn’t even get a nomination for the once award it should have been an absolute SHOO-IN for: Stunt Ensemble at the SAGs 🙁
FWIW, I voted for it – I was on the Nominating Committee this year – for both best ensemble and stunts.
I hate that two of the most immaculately crafted films of the year – Asteroid City and The Killer – were completely shut out. They should have been locks for cinematography at the very very least, and editing and sound for the latter.
I think the Academy has finally figured out that Wes Anderson makes Wes Anderson movies exclusively and maybe they just aren’t into them.
I love Anderson for the most part but you are not wrong. He does his thing and he does it well but that thing doesn’t always work. I find that more true in the latter films of his career than the earlier when he had Owen Wilson chipping in on script. I think he’s a more fruitful collaborator for Anderson than Roman Coppola or even Noah Baumbach.
I love David Fincher, and The Killer was a beautiful movie to watch, but it was Fincher’s worst movie since Alien 3. So many good things on paper, but the execution was poor (and the story of the assassin being targeted after a failed hit is played out, to the point where attempting to play it straight almost comes across as unintended satire).
Oh, it was definitely intentional satire.
To truly name a snub you need to name what it should replace. That’s tough to do with Best Director this year. Yes it’s unfortunate that Gerwig did not get nominated for doing an excellent job with an excellent film, but it’s hard to pick someone to kick out of the 5 who were nominated.
I don’t find it hard at all; I’d kick out all but Glazer for her.
I that’s true then I would consider you an unserious person, and/or someone who has not actually seen the films under consideration in the category.
It’s almost as if art is subjective and we can disagree on the merits of various films?
I haven’t seen Glazer’s film, but I’d kick out Scorcese for Gerwig in a heartbeat. Flower Moon is absolutely bog-standard late career Oscar bait. It’s perfectly fine work, but in no way surprising or refreshing or interesting from a directorial view and nowhere near his career bests. It’s just, Marty made a movie so here’s your usual nomination sir. Bleh. Let new people have a turn.
2023 is the best movie year I’ve personally experienced in my nearly 40 years, so I have a lot more sympathy than usual for the Oscar voters who only have so many spots to fill. In particular, I have to seriously ask anyone who says Margot Robbie was snubbed: Who exactly would you bump out of the list so she could get in?
Well, I don’t remotely feel so positively about the year, but I’d easily place Robbie over Gladstone and possibly Stone as well, who I’d replace with Greta Lee and Natalie Portman/Julianne Moore. Teyana Taylor also deserved a nomination.
All the more reason to pay closer attention to the Independent Spirit Awards this year!
I’m sorry but if you’d “easily” place Margo Robbie over Gladstone then you have no business even commenting on an article about movies.
Annette Benning
She should be bumped, but not for Robbie.
I’d move Gladstone to the Supporting Category
Why have we all lost our avatars?
The real snub here
It’s like they’re required by law to break something relating to Kinja and then never, ever fix it.
I was wondering the same damn thing. I feel naked without my profile pic of Batman from How It Should Have Ended sipping a cup of joe.
would have liked a song nomination for asteroid city, but i’m hoping wes anderson wins for short.
“…she was also snubbed in 2020 for her adaptation of Little Women, a film that, like Barbie, was nominated for Best Picture but somehow missed the Best Director nomination.”Well, since there are 10 Best Picture nominees but only five Best Director nominees, at least five filmmakers are going to “somehow” miss out on a nomination every year
I say this every year and yet every year the “oh so I guess must’ve directed itself!” memes are rampant. But it’s built in!
There’s also the fact that the Best Picture award goes to the producers of the movie, and there’s always the real possibility that the director isn’t a producer on the movie, so there isn’t necessarily an automatic overlap (for example, Coda in 2021 won Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, but wasn’t nominated for Best Director, even though Sian Heder wrote and directed the movie, but alas, she wasn’t a producer on the film either).
Best Picture – 10 nomsBest Director – 5 nomshOw Is It EvEn pOsSibLe To GeT BesT PiCtUrE aNd NoT bEsT DiReCtOr!?!?
Elemental for Best Animated Film.God why?? it was just …meh ..are they legally required to include every Pixar movie despite how mediocre it is.
At least it wasn’t “Wish”
At least it looks gorgeous, and Thomas Newman’s (egregiously un-nominated) score is fantastic.
Yeah but the TMNT movie this year was a far better animated film that got snubbed
Movies are more than their story.Just because you don’t like a narrative doesn’t mean the entire movie is garbage.
He got a nomination , but his greatest performance was overlooked . I give you Sterling K. Brown as Sia,
My dude, please issue a TW for Jenny Slate.Stomaching/skipping the Slate parts to get to Sterling was worth it though!
I mean Saltburn can be enjoyed as a lurid thriller with some muddled points about class in it or whatever, but it’s not really a prestige picture nor do I think it was ever pushed as such.
i think you could say the same thing about promising young woman but that got 5 noms and 1 win. really just boils down to competition.
Would have been a worthy cinematography or production design nominee though. Linus Sandgren can’t catch a break since La La Land. 🙁
Keoghan was never gonna get a nomination over the 5 guys who did get nominated, and I think Leo was probably 6th place.
Honestly, Rosamund Pike deserved a nomination for Supporting Actress, and I’d give her the nomination that Emily Blunt got. Oppenheimer was my favorite movie of the year, but until today, I completely forgot that Emily Blunt was in the movie, and not in a good way. Pike deserved that nomination, and I’d take that to the grave (although even with the nomination, Pike would lose to either Danielle Brooks or Da’Vine Joy Randolph)
The absolute biggest and worst snub is Godzilla Minus One for basically everything.
The snubs and surprises where very clear before they where even annouced. Reason why i think the oscars have not been “fun” or “relevant” for years.
The real snub is Kinja taking our friggin’ avatars away.
The username/comment synergy is on point. I literally said “Ugh.” when I saw that my Batman-sippin’-coffee pic was now just pixels.
I miss my Wabbit of Seville gif.
“Saltburn” was a high mannered snooze so no loss there. The KOTFM adapted screenplay snub is not a surprise if you read David Grann’s great book. The book deftly played the fledgling FBI’s investigation into the murders equally alongside the Osage’s fortunes & misfortunes giving the incredible true story more drive. Had Roth’s screenplay set that decidedly in the background. If Roth’s work had the book’s balance this great movie would’ve seemed faster paced & would’ve land Roth a nomination.
Is there a category for ‘Can’t understand the dialogue because the director lacks faith in the audience to understand emotional elements of the story and therefore inappropriately heaps soundtrack elements all over his movie, almost destroying it at times’?Cause Nolan would – again – nail that.
Amy Adams for Arrival. Yes, I’m still mad about that. Margot being snubbed is very similar. Both carried their movies, although Amy more so since she was pretty much in every scene of an outstanding movie.
Hell yeah on Amy Adams. That movie and Adams’s performance were INCREDIBLE.
I’ll “old man yells at cloud” about this until the day I die.
How many of the nominated movies did you watch?
It takes a massive ego to think that your subjective award choices are worth publishing to trump those of a 10,500 member institution that’s been voting on the awards for 95+ years.
Greta Lee not getting a nomination is a MUCH bigger “snub” than Robbie.
Oh, here come this year’s “Oscar snub” articles. I must have seen nine or ten of them yesterday. To be clear- not everyone who isn’t nominated for an Oscar has been snubbed. Some people just aren’t fucking nominated! Greta Gerwig? Sure. She directed the biggest movie of the year and it got loads of nominations. That looks like a snub. But half the other ones that are mentioned here…um…no. The only way to stop these articles is to hand out participation Oscars for every actor who appeared in a movie over the past twelve months. That might do it.
lol saltburn