The Biggest Snubs And Surprises Of The 2017 Oscar Nominations
The nominees for the89th Annual Academy Awardswere announced this morningand, as usual, there were plenty of moments that made you want to shout “Come on!” And to be fair, there were also plenty of moments where you smirked and announced to the empty room “Well, at least they gotthatone right.”
The paint isn’t even dry on these new Oscar nominations, but it’s time to dive in and start picking them apart. So let’s start with the knee-jerk reactions. Let’s take a look at the biggest surprises and snubs of the 2017 Oscar nominations.
Silence Was Almost Shut Out
In some ways, it would have been better for Martin Scorsese’sSilenceto have been completely shut out. Then it would have been able to join the elite club of fascinating, powerful, and vital cinema that the Oscars have completely ignored over the decades. Instead, it was given a single nomination for its cinematography (which is well-deserved!). They even went and nominatedSilencestar Andrew Garfield for another film, which really adds insult to injury. There are a few important takeaways here. First, a new drama from one of the greatest American filmmakers of all time is not guaranteed admittance to the Oscars club. Second, films this long and challenging probably shouldn’t launch their awards campaigns in late December.
They Liked La La Land That Much?!
Look, we all knew thatLa La Landwas going to dominate these nominations and it’s surely going to win big at the actual ceremony next month. It has the momentum of a freight train. Critics love it. Audiences love it. It’s a box office smash. It’s about Hollywood, which always gets Oscar voters hot and bothered. But 14 nominations? That’s huge. That’s record-tying.La La Landjust tiedAll About EveandTitanicfor the most nominations for a single film in the history of the Academy Awards.La La Landisn’t just going to win next month – it’s going todestroyeveryone else.
The Academy Decides to Ignore Clint Eastwood For Once
Normally, the Academy bends over backwards to toss Oscar nominations at Clint Eastwood movies (even the bad ones!). So the fact thatSully, one of his better movies in recent years and a box office smash, only walked away with a nod for Best Sound Editing is peculiar.
Hollywood Has Forgiven Mel Gibson, Apparently
Remember when Mel Gibson was pulled over for driving under the influence and spouted a bunch of anti-Semitic and sexist garbage? Remember when he was caught on an audio recording shouting racial slurs? It wasn’t that long ago. His career was over. Done.Kaput. And now, he has a fresh Oscar nomination for directingHacksaw Ridge, a film that received five nominations overall. It seems that time and a war movie is all some people need to forgive and forget.
The Most Original Screenplay of 2016 Actually Got Nominated
Hey, would you look at that: the most original screenplay for any 2016 release was actually nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category. Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou’sThe Lobsteronly won a single nomination, but a film this bizarre and singular gettinganyOscar love is extraordinary. Look, a movie about an alternate reality where single people are forced to find a partner or get turned into animals isn’t going to stop theLa La Landtrain, but it’s just happy to be here.
They Liked Arrival That Much?!
It’s only taken most of a century, but the Academy is finally starting to warm up to genre films. Following in the footsteps ofAvatar,District 9andMad Max: Fury Road, Denis Villeneuve’sArrivaltiedMoonlightfor the second most nominations with eight nods, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. That’s a huge foranymovie, but for a science fiction movie about aliens arriving on Earth? That’s extraordinary. I was fully prepared to open this article with “But what aboutArrival?”, but I’ll give credit where credit is due: the Academy got this one right.
Where the Hell Were Amy Adams and Annette Benning?
However, we now have to furrow our brows and wonder whyArrivaldoesn’t have nine nominations, because Amy Adams was inexplicably left out of the Best Actress category. The film works because every other element comes together, but Adams' work is the heart and soul of the film, the warm emotional body that the hard sci-fi ideas can orbit around. And while we’re talking about lauded performances being snubbed in the Best Actress category, can we pause for a moment and wonder why Annette Benning wasn’t nominated for 20th Century Women? Does Meryl StreepreallyneedanotherOscar nomination (forFlorence Foster Jenkins, of all things) when you have a perfectly amazing Annette Benning standing right over there?
Nocturnal Animals and 20th Century Women Stay in the Dark
And then the Academy had to go rub salt in Amy Adams' wounds by also not nominating her forNocturnal Animals, which was positioned as a surefire awards contender just a few months ago. However, the film simply didn’t catch on with critics or audiences and now all it has in the Oscar race is a Best Supporting Actor nod for Michael Shannon. Granted, anything involving Michael Shannon can’t be all bad, butstill. Even more egregious is the almost complete shut-out of20th Century Women, which received a nod for writer/director Mike Mills' screenplay but nothing more.
No Love For The Handmaiden
Remember when I wrote about the elite club of fascinating, powerful, and vital cinema that were complete ignored by the Oscars? Welcome to that club,The Handmaiden.
Trolls Got Nominated Over Sing Street For Best Original Song
I’m never going to understand whyTrolls(a perfectly decent children’s movie that I don’thateas much as I don’t dwell upon) received a nomination for Best Original Song whenSing Streetwas shut out. Granted, more people sawTrollsand it actually had a proper awards campaign whileSing Streetwas left to die in the street despite having a soundtrack jam-packed with incredible music that I listen to all the time because it’s a key part of what makes the movie great.Hrumph. While we’re here, the fact thatMoanaonly nabbed a single song nomination (for the wonderful “How Far I’ll Go”) suggests that theLa La Landtrain (with its two song nominations) will block Lin-Manuel Miranda from EGOT-ing this year. And let’s be honest:Popstar: Never Stop Never Stoppingshould have been here, too.
The Academy Makes it Official: O.J.: Made in America is a Movie
Film critics have spent the past few months arguing over whether or not Ezra Edelman’s eight-hour epicO.J.: Made in Americais a film that aired on television or a television miniseries. Now that the Academy has nominated it for Best Documentary, it feels like we have an answer. As the lines between TV and cinema continue to blur into a fuzzy mess where traditional categorization fails to get the job done, big statements like this will help give our conversations/debates/arguments a little bit of structure.
A Crowded Documentary Category
While while the nomination ofO.J.: Made in Americais probably the biggest surprise in the Best Documentary category, this whole corner of the awards wasstacked. While the Academy has often and infamously snubbed challenging and political documentaries, the nominations for13th,I Am Not Your Negro, andFire at Seafeel appropriate considering the events of the past year. The inclusion of the more warm-heartedLife, Animatedfeels like the exception, not the rule. While this category was stronger than usual, the snubbing ofCamerapersonandWeinerstill stings.
They Liked Hell or High Water That Much?!
Hell or High Waterwas a critical success and people liked it and it made money. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it dresses the wheel up with new shades of dust and blood. Just about everyone seems to agree that it’s a solid movie featuring strong actors doing good work. But a Best Picture nomination? That wasn’t supposed to happen! It’s not going to win a damn thing, but those four nods are are nice blast of the unexpected in a year where everything fell mostly where we thought it would.
Kubo and the Two Strings Got a Visual Effects Nod
It’s great thatKubo and the Two Stringswas nominated for Best Animated Feature because itisthe best animated feature released in 2016. It’s probably going to lose toZootopia, but I’ve made my peace with that. What is pleasantly surprising and deeply weird is that it was also nominated for Best Visual Effects. Because Laika makes stop-motion movies that utilize physical puppets and practical sets, the film’s large number of digital effects shots apparently qualify it for a category where you typically never see animated movies. This was a very, very cool nomination.
Rogue One Doesn’t Replicate The Force Awakens
Last year,Star Wars: The Force Awakensdid better at the Oscars than your average blockbuster, scooping up five nominations. This year,Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyonly picked up two nominations (for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Mixing). It’s honestly not that surprising and it’s pretty much Business As Usual, but it proves that the awards attention lavished onThe Force Awakenswas probably an anomaly.
They Liked Lion That Much?!
Look, Garth Davis’Lionhas been steadily gaining momentum over the past several weeks, but six nominations is “spit out your coffee” strong for a film that was barely in the conversation a few months ago. It’s hard to imagine it winning against the larger, more powerful horses in this race, but this is quite the surprise.
Pixar Got Shut Out of the Big Race
There was a time where every single Best Animated Feature statuette was Pixar’s to lose. The snubbing ofFinding Dorycan’t help but feel like a statement, especially when Disney Animation ate up two of the available spots withZootopiaandMoana. Look at it this way: the sequel to Pixar’s first Oscar-winning feature was denied a nomination by the uber-depressing (but beautiful!)The Red TurtleandMy Life as Zucchini, a French-Swiss stop-motion animated film. Pixar can’t just waltz into the Oscar race and win these days, even when its top contender has made over $1 billion worldwide. However, they can take some consolation in the delightfulPipergetting nominated in the Best Animated Short category.
Passengers, 13 Hours, and Suicide Squad Are Oscar Nominees
Every year, there is at least one trulybadmovie to get nominated for an Oscar on the strength of its technical excellence in at least one category. We like to call this TheNorbitHall of Fame. This year brought us three (three!) new inductees:Passengers,13 Hours, andSuicide Squad. Because the Oscars are about saying nice things about movies, let’s dwell on this for a second. Yes,Passengersdoes have pretty slick production design and its score gets the job done! Yes, the sound mixing in13 Hourssure is loud! And yeah, the practical make-up on Killer Croc inSuicide Squadis pretty impressive stuff.
Deadpool Got Nothin'
Hey, remember when we thoughtDeadpoolcould surprise us for a hot second? Yeah. Weird times.
