The 96th Academy Award nominees have been announced, and boy oh boy do we have some surprises, snubs and other things we need to discuss! Every year there’s always some Oscars choices that baffle; sometimes for good, sometimes for WTF moments. Overall, the nominees seemed to be pretty locked in, with almost all of the predicted front runners landing some noms in their respective categories. There were certainly some shockers, some celebratory long shots and some egregious misses that we will break down here. So let’s get into the 96th Academy Awards nominations and share some thoughts about the nominees!
Surprising no one, “Oppenheimer” landed big with a whopping 13 nominations. The film essentially landed a nomination in nearly every single category it was eligible. Right on its heels however was “Poor Things,” which managed to snag 11 nominations. The third runner up for most nominated films was “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which is was actually nice to see considering some of the steam it seemed to be losing in the precursors. My own personal crystal ball tells me it will miss most of these categories come Oscar ceremony time, the lone win coming by way of Lily Gladstone for Best Actress. Though with the embracing and love for “Poor Things,” she very well may be edged out by Emma Stone, which would add another surprise and snub to the list. “Barbie” managed to land 8 nominations in 7 categories, stealing two spots in Best Original Song for “I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For.” “Maestro” managed to snag 7 noms, and both “The Holdovers” and “Anatomy of a Fall” landed 5 total nominations. Rounding out the list was “American Fiction” at 4 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Supporting Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Let’s start with the good surprises before we dive into the snubs and head scratchers. Seeing “Past Lives” in the Best Picture lineup gives me so much joy! The little indie that could, many thought it wouldn’t be able to steal that 10th slot with such a hotly contested race, but though it missed almost everywhere else (which we will talk about) I will gladly take the Best Picture recognition. Another good surprise was “The Teacher’s Lounge” landing an International Feature nom. This made my number 6 favorite film of 2023, and it was a long shot prediction on my part to crack the top 5 in a very stacked year of international features. I won’t peg it to win the category, but seeing it get some much deserved credit was exciting for me. “Anatomy of a Fall” landing 5 nominations in major above the line categories was great to see, particularly Justine Triet’s lone female nomination in Best Director. The concerns of “Anatomy” not being submitted in International Feature seem to have been put to rest. While I do believe it would’ve won had it been submitted, it has fared well in many other categories, including a wonderful Best Actress nomination for Sandra Hueller.
A few more quick surprises (good ones) for me: Coleman Domingo finally getting his flowers and getting a Best Actor nom for “Rustin.” The film itself is whatever, but my god is Domingo transcendent. I was worried he would miss here, but very glad he was able to snag that 5th spot. “Robot Dreams” making it to Best Animated Feature is a big win for a small film. Though it snubbed “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” to get there, I don’t mind getting more eyeballs on this wonderful little film. “Godzilla Minus One” for Visual Effects is a fist in the air of triumph, and given its surrounding nominees I’m actually picking it to win! Lastly, “The Zone of Interest” faired better than the precursors would have you believe, ending with 5 nominations. More directly, landing a Best Sound nomination is the perfect nomination for a film that largely relies on what you hear vs what you see to be effective.
Now let’s talk about some snubs. Noticeably missing almost everywhere was “May December,” “The Color Purple” and “Saltburn.” While my milage varies quite a bit between these films, they campaigned pretty hard and were expected to do slightly better than they did. I guess “Saltburn” would be the odd man out here since it was rather divisive, but the lone nominations for the others are surprising considering their contention. Particularly “May December” missing every single acting category. I know Charles Melton was a long shot, but him losing to Sterling K. Brown in Best Supporting Actor is a snub in my book. Likewise, both Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore getting snubbed for two “NYAD” nominations is egregious, not to mention the complete and utter shutout of “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret.” The “NYAD” nominations feels regressive in the worst of ways, the kind of nominations that feel like the Academy of old and not the new, more diverse, 93 country voting body.
Speaking of regressive, the Best Director category nearly shut all women out in a year when most of the best films were directed by women. Justine Triet was the only woman to crack the top 5, shutting out Celine Song, Greta Gerwig, Sofia Coppola, and Kelly Fremon Craig. I get it, there’s only 5 slots and a lot of great films, but the near shut out of female directors feels uniquely wrong this year. Though “Barbie” snagged quite a few nominations, Gerwig missing director and Margot Robbie missing for Best Actress are major snubs for the most successful film of 2023. Best Actress is always stacked, but snubbing Robbie for a film that doesn’t work without here and then turning around and giving noms to Ferrera and Gosling feels like a personal slight.
I don’t know if it was the release schedule or lack of good campaigning, but the list of films that blanked entirely this year is pretty astounding. Films like “Asteroid City,” “The Iron Claw,” “Priscilla,” “The Killer,” “Origin,” “All of Us Strangers” and even “Ferrari” ended the morning with 0 nominations. I’m ok with some of these, but some of them are just outright snubs in certain categories. “Napoleon” managed to snag 2 nominations, which is just something you should not be able to say when there were so many better films that blanked. The big snubs come in the Best Documentary category, with “Beyond Utopia” and “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” missing entirely. You’d think Michael J. Fox would get in on charm alone since he is beloved by the industry, but seeing his terrific film miss here is really shocking. I don’t know what went wrong with “Beyond Utopia,” because I had it right behind “20 Days in Mariupol” as one of the best documentaries of 2023. How it blanked I will never understand, and this miss cut deep.
The major takeaways from the nominations overall is that it largely played out as expected. “Oppenheimer” dominated, and the collection of front runners all pretty much got nominated where they were expected. It was a rather predictable event, and while there were certainly snubs and surprises there wasn’t anything that made me want to hurl my laptop across the room or leap for joy in shock. There’s some play it safe undertones in the lineups, which shouldn’t be that surprising considering how risky they were last year going with “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” It’s rare that the Academy goes for broke multiple years in a row, and you can probably trace back most of the snubs to this very conservative mindset. If “Oppenheimer” can be dethroned come actual Awards night and not completely sweep, then we should be in for a pretty interesting Oscars this year!
That is, of course, until someone makes a bigger “Oppenheimer.”
The 96th annual Academy Awards ceremony will take place on March 10th, at 4pm (PST). Jimmy Kimmel will host (for some reason).
