Your Favorite Was Robbed: The 6 Biggest Oscar Snubs
Let's just get this out of the way up front: Great job, Academy! That the AMPAS found room for everything from Winter's Bone to Toy Story 3 to the ferocious performance given by Movieline favorite Jacki Weaver means they deserve a bit of kudos. (If you're one of those, "Yawn, I'm too cool for the Oscars!" people, just go back to bed today.) Of course that doesn't mean many, many deserving nominees were left out in the cold this morning. Ahead, the six biggest from the major categories.
BEST PICTURE: The Town
It's tough to say The Town was snubbed -- after all, it was a late comer to the Oscar party, and many people didn't take it very seriously as a contender -- but it does feel like the type of big, expertly made genre film the expansion to ten Best Picture nominees was made to accommodate. That said, what would The Town replace on this roster? Winter's Bone? Toy Story 3? Inception? Yeah, not really. If the Academy didn't find room for Shutter Island, they certainly weren't going to find room for Ben Affleck's heist thriller.
BEST DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan, Inception
That sound you heard at 8:45 a.m. was every fanboy in America spitting up their Cap'n Crunch. Thought to be not only a lock for a nomination, but a possible upset victor, Christopher Nolan was snubbed once again by the Oscars -- this despite owning three Directors Guild nominations. The Inception hater-on-er in me would say that if Nolan didn't get an Oscar nomination for the superior work he did in The Dark Knight, then why would he get one for the muddled-but-cool work he did in Inception, but this is still shocking nonetheless. That said: Which of the five other nominees would you have left off the list? Perhaps David O. Russell, but it's clear that The Fighter had huge Academy support. Just not enough for Marky Mark...
BEST ACTOR: Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter
You can have your Ryan Gosling snub. For me, the big omission in the Best Actor category was Mark Wahlberg. As Micky Ward, he's the foundation of The Fighter, and at least part of the reason why Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo can all call themselves 2011 Oscar nominees as of this moment. Here's the big difference between Gosling and Wahlberg: You expect one to be outstanding, always; you expect the other to say hi to your mother. The Oscars don't grade on a curve, except that they kind of do. Of the two "young" performers, Wahlberg was the most surprising, and thus, most deserving.
BEST ACTRESS: Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right
I'll just say it: Julianne Moore was better in The Kids Are All Right than Annette Bening. Unfortunately, fortune favors the Bening bold, and that -- plus the muddled idea of whether Moore was a supporting or lead performer -- doomed her free-spirited work. Like the New York Jets, maybe next year, Jules!
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Andrew Garfield, The Social Network
See, also: Armie Hammer and Justin Timberlake. Is the troika of Social Network supporting snubs a result of vote splitting, or some deep-seated blow back against what was the assumed favorite for so much of the season? Considering The Social Network only received eight nominations to the 12 of The King's Speech perhaps a little of both. For his part, Garfield was wonderful in The Social Network, but he's too passive until the third act. But what a third act! No matter, though; he'll console himself in the webs of Spider-man.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Mila Kunis, Black Swan
Another category where you can't fault any of the five nominees, but it does feel a bit unfortunate that Mila Kunis was overlooked for her tricky Black Swan work. After all, she has to go through many of the same beats as Natalie Portman, but without any of the depth and screen time. That Kunis is able to make it work is a testament to her performance. In the end, this snub just might be a case of, "Who else would you leave off?"
Enough from me, though -- let's open this up to the peanut gallery! Which snubs did you consider the most egregious? Barbara Hershey? Matt Damon? Robert Duvall? Daft Punk for Best Original Score? Yogi Bear for Best Picture? Let 'em rip in the comments below!
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Comments
I may be the only one shocked by this (and I didn't care for the movie), but I'm still wondering how Tron Legacy didn't get nominated for visual effects, and Hereafter did. The tsunami scene was quite impressive, but all I remember from it now is that stupid CGI teddy bear at the end that ruined it all.
Is it just me or does the Garfield kid look like a young Tony Perkins? Just askin'.
Shutter Island was one of the most misunderstood and under appreciated films of the year. It deserved editing and director nominations.
I'm sorry but I have a strict "No Nominations for Pedophiles" rule, no matter how great the movie is. The only award Polanski deserves is "Best Bottom in Prison".
Shutter Island wasn't misunderstood. It was based on a book that was almost as ridiculous as the movie turned out to be. And the book had an actual ending, not an ending, then another ending, then another ending, then - oh, wait - another ending, etc. Just because it wasn't as awful as Gangs of New York doesn't mean it was awesome.
Biggest shock? That Chloe Moritz didn't get a nomination for either "Kick-Ass" or for "Let Me In." She stole the first film and had such presence in the second.
Respectfully disagree that Moore would've been a better choice for Best Actress than Bening, Christopher. I love both actresses, but I thought Bening did really well with her not-too-sympathetic character. Great as Moore was too, it's not that much of a stretch for her to play a likeable free spirit; she's basically playing herself (even her character's name wass Jules!)
I really loved Bening in KAAR, too. Don't get me wrong -- she does make her a sympathetic character even if the script doesn't. It's just we've seen that from Bening before, too. Moore is usually the stuffy frayed nerve -- seeing her relaxed and carefree as Jules was a nice change of pace.
Andrew Garfield wasn't too passive, his CHARACTER was. It's called acting. Not every character is meant to be a loud portrayal. But that phrase in your story does lead me to believe that his performance was snubbed because he was the character was looked at in that way.
Polanski didn't write the script, so why should the scriptwriter that did a damn good job with the material be penalized?
I absolutely love both Andrew Garfield (Boy A!) and Julianne Moore, but didn't think they deserved nominations this year.
Why is nobody complaining about Lesley Manville?
Pow! http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/school-turnaroundsreform/why-oscar-snubbed-superman---.html
besides the nolan snub....
Best Visual Effects: Tron Legacy
Best Art Direction: Tron Legacy
Best Score: Daft Punk in Tron Legacy
Best Supporting Actress: Marion Cotillard in Inception
Best Supporting Actor: Tom Hardy in Inception
Best Editing: Inception
Best Actress: Chloe Moretz in Let Me In
Best Supporting Actress: Mia Wasikowska in The Kids Are All Right
Best Visual Effects: Clash Of The Titans (as long as it is in 2-d)
Best Original Screenplay: Easy A
Best Adapted Screenplay: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Also, there should be categories created for featured actors/actresses, as well as voice acting categories.
Marion Cotillard? Tom Hardy might have deserved some award for fighting through Nolan's complete indifference to actors and actually making an impression onscreen - not a Best Supporting Actor nod, of course, but something. Marion Cotillard? Dude needs to see "The Fighter", "True Grit", "The King's Speech" and "Animal Kingdom" and look at what a Best Supporting Actress-worthy performance requires this year. Then dude needs to hang dude's head in shame.
Not that Cotillard was bad, I hasten to add. But if she'd be worthy of consideration, my retrospective campaign for Karen Allen in "Raiders" starts now.
Dale Dickey was snubbed for WINTER'S BONE, a mean-spirited downer of a movie, anyway.
TRUE GRIT will probably win Best Picture, because it's basically garbage. Silly nick-of-time mechanics and useless last fifteen minutes destroy that film.
TANGLED is four times the movie TOY STORY 3 is, animated or otherwise.
MOTHER from South Korea. The director was robbed. The writer was robbed. The picture was robbed. The lead actress, who out-acts our five nominees combined before the opening credits are over was really robbed.
To THE CANTANKERIST-
While you do bring up a valid point , the way I see it is that Marion Cotillard took a role that could have gone south fast, and turned it into one of the most memorable characters of the film. Like the author said, one cannot really fault the other performances, but her performance just worked for me for some reason (plus, I love genre pieces/performances more than the standard oscar bait-hence the Chloe Moretz mention- but that is just me)
You are sop right about Dale Dickey snubbed for "Winter's bone". She was as much as deserving as John Hawkes for his supporting nom. "Mother" was surrounding award season of last year, so I think that is why it was ineligible. And yes, the leading actress in the movie was so good. And I think "The Social Network" is gonna take the trophy.
Actually, I know someone who worked on Hereafter, and the teddy bear was real. But everything around it (water, stuff floating in the water, etc) was CGI.
OK #1 chris nolan is like the biggest snub of the decade. Inception was far from overrated, it was awesome, just look at the imdb top 250 its number 8, the highest of any of this years nominees. #2 i dont think garfield really cares about getting nominated cause he is about to ride spiderman all the way to the bank and laugh at all these guys. #3 mark wahlberg totally carried the fighter and deserves to be thanked by everyone who got nominated for the fighter.
It doesn't matter what Polanski was accused of, we are talking about a film here and a good film to say the least. Don't cloud your personal feelings towards someone against he art of film, it makes no sense.
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