On a day when Netflix made history with the most Oscar nominations for any studio (24) and landed not one, but two Animated Feature nominations, it was who made the cut and who didn’t that dominated the social media-fueled headlines. A South Korean drama on the verge of winning Best Picture? Your Super Bowl halftime performer missing the cut? Perhaps one of the greatest entertainers of all-time being overlooked in Original Song? A top-1o highest-grossing blockbuster in the world missing out on Animated Feature? A lauded female filmmaker being overlooked for Best Director? Yes, the snubs and surprises for the 92nd Academy Awards are for lack of a better word, epic.
READ MORE: Oscars 2020: “Joker” tops all films with 11 nominations – Complete List
Surprise: “Joker” leads all films with 11 nominations
Let’s just be frank, shall we? Todd Phillips’ Venice Film Festival wonder simply proved its doubters wrong. The $1 billion global box office hit not only earned Best Picture and Best Director nominations but nine other nods including Editing (Jeff Groth), Adapted Screenplay (Phillips and Scott Silver) and Costume Design (Mark Bridges). The film also earned a nomination for Hildur Guðnadóttir for Original Score, a depressingly rare nomination for a woman in that category. “Joker” also earned more nominations than Best Picture “frontrunners” “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” “The Irishman” and “Parasite.” Not bad for an almost 70-year-old comic book character.
– Gregory Ellwood
Snub: Jennifer Lopez
This is incredibly disheartening. After landing Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations, Jennifer Lopez looked like not only a shoo-in but a potential Best Supporting Actress winner for “Hustlers.” Lopez even took the honor from the prestigious Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Instead, the Academy tossed her aside basically saying she wasn’t good enough to hang with them. A lot will be written about this in the day ahead and you can argue Lopez’s fixation on her music career and tabloid headlines over the decades had something to do with it, but what about Cher? What about Lady Gaga? This feels personal and, perhaps, like something worse is at play. And the fact she was effectively replaced by a one-note, one crying scene performance by Katy Bates in “Richard Jewell”? Excuse us while we take a moment to scream.
– Gregory Ellwood
Snub: Taron Egerton
Find someone who thinks last year’s Best Actor winner, Rami Malek, gave a better performance as Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody” than Taron Egerton did as Elton John (Take your time. I’m waiting.) That’s not even taking into account the fact Egerton actually sang in “Rocketman” as opposed to Malek. Instead, Egerton was snubbed and saw his movie get overlooked in Sound Mixing (almost a given for a well-reviewed movie musical), Costumes and Hair and Makeup. Elton John and Bernie Taupin got an Original Song nod, but that was it. A bit of a head-scratcher for Paramount this morning.
– Gregory Ellwood
Snub: Beyonce
ABC executives are screaming. The Jennifer Lopez snub was one thing, but to deny the telecast a song performance from Beyonce? And a great song from a blockbuster movie – “Spirit” from “The Lion King” – at that? As with Lopez in some regards, this feels like the Academy’s music branch saying “you can’t be part of our club.” Snubs happen, but this one is somewhat nuts considering…
– Gregory Ellwood
Surprise: Diane Warren
Yes, yet another Best Original Song nomination for Diane Warren. The legendary songwriter hasn’t met an awards season event she couldn’t attend and, frankly, it’s worked for her. Warren landed her 11th nomination overall for “I’m Standing With You” from the Christian drama hit “Breakthrough.” It’s Warren’s third nomination in a row and fifth in the past six years. Oh, and she still hasn’t won, but at this point…come on Music Branch. You’re better than this.
– Gregory Ellwood
Surprise: “Ford v Ferrari”
After seemingly out of the race, the James Mangold player found its way to a “surprise” Best Picture nomination and three other nominations. Sure, the Editing, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing nods weren’t necessarily surprising, but Best Picture came pretty damn close. Especially in such a competitive year. A nice win for 20th Century Fox’s only true “hit” in its first year as part of the Walt Disney Company.
– Gregory Ellwood
Snub: Robert De Niro
This wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it still has got to hurt a little for Martin Scorsese and De Niro’s producing partner Jane Rosenthal. Joe Pesci and Al Pacino made the cut in the Supporting Actor category for “The Irishman.” De Niro, a two-time winner and seven-time nominee, did not make it a trifecta with a Best Actor category nod. Granted, De Niro did earn a nomination for producing the Netflix film so all isn’t necessarily lost. And if it wins Best Picture? A win that would be absolutely historic for Netflix? If that occurs, trust, no one will remember this snub at all.
– Gregory Ellwood
Surprise: “Honeyland”
What a day for NEON releasing. Not only did “Parasite” earn six Oscar nominations, but “Honeyland” made history as both an International Film nominee and a Best Documentary nominee. It also became North Macedonia’s second International Film nominee as well.
– Gregory Ellwood
Snub: “Frozen II”
What’s $1.371 billion between friends? Not a lot it seems when it comes to the Animation Branch. The blockbuster sequel to the 2014 winner for Best Animated Feature didn’t even earn a nod this time around. It was pushed out of the way by two Netflix releases (more on that in a minute), a third “How To Train Your Dragon” installment and Pixar’s “Toy Story 4.” Many thought the reviews for “Frozen II” were kind (a 64 on Metacritic), but not the filmmakers’ peers in the Animation Branch. They were not impressed at all. The only solace for Walt Disney Animation Studios is that “Into the Unknown” cracked the Best Original Song category.
– Gregory Ellwood
Surprise: “I Lost My Body” and “Klaus” for Netflix
A nomination for “I Lost My Body” may not be entirely surprising given the critical acclaim it got since it became the first animated feature to win the Critics Week prize at Cannes, but it is still a pleasant nod to one of the most innovative stories told in the animation medium. The bigger surprise is definitely the nomination for “Klaus,” the very first original feature produced entirely by Netflix’s animation studio, and one that has a unique visual style that blends animation styles and reminds of last year’s winner “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” And while the other nominees have stories with bigger scopes, that a film about a guy giving Christmas presents to children, and the intimate story about a hand getting back to its body is a nice change of pace.
– Rafael Motamayor