Snubs and Surprises of the 2019 Oscar Nominations

Well, that was certainly a WTF kind of morning for Oscar nominations, with a lot of snubs and definitely some surprises. The biggest omissions surely being the overall lack of “First Man” and “If Beale Street Could Talk,” both missing out on Best Picture and other key awards. Alas, here’s the full list of what we feel are the biggest surprises and snubs of this morning’s nominations.

SNUBS

“First Man”- Overall
The writing was on the wall. Unlike “La La Land,” a massive hit In 2016, Damien Chazelle’s “First Man,” astronaut epic hadn’t caught on with audiences at the box office which is strange because it’s almost like what would have happened if Christopher Nolan had made the same film. Awards season trudged on and “First Man” looked like it was going to fail to launch properly and yet, many Oscar prognosticators thought, “Well, the Academy does their own thing and it could sneak up on all of us.” It wasn’t meant to be and the film was ignored in all the big categories, but to be fair, earned four nominations in technical categories including taking a Best Visual Effects spot from “Black Panther” which is relatively a big deal. So yes, “First Man” was admired on a technical level, but it didn’t seem to connect with anyone on an emotional one, unfortunately. Many predicted Claire Foy taking a Best Actress nomination (Greg did in his predictions), but she was also left stranded on the moon.

“If Beale Street Could Talk” – Overall
After winning Best Picture in 2016 for “Moonlight,” all eyes were on writer/director Barry Jenkins again. Could he do it again with “If Beale Street Could Talk?” He could and did, the movie is fabulous. Gaining awards favor is another conversation though and throughout the awards season, ‘Beale Street’ never penetrated in the same way as “Moonlight” or the way Annapurna Pictures would’ve liked. It didn’t help that Annapurna decided to skip Telluride (where “Moonlight” premiered and is full of influential Academy members) or pushed the theatrical release date to mid-December (“Vice” was the only Best Picture nominee to open after Dec. 1). While eventually nominated for three awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Score and Best Supporting Actress (Regina King), ‘Beale Street’ didn’t receive any love further than that, no Best Picture and no director for Jenkins. Given the way things were heading this wasn’t necessarily a huge surprise, but some thought the “becoming younger and more diverse” Academy would surprise everyone. It was not meant to be.

Female Directors: #OscarsSoMale
Despite some fantastic films made by women this year, not one female filmmaker earned a Best Director nomination. In fact, not one of the eight films nominated for Best Picture was directed by a female director either. The only place where a female filmmaker and “creator” received some love was in the writing section and even then, just barely. There were all just two females nominated for a screenwriting nomination, Nicole Holofcener, who earned a nod for her adapted screenplay of “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” but she didn’t even direct the movie. (that was Marie Heller who was also sadly overlooked despite the movie earning Deborah Davis earned a nomination for Original Screenplay with “The Favourite,” but that was it as far as female originators were concerned. Directors for critically acclaimed 2018 films–many of which made our Best Of 2018 Movies list like Karyn Kusama (“Destroyer”), Deborah Granik (“Leave No Trace”), Chloé Zhao “(The Rider”), Lynne Ramsay (“You Were Never Really Here”), Tamara Jenkins (“Private Life” many thought this could earn a Writing nom) were all left on the outside looking in.

“A Quiet Place” – Overall
It looks like “Black Panther” stole all the mainstream hit space from John Krasinski’s well-crafted horror thriller “A Quiet Place.” Universal pushed the film hard all season, and many thought “A Quiet Place” had a legitimate shot at Best Picture. Unfortunately for Krasinski and wife Emily Blunt, who received a Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination for the role, were totally shut out. The thriller, in the end, earned one nom for Best Sound Editing.

Bradley Cooper – Director
Perhaps this is some kind of echo of Ben Affleck’s “Argo,” which won Best Picture in 2013, but didn’t earn Affleck a Best Directing nomination (though he won the DGA, BAFTA, and Globe). All season now you’ve heard about Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born,” how it was the frontrunner all along and how Cooper, an actor who had never directed before, knocked it out of the park with his debut film (fact check: he did). And yes, “A Star Is Born” earned itself eight nomination including Best Picture, but no director for Cooper is perhaps the biggest snub and shock of the entire day, one that will leave some reeling and leave others scratching their heads. A very odd omission that’s likely going to be dissected for weeks to come until the ceremony. Don’t be surprised, if there’s an Affleck-like repeat where Cooper wins the DGA as well, leaving to assume Academy voters missed the boat.

“Burning” – Foreign Language Film
This one hurts and possibly hurts most of all. For as f*cked up a year the 2018/2019 awards season was, as much as it resembled the insanity of the fake news sh*tstorm we live in each day, the Foreign Language Film category always remained an oasis of logic and sanity. Every single choice was good, seemed logical and certainly did make perfect sense as a “best” pick. More importantly, Lee Chang-dong’s South Korean film, “Burning” was not only among the shortlist, but favored to be among the final five (though toppling “Roma” in the end may have proven difficult). Somehow, this critically-adored film didn’t make the cut, perhaps too mysterious, slow-burning, and opaque, though that’s the power of the film itself and presumably the reason it was nominated in the first place. “Burning” is also a Playlist favorite and placed high on our Best Of 2018 year-end list, so maybe we’ll have to remain satisfied with that, though it really does speak to the fact that there’s probably not enough Asian voters in the Academy right now and that needs to be rectified asap.