The day cinephiles, cinemagoers, and pop culture aficionados look forward to all year long has come and gone. The nominations for the 96th Academy Awards are here, and with it comes a slew of snubs, surprises, and, as always, divisive social media commentary.

Going into this awards season, there was a clear picture of who the big players were. Everyone knew Oppenheimer (2023), Barbie (2023), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), and Poor Things (2023) would all rack up considerable nominations, with The Holdovers (2023), American Fiction (2023), and Anatomy of a Fall (2023) also picking up a few locks. But there were some truly shocking nominations no one could’ve predicted (America Ferrera for Barbie?!), as well as some truly heinous snubs that made our heads spin. 

Let’s recap a fairly messy morning in Oscar world:

SURPRISE: America Ferrera, Best Supporting Actress, Barbie

Let me just start by saying: HUH?

I mean NO disrespect towards Ms. Ferrera here. I loved The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) as much as any tween and frequently enjoyed her work on Superstore. But if we take a step back and look at Barbie as a whole, Ferrera doesn’t have enough to warrant a nomination compared to other heavyweights in the category like Julianne Moore in May December or, hell, even whatever Rosamund Pike was doing in Saltburn. 

Yes, Ferrera gave us a wonderful monologue that very much encapsulated being a woman in today’s society. She conveyed the frustration of every woman in two and a half minutes, which led to a rousing montage of all the Barbies in Barbieland freeing themselves from “Kenergy.” It’s easy to see why the Academy rallied around one of the best parts of Barbie.

SNUB: Margot Robbie, Best Actress, Barbie

How do you nominate two performances that are so enhanced by Robbie’s presence and not nominate the woman herself? Sure, if you consider every other leading actress nominee, Robbie did not have the strongest performance or the most to work with. Even if there were an open fifth spot in this current batch of nominees, Greta Lee for Past Lives would get in over Robbie.

But it’s still crazy to think about. If the Academy didn’t nominate Robbie, they absolutely should not have nominated Ferrera or Ryan Gosling. There is no Ken without Barbie, and there certainly was no Feminism 101 monologue without Barbie.

SURPRISE: Two Nominations for Dead Reckoning: Part One 

It was grossly overlooked in favor of dolls and atom bombs, but the best action movie of the year is finally receiving its flowers. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning: Part One, the seventh installment in the Mission Impossible franchise, featured death-defying Tom Cruise stunts, gorgeous scenery, and a thrilling plot that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time even though I had never seen a Mission Impossible film before. The two nominations it received, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects, are highly warranted yet still came as a surprise given how overshadowed it was. Now, if there were a Best Stunts category (as there rightfully should be), trust this would absolutely sweep.

SNUB: May December as a Whole

There were a lot of slow heartbreaks this Oscar season, but realizing that May December would not finish as strong as it started on the awards circuit is quite possibly the worst of them all. Though it got one nomination for Best Original Screenplay, it also featured a trio of actors that not only should have been locked but should’ve won the whole thing. Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, and Charles Melton all turned in incredible performances, each supporting a different angle of this nuanced, sickening, oddly funny, and gripping film.

But if there had to be one, I would pick Charles Melton. He did phenomenal work as Joe Atherton-Yoo, a 36-year-old man who got into a relationship with a 36-year-old woman at age 13. Melton hits each note perfectly as Joe tries to sort through the manipulation and deception coming at him from his wife, Gracie (Moore), and the actress playing her, Elizabeth (Portman). 

In a perfect world, Melton would’ve absolutely swept.

SURPRISE: Justine Triet, Best Director, Anatomy of a Fall

This is not necessarily as big a surprise as some of these other surprises, but many awards pundits were uncertain who would join Nolan, Scorsese, and Lanthimos in the Best Director category. Would it be Alexander Payne for the absolute warmth The Holdovers brought? Would Greta Gerwig rack up another nomination for Barbie? Or would Celine Song make it in for the melancholy yearning of Past Lives?

Ultimately, Triet pulled it off, and Anatomy of a Fall had strong showings in key categories, including Original Screenplay, Picture, Lead Actress, and Editing. A gripping courtroom drama that explores marriage breakdowns and dissections of art, Triet turned in an outstanding film that also won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. It only makes sense that the Oscars are next to give this film its rightful flowers.

SNUB: Zac Efron, Best Actor, The Iron Claw 

The A24 sweep that never was. The Iron Claw would’ve been a surefire hit had A24 put in a shred of an awards campaign for it. Directed by Sean Durkin, the film follows the Von Erich family, composed of wrestlers in the ‘80s who changed the sport forever but were seemingly “cursed” to tragedy. Anchored by an all-time performance from Zac Efron, it takes you on a journey of Americana, from sunshine and brotherly love to “guys being dudes” to the most heart-wrenching ending you could imagine for a story that begins so full of life and joy.

A considerable group of people (myself included) convinced themselves that Efron could To Leslie himself a Best Actor nomination. Efron embodied Kevin Von Erich, even getting the real Von Erich’s approval. You could feel how deeply he loved his brothers and how deeply he felt the pain of the “Von Erich Curse.” The blame for this egregious snub does not fall on the Academy but rather on A24 themselves. They fumbled the bag big time.

All in all, what a morning. Even after these nominations came out, a fervent Twitter discourse has already hit our feeds about the lack of nominations for Barbie (even though it got eight nominations already), if Nyad is even a real movie, and of course, the age-old classic, “the directors’ branch of the Academy is misogynistic.”

Never change, Oscar Nominations morning. Never change. 

Article Courtesy of Gabriella Madden

Feature Image from ‘The Iron Claw:’ via A24