One of the only certainties of Oscar season is that voters will upend months of prognosticating from pundits by doing whatever they feel like doing when the time comes to fill out their ballots. As always, the bewildering snubs—no directing love for Greta Gerwig? Really?—were accompanied by some extremely pleasant surprises. Leonardo DiCaprio’s loss, you might say, was Colman Domingo’s gain. Here, VF weighs in on the things that nobody—or next to nobody—saw coming.
Surprise: America Ferrera Stands Out in Barbie
Her performance was all-around great, but that monologue! You know the one. Director Greta Gerwig told VF that the impassioned “always/never” speech, which she co-wrote with her co-parent Noah Baumach, “does not exist as it does without America. It’s hers by right, more than anyone else. That scene still really touches me. I see some of my friends’ teenage girls who don’t think they’re good enough, but they’re so beautiful and so smart and you just want them to know.” Ferrera has said that Gerwig enlisted her to help write the now-infamous monologue. “Some of what we talked about made it into the script. The line, ‘Always be grateful’ came out of that conversation with Greta,” Ferrera told The New York Times. “She expounded on it adding, ‘But never forget that the system is rigged.’”
Snub: Margot Robbie Misses, as Does Barbie Below-the-Line
Tempering the excitement of Ferrera’s deserved nod, Greta Gerwig’s comical cultural juggernaut missed out on editing, sound, and director, as well as best actress for Margot Robbie (though she’s nominated as a producer for it in the best picture category). Was it genre bias, gender bias, or promotion fatigue? (And can the first and last things be explained by the middle thing? Maybe …) Gerwig’s achievement in busting the box office with the highest grossing film directed by a woman—$1.5 billion worldwide—did not translate into a nomination for the director, who has three previous nods: for directing Lady Bird (another historic nod for a woman), for writing its original screenplay, and for writing the adapted screenplay of Little Women). But all is not lost for the doll film that launched a thousand think pieces: Ryan Gosling earned an expected supporting nomination, songs by Billie Eilish and Mark Ronson did too, and Gerwig and her partner Baumbach—who tied the knot amid Barbie’s press push—were recognized in adapted screenplay.
Surprise: Sterling K. Brown Snags a Supporting Slot for American Fiction
As Cliff Ellison, the brother reluctantly drawn back into the fold of his family after a tragedy, Brown brings both subversive energy and relatable pathos to Cord Jefferson’s debut feature. Cliff’s got his own shit going on, but once he shows up, we can’t get enough of him. Brown’s SAG nomination for best supporting actor—as well as the cast’s richly deserved ensemble nod—put him on the radar for more awards love this season, and now the three-time Emmy winner has got his first Oscar nomination, one of five for American Fiction.
Snub: Leo Loses Out as Killers of the Flower Moon Wilts—A Little
Lily Gladstone secured a best actress nomination, Martin Scorsese unsurprisingly got a best director nod, and Killers found a place in the best picture category. But Leonardo DiCaprio’s failure to secure a nomination for best actor landed as both a surprise and a snub, as did the film’s miss for adapted screenplay, considering how much was made of Scorsese and Eric Roth’s adaptation of David Grann’s 2017 bestselling history of the murders of Osage tribe members over their oil-rich Oklahoma land. Oscar race onlookers noticed that DiCaprio leaned in to Gladstone’s campaign, instead of flogging himself, and he still notched a nomination for producing the movie. Leo lives!
Snub: Bradley Cooper Gets No Love for Directing Maestro
Mr. Cooper has plenty of things to be thrilled about this morning: His labor of love Maestro was nominated for seven Oscars, and his own personal tally now stands at a seriously impressive 12. Still, it’s baffling that the actual maestro behind Maestro didn’t get nominated for best director, just as Gerwig’s vision for Barbie went unrecognized in the same category. It may be that voters knew that Maestro (and Barbie) would do just fine all in all, and decided to give the edge to the directors of gripping smaller movies, like Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest.
Surprise: Colman Domingo Rises in Rustin
There are many reasons to be thankful for Colman Domingo’s best actor nomination: that it acknowledges a great actor’s great performance (and a milestone: his first time as No. 1 on the call sheet); that it will bring more attention to the life and work of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, an openly gay man whose contributions to the movement were marginalized because of his sexuality, but whose story is now being told with an openly gay actor in the role; and that it will give us more opportunities to enjoy Domingo’s stellar red-carpet game, which has been winning hearts and minds all season. (Who else could pull off a mustard Valentino Haute Couture suit with a gold coat?) In December, appearing on VF’s Little Gold Men podcast, he said this about Rustin: “Those rare times you get as an artist to really pour everything you have into it—all your skills and all the things you’ve been doing in the theater and television as a writer, as a director, as a producer, to create this film—it called on everything that I had.” Looks like the Academy voters noticed. (By the way, he’s terrific as Mister in The Color Purple too.)
Snub: Saltburn Gets Smoked
Emerald Fennell’s vicious satire of upper-class life (and working-class ambition?) was blanked across the board, missing a semi-expected nod for best original screenplay as well as hoped-for nominations for actor Barry Keoghan and supporting actor Jacob Elordi that may have been realer in the minds of fans than they ever were among Academy voters. Was this film just too misanthropic for fundamentally sentimental voters, or was there just too much competition in this surprisingly stacked year? Everyone involved will have plenty of time to ponder the possibilities.
Surprise: The Teachers’ Lounge Is in Session
Ilker Çatak’s gripping film about a German school quickly devolving into The Crucible didn’t seem to have much heat going into the voting period, but it grabbed a well-deserved nomination in the best international film category. Germany’s official Oscars entry follows a sixth-grade teacher played with startling purpose and humanity by Leonie Benesch as she navigates a minefield of suspicions and defends her students not just from their peers but from teachers and parents.
Snub: Time Runs Out for May December
Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, and Charles Melton didn’t rank for May December, but a movie revisiting (however artfully) the Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau relationship—which started with Letourneau’s arrest for raping Fualaau when he was only 12—was always gonna go down with some icky shivers. Imagine a film with the genders reversed? You can’t. Wait, no—Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita. Which, come to think of it, was nominated for best adapted screenplay. Perhaps it was inevitable, then, that original screenplay (written by Samy Burch) would be the only category where Todd Haynes’s well-regarded film ended up being recognized.
Snub: American Symphony Goes Silent
Matthew Heineman’s documentary is about art, love, life, and death, for starters, but apparently Oscar voters wanted…. more? American Symphony tells the story of Jon Batiste’s quest to write a symphony just as he and his life partner, author Suleika Jaouad, discover that the latter’s cancer has returned. Batiste told VF that agreeing to such an unusually candid film required a leap of faith: “It felt like it was much bigger than us. And even though it was more than we had bargained for going in, it felt as though this is what the spirit was leading us to do. It was a work of God that we had to complete to the end.”
Sad: Greta Lee Runs Out of Lives
Celine Song’s wildly impressive debut, Past Lives, received two nominations, for best picture and best original screenplay. We would have loved to see Lee’s exquisitely nuanced lead performance recognized as well. As Nora, a New York City playwright who reunites with her childhood best friend from Korea, Lee impeccably calibrates humor, affection, love, and regret on the way to the film’s cathartic emotional climax. Her absence here isn’t technically a snub (this year’s best actress category includes some legitimately fierce contenders), nor is it a surprise, just an occasion for a moment of sadness for what might have been. Which, come to think of it, is what Past Lives is all about.
Sad: Super Mario Bros. Gets Lemons, Not Lemonade
OK, maybe a movie based on a Nintendo game was never going to win best picture (it’s not like it’s about something serious, like dolls!), but Jack Black’s virally fruitful “Peaches”? Hear it once and you’ll sing it, along with your five-year-old, a billion times. A disappointing day for everyone who likes their nominations with a side of delight.
