Lunchtime Poll: Oscar omissions... the ones that sting?
Monday, March 15, 2021 at 1:51PM by Nathaniel R
A lot of people -- including me! -- wanted to see Delroy Lindo nominated
Cláudio will be sounding off on the "almost there" class of 2020 soon but until then, let's get the disappointments out of our system before we concentrate on enjoying the rest of the Oscar race, which has now entered it's second phase.
Here's to the fallen! Which misses on Oscar nom morning -- our Christmas! -- are the closest things to coals in your stocking? I'll start with the five I (virtually) weep for outside of the acting categories...
5. Florian Zeller missing in Best Director
Though we've been fans of Another Round's Thomas Vinterberg for 22 years (starting with the incredible Celebration in 1998) we were hoping for Zeller to be the surprise nominee. Of all the play-to-movie adaptations this year, his was the one that most succeeded in reinventing itself as cinema. But his work was subtle and therefore unlikely. But let's end with a happy thought: The Best Director nominations are quite fabulous this year in multiple ways so this is a very minor sorrow AND Zeller is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay so he is still being honored for this great movie.
4. First Cow missing for Adapted Screenplay OR Palm Springs missing in Original
Either of these well loved pictures landing in screenplay -- they're both nominees right here -- would have reminded audiences that great cinema can happen at any time of the year. Greatness need not wait around until Oscar campaigning begins. Both were beauifully written and superior to a few of the Academy chosen.
3. Multiple Short Films.
This year we were able to screen 27 of the 30 finalists for the three short film categories and we're actually quie disappointed in the sets of nominees chosen. That's especially true for Kapaemahu in Animated an evocative short about transgender spirits and Hawaiian mythology (two of the ten finalists in that category were queer but both LGBT options missed the nomination), Speed Cubers in doc short which should have won handily but didn't even score a nod (must have been too happy for the Academy in the category often focused on misery) and Almodovar's The Human Voice in live action which really towers over most of the selections in artistry.
2. Promising Young Woman missing in Best Costume Design
We knew this was unlikely despite the CDG nomination. Oscar only very rarely acknowledges that contemporary films employ designers of any kind. But costuming superbly in modern era films is not a piece of cake and there's so many fun detail in these choices -- we especially love the progressive saturation of pink florals as Cassie starts dropping her guard around the new man in her life.
1. Welcome to Chechnya missing for Visual Effects
It's quite disappointing that Oscar's VFX branch went as traditional and CG cartoon as they could, ignoring the only VFX work that was literally life changing and will continue to be used and developed for future documentaries. It was the very best of the 10 finalists but wasn't even granted a nomination. This miss truly stings.
Reader Comments (61)
Just two:
1. Delory Lindo
2. Supporting actors 🤭
Delroy and Mads and everything First Cow.
Bo Burnham in PYW... what a tough, tricky role and he NAILED it.... Darkly comic and awkward, he was amazing.
Lindo for me. And Da 5 Bloods all around.
I'm sad Boys State didn't make the Documentary list. Despite the excellent year for docs, the nominee list is rather bland.
I agree the Lindo omission is galling. Da 5 Bloods deserved better overall.
With you, Nathaniel, on Welcome to Chechnya. Even if it didn’t make doc among a list of several worthwhile contenders (Dick Johnson is Dead to AMPAS), it was the most worthwhile by far on the visual effects arena.
Notturno and MLK/FBI missing for Documentary, Lindo, Fishback, Stratharin, Never Rarely Sometimes Always or First Cow in Screenplay...
For me it's probably:
Two of Us - France
First Cow - I wanted it to get something
Kapaemahu missing out on Best Animated Short is definitely a disappointment, but it didn’t seem likely to appeal much to the more traditionalist animation branch. Speed Cubers missing out on Best Documentary Short definitely hurts more.
First Cow, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, The Assistant - just one measly nomination would have been sufficient
Pouring one out for "I'm thinking of ending things" - never had a chance, but would have been lovely to see it recognized.
And yeah - not seeing Da 5 Bloods in Picture/Director/Actor was sad, but not really a surprise. More divisive than BlackKklansman and came out 8 months ago.
Also - RIP the campaign that never was for Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo, Jamie Dornan, and Trish. Trish? At the Oscars? Forget it! She has an award for everybody.
Mads missing in BA for Stephen Yuen whose fine but Mads is doing some really fantastic acting in A/Round.
Foster,Burstyn,Fishback,Cooke and Ryder all missing BSA.
Mark Rylance missing in Supporting,he'd be shoe in back in the 90's.
I am most pleased with Lead Actress no-one stinking up the category,a future classic year.
Welcome to Chechnya's omission in Visual Effects is bizarre, and the only explanation I can think of would be the bakeoff excerpt doesn't really capture what the effects artists accomplished because it's subtle, amazing work. (That said, Tenet better win this category.)
Would have been nice to have seen a nod for Mads Mikkelsen. Would have preferred to have seen a Glynn Turman or Bill Murrary nomination in Supporting Actor (vs one of two Judas and the Black Massiah nominees.) But Oscar's gonna Oscar and it's not a terrible Oscar year overall.
Supporting actress what-might-have-beens: Zengel; Fishback (though tropey); Foster (though she's a lead); Burstyn (though flawed); Brie, Cooke & Ryder (though precursor-less).
^^One more thought: It would have been great to see Birds of Prey show up in one category. It made the shortlists for Make Up & Hairstyling (deserving) and Visual Effects (less so). But Production Design or Costume Design would have also been great.
I love when "un-Oscar-y" films show up in the below-the-line categories because it shows that craftspeople are paying attention to the work and not just the campaigns.
Yes, Florian Zeller for Best Director in the place of David Fincher.
WELCOME TO CHECHNYA missing VFX for sure.
Not even a fan of MANK, but kind of a bummer for it to get 10 nominations but not screenplay give the film's origin story.
One Night in Miami missing out in Best Picture is the only omission that hurts. Thank goodness Judas got in, though... this was a good year for movies about the Black experience, and omitting all of them from Best Picture would have been a travesty.
First Cow and Never Rarely Sometimes Always getting nothing hurts.
I feel like Delroy Lindo was purposely left out from almost all the main awards bodies this year in order to make way for an easy win to go to Chadwick Boseman.
Had Delroy competed, he could have won and Hollywood wanted to honor Boseman’s legacy.
MICHELLE PFEIFFER. (although I know she was now a long shot)
Also, Mary J. Blige in Best Original Song for that documentary “Belly of the Beast.” However, I don’t think the documentary made the final shortlist, so I guess that could’ve been a barrier for members to check out her song.
Palm Springs screenplay and actual supporting actor performances (so many to choose from this year too!).
Ellen Burstyn.
Mads Mikkelsen ... probably the best performance by an actor in a leading role in 2020
The only one that really, really stings on me is "Da 5 Bloods" on everything it should have been nominated... it got score, but...
Picture
Director
Actor
S. Actor
Original Screenplay
Film Editing
Cinematography
Sound
... are missing. It should have been a 9 Oscar nominee for Best Picture.
I wonder if all the other shorts being more readily available hurt The Human Voice.
Most disappointing snubs for me are Delroy Lindo (by far the best performance of the year) and Two of Us in IFF-it was always at risk for a snub considering the subject matter and tone, but the Globe and Critics Choice noms seemed to secure its chances for a nom. plus it’s miles better than the IFF frontrunner. And Barbara Sukowa + Martine Chevallier are better than the entire Best Actress lineup.
Mads Mikkelsen :(
Anything for BABYTEETH, PALM SPRINGS and THE FORTY YEAR OLD VERSION. I didn't expect anything for any of those films and I guess I'm just happy they DID show up this awards seasons here and there, but yeah ouch.
Tahar Rahim put in the actual best acting performance of the year.
Tahar Rahim should be nominated, obviously.
Delroy Lindo is this years Ethan Hawke or Toni Collette : all precursors, no telecast awards... even if i think his performance was very inferior (overracting like Denzel in Fences...)
What hurts is the category fraud getting more and more ridiculous each year and ruining the enthousiasm for otherwise excellent performances (Viola Davis, Alicia Vikander, Mahershala Ali, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Rooney Mara all deserved praise but NOT in supporting).
I also hoped for a nomination for First Cow in screenplay and MaRainey in picture.
You know me... Amy Adams 😞
Promising Young Woman in Hair and Makeup even though it wasn't shortlisted.
Promising Young Woman in Costume
Glynn Turman and Clarke Peters in Supporting Actor
Dear Comrades! In Best International Film
First Cow in Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography
David Copperfield in Production Design
Soul in Original Screenplay
OH...
Ellen Burstyn.
I wanted so much.
Sad.
Would have loved to have seen First Cow in screenplay as well, and Reichart for director (even though I know the latter was not going to happen). But overall not a bad Oscar lineup this time around. Nothing super-egregious that I can think of (at least the category fraud nominees are worthy nominees).
I agree with @Jesus Alonso that Da 5 Bloods was unfairly ignored...apart from Boseman who I am glad not to see here after seeing how tiny his part is.
And I agree with @Geri that Amy Adams should be here. But she doesn’t really need another nomination and she would not win so I don’t mind.
Almodóvar in short
Mads in Leading Actor (Steven / Riz / Chadwick are fine and just fine to me)
Ellen Burstyn in Supporting Actress ( Glenn is my favorite actress of all time, but not in this movie)
Soul in Original Screenplay and Best Picture
Mank in Original Screenplay and Editing
I loved all the other nominations. Was a great year of nominees.
The Almodovar one stings. The fact that there are no Black directors is sad too. One really gets a sense of the different branches of the Academy being engaged in gatekeeping these days: The very lovely song in ALBERT NOBBS wasn't even shortlisted by the Academy's music branch back in 2011 because, presumably, they didn't want Glenn Close to be able to get an Oscar for writing song lyrics when she wasn't a REAL songwriter. I guess the Academy's Shorts branch thinks Almodovar shouldn't try to compete against starving shorts directors just as the Director's branch clearly thinks people like Regina King (and Ben Afflick and Bradley Cooper before her) should stick to acting.
There were a lot of possibilities I would have love to see (Mikkelsen, Han), but my only real heartbreak was Night of the Kings missing in International Feature. Very disappointed it missed, but otherwise feeling pretty pleased with this crop of nominees.
An overall fine list of nominees (save the ridiculousness of Supporting Actor being turned into "Leading Actor, Part II"), however I would've loved to have seen Kate Winslet, Charles Dance, and Alan Kim nominated.
Happy especially for Nomadland, Minari, Seyfried, and Close.
No surprises in the Screenplay category, which really is a shame given how many great ones there were this year where the Academy could have spread the love.
I am gravely disappointed that Jared Leto didn't get in for supporting actor for "The Little Things."
This entire season just shows that nobody knows nothing, don’t believe the hype and critics don’t vote: RIP to the fleeting promises of Jodie Foster, Small Axe/Steve McQueen, Amy Adams, Delroy Lindo-First Cow/Kelly Reichart, Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always/Sidney Flanagan, Bill Murray, Spike Lee, Ellen Burstyn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zendaya, Da 5 Bloods/Chadwick Boseman for Da 5 Bloods, Kate Winslet/Saoirse Ronan, Prom, Sophia Loren, George Clooney/The Midnight Sky, Glynn Turman/Ma Rainey’s BB and I’m Thinking of Ending Things.....
First Cow, The Assistant and The 40 Year Old Version would've been on my list, but out of the true snubs, I'm going to join the crowd and say Delroy Lindo and Welcome to Chechnya for both VFX and Documentary.
In general they did pretty well. I don't think Ma Rainey belonged in Best Picture and, although Fincher walked very easily into a nomination (for one of his weakest efforts), it's hard to get mad at it. At least we didn't get Sorkin.
Truly happy for the nominationa for The Father, but of course sad for Florian Zeller. He deserves a nomination.
I am quite surprised that no one is really talking about this movie. Is it because not a lot of people have seen it yet or not a lot care about it?
Sad for Pfeiffer. She gave it a shot this year, I worry she might never commit like that again.
Frustrated for Daniel and Lakeith that their noms will be forever tainted by the ridiculous category fraud.
Would have loved Mads, Tahar and Ellen to have made it in.
The bad:
DELROY LINDO!!!
Da 5 Bloods in general
The good:
Regina King
Ma Rainey in Picture and Screenplay
Biggest Disappointments...
- no Welcome to Chechnya
- no Never Rarely Sometimes Always
- no Lindo
But again, overall they made some excellent choices.
@Maxbrand It's in theaters in my town but *I'm* not going out to the movies yet. If it's still there after my second Moderna shot, I'll go. Otherwise, I'm waiting for it to pop up on Amazon Prime.