As is our habit we polled the team here plus some friends of the site about their Oscar nomination reactions and wanted to share those little blurbs with you! Would LOVE to hear you answer the same questions in the comments. Here's the first set of questions.
Andrea Riseborough in "To Leslie"
1. Fav Acting Nomination?
2. What Shocked You the Most on Oscar Nom Morning (in a Gleeful Way?
3. Share your 'Ode to a Snub'
4. Any Theories as to why ______ underperformed?
Would LOVE to hear you answer the same questions in the comments. But first here are our answers...
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE ACTING NOMINATION?
Paul Mescal, because it's the sort of performance one never sees in the Best Actor lineup. Understated to the nth degree, repudiating demonstrative emotion for something more complicated. Moreover, AFTERSUN is one of my favorites of the year, so it's nice to see it honored, if only in one category. - Claudio Alves
Setting aside my beloved BTH, plus the always-assured but still richly deserved Yeoh and Quan, my favorite acting nomination is Paul Mescal in Aftersun. Yes, a lot of people (including me) were predicting him to make it, but it’s still miraculous that this gorgeous, internal performance in a breakout indie got nominated for a fucking Oscar out of a pool so slim that they could have given it to Tom Cruise for any number of perfectly logical reasons. But they didn’t, so now one of my favorite films of the year is now immortalized in Oscar’s records and am so happy for it. Come thru, white boy of the month!! - Nick Taylor
Ke Huy Quan who nailed every technical demand and tonal shift his role(s) required of him while also being that film’s heart and soul. - Ray Lewis
Ke Huy Quan because he is so damn good in EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE - he's the heart to Yeoh's soul - and, what can I say, I too am a sucker for a good comeback narrative. - Lynn Lee
After all that film twitter noise and doubt, I hope Stephanie Hsu has the best day. She is the moment and I hope she never has to deal with film twitter anxieties. -Chels Eichholz
Stephanie Hsu! I only recently sat down to watch "Everything, Everywhere" and while I totally understand the heat behind Jamie Lee Curtis, the reason why the story punches you in the gut is the gravitas that Hsu brings to the part. Absolutely thrilled that the top five players made it in - -Kim Rogers
How can it not be Stephanie Hsu? By no means a lock, a true nomination based on the performance and the performance’s lasting emotional impact. I hope this is a true Star is Born moment. - Patrick Ball
I've been waiting so long for a Jamie Lee Curtis nomination that I am ecstatic that that finally happened. Comedy is so undervalued and this isn't the first time she's been worthy - Nathaniel R
I was thinking Causeway was way too small and quiet of a film to get attention, and thank goodness I was wrong. Brian Tyree Henry does sensitive masculinity better than most in the world and I couldn't be happier for his nomination. . - Ben Miller
Brian Tyree Henry was a very sweet surprise, and it's always thrilling when a character actor gets this kind of recognition. - Eric Blume
My favorite small movie with a big heart that got a lone Oscar nomination this morning was Causeway. Brian Tyree Henry is so wonderful in that movie in a non-showy role that I expected Oscar to overlook. - Chris James
Brendan Fraser. I just want that redemption arc to be draw in Academy skies - Elisa Giudici
Barry Keoghan—a single-line delivery for the ages - Farran Smith Nehme
Barry Keoghan - From the moment I saw his perf at TIFF I was adamant that he should be nommed. The possibility that he may be overshadowed by his blatantly fraudulent co-star had me fuming. I put him at the top of my Film Experience predix long before he became a sure bet so am taking full credit for his nomination today. - Baby Clyde
I'm also very happy for Barry Keoghan, who could have had one of those decades-of-great-work careers with no recognition, and has now gotten it out of the way early. - Katey Rich
Andrea Riseborough - To Leslie for Actress. I'm glad her last-minute campaign paid off and for a great performance too! - Juan Carlos Ojano
Michelle Williams in LEAD Actress. I think it would have been incredibly humiliating to tell a woman that she can't be a lead even if she wants to be. Williams put a guaranteed Oscar win on the line to be a leading lady and I am happy it paid off for her. It is a terrific performance too! - Ankit Jhunhunwala
WHAT SHOCKED YOU THE MOST IN A GLEEFUL WAY?
Besides the obvious (Brian Tyree, what a moment), Triangle of Sadness pushing through for me was such a thrill. Without a doubt the movie that most killed it in the theater for me this year, I have never been in a room with people laughing so hard and Östlund is such a talent. HELL yeah. -- Patrick Ball
This is a Best Picture roster without a single dud. Thank you to whomever the voters were that put TRIANGLE OF SADNESS and WOMEN TALKING above THE WHALE to allow such a rarity (especially so among a roster of ten). By the end there, I assumed that it was all but a certainty. There are a lot of movies that I am sure individual followers would have liked to see, but realistically, I don't think the ten could have been much better. - Glenn Dunks
Oscar Nerd Alert!!!! My favourite nomination of the whole morning was Haulout in the Doc Short category. Track it down. There is a jaw dropping reveal that is more shocking that Andrea Riseborough Best Actress nomination - Baby Clyde
Not to get all tribal - but Asian (and Asian American) actresses in da house!!! While I knew Michelle Yeoh would get in, I thought Stephanie Hsu and Hong Chau were long shots at best. Absolutely delighted to be proven wrong. - Lynn Lee
Kazuo Ishiguro is an Oscar Nominee?! Take that Nobel Prize in Literature and push it to the back of the shelf. Seriously though, I adore his novels and loved the gentle but ever so slightly surreal humor of his screenplay for Living but thought it would never make it in.- - Tom Mizer
Besides the obvious (Brian Tyree, what a moment), Triangle of Sadness pushing through for me was such a thrill. Without a doubt the movie that most killed it in the theater for me this year, I have never been in a room with people laughing so hard and Östlund is such a talent. HELL yeah. -- Patrick Ball
The Whale was an upsetting watch, though I respected the acting and the make up work was impressive. The Academy agreed and kept it out of Screenplay and Picture, which made me very happy. - - Eurocheese
Brian Tyree Henry making the cut for Causeway. Such a gentle, heartbreaking performance that felt too good for these awards. He's a performer that should have many nominations and I hope this is just the beginning for him. -Chels Eichholz
I had zero hopes for Women Talking as the nominations trickled out, and having included in the Best Picture lineup was just delightful. Why it missed virtually everywhere else, I'll never know. - Ben Miller
Stephanie Hsu! It wasn't a total shock because she was a SAG nominee but I was so nervous she would be outshone by her co-stars, and she's such an emotional core of that movie. - Katey Rich
EO, the little donkey that could, and The Quiet Girl in International Feature. Yes, I know we should all be sad about Decision to Leave missing. However, EO just feels like such an adventurous and daring choice. I couldn’t be more thrilled. Yes, it’s a more simple movie, but The Quiet Girl charmed me thoroughly.- - Chris James
"This is a Life" for Best Original Song. I'm a massive Mitski fan. So, to see her get recognized for a song that was on the fringe of making the cut made this an even more pleasant surprise. - Matt St Clair
Throughout awards season “This is a Life” from EEAAO has been omitted from most song nomination lists which is a shame. It’s not only a good song but does so much in terms of the film. It brings the audience down after a high octane and emotional 2+ hours and then connects the film’s themes to the audience’s real life at the end. I never not tear up at the end of that song. - Cortland Jacoby
Andrea Riseborough's nomination is an unprecedented feat. I wonder what To Leslie's success might mean for Oscar campaigns of the future. - Claudio Alves
The shocking cross-category dominance of non-English language films (film in this case with All Quiet on the Western Front). I think the international nature of the Oscars is here to stay and I will always champion more non-English language work being nominated in every category even if I am not the greatest fan of the films themselves. We need all kinds of diversity - racial, gender, diversity of financial means etc among nominated films and people. But we also need diversity of language. - Ankit Jhunhunwala
Women Talking in Picture - it's one of my favorite films of the year but I already gave up on it even getting the Picture nomination. So imagine my surprise - and I cried! - Juan Carlos Ojano
Absolutely wonderful to see TAR do so well, scoring brilliantly-well-deserved noms for Cinematography and Editing in addition to the big ones. It's an incredibly outre film for the Oscars, so it's shocking and thrilling to see so much support for it. I think it also increases Cate's chances of winning. -- Eric Blume
ODE TO A SNUB…
Paul Dano. was. robbed. All due respect to Judd Hirsch, but there's a reason I dozed off during his big scene in THE FABELMANS and choked back tears during Dano's. The snub's unfortunately par for the course for Dano, who's been doing quietly excellent - and unrecognized - work for years.- - Lynn Lee
DOLLY DE LEON, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MY CAPTAIN. I HOPE I GET TO WORK WITH YOU ONE DAY. - - Juan Carlos Ojano
Dolly De Leon probably should have won Best Supporting Actress, so not hearing her name called was especially painful. There's nothing quite like a character actor taking charge of a whole film, thematically and narratively and by giving the best performance. - Nathaniel R
Charlotte Wells, we love you. Please come back to us as quickly as you can. -- Eurocheese
Baz Luhrmann's movies continue to just direct themselves, I guess!!! I will never understand how his movies can amass piles of nominations yet they never recognize the man at the helm. Absolutely infuriating, and no, I'm still not over the Moulin Rouge snub, thanks for asking. - -Kim Rogers
Dear Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, and the other great actors in Women Talking: fear not, your work will look amazing twenty years from now when the writers of the Supporting Actress Smackdown look back and say "what happened with this category that year?" Just rest assured that your textured, impassioned, surprising, direct, honest, and funny work made this year's cinema much, much richer. - - Eric Blume
Jessie Buckley, you couldn’t get the women of the barn to vote your way, and you couldn’t get the Oscars to vote your way either. Still, your performance in Women Talking will keep me talking (in salty, barbed one-liners) for years to come. - - Chris James
The Territory for Documentary. Every year, there are fantastic and important nonfiction films that make the shortlist but then don’t get in. This one deals with a timely Indigenous story in Brazil and deserves all the publicity it can get. - - Abe Friedtanzer
Decision To Leave's snub is so baffling it took me 20 minutes to realise it had happened. Knew there was something obvious missing but it didn't cross my mind that was the one that frontrunner that got overlooked. There's also a hilarious 9 minute Live Action Short called The Treatment (El Tratamiento) which is more entertaining than any of the tiresomely overlong and frankly pretty dull Best Picture nominees. It didn't get nominated obviously cos they had to make room for child murder and hate crimes. -- Baby Clyde
Crimes of the Future - A magisterial late-career masterwork from one of our greatest directors ever was never going to find favor with the Academy - it is too outré, too risqué, too provocative and too otherwordly. The few of us who love it, will champion it as a thoughtful treatise on the right to choose and live as one wants. - Ankit Jhunhunwala
The Whale, you would have been the turd in the punchbowl in the best picture lineup, and you will not be missed. - Katey Rich
Danielle Deadwyler put on an eye-acting CLINIC, but the film was unfortunately botched in release by United Artists. Anyone who has seen the film knows she deserved consideration for the win, much less a nomination. Here's hoping we end up seeing her in a lineup in the very near future. . - Ben Miller
Danielle Deadwyler for Best Actress. Makes me wonder how many voters actually watched the movie because that's literally such a winning role. Real-life person, crying scene, monologues... Checks all sorts of boxes and they're all like "Nah." Very flustering. - Matt St Clair
I’m sad Saint Omer went unrecognized in International Film, and although I don’t love the lineup we got, it was a very competitive year and I’m sure its odds were better in my than what the vote totals would suggest. Best Actress was an absolute bloodbath - every woman fought hard for their spot. Their performances are impressive, both individually and as an actual sample of the year’s leading ladies, but I’m still stunned Danielle Deadwyler got knocked out of the final five. Hers is a titanic performance, tracking an arc of unspeaking grief and political awakening with such force and gravitas. Chinonye Chukwu’s camera arguably relies on Deadwyler’s face even more than she did Alfre Woodard’s in Clemency, but she aces every challenge she’s given, and it’s a goddamn shame that she, like Woodard, was left out in the cold for a performance that could (and should) have been a steamroller. - - Nick Taylor
Pouring one out for Danielle Deadwyler whose anguish and gradual political awakening was one of the most transfixing things in a movie all year. Not sure whether it’s down to the studio not campaigning her well enough or the competitiveness of that category that she didn’t make it in but I really wish she did. - - Ray Lewis
There was no chance in hell she would have been nominated but Emma Thompson in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande had one of the most liberating and brave performances of the year. - Cortland Jacoby
She Said deserved more! Fantastic screenplay, direction, and editing! Hollywood didn't wanna deal with their bad history. -Chels Eichholz
The great James Cameron has spent the last 12 years of his life concocting one of the most extravagant popcorn fantasies in the history of the medium, using all of his gifts for spectacle on a level they've never been used before, but I guess it's nice that Martin McDonagh got a Best Directing nomination for not quite knowing how to frame a two-shot. - Tim Brayton
I clung onto THE WOMAN KING all season, thinking it would have a dedicated enough contingent of voters to pull it along. I think it's a very well made movie, smart and shot with gusto by all the techs. And, of course, Viola and her supporting cast. It's exclusion across the board makes its box office success all the bigger of a relief. - Glenn Dunks
ANY THEORIES AS TO WHY ____ UNDERPERFORMED?
I really need someone to use photos, leaked audios and of course red threads on a dashboard in full conspiracy mode to explain me Decision to Leave. I need it. - - Elisa Giudici
The Whale was this year’s Being the Ricardos where the actors responded but no one else did. And The Woman King…I still don’t get that, honestly. It seemed to be right up the Academy’s alley: action epic, led by a big star, character driven while also not lacking for spectacle. Can’t understand what about it they could’ve resisted (Well, there is that one thing, but I’m not sure I have the energy to discuss that today. IYKYK.) - Ray Lewis
I never expected Glass Onion to do well because the first film didn’t, but I would have loved for it to happen. As for Decision to Leave, Oscar’s unfortunate history with Korean cinema apparently hasn’t changed despite Parasite’s victory. - Abe Friedtanzer
RRR - Might have been too bizarre an experience for those not familiar with mainstream Indian cinema. We know many in the Academy have seen and loved Satyajit Ray movies, but this is decidedly in an entirely different key that has no analogue to anything Hollywood makes. Ankit Jhunhunwala
Babylon is quietly loathed by more people than Twitter realizes. -- Farran Smith Nehme
Many contenders this year seemed to be aiming for similar themes and audiences, and, in the end, AMPAS chose one over the other. In regards to films about films, THE FABELMANS' complicated reminiscence trumps BABYLON's messy loudness. They preferred the 'eat the rich' movie that came with a patina of festival prestige and a sense of seriousness woven through its comedy. When it came time to consider Afro-centric action films, AMPAS picked the superhero fantasy over the old-school epic, the Disney-approved future over a complicated historical past. - Claudio Alves
I have no theories on why The Woman King did so badly with awards bodies, despite racking up all the money and good reviews needed to at least a get its Oscar-winning star recognized for her utterly superb work. Did too many sequels with prior favor in the Academy take up their attention for spectacle, let alone an original spectacle in a historical milieu Hollywood’s never spent time with before? I get sword and sandals movies aren’t always the Academy’s taste, but The Woman King’s absence from this year’s ballot feels very conspicuous to me. - Nick Taylor
The Woman King underperformed because people weren’t campaigning loudly enough for it. The box office was great, the reviews were spectacular and the audience reactions were astounding. Viola and Gina should’ve been at an event a week touting it as the modern day answer to Gladiator. Yet, people forgot about it as new movies came out. - Chris James
I mean, misogynoir took down The Woman King because Hollywood doesn't support Black Women. It's just embarrassing. -Chels Eichholz
Glass Onion missing almost everywhere is truly baffling. Was it too enjoyable and not challenging enough? Do people hate Netflix that much? You're telling me the Production Design of The Fabelmans is better? GTFO . - Ben Miller
Would Glass Onion had fared better if that theatrical run had been longer? It was such a great communal experience seeing it in a theatre and hearing people react, something you definitely can't recreate in a streaming environment. - -Kim Rogers
OKAY READERS, YOUR TURN IN THE COMMENTS!
continue on to part two for more Q&A fun