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Award season has been a little touch-and-go these days, with dissent around inclusivity and diversity ever-growing.

With the Golden Globes done and dusted, as well as other award ceremonies behind us, it’s time for the Oscars. And it seems, again, the Academy is back on their BS.

The 2023 Oscar nominations included a few annoying nods and snubs – even though a few worthy noms were thrown in for watchability and good measure – which means quite a few people have been left sad, mad, or just plain heartbroken.

As Nicole Kidman once said, “Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this”.

Jezebel notes that “anyone who made sure Nope didn’t receive a single nomination should be made to feel like a huge loser”, while Everything Everywhere All At Once received 11 Oscar nominations – including noms for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay – which is totally applaudable and appropriate.

Besides Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans, and the German war drama All Quiet on the Western Front led the nominations in best picture and a slew of below-the-line categories, per Vanity Fair.

You can head over there for the full list of nominees in all categories, but we’re just going to talk about the most surprising nubs and snubs here.

Again, this year’s Best Director category is full of older, white men, including Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inishiren), Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans), Todd Field (TÁR), and Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness).

This total omission of women in the category is missed opportunity, as a ton of female power is behind some of the year’s most talked-about and critically acclaimed films:

Sarah Polley’s Women Talking, Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King were all shut out to the surprise of, well, everyone, despite the Motion Picture Academy’s storied history of shunning the women behind the camera.

Rather, the hyper-masculine, slightly homoerotic film full of “yassified US military propaganda” made it onto the nomination list.

Sure, Top Gun: Maverick was BIG blockbuster fun and cool and all, but did it really need a best picture nom? Along with noms for best screenplay, sound, film editing, visual effects, and original song for the Lady Gaga tune ‘Hold My Hand,’ too?

Some of that love could have been shared with Jordan Peele’s Nope:

 

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Another surprise (albeit a fine one, really) is that James Cameron wasn’t nominated for Best Director for his long-awaited sequel Avatar: The Way of Water. The film was recognised in the Best Picture category and also got noms for production design, sound, and visual effects, so, not a huge loss to fans who are scratching their head.

As mentioned before, we have enough lauded white men.

Someone somewhere is also a little upset that Jenny the Donkey, the breakout star of The Banshees of Inishirin, “is the only ass in the industry who’s yet to be nominated for an Academy Award”.

Here’s a very short list of the main category nominations:

BEST PICTURE 
All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
Triangle of Sadness
Women Talking

BEST DIRECTOR 
Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness
Todd Field, Tár
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans

BEST ACTOR
Austin Butler, Elvis
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Paul Mescal, Aftersun
Bill Nighy, Living

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, Tár
Ana de Armas, Blonde
Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

For the rest, head here.

The 95th Academy Awards is scheduled to take place on March 12. Till then, folks.

[source:jezebel&vanityfair]