Every year, the latest crop of Oscar nominees is met a fresh round of controversy. While recent years have been dominated by the #OscarsSoWhite narrative, the usual outrage is typically directed at high-profile snubs: movies and filmmakers that by most accounts should have received AMPAS attention over some of the actual nominees.
2017 is no different. While it has proven to be a better year for acknowledging worthy films across all categories than most others, there are still a staggering number of films perplexingly absent from the official Oscar lineups. These are the five most obvious movies missing from the Oscars’ official nominees.
Amy Adams in Arrival for Best Lead Actress — The female acting categories have always been a little less predictable than their male counterparts. Due to the less frequent overlap with leading female roles and Best Picture nominees, the category has always included movies that came a bit out of left field. In fact, of the actual nominees in the category, only one — La La Land — is nominated for the night’s big award.
This why Arrival‘s disinclusion in the category comes as so much of a shock. Not only does Amy Adams give one of the most celebrated performances of the year, but she does so in a rare Best Picture nominee to feature a female protagonist. The choice to pass over her mesmerizing work as linguist Louise Banks is especially perplexing when you consider that Meryl Streep earned a historic twentieth nomination for far more pedestrian work in Florence Foster Jenkins.
Deadpool for Best Makeup and Hairstyling — Every now and again there is a film nominated at the Oscars that makes movie-goers’ heads spin. My favorite has always been mentioning “Academy Award Winning Actor Nicholas Cage” whenever movies like Ghost Rider or The Wicker Man come up. “Academy Award Nominated Suicide Squad” might take the top spot now, though.
While only having three nominees makes competition especially fierce in this category — and will invariably end up disappointing somebody — the absence of Deadpool is particularly shocking. While a film’s acknowledgement in this category is not indicative of the movie’s overall quality, nor should it be, Deadpool‘s realistic rendering of Ryan Reynolds as a horrifically disfigured mutant far outshines any visual transformation of Suicide Squad‘s actors.
“Drive It Like You Stole It” from Sing Street for Best Original Song — Few songs this year have been catchier than or more endearing as any of the toe-tapping melodies of the criminally underseen Sing Street. While most of the movie’s songs could — and should — have held up to the heavy hitters from the likes of La La Land and Moana, “Drive It Like You Stole It” the most viscerally satisfying of the lot.
Much like the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category, competition for this category is especially high. But whereas the aforementioned category’s competition is fueled from having fewer than five nominees, Best Original Song’s increased competitiveness comes from the inevitable musical that always seems to snag multiple nominations. La La Land‘s twice-nominated songs did more to muscle out Sing Street from this category than the toe-tappingly catchy — if completely unmemorable — entry from Trolls.
Long Way North for Best Animated Feature Film — 2016 will go down in cinematic his as one of the best individual years for animated films. Movies like Moana, Zootopia, Kubo and the Two Strings and The Red Turtle were justly noted as some of the year’s, and the category’s, best offerings. The remaining one slot could have gone to any one of several standout features, but it went instead to My Life as a Zucchini.
Long Way North is an astoundingly beautiful film about a Russian teen from an aristocratic family who takes to the sea to find her beloved grandfather who has gone missing in the Arctic. The story plays out like a cross between Disney’s Moana and Fox’s Anastasia, with a gorgeous art style reminiscent of the equally breathtaking Wind Waker. Sadly, it remains one of the year’s unsung masterpieces.
The Nice Guys for Best Original Screenplay — While some movies’ snubs are almost to be expected, this is one that I never saw coming. More than any other groups within the Academy, the Writing Branch goes for interesting, oddball movies that frequently fail to overlap with nominees from other Academy branches. This sometimes hilarious, sometimes serious, highly energetic and all-around brilliant movie had a script to match: proving itself to be one of the most quotable from the entire year (for the few people who actually saw it, that is).
As far as quirky screenplay nominations go, however, The Nice Guys was outshined by The Lobster: a movie about a dystopian society where those unable to marry are surgically transformed into animals. As far as action-packed “genre” screenplay nominations go, it was similarly passed over for Hell or High Water: an intense neo-western about a pair of brothers who hold up a series of banks in order to pay that exact same banks the money they owe on their home. Among the remaining, more traditional nominees, there just wasn’t room for a dark horse like The Nice Guys.
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