Oscars 2024: Snubs And Surprises

I’ve found the press run and awards season cycle of “The Color Purple” really fascinating. Perhaps more interesting than the musical itself. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy watching the film in theaters with my family, recognizing the familiar moments, brought to life by this brand-new cast full of stellar talent. I really did enjoy it.

But there have been so many narratives that have been floating around through critics and moviegoers. Like, I’m still stuck on the fact that people went to the movies not knowing it was a musical!!!! In talking with friends and family, I also think there were hopes that the academy would right its wrongs by awarding the film some Oscar wins this year. (The 1985 film did not win any Oscars at the 1986 ceremony.)

Danielle Brooks was rightly nominated for Best Supporting Actress this year, which is also her first nomination. But Fantasia Barrino should have been announced as a nominee this morning. She really convinced me with her portrayal of Celie. (I still hate that I missed her in the Broadway revival.) As for Brooks, she’s going up against Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s performance in “The Holdovers,” which has dominated that category at award shows so far. But, as I think we have discussed before, Brooks’ performance is stronger than Randolph’s, and I’m fully rooting for Brooks to win. — Erin

LOL Erin. I don’t understand the whole not knowing it was a musical part. But I will say that many people have written about how Hollywood has failed to market the fact that this and other films this year are musical films. Though, I thought people already knew that “The Color Purple” had two yearslong Broadway musical runs? So, I don’t get that. And I think the conversation around correcting whatever perceived Oscar snubs from the first movie with this new one was already a terrible reason to do this movie. And look where that got them? One nomination.

I definitely think Brooks’ performance is much, much better than Randolph’s, but the latter has been unstoppable in the awards race so far. I hate when people use “upset” this way, but like...I would love to see an upset here. — Candice

If people haven’t already, they should read Candice’s thoughtful piece about the various ways each adaptation of “The Color Purple” has been a diluted version of Alice Walker’s novel and has come up against the forces of capitalism, white Hollywood, etc.

I know we all have mixed feelings about this latest one. I do think Fantasia really killed it and wished she hadn’t been left off of the Best Actress list. I was also happy to see Danielle Brooks recognized. I think both things can be true: this adaptation fell short, and it had a lot of great performances. — Marina

Thank you, Marina! I’ll start with this: I am kinda surprised to see Fantasia not get nominated only because she has been nominated for so many of the other awards. But I actually found Danielle Brooks’ performance far more tremendous in a supporting role, and happy to see her nominated. It was also...the only objectively great thing about the movie, to me. Everything else about this new “Color Purple” is just...fine. It’s not bad, it’s not superb. It’s thoroughly entertaining. It does exactly what you expect it to do. But, as I discuss in my piece, that’s not really enough to validate its existence. It doesn’t take any bold steps to subvert or confront the time it’s in. I thought that was the point of Hollywood’s obsession with remakes? *insert shrug emoji here* — Candice

Margot Robbie didn't get nominated for Best Actress. I’m very confused about this, to say the least. How is a film nominated for Best Picture and its lead actress — whose character’s name is the film’s name — not nominated? Forget about how I fell asleep watching the film. Like, logistically, this snub doesn’t make sense to me! In the same way it doesn’t make sense that Greta Gerwig didn’t get nominated for Best Director. Did the movie direct itself? — Erin

Erin LOL, I can never forget that you fell asleep on this. Of all the performances in the movie, I think Robbie’s was the main one that should have been nominated. It’s so technically brilliant on so many levels. People forget that the presumably empty blond doll character is extremely difficult to play — and Robbie helps take her on such a sweeping, silly and eye-opening journey that anchors the movie. A truly underestimated performance. — Candice

I partly need to watch movies earlier in the day, and also need to know when a movie is just not for me. LOL. — Erin

The Oscars are a mojo dojo casa house!

I also suspect certain members of the academy turned their nose up at the fact this movie is a comedy directed by a woman and is therefore “less serious” than “Oppenheimer,” the other major blockbuster that has dominated awards season this year, which is the kind of movie (biopic about a man, directed by a man) that’s generally more up their alley. Just saying! — Marina

I’ve been very pleasantly surprised to see the conversation around this film. I wish it went beyond a plane crash survival story to more richly examine the human lives behind the tragedy (kind of like “Yellowjackets,” but good), but the effects and makeup (the latter which is also nominated) are awe-inspiring. The sequence of the actual crash early in the movie was some of the most gripping moments I’ve seen on film this year. And it’s kind of astonishing to see this Spanish Oscars submission go this far in the race. It was HUGE on Netflix, becoming one of the streamer’s most successful non-English movies ever, and really connected with the audience. Very happy for director J.A. Bayona. — Candice

A film that dipped in and out of awards conversation for the last several months is perhaps not a pure snub. But, I tell ya, each time it was ignored by an awards committee, it felt unjust. “Kokomo City” is such a raw, honest reflection of Black trans experiences both through their intersection with the Black cisgender and straight community as well as their own. It’s a brilliant examination of self in spite of the narrative about them. And from a Black trans filmmaker: D. Smith. A massive omission. — Candice

I was worried that this would be ignored again. It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in recent history, was also on our Best Films of 2023 list, and the precursors have mostly overlooked it all season long. Tunisia’s Oscar submission, “Four Daughters,” is a staggering approach to processing familial and sociopolitical trauma through the power of filmmaking. Such a difficult movie to even describe isn’t one that the Oscars usually go for — unless it’s white. Kudos to them for pushing the needle forward here.

I keep meaning to see this and “Kokomo City”! I’ve been slacking on the docs this year. — Marina

Both are SO good! — Candice

"American Fiction" was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. I’ve been saying I was going to pick up a copy of Percival Everett’s novel “Erasure,” for a couple weeks now. (I have a goal of reading more books this year.) That to say, I still haven’t read the novel, so I’m not sure how it stacks up to the film itself. Have either of you read it? — Erin

I haven’t read it. And I’ve gotta tell ya — I can’t imagine wanting to read it now after watching that goofy movie. A screenplay, at the bare minimum, should tell a good story. The story of “American Fiction” is neither well told nor thought out. There are moments of really great dialogue, but it’s so fleeting and moves so abruptly to some other underdeveloped character or moment that it continually undercuts itself. A truly baffling nomination. — Candice

On that note of queer actors, I’m happy to see the great Colman Domingo get his first Oscar nomination. But I wish it weren’t for “Rustin,” which I found kind of rote and formulaic. This is one of those nominations I am treating as one for his entire career. — Marina

Getting back on my multiple truths bandwagon here again to say that Domingo is a fabulous actor. His portrayal in “Rustin,” similar to Brown’s in “American Fiction,” is so uncomplicated and stifled by a by-the-numbers, Wikipedia-esque movie and screenplay that it’s never allowed to truly soar. Andrew Scott could have been in this slot. — Candice

Wikipedia-esque! Exactly. — Marina

I was about to say I thought Colman Domingo was nice in “Rustin.” (I really went into it with low expectations. Especially with what I’m assuming is a wig on Domingo.) But obviously that’s not the point of the Oscars. You expect the performances and the stories to wow you and stick with you. Perhaps because I knew quite a bit about his history before watching the film, I felt like it was very much a story I’d heard before. Though, I did enjoy seeing the race men of the time have complicated relationships. Candice, I think we talked about this regarding another upcoming project, but I’m beyond ready for some biopics on women like Ida B. Wells or Fannie Lou Hamer, or other female civil rights legends who are rarely in our history books. — Erin

Andrew Scott was snubbed for his performance in "All of Us Strangers." This is another one of those performances that, all awards season, I have been banging the drum for, and have been disappointed that it wasn’t considered an obvious contender. As soon as the credits rolled on “All of Us Strangers,” I thought: “I’m going to be thinking about Andrew Scott in this movie for a long time.” Most people probably know him from his indelible supporting roles as Hot Priest on “Fleabag” and Moriarty on “Sherlock” (as well as an accomplished theater actor), so it was so wonderful to see him get to lead a film for the first time in his career (somehow). And, boy, did he deliver.

Similar to Greta Lee in “Past Lives,” I think Oscar voters may have deemed this performance as not showy enough, which is a damn shame. It may not be showy, but he has to be in virtually every frame of this movie, and it’s a tremendous performance. — Marina

I hate to see a beautiful queer portrayal, and by a queer actor, go virtually ignored much of award season. That doesn’t sit right with me at all. “All of Us Strangers” is a haunting and superb movie, anchored by Scott’s performance. No, it’s not a showy one. It, like Greta Lee’s, is quiet yet staggeringly effective. His nomination would have also moved the academy in a direction of honoring more queer portrayals that don’t rely on hate crime or trauma narratives. This is an evocative human performance of grief, longing and love. It deserved. — Candice

YUP. Well said, Candice. — Marina

Justine Triet was nominated for Best Director for "Anatomy of a Fall!" A happy surprise! I’m always holding my breath on whether the academy will include a female director in this category. There have been too many years where this category is all male, even though some well-deserving women should be competing alongside them. “Anatomy of a Fall” is one of those films that just really sticks with you — and it is in large part due to the efforts of Justine Triet. I also wish Celine Song (“Past Lives”) would have been here, too. — Erin

I’m thrilled for Triet, who made what could have been a standard courtroom drama into something absolutely riveting from start to finish.

But again, doing the multiple truths thing here: I do not understand why the academy seems to think they’re only allowed to nominate one (1) woman in Best Director, when year after year, there are a lot of great women directing movies. Like, we could have easily had three women nominated this year: Triet, Song and Greta Gerwig.

There has only been one year where more than one woman was nominated: 2020, when “Nomadland” director Chloé Zhao became the first, and still only, woman of color to win Best Director, and Emerald Fennell was nominated for “Promising Young Woman.” Each year, it seems like a very small handful of women get award campaigns for their movies (and while we’re at it, another all-white Best Director slate is pretty embarrassing too).

To not end on a cynical note, I should point out that this year, for the first time, there are three Best Picture nominees directed by women (“Anatomy of a Fall,” “Barbie” and “Past Lives”). — Marina

I agree with all of this, and am thrilled for Triet! “Anatomy of a Fall” is doing so many things at once, and so well and complexly, and I’m so glad to see it come this far in the race. I also think Song should be nominated. Gerwig has been nominated a number of times before, for movies that I was very meh about. But I think with all my quibbles about “Barbie,” it is definitely her best movie — by a lot. It’s yet another year filled with a variety of deserving female directorial efforts that is not represented among the list of nominees. I’d also add “Four Daughters” director Kaouther Ben Hania to this list. — Candice

I hesitate to call this one a snub because he’s one of the biggest movie stars of our time and an Oscar winner. But it was a little surprising to see Leonardo DiCaprio left out of Best Actor. At the same time, it was smart for the “Killers of the Flower Moon” team to focus all of their energy on Lily Gladstone, and it has been good to see DiCaprio on the campaign trail using his star power to cede the spotlight to her. — Marina

Yeah, this was a little shocking to me too. I think DiCaprio is good in “Killers” too, and has been nominated so much that I didn’t even realize his name wasn’t among the nominees until you just pointed it out, LOL. Again, I have to look at who was actually nominated and, like, I can only really get behind Bradley Cooper’s and Cillian Murphy’s performances in “Maestro” and “Oppenheimer,” respectively. DiCaprio’s Eugene is so daft and cunning and such a startling portrayal of underestimated whiteness that I guess it makes me wonder whether the academy is just uncomfortable with that. Wouldn’t surprise me. — Candice

Oh definitely! They probably didn’t like the fact the white man wasn’t the hero, and that the movie is very much about white people’s complicity, so, yeah. — Marina

I have made no secret of the fact “Past Lives” was my favorite movie of 2023, and while I’m happy to see it land a Best Picture nomination and an Original Screenplay nomination for writer-director Celine Song, not nominating its star really hurts. It’s baffling to me that Greta Lee was never one of the presumed front-runners in Best Actress, despite the movie being pretty much universally beloved. I think it’s mainly due to the Academy’s conflation of Best = Most Acting, which tends to shortchange performances that aren’t as showy, in movies that are “quieter” and “smaller” like “Past Lives” (this also applies to Andrew Scott in “All of Us Strangers” — more on him later).

That’s not to take away from some of the other very deserving Best Actress nominees. But it’s a really persistent pattern: performances that are built mostly on restraint, in movies that are more intimate (which are harder than they look!), tend to get overlooked in favor of movies and performances deemed bigger in scale, where the effort is more visible. While we’re at it, I also think Lee’s co-stars Teo Yoo and John Magaro deserved so much more this awards season (though I was pleasantly surprised to see Yoo land a surprise BAFTA nomination) and were never really even in the awards conversation for, I suspect, much of the same reasons.

I’m also just personally crushed for Greta Lee, who has been perennially great in supporting roles on shows like “Russian Doll” and “The Morning Show,” and has worked so, so hard to finally get this leading role. Like with Charles Melton, I think this is one of those snubs we’ll remember for a long, long time. — Marina

Let me just say it: Annette Bening stole her slot, and for “Nyad,” a cinematic version of phoning it in. This is truly embarrassing. While I maintain that Lily Gladstone is playing a supporting role in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” at least she delivers a tremendous performance (and will likely win the Oscar). Lee’s subtle, thrillingly complex and deeply felt performance in “Past Lives” is precisely the kind that the academy loves to honor — but mostly from white actors. I’m side-eyeing this snub so hard because her portrayal is definitely on the level of what the great Sandra Hüller, Carey Mulligan and Emma Stone are doing in “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Maestro” and “Poor Things,” respectively. — Candice

America Ferrara was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Barbie." This was one of those late-breaking nominations that, in recent weeks, looked more and more likely. Although writer-director Greta Gerwig and star and producer Margot Robbie were originally the main faces of the “Barbie” campaign, Ferrera has also been out there a lot to promote the film. She has one of the movie’s biggest scenes: her big monologue that sums up the thesis of the highest-grossing movie of 2023, which I imagine helped make her performance top of mind for Oscar voters. Whatever your mileage is on the movie itself, it is really wonderful to see Ferrera, who has been working for a very long time (go watch “Real Women Have Curves” if you haven’t already), get some major recognition. — Marina

Way for the Oscars to keep things interesting with this nomination that virtually no other precursor recognized. I wonder how much Ferrera’s thunderous #SeeHer award acceptance speech at the recent Critics Choice Awards played a role in this. Her promotion of the film, which is really an extension of a lot of the feminist activism she’s done throughout her entire career, was probably also what led to this.

Either way, I’m happy that more people (read: the white Hollywood mainstream) are actually seeing her for the talent she’s always been. There’s been so much conversation around that monologue from “Barbie,” a movie that often comes off as an occasionally subversive Mattel commercial, that is propelled by Ferrera’s real-life ferocity. I don’t know how to feel about an actor being primarily honored for a single monologue in a nearly two-hour movie, though she’s in other smaller scenes as well, but I’m happy to see a nonwhite person pull this off.

Oh, and yes, go watch “Real Women Have Curves” and “Superstore.” Watch all of her work. She really is something! — Candice

I was afraid this snub was going to happen, and unfortunately, it did. Charles Melton is the real heart of "May December" and his performance as an emotionally stunted man having been robbed of his adolescence due to being in a predatory relationship (to say the least) is nothing short of revelatory. The way his physicality shifts every time he’s around Julianne Moore’s character: a truly unforgettable performance.

But the academy has always been averse to nominating younger men of color who are rising stars. Coupled with that, it has perennially undervalued director Todd Haynes’ work, and it didn’t seem to know what to do with “May December,” which got generally snubbed all around this morning, other than a very deserved Original Screenplay nomination for writer Samy Burch. Real fans will not forget Melton and “May December,” and I suspect this is one of those snubs we’ll talk about for a long time. — Marina

Melton came into the race with so much well deserved fire months ago, and that has since fizzled out for reasons I can’t quite figure out. The Best Supporting Actor category is really tight this year, with the exception of Sterling K. Brown, whose performance is nowhere near on the level of what Melton is doing in “May December.” That definitely should have been Melton’s slot. And I’m really shocked that “May December” only managed a screenplay nomination, especially since virtually all the precursor awards recognized actors Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore. Though, it is a really strong screenplay, so I’m always glad to see actual quality recognized. — Candice

I’m shocked by the lack of performance nominations for this film, too. Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman were so so good in this film. I felt like Melton’s role was more substantive than Sterling K. Brown’s role in “American Fiction.” In the same breath, I liked Brown in “American Fiction,” which is a film I have a lot of strong feelings about (and have definitely been in the minority when talking about the film with friends!). — Erin

I also thought Brown was great, but his role was so underdeveloped! — Marina

Yes, this is exactly it. — Erin

I feel like I have to do the multiple truths thing here. Sterling K. Brown is a fantastic actor and has been for a very long time. His performance in “American Fiction,” however, is so one-dimensional and caricaturistic in a movie that supposedly aims to call out stereotypical Black images through a white lens that its recognition by a white mainstream academy gives me much pause. It’s almost like, "Yes, we love you when you play right into the image we already see you as — and that you can also laugh at it too." Give me a break. — Candice

Whew! Every time I try to talk about this film with someone I get frustrated. It’s film with a Black director and a stacked cast, and there are some moments in the film that I thought were just beautiful. The family scenes were great and I could have watched a whole film solely about the family dynamics if those storylines, including Sterling K. Brown’s, were more developed. But the satire of exploring what it’s like being a Black person in the literary world was so exhausting and, well, basically just not a story that I cared about through this film. It just made me forget about all the other good stuff in the film. And that ending? No! — Erin

Exactly, Erin! I’ve wondered if that flaw in the movie is sneakily underscoring its point: that white gatekeepers are not interested in stories about people of color that are about us doing regular things, and only want our Representation Stories. But maybe I’m reading too much into it or giving it too much stock. — Marina

Yeah, that has crossed my mind, too. Like, that is the point of this film. Again, like Candice, speaking multiple truths here, it is cool to see Brown get his first Oscar nomination. — Erin