Oscars 2022: The Biggest Snubs - IGN - IGN

Ah, the agony and the ecstasy. With the announcement of the nominees for the 94th Academy Awards, there’s a small list of those now in the official running for Oscars and the heartbreaking outliers who didn’t make the cut.

The awards seasons leading up to the Oscar announcements is one that’s distinguished itself as kinda all over the place. There have been some names that have consistently gotten noms across the Golden Globes, SAG, and BAFTAs, but overall the rosters have had plenty of surprises and head-scratchers. And the Academy Award nominees are following suit.

Here’s are some of the Biggest Snubs to come from this year's list of Hollywood’s Oscar nominees:

Oscar Snubs 2022

Best Visual Effects

Of the technical categories, the Best Visual Effects snubs for Godzilla Vs. Kong and Marvel’s Eternals are especially glaring. Love rampaging monsters or not, the epic city fight between the Titans was a dazzler, as was the visual realization of Jack Kirby’s Eternals aesthetic in the Marvel Studios film. (That said, Marvel did land VFX noms for two of their other 2021 films: Spider-Man: No Way Home and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.)

Best Supporting Actor: Ben Affleck Snubbed

In upper echelon categories, the Supporting Actor lists were both super competitive with plenty of standout performances in all genres jockeying for those coveted spots. In the Best Supporting Actor, the two biggest omissions were West Side Story’s Mike Faist as Riff, who was consistently lauded for this work in the musical, and Ben Affleck’s brash and comedic take on the Count Pierre d'Alençon in The Last Duel. (Or his more nuanced turn in George Clooney's The Tender Bar.)

And yes, Affleck was just nominated for a 2022 Razzie for the role, but that’s an even bigger bizarre inclusion than some of these Oscar exclusions. Also nominated for a Razzie but snubbed for an Oscar? Jared Leto in House of Gucci (although that performance was far more divisive than Affleck's).

Best Supporting Actress Snubs

The Supporting Actress list of snubs is a lot larger with awards season frontrunners in this category: Caitriona Balfe in Belfast, Ruth Negga in Passing and Cate Blanchett in Nightmare Alley all getting boxed out of the list. Marlee Matlin’s work in CODA was also getting a lot more heat behind her role but her co-star Troy Kotsur is instead representing the acting in the film.

Best Actor Snub: Nicolas Cage in Pig

In the Best Actor field, the biggest snub was for sure Nicolas Cage’s understated and much talked about turn as Rob the truffle hunter in the indie drama, Pig. It was a small release but the word of mouth for this one was laying the groundwork for a nomination.

Best Actress: Lady Gaga Snubbed

Again, on the Best Actress side, the field of women who were left behind was pretty momentous. Arguably, the actresses most expected in this category based on other award season nominations were Lady Gaga as Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci, Rachel Zegler as Maria in West Side Story, and first-time actress Alana Haim for Licorice Pizza.

But there was also a critical groundswell of support, if not consistent award season nominations, for the work of Tessa Thompson in Passing, Jodie Comer in The Last Duel and Jennifer Hudson in Respect.

Best Director Snubs: Did Dune and Nightmare Alley Direct Themselves?

In the Best Director category, we see again the magical conundrum of Best Picture nominated films not earning their director a nomination. Yes, there are more slots for Best Picture than the other categories, but that doesn’t temper the sting of Denis Villeneuve and Guillermo del Toro helming films that got multi-nominations for their creative teams just not for them.

However, both produced their films so they will get Oscars if the films win Best Picture. Sadly, first-time theatrical directors, Rebecca Hall for Passing and Maggie Gyllenhaal for The Lost Daughter, both did masterful adaptations of nuanced books but didn’t get noms for their impressive work.

And Oscar veteran Joel Coen, who went solo for the first time directing without his brother, Ethan, also didn’t make the cut for the visually sumptuous, The Tragedy of Macbeth.

2022’s Biggest Best Picture Snubs

And as for the big dog category, Best Picture, even with 10 nomination spots available, there were still a surprising bucket of films left out of the fun. In the genre world, David Lowery’s beautiful and darkly witty The Green Knight got a galling nada for anything. The same for Ridley Scott’s better film of the year, The Last Duel, which was also left in the dust.

And laugh if you want at populist nominees, but Spider-Man: No Way Home is the only film that got a massive amount of butts back into movie theaters in 2021 and that should count, especially when it’s not a clunker of a movie.

And in the critical darlings circle, Tick Tick…Boom!, Mass, Last Night in Soho, Spencer, and Passing all couldn’t muster enough votes to slide into a coveted nomination slot.

As these creative talents lick their wounds, they can at least relish the thought of not having to get dressed up to the nines, wearing their best mask accessory and uncomfortable shoes for a ceremony that is notoriously long and snack-less. To the nominees, we wish you comfortable insoles, smudgeless lipstick, and stealth goldfish cracker contraband. Oh, and hopefully that Oscar at the end of the night on March 27.

For more Oscars coverage, check out the full list of Oscars nominations and our rundowns of every sci-fi movie nominated for Best Picture and every comic book movie to have won or been nominated for an Academy Award.

The History of Comic Book Movies at the Oscars

What are the Oscar snubs that stand out the most to you this year? Let us know in the comments!

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Oscars 2022: The Biggest Snubs - IGN - IGN
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