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Oscar Nominations: The Snubs And Surprises

By Niki Cruz
Published on: 05:15 PST, Jan 14, 2016

The Oscar nominations are in, and as usual, there’s a few surprises and snubs. One of the surprises is that these nominations are tame in comparison to other years, where it seemed like the Academy was a bit inebriated while voting.

That said, we did have some snubs and surprises when it came to the Oscar nominations. A huge surprise that shouldn’t have been a surprise was the love for Mad Max: Fury Road. Hailed as one of the best movies of the year (before Star Wars: The Force Awakens) came along, this summer blockbuster juggernaut wasn’t a favorite to enter into the race because of when it was released. It’s very rare when films released in May are nominated. Mad Max: Fury Road went on to receive 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Motion Picture of the Year, Directing, Production Design, Editing, Costume Design, Visual Effects, and more.

Given the box office and critical response, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had a huge snub. Their box office raked in $820 million so far, but that was not enough for a lock for best picture. That said, Star Wars: The Force Awakens did pick up five nominations, but getting left out of Best Picture with a list of eight nominees just seems like a snub.

Another surprise came from actor Tom Hardy getting a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in The Revenant. It’s not the first time Leonardo DiCaprio carried someone to an Oscar nomination (see Jonah Hill in Best Supporting in Wolf of Wall Street), but it still comes as a surprise, seeing as the studio made a huge push for DiCaprio and given Hardy’s hesitance with the media. There was absolutely no campaigning on his end.

Another snub is director Ridley Scott being left out of the heap of nominations for The Martian. Although his star, Matt Damon, received a nomination, Scott didn’t receive any love like he did with the Golden Globes, something that his colleagues are very vocal about once the nominations broke.

Another snub came in the form of Spotlight nominations. While Spotlight has been a favorite to take home a ton of awards early on in the season, Michael Keaton, who was billed as Best Actor at the Golden Globes, didn’t make it to the Academy Award nominations list. That said, a huge surprise from the Academy Awards nominations came with Rachel McAdams nomination for her work in Spotlight. The actress received her very first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the only investigative journalist in the motion picture.

Although she was nominated for the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards, when McAdams was left out of the Golden Globes nominations, many thought her chances of receiving a nomination from the Academy were bleak, especially since Mark Ruffalo’s performance is the loudest of the cast and there was a newcomer like Alicia Vikander in Best Supporting to consider.

Others who were snubbed include Will Smith (Concussion), Jacob Tremblay (Room), Johnny Depp (Black Mass), and Straight Outta Compton. Probably the most surprising snub of them all was Netflix’s Beasts of No Nation, given that everyone involved received nominations from other award shows and praise across the board. Many feel that this adds to the lack of diversity in the Academy Awards.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]

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