2019 Oscar Nominations: The Five Biggest Snubs

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the 91st Academy Award nominations were recently announced in a live-streamed presentation put on by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists. Actors Kumail Nanjiani and Tracee Ellis Ross hosted this year’s nomination reveal ceremony.

This year’s nominations broke away from tradition. In the past decade, the awards ceremony has regularly opted to nominate 10 films for Best Picture — in an effort to highlight the accomplishments of a diverse group of films. This year, only eight films were nominated.

Similarly, it is quite unusual to see a film receive nominations for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Film, though Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma was able to accomplish this rare feat. For those wondering, the film — which was distributed by Netflix — received a limited run in theaters across North America. This allowed the streaming giant to circumvent rules that would normally prevent a “streaming-only film” from receiving an Academy Award nod for Best Picture.

Still, like most years, the list of nominations has brought on talk of which films were snubbed from this year’s proceedings. A few we thought were worth mentioning follow.

Eighth Grade

Bo Burnham’s directorial debut released in 2018 to critical acclaim. The film, which follows the life and struggles of eighth-grader Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher), served as a unique insight into the life of a young member of Generation Z. This generation often places an emphasis on communication through social media, and this concept was interwoven into the plot of Eighth Grade. Despite receiving numerous awards and accolades — including a Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, and a Golden Globe nomination for Elsie Fisher — the film received zero Oscar nominations.

The only true snub that happened this morning was for #eighthgrade. How did it not even get best original screenplay? Truly one of the best movies of the year #oscars pic.twitter.com/TOT943Qwtt

— Allison Leigh (@Allileigh91) January 22, 2019

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Morgan Neville’s nostalgic documentary about the life of Fred Rogers was a trip down memory lane, to say the least, and stands as the highest-grossing biographical documentary of all time. Despite receiving numerous awards at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, this film was omitted from the Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary.

Burning

Many might say that it’s depressing to live in a world where films such as Norbit and Suicide Squad have received Oscar nominations, while a film such as Burning hasn’t. This psychological mystery and drama from director Lee Chang-dong received multiple awards at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival — and even has some backing star power from Steven Yeun of The Walking Dead fame. While it was shortlisted for the Best Foreign Film category, this acclaimed thriller did not make the final cut.

If Beale Street Could Talk and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

As mentioned before, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences opted not to nominate 10 films for Best Picture, settling on eight instead. When you take into account that both If Beale Street Could Talk and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs didn’t get Best Picture nominations, it makes the decision a little baffling. To add insult to injury, Bohemian Rhapsody received a nomination, despite opening to mixed reviews — including a 62 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 49 out of 100 on Metacritic.