Oscars 2024 Snubs and Surprises, From Greta Gerwig to Margot Robbie

The former Riverdale star had a lot of momentum going into the Oscars, having won the Best Supporting Actor award at the Gothams and from the New York Film Critics Circle for his role as the husband of a Mary Kay Letourneau-type who still hasn’t fully processed his trauma over his scandalous statutory rape. The way that Melton lets you see the stunted boy trapped inside the grown man couldn’t have been more impressive, yet he somehow missed out on getting a Best Supporting Actor nod from the Academy for his work in Todd Haynes’ drama. (Nor, for that matter, did his May December co-stars Natalie Portman or Julianne Moore — Best Actress was a crowded category this year, but still.)

The assumption was that both of Poor Things‘ bigger male roles — as in Willem Dafoe’s Dr. Frankenstein of a father figure and Mark Ruffalo’s horny cad — would get slots in the Best Supporting Actor category. Alas, only Ruffalo slipped into the five nominees, leaving Dafoe out in the cold. We’re jazzed that Yorgos Lanthimos’ scathing satire about social mores and the fear of female sexuality nabbed as many nominations as it did (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Emma Stone for Best Actress — a whopping 11 noms in all) but Dafoe deserved a spot.

Given the way that Leo has stepped back from the spotlight regarding Martin Scorsese’s epic retelling of murders in the Osage community over oil and land rights during the 1920s — and let his Native costars and his director have their moment and a victory lap, respectively — maybe it’s not that shocking that he didn’t make the cut in what was a seriously competitive category this year. Still, the manner in which he somehow managed to make Ernest Burkhart, doting husband and dim-witted killer, both repellent and sympathetic adds a lot to the story the film is telling. It’s some of the best work of his career. (An even more egregious snub in our opinion: No Best Adapted Screenplay nod for Killers.)

This A24 drama about a Korean-Canadian playwright who reconnects with an old flame — and finds herself at a crossroads because of it — did very well this morning, with Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay nods. But the fact that its lead, the extraordinary Greta Lee, somehow didn’t get her name called when the Best Actress noms were announced is, frankly, a crime. Her performance is the movie. We’re excited that what we consider to be the real Best Picture of 2023 is getting some Academy love, yet her omission just feels wrong.

Ever since Davis Guggenheim’s portrait of the Back to the Future star premiered at last year’s Sundance, this affectionate, moving look back at the movie star/activist’s career — and struggle with Parkinson’s disease — was deemed a lock for Best Documentary. Many assumed it would, in fact, be the frontrunner. Nope. No Dice. (For that matter, the snub for American Symphony, Netflix’s doc on musician Jon Batiste, also feels like a WTF miss. What’s going on here?)

Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki’s touching, dry-witted romance has become a bit of a crossover hit among folks who don’t normally go in for arthouse fare; the fact that Alma Pöysti managed to get a Golden Globe nom for her role as a woman who refuses to let her new beau drink himself to death had a lot of us thinking that this had a serious chance of taking home the Oscar for Best International Feature. Except the cult writer-director’s most popular work to date (on these shores, at least) apparently didn’t even merit a nomination. Boo!!!

OK, this was indeed a wonderful surprise! America Ferrera has been campaigning for a nomination for her role in this blockbuster hit, and her speech about the unrealistic, self-defeating expectations put upon modern women will likely be quoted for decades to come. Yet it still seemed like a long shot that she would be able to jockey her way into a slot, as the Best Supporting Actress category looked too crowded to accommodate. So it was great to hear her name called out this A.M. for a well-deserved spot. Unlike, say….

… that film’s director-cowriter and producer-star. Yes, Greta Gerwig has a chance to pick up a Best Original Screenplay Oscar, but why is her name not among the Best Director nominees? Ditto Margot Robbie for Best Actress. Both of them turned what could have been a mere I.P. cash grab into the single most subversive blockbuster of the 21st century to date. Both could find themselves clutching gold onstage if Barbie manages to beat its dark twin, Oppenheimer, for Best Picture. But their absence from these two respective categories feels galling. Congrats on eight nominations, but its just not Kenough for us.

Alexander Payne’s story about a New England prep school student and the cantankerous teacher he bonds with circa the early 1970s did very well today, grabbing nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor for Paul Giamatti, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing; the Best Supporting Actress Oscar is essentially Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s to lose right now. Yet the man who directed this throwback (in a great way!) dramedy wasn’t granted entry to the potential winners’ circle for his work behind the camera. Yeah, we know — 10 slots for Best Picture, five slots for Best Director, someone’s going to get cut. We just wish it wasn’t Payne.

The former Riverdale star had a lot of momentum going into the Oscars, having won the Best Supporting Actor award at the Gothams and from the New York Film Critics Circle for his role as the husband of a Mary Kay Letourneau-type who still hasn’t fully processed his trauma over his scandalous statutory rape. The way that Melton lets you see the stunted boy trapped inside the grown man couldn’t have been more impressive, yet he somehow missed out on getting a Best Supporting Actor nod from the Academy for his work in Todd Haynes’ drama. (Nor, for that matter, did his May December co-stars Natalie Portman or Julianne Moore — Best Actress was a crowded category this year, but still.)

The assumption was that both of Poor Things‘ bigger male roles — as in Willem Dafoe’s Dr. Frankenstein of a father figure and Mark Ruffalo’s horny cad — would get slots in the Best Supporting Actor category. Alas, only Ruffalo slipped into the five nominees, leaving Dafoe out in the cold. We’re jazzed that Yorgos Lanthimos’ scathing satire about social mores and the fear of female sexuality nabbed as many nominations as it did (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Emma Stone for Best Actress — a whopping 11 noms in all) but Dafoe deserved a spot.

Given the way that Leo has stepped back from the spotlight regarding Martin Scorsese’s epic retelling of murders in the Osage community over oil and land rights during the 1920s — and let his Native costars and his director have their moment and a victory lap, respectively — maybe it’s not that shocking that he didn’t make the cut in what was a seriously competitive category this year. Still, the manner in which he somehow managed to make Ernest Burkhart, doting husband and dim-witted killer, both repellent and sympathetic adds a lot to the story the film is telling. It’s some of the best work of his career. (An even more egregious snub in our opinion: No Best Adapted Screenplay nod for Killers.)

This A24 drama about a Korean-Canadian playwright who reconnects with an old flame — and finds herself at a crossroads because of it — did very well this morning, with Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay nods. But the fact that its lead, the extraordinary Greta Lee, somehow didn’t get her name called when the Best Actress noms were announced is, frankly, a crime. Her performance is the movie. We’re excited that what we consider to be the real Best Picture of 2023 is getting some Academy love, yet her omission just feels wrong.

Ever since Davis Guggenheim’s portrait of the Back to the Future star premiered at last year’s Sundance, this affectionate, moving look back at the movie star/activist’s career — and struggle with Parkinson’s disease — was deemed a lock for Best Documentary. Many assumed it would, in fact, be the frontrunner. Nope. No Dice. (For that matter, the snub for American Symphony, Netflix’s doc on musician Jon Batiste, also feels like a WTF miss. What’s going on here?)

Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki’s touching, dry-witted romance has become a bit of a crossover hit among folks who don’t normally go in for arthouse fare; the fact that Alma Pöysti managed to get a Golden Globe nom for her role as a woman who refuses to let her new beau drink himself to death had a lot of us thinking that this had a serious chance of taking home the Oscar for Best International Feature. Except the cult writer-director’s most popular work to date (on these shores, at least) apparently didn’t even merit a nomination. Boo!!!

OK, this was indeed a wonderful surprise! America Ferrera has been campaigning for a nomination for her role in this blockbuster hit, and her speech about the unrealistic, self-defeating expectations put upon modern women will likely be quoted for decades to come. Yet it still seemed like a long shot that she would be able to jockey her way into a slot, as the Best Supporting Actress category looked too crowded to accommodate. So it was great to hear her name called out this A.M. for a well-deserved spot. Unlike, say….

… that film’s director-cowriter and producer-star. Yes, Greta Gerwig has a chance to pick up a Best Original Screenplay Oscar, but why is her name not among the Best Director nominees? Ditto Margot Robbie for Best Actress. Both of them turned what could have been a mere I.P. cash grab into the single most subversive blockbuster of the 21st century to date. Both could find themselves clutching gold onstage if Barbie manages to beat its dark twin, Oppenheimer, for Best Picture. But their absence from these two respective categories feels galling. Congrats on eight nominations, but its just not Kenough for us.

Alexander Payne’s story about a New England prep school student and the cantankerous teacher he bonds with circa the early 1970s did very well today, grabbing nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor for Paul Giamatti, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing; the Best Supporting Actress Oscar is essentially Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s to lose right now. Yet the man who directed this throwback (in a great way!) dramedy wasn’t granted entry to the potential winners’ circle for his work behind the camera. Yeah, we know — 10 slots for Best Picture, five slots for Best Director, someone’s going to get cut. We just wish it wasn’t Payne.