If you’ve been following along with my Oscar Beat column here on Collider, you know I’ve been closely watching and analyzing this year’s awards race ever since August basically. Today, the moment of truth finally arrived in the form of the Oscar nominations for the 90th Academy Awards, and as always, there were some surprises to be found. For the most part, however, if you’ve been paying attention to the race, things played out pretty much as expected—aside from one or two egregious snubs that are pretty dumb and a big surge for one particular film.
So yeah, let’s dig into it. From the perspective of someone who’s been closely watching the ebbs and flows of this year’s race, here are the biggest surprises and snubs:
Related: 2018 Oscar Winners
Armie Hammer Left Off the Best Supporting Actor Shortlist
I said in my Oscar predictions post that if Armie Hammer didn’t get a Best Supporting Actor nomination I would be Mad Online™ about it, so here we are. Initially Michael Stuhlbarg had been the favorite to secure a Supporting nod for Call Me by Your Name, but Hammer rose up the ranks in the last couple months. I suppose Hammer being left off the SAG Awards nominations list was our first sign that he might not get in, but it’s still a little upsetting. Hammer turns in a truly magnificent performance in the film, but I take heart in knowing the guy has so many other great performances up his sleeve in the years to come, as he’s really settled into a groove of finding unique and dynamic roles.
In Hammer’s stead we got Christopher Plummer for All the Money in the World, who at 88 years old makes the oldest Best Supporting Actor nominee in history. It’s also a pretty incredible feat given that as of last September, Plummer wasn’t even in the movie.
Holly Hunter Left Off the Best Supporting Actress Shortlist
This one also hurts. The Big Sick managed only a single nomination this morning, for Best Original Screenplay, and while its chances of getting a Best Picture nomination had slipped a bit, Hunter still seemed like a pretty safe bet for Best Supporting Actress. Alas, it feels like maybe the film’s summer release date worked against it as Phantom Thread surged late in the game and Lesley Manville got in for the Paul Thomas Anderson film. Speaking of which…
The Phantom Thread Fandom Is Alive and Well
I’m not sure anyone predicted just how well Phantom Thread would do this morning. Anderson’s last two films, The Master and Inherent Vice, failed to make much of a splash with the Academy, and most Oscar prognosticators had heard that many Academy voters still hadn’t seen Phantom Thread. But it turns out they either caught it late, or the contingent of those that did see the film really loved it. Either way, the six nominations is impressive, with the movie not only securing a Best Picture not but PTA landing in the Best Director circle over a spot that many assumed would go to Martin McDonagh or Steven Spielberg. Hey, it’s hard to be mad at an Oscar nomination for Jonny Greenwood.
James Franco Out, Denzel Washington In for Best Actor
The Best Actor race seemed largely settled outside of a couple of on-the-cusp contenders in Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks, and indeed one of those two got in over favorite James Franco. Allegations surfaced about Franco’s behavior about two days before Oscar nominations voting ended, but we also have to keep in mind the fact that the Academy has a heavy bias against comedic performances—especially in the Best Actor or Actress race—so it’s impossible to say if Franco missing the cut for The Disaster Artist was a result of those allegations, or if it was always in the cards. Indeed, two days doesn’t seem like it’d be early enough to make a difference as many had already voted, and Washington’s been an Academy favorite for years, so while the swap may have come as a big surprise to some, in hindsight it’s not terribly unsettling.
The Post Gets Largely Ignored
This one we kind of saw coming in recent weeks. While Steven Spielberg’s The Post certainly had timeliness, a stellar prestige cast, and positive reviews at its disposal, the guilds started sporadically leaving the film off its shortlists. Its miss with the Writers Guild Awards was probably the biggest sign going in, and indeed Liz Hannah and Josh Singer’s script didn’t make the Best Original Screenplay cut. More surprisingly, however, was the fact that Spielberg’s longtime crew collaborators who are usually favorites with the Academy also missed. Four-time nominee and two-time winner Rick Carter missed for Production Design, and even John Williams was nominated for Star Wars: The Last Jedi instead of for his work on The Post (the right choice, to be honest). The film still managed a Best Picture nomination and a well-deserved notice for Meryl Streep, but beyond that the film that looked like it could be a game-changer ended up being mostly a non-starter.
The Documentary Branch Drops the Ball Again
The Academy needs to fix its Documentary branch big time. To clarify, Oscar nominations voting is done by the individual branches and not the Academy at large, so only a select group of people pick the nominees for Best Documentary Feature. They have a habit of leaving critically acclaimed or major films off their list of nominees, and indeed this year they snubbed the two most acclaimed documentaries of the year: City of Ghosts and Jane. It’s baffling, really. It’d be like if the Actors branch decided not to vote for Gary Oldman and Timothée Chalamet. This isn’t the first time this has happened, but let’s hope it’s the last.
No LEGO Batman Movie for Best Animated Film
For the first time ever, the Animation branch opened up nominations voting to whoever wanted to participate and be on the committee. We knew this would probably result in some more commercial nominees as opposed to the Animation branch’s penchant for highlighting foreign films or indies, but the exclusion of The LEGO Batman Movie was a surprise—especially given that The Boss Baby and Ferdinand made it in. I’m not exactly sure how to explain this one, but I suppose it's #OnBrand for an Academy that also snubbed The LEGO Movie three years ago.
So yeah, that’s about it. There are a couple other interesting tidbits in this year’s nominees—the surprisingly strong showing of Victoria & Abdul, Carter Burwell’s nomination for Best Original Score for Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri—but the aforementioned surprises are the biggest highlights.
And now, we wait. For a really long time actually, thanks to the Olympics. The Oscars won’t be held until March 4th, so that’s basically an eternity in which this race will continue to ebb, flow, and shift. Buckle up, folks. The final phase is about to begin.