If you follow along with Collider’s Oscar Beat, you know I’ve been covering this year’s awards race since back in August or so. Since that time we’ve seen a number of contenders rise and fall (remember when we had such high hopes for Live by Night?), but today the chickens came home to roost. The nominations for the 89th Academy Awards were announced, and just as there are every year, there were a few surprises. In terms of genuine snubs, there was maybe one or two, but nothing as shockingly egregious as Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow being left off the director’s shortlist a few years ago.

But since I’ve covered the race so closely, I wanted to take a minute to single out what were the biggest surprises from this year’s nominees. And before you ask, no Deadpool not getting a Best Picture nomination is not a snub or even a surprise. It was always a long shot, as I laid out in very clear terms right here.

Related: 2018 Oscar Winners

No Amy Adams for Best Actress?

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Image via Paramount

For a long while most have had Amy Adams shortlisted for a Best Actress nomination for Arrival, and just yesterday it seemed like a sure thing. After all, the Academy loves her—she’s been nominated five times before! And Arrival is a critical and commercial darling. But while the film itself scored eight nominations in total, Adams came up short in the Best Actress race. Instead, Ruth Negga—who many had assumed had fallen out thanks to the almost-total snubbing of Loving by the SAG, PGA, and DGA guild nominations—made the cut. Negga is absolutely deserving of a nomination, but it’s also a shame to see one of Adams’ best performances ignored. Maybe she and Meryl Streep can trade just this once?

Michael Shannon for ‘Nocturnal Animals’

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Image via Focus Features

The general reaction to Nocturnal Animals landing so many Golden Globes nominations was plenty of snickering and jeering. Many critics, for whatever reason, did not take kindly to Tom Ford’s new film, and it was underestimated in this year’s awards race. But Aaron Taylor-Johnson not only was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Globes, he won, which subsequently led many to then put him on their predictions for the Oscar nominees. But in a pretty significant surprise, the Academy went a different way and nominated Taylor-Johnson’s costar Michael Shannon instead. They’re both terrific performances, but Shannon is truly outstanding in the film and it’s a joy to see him land a second Oscar nomination after his breakthrough turn in Revolutionary Road. Still, Golden Globe winners for Best Supporting Actor almost always go on to land at least a nomination at the Oscars, so this is one Oscar stat that went down this year.

‘Weiner’ Snubbed for Best Documentary

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Image via Sundance

Weiner is not just one of the year’s best documentaries, it’s one of the year’s best films period. Which makes its snubbing in the Best Documentary Feature category so shocking. Indeed, this and Adams may be the only true “snubs” of this year’s awards, and they sting. While almost everyone had Weiner shortlisted for the Oscar cut, the Academy’s documentary branch instead went with Life, Animated, a story about autism. The documentary branch is a finnicky bunch so I suppose this shouldn't be too surprising, but still, what a whiff.

Mel Gibson Makes the Best Director Cut

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Image via Summit

Okay so this wasn’t a huge surprise—Mel Gibson has been a Best Director hopeful ever since Hacksaw Ridge first starting screening. But since the Best Director category was so deep, with players like Martin Scorsese and Garth Davis vying for a spot, it’s interesting that the Academy went with Gibson. He was, of course, nominated for Braveheart in 1995 and eventually won, but Gibson’s career took a dark turn after Apocalypto and many wondered if a recovery was even possible. In the Academy’s eyes at least, Gibson’s work behind the camera warranted recognition this year, and he finds himself back in the Oscar race after more than a decade.

Oscars Not So White

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Given the quality and popularity of films like Moonlight, Fences, and Hidden Figures, this year certainly had the opportunity to diversify the nominees in a big way, but some were wary of the Academy’s willingness to actually go there. In the end quality won out, resulting in the most diverse lineup of nominees in a very long time. In the Best Supporting Actress category alone, three of the five slots are held by black women. Bradford Young has become the first African-American to ever score a Best Cinematography nomination for his stunning work on Arrival. And Barry Jenkins makes history as an African-American writer/director scoring nominations for Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture.

This obviously isn’t a fix, nor is it an explicit reaction to last year’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy. The onus, for the most part, is on Hollywood for actually making quality films about people of color, and this year they delivered. How could the Academy not recognize something as stunning and masterful as Moonlight? Were they really just going to ignore Viola Davis and Denzel Washington’s tour-de-force in Fences? It’s great to see such a diverse list of nominees, but Hollywood has to keep making movies like this, supporting filmmakers and actors like this, in order for this kind of representation to continue.

And so now we turn our attention to who will actually win Oscars this year. Stay tuned for plenty more Oscar Beat on Collider in the weeks to come.