Skip to main content

Oscar Nominations 2017: Snubs and Surprises

Reaction to 2017 Oscar Nominations

The nominations for the 2017 Oscar nominations were announced this morning. If you haven't seen the list, click here. Here are some of the biggest snubs and surprises.




SNUB: Amy Adams for Best Actress

Many prognosticators thought Amy Adams was a lock for a Best Actress nomination for Arrival, so they were shocked to see her left off the final list. I, on the other hand, was never predicting her. I just could not see Arrival getting nine or ten nominations along the lines of a Gravity or Avatar. It's better than those movies, but smaller and too cerebral to get that kind of across-the-board support. In her place, I was predicting Taraji P. Henson, but instead Ruth Negga got recognized for her work in Loving.

SURPRISE: Mel Gibson for Best Director

I was predicting Hacksaw Ridge to do well, but I wasn't expecting it to do well enough to get a directing nomination for Mel Gibson. He missed at the DGA, an important precursor. I was prepared for an outside the box choice like Garth Davis or David Mackenzie, but they went with a previous winner in the category. 

SNUB: Sing Street for Best Original Song

I predicted four of the five nominations in this category, but was surprised to see a song from John Carney's Sing Street left out. Begin Again, Carney's last movie, was nominated despite being far worse than the charming Sing Street, and Once won the category ten years ago. While I am talking about this category, why is "City of Stars" the song from La La Land getting the most awards attention? I would say it is towards the bottom of songs in that film. 

SURPRISE: Michael Shannon for Best Supporting Actor

The Nocturnal Animals costar was not nominated up at none of the major precursor awards, despite lots of critical praise. I was predicting a nomination for Aaron Taylor Johnson for the same movie, since he was nominated by BAFTA and won the Golden Globe. 

SURPRISE: PASSENGERS

The Jennifer Lawrence-Chris Pratt space movie did not get warm notices from critics, but that didn't affect Oscar voters nominating it in both Production Design and Original Score. 

SNUB: SING

A poorly run campaign was to blame for the absence of the Illumination charmer from both Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song.  

SURPRISE: Jackie for Best Original Score

This one was not that much of a surprise, as many were predicting it, but how it got in I have no idea. The score for this movie is sometimes nightmarish, big and loud at the film's most intimate moments. It throws the whole tone off and is the reason the film veers into camp at times. Natalie Portman was great, the score was not. What would I have liked to see in its place? Alexandre Desplat for The Secret Life of Pets. That score was light, fun, and one of the year's best. 

SHOCK: La La Land for Best Sound Editing

No musical ever in the history of this category has been nominated. Not Moulin Rogue, not Chicago, not Dreamgirls, not Les Miserables. They must have really, really loved La La Land. It's now a juggernaut that will be impossible to stop from winning Best Picture and a slew of other Oscars.

SNUB: Hugh Grant for Best Supporting Actor

Many were predicting Grant's serious turn as Meryl Streep's husband in Florence Foster Jenkins to be recognized. Perhaps not enough of the nominators saw him as a serious actor. Streep, however, received her 20th nomination for the same movie.

NEITHER SNUB NOR SURPRISE: Joanna Johnston for Best Costume Design

I was very pleased to Joanna Johnston get nominated for her work on Allied, but sad it was that film's only nomination. Such a shame because I loved that movie. 

The Oscars air on ABC on February 26. What nomination were you most excited about? Let me know in the comments below!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Must See TV? A Look Back on September 16, 1993 featuring Seinfeld, Frasier, and More

What do you think about when autumn rolls along? Falling leaves, perhaps? Apple picking? If you’re anything like me, it’s new TV shows. When I was growing up in the ‘00s and early ‘10s, I would pore over the fall schedules of each of the networks and get excited by the new series premiering and my favorites returning. This was before the streaming wars ruined television. Before Hollywood was overrun by tech. It wasn’t actually all that long ago, but it feels distant and irretrievable. I was so much younger then.  Fueled by that feeling of nostalgia that returns every September, I felt it’d be worth my time to revisit TV’s past, back through the years to before my era. I decided to recreate the programming on NBC on September 16, 1993 - the first Thursday night of the 1993-94 season, which was the one that introduced the famous “Must See TV” branding. I hope using the lens of one specific night of programming will be a useful and unique way to think about these shows, which have bee...

Ranking the Films of Sofia Coppola

Ranking the Films of Sofia Coppola   Sofia Coppola may be the daughter of one of the most acclaimed directors of all time, but she has never struggled to imbue her films with her unique vision. A trademark of Coppola's films is that all of her films deal with the theme of celebrity, whether it be local celebrity, fading celebrity, unsought celebrity, the monotony that goes along with celebrity, or the unattainability of celebrity. Other trademarks of a Sofia Coppola film are dreamlike visuals and awesome soundtracks. This is how I'd rank the films of Sofia Coppola:

Film Review: Sully

Film Review: Sully  Sully , the latest film by Clint Eastwood, stars Tom Hanks as Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the guy who landed a plane on the Hudson River in January of 2009. The film is about that landing and the subsequent investigation about whether Sully made the right call. While it doesn't quite reach the heights of Eastwood's best work, Sully is a gripping drama about what it means to be good at your job.