As Much As They Suck, We Need Oscar Snubs
Maybe there’s power in igniting conversation through omission.
They need rappers like me
So they can get on their fucking keyboards
And make me the bad guy!
— Nicki Minaj
When the nominations for the 96th Academy Awards were revealed on Tuesday morning, Saltburn was, not unexpectedly, shut out from contention. There had been murmurs that writer/director Emerald Fennell could conjure a Best Original Screenplay nom or Supporting Actor/Actress bids for Rosamund Pike and/or Jacob Elordi. None came to pass. Yet few films have dominated the cultural conversation — and with as much staying power — as Saltburn. The film was released over two months ago, but continues to make an impact quite wide in scope. Over four billion TikTok views, for instance. Pop songstress Sophie Ellis-Bextor saw her 2001 hit “Murder On the Dancefloor” re-enter the US charts for the first time in 22 years after having the song featured prominently in the film’s closing sequence, for another. Even the candle industry has witnessed a revitalization thanks to the “Jacob Elordi Bathwater Candle,” a candle that made its way onto the Golden Globes red carpet and even to Elordi’s nose (and mouth) during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show.
The movie has managed to do what some of the most decorated films this award’s season could never: create conversation.
This to say, as much as we love groaning about the Oscars’s proclivity to snub some of our faves (Greta Lee, I will avenge this oversight!), the fact that these slights create such furor only serves to highlight these overlooked films/performances' ability to create hype. You’re fired up, too? Good! That feeling, the one many of us feel inclined to share online, will likely inspire many to seek out that which has so many of us up in arms over. After all, award show nomination announcements are huge recruiting opportunities for stanbases to multiply their commonwealths. How many of us went to sleep planning what they would wear to the “Charles Melton hive, we ride at dawn” meet up? Nominations are desirable, sure, but they’re not the only way to win.
Before we get into snubs, I do want to recognize some of the significant and historic nominations that were well-earned. I mention these not only to celebrate these achievements but to also underscore the fact that though the Academy taketh away, they do, on occasion, giveth too. Lily Gladstone made Oscars history as the first Native American woman to be nominated for Best Actress. Colman Domingo, too, made history, becoming the first Afro-Latino Best Actor nominee and he, along with Jodie Foster, made more history as the first time two openly LGBTQ actors have been nominated for playing LGBTQ characters. First-time director and screenwriter Celine Song made history as the first Asian woman nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Past Lives. Congrats to them all.
But with that said, yeah, there were quite a few names and performances I was disappointed to see not make the list. Were they snubbed? Perhaps. But as Whoopi Goldberg noted on The View, “There are no snubs. That’s what you have to keep in mind: Not everybody gets a prize, and it is subjective. Movies are subjective. The movies you love may not be loved by the people who are voting.”
Let’s dive in.