Some movies receive lots of nominations from the Academy Awards. Maybe they’re technical marvels likeThe Lord of the Ringstrilogy,Titanic, orGravity. Maybe they feature multiple incredible acting performances, likeAll About EveorNetwork. Sometimes, it’s a little of both. Whatever the case may be, it is not uncommon to see a film receive double-digit nominations every year at the Academy Awards. Most of the time, it makes sense. However, there are some films that have some truly baffling omissions despite the massive love they got from the Academy Awards. These are the head-scratchers that make you go, “Really? The film got 10 nominations and this performance WASN’T one of them?” Think snubs like Denis Villenueve missing out in Best Director forDune, despite that film receiving 10 nominations, the second most of any film that year. Here’s a few more baffling Oscar snubs from films the Academy really loved.
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6Fred MacMurray Misses Out on Best Supporting Actor for The Apartment
The Apartmentis a wonderful comedy-drama directed by the legendary Billy Wilder.The plot of this 1960 Best Picture winner centers around C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon), a lonely employee at an insurance firm who climbs the corporate ladder by letting his superiors use his apartment for extra-marital affairs. One such superior is Fred MacMurray’s character, personnel director Jeff Sheldrake, who is having an affair with elevator operator Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the woman Baxter has feelings for. Both Lemmon and MacLaine were rightfully nominated in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories, and the film did receive a Best Supporting Actor nod for… Jack Kruschen, who plays Baxter’s neighbor. Kruschen’s fine, though not really a standout. MacMurray is much more memorable and should have gotten the nomination over him. It’s not the first MacMurray missed out on an acting nomination for a film the Academy Awards gave a lot of nominations to. He also missed out on a Best Actor nomination for another classic Billy Wilder movie:Double Indemnity, which received 7 nominations.
5Caitriona Balfe Misses Out on Best Supporting Actress for Belfast
Belfastis a coming-of-age story directed by Kenneth Branaghcentered around a nine-year-old boy named Buddy, who lives in the titular city during The Troubles. The film received seven Academy Award nominations, tied for third most of any film that year, including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay (which it won), and Best Suppporting Actor and Actress, which also makes sense. Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe, who play Buddy’s parents, give wonderful… wait a minute. Balfe and Dornan weren’t nominated. Ciaran Hinds and Judi Dench, who play Buddy’s grandparents, got the noms instead. While Hinds' nomination makes some sense, both he and Dornan were frequently nominated by the precursors, Dench over Balfe is downright baffling. That’s not to say Dench is bad in this film. She isn’t, and while she gets a really powerful moment at the end, but aside from that she’s not that noteworthy. Another case of right film, wrong person.
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4Andrew Garfield Misses Out on Best Supporting Actor for The Social Network
David Fincher’s masterpiece about Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook received eight Academy Award nominations, tied for third-most that year withInception. Among its nominations were Best Picture, Director (which it should have won), Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Original Score. It won those last three. While Jesse Eisenberg was rightfully nominated for his performance, it’s incredibly shocking thatAndrew Garfieldwasn’t nominated for his.Garfield’s performance was incredible. While he did receive nominations from the Golden Globes and BAFTA (the British equivalent of the Academy Awards), he did miss out on a Screen Actors' Guild Award nomination. Remember, actors nominate other actors for Oscars. The fact that Garfield missed out both at SAG and at AMPAS is a rather glaring oversight.
3Paul Giamatti Misses Out on Best Actor for Sideways
Sidewaysis a wonderful comedy-drama about two men in their forties, depressed teacher Miles (Paul Giamatti), and past-his-prime actor Jack (Thomas Haden Church). The pair travel through California wine country to celebrate Jack’s upcoming marriage, meeting two women (Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen) along the way. While the film received only five nominations, all of them were in major categories, including Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Thomas Haden Church), Supporting Actress (Virginia Madsen), and Adapted Screenplay (which it won). With nominations like that, it is downright inexcusable that the film’s best performance wasn’t nominated.Paul Giamatti is incredible in this film.The scene where he’s describing the differences between cabernet and pinot noir to Virginia Madsen should’ve single-handedly secured him a nomination.
2Despite Nine Nominations, They Shoot Horses Don’t They? is Not Nominated For Best Picture
1969’sThey Shoot Horses, Don’t They?holds the record for most Oscar nominations without a Best Picture nomination, with 9, the second most of any film that year. The film received nominations in Director and Screenplay, along with three acting nominations, one of which it won (Gig Young for Best Supporting Actor). With that level of support, the fact that the film missed out on a Best Picture nomination is even more baffling. The film even received good reviews, unlike Best Picture nominee,Anne of the Thousand Days. So… what the heck happened? Why didThey Shoot Horses, Don’t They?miss out on a Best Picture nod?
1The Color Purple Receives 11 Nominations, but Best Director Isn’t One of Them
Remember in the opening paragraph of this article howDunemissed out on Best Director despite 10 nominations? Well, a similar situation happened almost 30 years earlier. In that instance, the film wasThe Color Purple, andthe director who missed out was… Steven Spielberg.This one becomes really head-scratching when one learns thatSpielberg won the Directors Guild of America Award for it, possibly the best predictor of who will win the same category at the Oscars. In fact, only three directors who have won the award have missed out on an Oscar nomination: Spielberg, as already mentioned, Ron Howard forApollo 13, and Ben Affleck forArgo.The nominees for Best Director in 1985 were Sydney Pollack forOut of Africa(who won), Hector Babenco forKiss of the Spider Woman, John Huston’s forPrizzi’s Honor,Akira Kurosawa forRan, and Peter Weir forWitness. At the very least, Spielberg should have gotten in over John Huston.Prizzi’s Honoris one of his weaker films, anyway.
