Oscar 2019 Snubs & Surprises: Timothee Chalamet, ‘If Beale Street Could Talk,’ ‘Crazy Rich Asians’

The nominations for the 91st Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday morning, and there were some notable snubs and surprise nominees.

This year’s Oscars, which will air on ABC on Feb. 24, are sure to be exciting and different just from the mere fact that there is no host! (as of now, at least)

Perhaps one of the biggest snubs in the Best Picture category is Barry Jenkins‘ adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel If Beale Street Could Talk. Although the film did score nominations for Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Regina King, it wasn’t given a nod in the top category, where eight films are nominated this year (although up to 10 movies are allowed to get Best Picture nominations!) Given critics’ high praise of the movie (95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), its Golden Globes Best Picture (Drama) nomination and Jenkins’ previous success with the Oscar-winning Moonlight two years ago, this omission is certainly surprising.

The fan-favorite summer romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians — which also earned critical praise, broke box office records for its genre and marked the first all-Asian cast for a major English-language Hollywood film in 25 years — was completely shut out of this year’s Oscars race. Ok, perhaps a Best Picture nod wasn’t exactly deserved, but a Best Actress nomination for Constance Wu or a Best Supporting Actress recognition for Michelle Yeoh would have certainly been merited.

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In the Best Supporting Actress race, Marina de Tavira received a pleasant surprise nod for her role as Alfonso Cuaron‘s mother in the Mexican filmmaker’s autobiographical film Roma, as was newcomer Yalitza Aparicio‘s Best Actress nomination for her lead role in the movie. Neither actress received Golden Globe or Screen Actors Guild nominations. However, one notable snub in the former category is Emily Blunt, who was stellar in the horror flick A Quiet Place despite not having many lines.

In the Best Actress competition, three-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan‘s snub for her lead role in Mary Queen of Scots is surprising, given the strong acclaim she received for her performance int the historical drama.

Also surprising is the fact that Bradley Cooper was not nominated for Best Director for his filmmaking debut feature A Star Is Born, the third remake of the classic romantic musical drama. Cooper did earn Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay nods, however.

In the Best Actor race, a glaring snub is Denzel Washington‘s son John David Washington, who was left out of the Oscars competition despite picking up Golden Globe and SAG nominations for his lead role in Spike Lee‘s BlacKkKlansman. 

Another shocking snub is Academy Award nominee Timothee Chalamet, the 23-year-old breakout star of last year’s Oscar-winning Call Me By Your Name. Chalamet earned both Golden Globe and SAG nominations for his supporting role as a real-life drug addict in Beautiful Boy. Though the Amazon film earned mixed reviews, Chalamet’s performance opposite on-screen father Steve Carell received much critical praise.

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Black Panther made history as the first superhero film to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, but the Marvel phenomenon seems to have been snubbed in two major categories: Best Supporting Actor for Michael B. Jordan — who played the film’s villain Erik Killmonger — and Best (Adapted?) Screenplay for writer-director Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole.

In the Documentary Feature Film category, Morgan Neville‘s Fred Rogers film Won’t You Be My Neighbor? was surprisingly ignored, despite its 98% Rotten Tomatoes rating. It thus appears that the Ruth Bader Ginsburg summer documentary RBG could potentially be the front-runner in this group.

Justin Hurwitz — the composer behind La La Land — won a Golden Globe earlier this month for his work on the score for the Ryan Gosling–starring Neil Armstrong film First Man, but was left out of the Best Original Score race at the Oscars.

Unfortunately, hundreds of films are released each year and the Academy can only nominate so many. In the four acting categories, as well as in the Best Director and Best Screenplay groups, just five individuals or films are recognized every year.

Other debatably snubbed films: Widows, (Viola Davis) Boy Erased, (Lucas Hedges) Destroyer (Nicole Kidman).