Oscar Nominations: Who Got Snubbed?

by UInterviewJanuary 24, 2012, 12:00 am >

The Academy Award nominations are in as of the crack of dawn Tuesday morning, and while it's always nice to congratulate those who heard their names called, the real story is in who's crying alligator tears over getting snubbed. If you saw our predictions from early January, then you'll see we were right on the money most of the time, but there were a few shockers. Let's look at the major categories and see who's been conspicuously left out this year.

Best Picture: Bridesmaids snubbed, The Tree of Life and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close squeak by

The Academy's new voting rules had everyone guessing as to how many films would actually be nominated (it could have been anywhere between 5 and 10), but the magic number turned out to be 10 anyway — meaning fewer snubs than there could have been. No love, either, for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Ides of March, both of which had marginal chances in this category.

Best Director: Steven Spielberg snubbed, Terrence Malick included

There's a long history of Spielberg being snubbed by the Academy. He was nominated three times for Best Director between 1978 and 1986, never winning, until in 1987 the Academy chose to honor him with the Thalberg honorary award — for his contributions as producer, not director! But Spielberg has had his comeuppance since, having won for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. Malick, on the other hand, was previously nominated for The Thin Red Line only, so it's good to see him included for his Palme d'Or-winning masterpiece The Tree of Life.

Best Actress: Tilda Swinton snubbed over Rooney Mara

Mara was magnificent in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — sexy, enigmatic, daring. Swinton, who has already won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 2008's Michael Clayton, was widely expected to earn her first leading actress nod for her work in We Need to Talk About Kevin. Mara, we think, is more deserving, so good for her, and good for the Academy!

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender and Ryan Gosling all snubbed

The three heartthrobs could have potentially joined other handsome nominees George Clooney and Brad Pitt, but the Academy went for the grittier work of Demian Bachir in A Better Life and the understated excellence of a veteran character actor, Gary Oldman. It seems as if there isn't much Leo can do to get an Oscar (he's never won!), if playing J.Edgar couldn't even get him nominated. Gosling was a long shot, since his votes were probably divided between Drive and The Ides of March, while Fassbender's film Shame experienced its fair share of backlash. Maybe next year, boys!

Best Supporting Actress: Shailene Woodley snubbed

George Clooney's teenaged daughter in The Descendants was robbed! That's all we're going to say.

Best Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks and Andy Serkis snubbed

Classic funny guy Brooks took a serious turn in this year's Drive, which was almost universally ignored this year, despite largely positive reviews (it got but a single nod for sound editing). Serkis, the motion-capture trickster behind Gollum in Lord of the Rings and the lead ape in this year's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, is still not registering with Academy voters.

–JUSTIN JANNISE