Biggest Oscar Snubs of the Year

It's that time of year when actors and moviemakers huddle around screens for the reading of the Oscar nominations, shedding tears of joy and disappointment. For those who worked on Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, which nabbed the most nominations for the 96th Academy Awards at 13, it was surely the former. For the star of Barbie (eight nominations), it might've been the latter. Margot Robbie "gave the iconic doll a beating heart, beautifully conveying her journey from an unattainable ideal to a complex human woman," yet failed to clinch a nod in the best actress category, writes Patrick Ryan at USA Today, one of numerous pundits to view this as a major "snub." Some others:

• Greta Gerwig: "You'd think making a movie that grossed more than $1.4 billion in box office, earned ecstatic reviews, and launched a thousand think pieces would have merited a nomination [for best director]," Glenn Whipp writes at the Los Angeles Times. But no. Gerwig, director of Barbie, wasn't nominated in that category, though she did receive a nod for best adapted screenplay. And with Barbie's nomination for best picture, she became the first woman to have directed three best picture-nominated films, per the BBC (see Lady Bird and Little Women).
• The Color Purple: Blitz Bazawule's adaptation of the 2005 Broadway musical "garnered glowing reviews" due in part to "its excellent performances," writes Ryan. Still, it nabbed only one nomination—for Danielle Brooks in the best supporting actress category. Whipp at the Times suggests actors' claims of poor working conditions and low pay might've overpowered all that the movie achieved.

• Leonardo DiCaprio: Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon received the third-most nominations with 10, including best picture and a best actress nod for Lily Gladstone, the first Indigenous actress to be recognized, per the BBC. But DiCaprio was dismissed for best actor "even though most pundits had him making the cut," writes Whipp.
• May December: With only one nomination in the original screenplay category, Todd Haynes' drama inspired by the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal was repeatedly overlooked, along with stars Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, and Charles Melton, whose breakout performance was widely praised, per the Washington Post. Ryan concludes "the movie's dark humor and melodrama might've been alienating to Academy members," who voted according to their branch, meaning actors for actors, directors for directors.

(See who was nominated.)