The award-winning host of Obsessed: The Podcast is expressing his shock at the Oscar nominee he and nobody else saw coming.
Kevin Fallon voiced his amazement that Brad Pitt’s deeply cheesy F1: The Movie made the cut in the Academy’s list of who could win the coveted statue.
“It was a good blockbuster, adrenaline-spiking kind of movie, but I would never in a million years have put it on my best picture list,” Kevin Fallon told co-host Matt Wilstein.
“I would! It’s the Top Gun: Maverick of this year,“ replied Wilstein. ”I’m surprised it hasn’t been in the conversation more up to this point, so I’m thrilled.”
F1 premiered in June of this past year, becoming Apple’s biggest hit to date, with a worldwide box office tally of more than $630 million. The film is available to stream now on Apple TV.
The acting categories brought equal measures of excitement and heartbreak. A crestfallen Fallon woke up in tears to see Ariana Grande’s name notably absent from the Best Supporting Actress list.
“If you had asked me three months ago, I would have thought that she was going to win the award for Wicked: For Good. The fact that she was not even nominated is crazy to me," Fallon complained. “I just feel like Oscar voters really were not defying gravity. Let’s just say that.”
Grande, 32, received one of the first installment’s 10 nominations at last year’s Oscars, but the pop star and the Wicked sequel failed to receive a single nomination on Thursday.
Fallon, though, was rejuvenated by a surprise nomination for his other favorite performance of the year, Kate Hudson, 46, in Song Sung Blue.
After Fallon penned an emotional plea for Hudson’s nomination last week, the Obsessed: The Podcast host was glad to see her name in the group.
Despite people “not understanding why she’s part of the conversation,” he believes her performance is career-defining.
“She is so good in that movie. I’m so happy that she was nominated,” he said.
Other notable snubs included Paul Mescal, 29, for his portrayal of William Shakespeare in Hamnet, which received six nominations, including one for Mescal’s co-star, and likely Best Actress winner, Jessie Buckley, 36.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like to spend the better part of a year basically assuming you’re going to be nominated for an Oscar, and then on this morning not get it. That has to be like such a blow,” Fallon said.
Both hosts were excited to see the blockbuster hit vampire film Sinners break the record for most nominations, receiving 16, two more than any film in history. Supporting actress Wunmi Mosaku, 39, received a surprise nomination, as did cult favorite Delroy Lindo, 73—leading to Mescal’s snub.
“That is a surprise! I feel like he hasn’t been nominated for anything the whole season,” Wilstein noted.
“It was also a performance that everyone wanted to be nominated, and were unsure whether the voters would go for it. So the fact that he actually got in is a huge deal,” Fallon agreed.
The 98th Academy Awards will air on ABC on March 15. Comedian Conan O’Brien will host the show for the second consecutive year.
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