The Most Shocking Oscar Nomination Snubs and Surprises

Good morning to Kate Hudson!

I think Kate Hudson’s surprise Oscar nomination for Song Sung Blue is going to be the thing that everyone talks about today. But here’s the thing: She deserves it. Oscar campaigns are weird and messy, and she was on a very aggressive one. But if you’ve seen that movie, you will know that she delivers the best performance of her career. She should absolutely be nominated for Best Actress.

I feel so bad for the people who weren’t nominated.

I can’t imagine what it’s like to spend the better part of a year being told you’re going to be an Oscar nominee, and then not get it. Which is why I cried (I’m not kidding) a little bit for Ariana Grande today. There was a time when I thought she was going to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Wicked: For Good. And then she wasn’t even nominated?

Her performance in that movie is so damned good. It’s a genuine Movie Star performance. That she didn’t get nominated hurts me in the heart a little.

Besides Kate Hudson, the big surprise was that Elle Fanning was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Sentimental Value. It’s another case of “she deserves,” but she missed out on several key precursors, so I assumed the awards support was all about Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas. Both of them ended up nominated.

I feel the same for Paul Mescal, who was nominated for every single precursor award for Hamnet, only to lose out on the Oscar nomination. And for Chase Infinity, who’s been a major award season player for her excellent performance in One Battle After Another. It has to be so strange to, whether or not you care about this kind of stuff, spend the better part of a year being told that you’re going to get an Oscar nomination…and then not get it.

The big “snubs” of the day were Ariana Grande, Paul Mescal, and Chase Infinity. Sure, there are movies that I loved, like Sorry, Baby and Peter Hujar’s Day, but (while I held high hopes) I didn’t expect them to show up on nomination day. But those performers missing out after having been nominated for just about every other precursor award is a huge deal.

There were two huge surprises to me. One is that F1, the vroom vroom movie, was nominated for Best Picture. I really enjoyed F1. I also never in a million years would have put it in the running for an award for best movie.

The other is just how much love Sinners got. It didn’t just break, but smashed the Oscars record for most nominations a movie has ever gotten. The previous record was 14, and held by a handful of films you may have heard of because they are considered among the best of all time: Titanic, All About Eve, and La La Land. Sinners got 16 nominations, including one in Best Supporting Actor for Delroy Lindo, which was not on most pundits’ radar. That indicates how much support there is for this film.

I had thought the Oscar race was already sewn up with One Battle After Another being the inevitable winner. Sinners doing so well today with nominations makes me think differently.

Beyond the snubs and surprises, here’s my general take: The nominations are good! There’s no refuting that Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) and Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) gave the best performances of the year, and they’re both nominated. I think Timothée Chalamet will win Best Actor for Marty Supreme, and I’m not mad about it. (Mostly, I’m glad that Wagner Moura was also nominated for The Secret Agent.) Whether Stellan Skarsgard or Benicio Del Toro wins Best Supporting Actor, it doesn’t matter: They’ve been trading off wins all season, and they’re both deserving. And with this nominations shake up, Best Supporting Actress is actually fun this year!

Too often, and especially in recent years, the Oscar winner has seemed pre-ordained. This year, the races are actually a little unpredictable. That’s fun! Sinners broke the record for Oscar nominations, but may not even win Best Picture. It’s high time for there to be an element of surprise with the Oscars. And this year, that surprise is named Kate Hudson.

Here’s the full list of nominations:

Best picture nominees

• “Bugonia” (Focus Features)
• “F1” (Warner Bros./Apple)
• “Frankenstein” (Netflix)
• “Hamnet” (Focus Features)
• “Marty Supreme” (A24)
• “One Battle After Another” (Warner Bros.)
• “The Secret Agent” (Neon)
• “Sentimental Value” (Neon)
• “Sinners” (Warner Bros.)
• “Train Dreams” (Netflix)

Best director nominees

• Chloe Zhao, “Hamnet”
• Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme”
• Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”
• Joaquim Trier, “Sentimental Value”
• Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”

Best actress nominees

• Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”
• Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
• Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue”
• Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”
• Emma Stone, “Bugonia”

Best actor nominees

• Timothee Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”
• Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another”
• Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”
• Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”
• Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent”

Best supporting actress nominees

• Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”
• Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”
• Amy Madigan, “Weapons”
• Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”
• Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another”

Best supporting actor nominees

• Benicio Del Toro, “One Battle After Another”
• Jacob Elordi, “Frankenstein”
• Delroy Lindo, “Sinners”
• Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”
• Stellan Skarsgård, “Sentimental Value”

Best original screenplay nominees

• “Blue Moon,” Robert Kaplow
• “It Was Just an Accident,” Jafar Panahi
• “Marty Supreme,” Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
• “Sentimental Value,” Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt
• “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler

Best adapted screenplay nominees

• “Bugonia,” Will Tracy
• “Frankenstein,” Guillermo Del Toro
• “Hamnet,” Maggie O’Farrell and Chloé Zhao
• “One Battle After Another,” Paul Thomas Anderson
• “Train Dreams,” Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar

Best international feature nominees

• “It Was Just an Accident,” Jafar Panahi (France)
• “The Secret Agent,” Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil)
• “Sentimental Value,” Joaquin Trier (Norway)
• “Sirāt,” Olivér Laxe (Spain)
• “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia)

Best documentary feature nominees

• “The Alabama Solution,” Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman (HBO)
• “Come See Me in the Good Light,” Ryan White (Apple)
• “Cutting Through Rocks,” Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni (Gandom Films)
• “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” David Borenstein (Bantam Film)
• “The Perfect Neighbor,” Geeta Gandbhir (Netflix)

Best animated feature nominees

• “Arco” (Neon)
• “Elio” (Disney/Pixar)
• “KPop Demon Hunters” (Netflix)
• “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain” (GKIDS)
• “Zootopia 2” (Disney)

Best casting nominees (new category)

• “Hamnet”
• “Marty Supreme”
• “One Battle After Another”
• “The Secret Agent”
• “Sinners”

Best cinematography nominees

• “Frankenstein,” Dan Laustsen
• “Marty Supreme,” Darius Khondji
• “One Battle After Another,” Michael Bauman
• “Sinners,” Autumn Durald Arkapaw
• “Train Dreams,” Adolpho Veloso

Best costume design nominees

• “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” Deborah L. Scott
• “Frankenstein,” Kate Hawley
• “Hamnet,” Malgosia Turzanska
• “Marty Supreme,” Miyako Bellizzi
• “Sinners,” Ruth E. Carter

Best film editing nominees

• “F1,” Stephen Mirrione
• “Marty Supreme,” Ronald Bronstein
• “One Battle After Another,” Andy Jurgensen
• “Sentimental Value,” Olivier Bugge Coutté
• “Sinners,” Michael P. Shawver

Best production design nominees

• “Frankenstein,” Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau
• “Hamnet,” Fiona Crombie and Alice Felton
• “Marty Supreme, “Jack Fisk and Adam Willis
• “One Battle After Another,” Florencia Martin
• “Sinners,” Hannah Beachler and Monique Champagne

Best original score nominees

• “Bugonia,” Jerskin Fendrix
• “Frankenstein,” Alexandre Desplat
• “Hamnet,” Max Richter
• “One Battle After Another,” Jonny Greenwood
• “Sinners,” Ludwig Göransson

Best original song nominees

• “Dear Me” from “Diane Warren: Relentless”
• “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters”
• “I Lied To You” from “Sinners”
• “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from “Viva Verdi”
• “Train Dreams” from “Train Dreams”

Best sound nominees

• “F1”
• “Frankenstein”
• “One Battle After Another”
• “Sinners”
• “Sirât”

Best visual effects nominees

• “Avatar: Fire and Ash”
• “F1”
• “Jurassic World Rebirth”
• “The Lost Bus”
• “Sinners”

Best makeup and hairstyling nominees

• “Frankenstein”
• “Kokuho”
• “Sinners”
• “The Smashing Machine”
• “The Ugly Stepsister”

Best documentary short nominees

• “All the Empty Rooms”
• “Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud”
• “Children No More: Were and Are Gone”
• “The Devil Is Busy”
• “Perfectly a Strangeness”

Best animated short nominees

• “Butterfly”
• “Forevergreen”
• “The Girl Who Cried Pearls”
• “Retirement Plan”
• “The Three Sisters”

Best live-action short nominees