January 23rd at 8:30am, the Academy Award nominations were released for categories like Best Director, Best Actor and Actress, Best Animated Feature and Best Picture. So, let’s recap the snubs, shocks and not surprising nominations about this year’s Oscar nominations!

After this past summer’s internet sensation of “Barbenhimer,” many believed that both films would score major nominations and soon, winners in the academy. Oppenheimer lived up to that standard, being nominated in 13 categories, the most out of this year’s awards. Featuring nominations for best actor in Cilian Murphy, best supporting actor in Robert Downey Jr., best supporting actress from Emily Blunt, best director for Christopher Nolan and scoring a nomination for best picture and many more. In my personal predictions, I believe that Oppenhimer will take away the most victories, similar to Everything Everywhere All At Once in last year’s awards. My hope is that Robert Downey Jr. wins best supporting actor out of all the nominations. Barbie on the other hand, still has a sliver of nominations, totaling to eight, but two categories were missing from Barbie’s list. Margot Robbie, who played the main Barbie throughout the film and to which some say had one of the best performances of the year, was left out of the nominations for best actress, and Greta Gerwig, the mastermind behind the entire film, was left out of the best director category, spiking internet interest on the Oscars, two months before the awards take place. 

Ryan Gosling, actor for Ken in the film which earned him a nomination in best supporting actor category, talked about the Barbie actress and director being left out of nominations saying “But there is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no ‘Barbie’ movie without Greta and Margot, the two people most responsible for this history-making globally-celebrated film” from Variety. This interest in the film has left some to consider boycotting the award ceremony when it arrives on March 10th. 

Being a great movie guy myself, I knew I needed someone who understood movies at the same level or even better than myself, so I reached out to a co-host of one of the podcasts I absolutely love. The Escape-Pod Podcast is a movie and TV series discussion and game show with over 16k subscribers on YouTube where the two hosts, Andrew and Alex, discuss the latest in pop culture news. Alex Azor (or Hat Guy) answered some questions for me about his personal opinions about the Oscar Nominations. “I think 2023 was the best year for movies since 2019. Smaller budget films such as Talk to Me and The Iron Claw that I adored and several bigger budget projects such as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Barbie, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse that floored me as well.” Azor said. “The snubs bothered me enough that I will not be watching the Oscars this year. The constant disrespect to movies that deserve love from the academy such as Barbie or Spider-Verse is just ridiculous and I’m over it.” continued Azor. I very much agree with Azor, on the factor that the majority of the movies in some years should be at least nominated, especially during a year like the one we just had in movies with sequels of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse arriving and phenomenons like Oppenhimer and Barbie. Counting out movies that have great acting like in the Iron Claw, is truly a shame, because The Iron Claw falls into my top five movies of 2023 and doesn’t have a nomination in the awards.

One disappointing factor of the Oscar nominations is that animated films always get left behind. It was like this until 2002 when the Best Animated Feature nomination was introduced, which was first won by Shrek. But if you don’t get nominated for this category, animated films still get no representation. They are eligible for other nominations like best sound or best original score, but they still get subbed out for other films. “Yes. Daniel Pemberton’s Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse score was snubbed for best original score and nothing from the Oscars nominations makes me angrier. Sure it had no chance to win against Ludwig Gorransen for his incredible Oppenheimer score, but Pemberton certainly deserved the nom. The cultural impact of that score alone was tremendous, the individual themes for each character were so brilliant. Especially after seeing John Williams’ with ANOTHER nomination that is in my opinion hilariously undeserved and only for legacy purposes.” Azor claimed. Again, I agree with Azor on this as I still listen to the score from Pemberton and the soundtrack from Metro Boomin. Both were phenomenal and so thrilling to listen to. I also would love to see more categories like best voice actor/actress, giving more love to the work that animated films go through. 

Year after year Oscar nominations arrive, we react to the shocks and snubs and continue on. I believe that some change within the academy is necessary to develop a more round sense of films and correctly honor the films we receive year after year. 

Below is each category, and their nominations. Be sure to check out the latest Nerd Alert episode    on YouTube on WCTV-Waynesburg for our picks for the nominations!

Best Actor:

• Bradley Cooper, Maestro
• Colman Domingo, Rustin
• Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
• Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
• Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

Best Actress:

• Annette Bening, Nyad
• Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
• Sandra Huller, Anatomy of a Fall
• Carey Mulligan, Maestro
• Emma Stone, Poor Things

Best Picture:

• American Fiction
• Anatomy of a Fall
• Barbie
• The Holdovers
• Killers of the Flower Moon
• Maestro
• Oppenheimer
• Past Lives
• Poor Things 
• The Zone of Interest

Best Supporting Actress:

• Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
• Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
• America Ferrera, Barbie
• Jodie Foster, Nyad
• Da’VIne Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Best Supporting Actor:

• Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
• Robert De Niro, Killer of the Flower Moon
• Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer
• Ryan Gosling, Barbie
• Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things

Best Director:

• Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
• Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon 
• Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
• Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
• Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest

Best Adapted Screenplay:

• American Fiction
• Barbie
• Oppenheimer
• Poor Things
• The Zone of Interest

Best Original Screenplay:

• Anatomy of a Fall
• The Holdovers
• Maestro 
• May December
• Past Lives

Best Cinematography:

• El Conde
• Killers of the Flower Moon
• Maestro
• Oppenheimer
• Poor Things

Best Original Score:

• American Fiction
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
• Killer of the Flower Moon
• Oppenheimer
• Poor Things

Best Original Song:

• “The Fire Inside,” Flamin’ Hot
• “I’m Just Ken,” Barbie
• “It Never Went Away,” American Symphony
• “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People),” Killer of the Flower Moon
• “What Was I Made For?” Barbie

Best Editing:

• Anatomy of a Fall
• The Holdovers
• Killer of the Flower Moon
• Oppenheimer
• Poor Things

Best Production Design:

• Barbie
• Killers of a Flower Moon
• Napoleon
• Oppenheimer
• Poor Things

Best Costume Design:

• Barbie
• Killers of the Flower Moon
• Napoleon
• Oppenheimer
• Poor Things

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

• Golda
• Maestro
• Oppenheimer
• Poor Things
• Society of the Snow

Best Sound:

• The Creator 
• Maestro
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
• Oppenheimer
• The Zone of Interest

Best Visual Effects:

• The Creator
• Godzilla Minus One
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
• Napoleon

Best Animated Feature:

• The Boy and the Heron
• Elemental
• Nimona
• Robot Dreams
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Best International Feature:

• Lo Capitano
• Perfect Days
• Society of the Snow
• The Teachers’ Lounge
• The Zone of Interest

Best Animated Short

• Letter to a Pig
• Ninety-Five Senses
• Out Uniform
• Pachyderme
• War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko

Best Live-Action Short:

• The After
• Invincible
• Knight of Fortune
• Red, White and Blue
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Best Documentary Feature:

• Bobi Wine: The People’s President
• The Eternal Memory
• Four Daughters
• To Kill a Tiger
• 20 Days of Mariupol

Best Documentary Short:

• The ABC’s of Book Banning
• The Barber of Little Rock
• Island in Between
• The Last Repair Shop
• Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó

For more about the nominations visit people.com