“The Woman King,” “Decision to Leave,” “Till,” “Nope,” “White Noise,” and more critically acclaimed movies shut out by the ninety fifth Academy Awards.
With major acknowledgments and just as many (if no more) snubs in the combination, the nominations for the ninety fifth Academy Awards are finally on the market.
Artists rooting for the Oscars’ to embrace fan-favorite blockbusters got their wish on Tuesday, as Joseph Kosinski’s “Top Gun: Maverick” and James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” each sequels, made it into a good Best Picture race. Their competitors include Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” Todd Field’s “TÁR,” Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness,” Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking,” Edward Berger’s “All Quiet on the Western Front,” and Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s “Every thing In all places All at Once,” which leads the larger race with 11 total Oscar nominations.
The movies that didn’t get nominated are as interesting because the ones that did. Though Polley’s Amish drama made it into consideration for the highest prize, women were once more shut out of the Best Directing category. Worse, Gina Prince-Bythewood saw her box office success and important smash entirely iced out.
“It’s shocking to see crowdpleaser ‘The Woman King’ come up empty-handed, with even Oscar winner Viola Davis not making the ultimate cut for Best Actress,” writes IndieWire’s Marcus Jones of Prince-Bythewood’s widely praised epic historical drama. “Many aspects could have contributed to its snub, from bias against motion movies in Best Picture, to Andrea Riseborough’s last-minute grassroots campaign possibly knocking out perennial nominee Viola Davis.” Other Black movies that were shut out of consideration for any Oscars include Jordan Peele’s “Nope” and Chinonye Chukwu’s “Till.”
Within the Best International Feature Film race, each Park Chan-wook’s “Decision to Leave” (Korea’s entry) and Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul” (Cambodia’s entry) went unrecognized. This puts “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Germany’s entry) in position to snag two major prizes should it win Best Picture.
That’s only a small fraction of what’s still shaking out from Tuesday’s nominations, in fact. Listed in no particular — chosen from a mixture of IndieWire favorites and past predictions from before the Academy’s announcement — listed below are 26 great movies totally rejected by the 2023 Oscars.
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