Happy Oscar nomination morning! In addition to all the shocking omissions, there’s also plenty to be happy about, so let’s (briefly) celebrate before we rage. “Sinners” didn’t just break the all-time record for nominations; it broke it by two, racking up an incredible 16 nominations and showing up in every single category where it even had a remote chance. It was also a great morning for those who still want to believe the Oscars can throw a great curveball, with “F1” pulling off a surprise Best Picture nomination.
Sadly, that “F1” surprise meant that a Best Picture field that would presumably have three international films was instead limited to two. While international cinema had a good morning by the standards of nearly any other Oscar year, international films also accounted for several of the morning’s most shocking omissions. And we have to start with the 2025 Palme d’Or winner.
Since “Parasite” won Best Picture six years ago, it appeared that we’d entered a new era where the winner of the Cannes Film Festival just became an automatic Best Picture contender every year. And considering the potent, timely relevance of “It Was Just an Accident”—and the real-life story behind Jafar Panahi making it—presuming the film would be a major Oscar player since it won the Palme d’Or last May felt like a no-brainer. But it ultimately received just two nominations (for Best International Film and Best Original Screenplay), while missing out in two major categories where it was expected to be a sure thing (Best Picture and Best Director).
So what went wrong? It seems unlikely voters wouldn’t have watched the movie, given the huge profile it’s had all season, so the most obvious answer is maybe voters just weren’t as wowed by it as awards pundits (in our infinite wisdom) assumed they’d be. But another possibility is that Neon’s complete monopoly over 2025’s top international films turned out to be a disadvantage. And the fact that four of the five films Neon juggled campaigns for missed out in categories they were expected to compete in suggests that one distributor trying to exert total control on an entire strata of the film landscape might not be a great idea.
And here’s Exhibit B: “No Other Choice” was the most financially successful of Neon’s big five international features at the US box office, but that apparently didn’t matter to Oscar voters. “No Other Choice” became the latest Park Chan-wook film to get ignored by the Academy, and somehow the master auteur behind “Oldboy,” “The Handmaiden,” and “Decision to Leave” has still never seen one of his films get a single Oscar nomination. After “Parasite” became the first Korean film to be nominated for an Oscar (let alone win one), we collectively assumed it would open the door for other great Korean filmmakers like Park. But six years later, “Parasite” is still a one-of-a-kind.
Chase Infiniti (& Regina Hall)
“One Battle After Another” received 13 nominations this morning, so it’s hard for fans of the film to find much to be sad about. And yet, the young discovery who largely carries the film’s third act, Chase Infiniti, was left out by the Academy, despite being nominated by all of the major precursor awards bodies. In some ways, it’s not a huge shock (I predicted it), because all season, Best Actress has felt like one of those categories where six major contenders were trying to squeeze into five spots. One of them had to miss, but it’s sad to see it happen to someone who had been such an exciting new addition to the film landscape. (Also too bad that Regina Hall wasn’t recognized for her underrated work in the film.)
Maybe it’s a sign that the Academy actually did a great job spreading out the acting love this year, because nearly all of the major Best Picture contenders (with the exception of “Sentimental Value”) struck out on one of the acting nominations they hoped to land. For “Hamnet,” it was Paul Mescal, which kind of makes sense given how much of the movie focuses on his emotional absence. On paper, you might think playing William Shakespeare would be catnip for Oscar voters, but Joseph Fiennes also wasn’t nominated for “Shakespeare in Love.” As with that film, the Bard’s love interest proved to be the true magnet for Academy attention.
Last year, Timothée Chalamet was the rising tide for “A Complete Unknown,” helping lift Monica Barbaro and Edward Norton to nominations of their own. This year, in typical Marty Mauser fashion, Timmy stole all the glory for himself. While the incredible “Marty Supreme” ensemble was recognized with a nomination in the inaugural Best Casting field, none of Timothée Chalamet’s co-stars received nominations of their own. That’s unfortunate news for Odessa A’zion, who perfectly matched Chalamet’s manic energy in the film, and for Gwyneth Paltrow, whose contention never quite manifested.
There’s always one film that Oscar pundits seemingly flock to at the last moment, believing in a sudden surge of contention because the right person gave it a shout-out at the right time. This memorably happened with the immortal “To Leslie” social media campaign two years ago, and it looked like it might happen again this year when Julia Roberts used the Golden Globes stage to implore everyone to see Eva Victor’s wonderful directorial debut, “Sorry, Baby.” Unfortunately, that endorsement didn’t lead to any nominations (not even in Best Original Screenplay, where it became a trendy late prediction), but looking at Victor’s face in the Globes crowd while Julia Roberts gushed about her film, it’s easy to tell that the endorsement was an award in itself.
Electronic Music
Perhaps the biggest surprise in the craft categories wasn’t any specific absence, but the total absence of a certain kind of thing. Namely, electronic music. Among the most common kinds of praise for both “Marty Supreme” and “Sirāt” (two films that have received no shortage of praise) was for their largely electronic music scores. Likewise, those who gave any praise at all to the much-maligned “Tron: Ares” focused on its killer Nine Inch Nails score (and great original song, “As Alive As You Need Me to Be”). But the Academy’s Music Branch can often be traditional to a fault, and that was certainly the case this year as they ignored all three films.
Franchise Movies
For most of 2025, Oscar pundits had been essentially reserving two spots on their Best Picture list for “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and “Wicked: For Good.” Both films received Best Picture nominations for their previous installments, as well as semi-dominant showings in the craft categories. But tepid reviews for their latest installments flipped the Oscar script, and the Academy nearly ignored them. “Avatar: Fire and Ash” still eked out two nominations, for Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design, but a James Cameron movie missing out in Best Sound might’ve been the biggest shocker of the craft categories this morning.
“Wicked: For Good,” on the other hand, got a whopping zero nominations, which is a shocking turn of events for a film whose previous installment received 10 Oscar nominations just a year ago. While it wasn’t too surprising that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande fell out of contention for a sequel that got disappointing reviews, it’s still a shock to see the franchise go from seven craft category nominations to zero in just one year. (Another notable franchise omission: “Wake Up Dead Man” became the first “Knives Out” movie to fail to receive a screenplay nomination.)
