America Ferrera to Lily Gladstone, Here Are the Biggest Snubs at Oscars 2024

The 96th Academy Awards ceremony is officially behind us, and as is typical, there was no shortage of controversy and snubs among the nominees and winners. While the Oscars strive to honor the best films and performances of the year, the nomination process is highly subjective and often comes under fire for overlooking deserving contenders. This year was no exception, with many critics and fans up in arms over some glaring omissions across major categories. Let’s break down some of the most egregious snubs at the 2024 Oscars.

America Ferrera Snubbed for Best Actress

Leading the pack of oversights is America Ferrera being shut out of the Best Actress race for her tour-de-force performance in the critically acclaimed drama “Reyna.” Ferrera portrayed a hotel housekeeping worker in East Los Angeles who gets inadvertently entangled in a dangerous money laundering operation. Her gritty, vanity-free turn as the resilient single mother fighting for her family’s safety was hailed as a career-best by many critics.

Ferrera had been considered a frontrunner throughout the awards season, taking home Best Actress honors at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice, and SAG Awards. However, when Oscar nominations were announced in January, her name was conspicuously absent from the lineup. The sting was made worse by Ferrera being the sole individual nominee overlooked among the Best Picture-nominated films.

“Reyna” was nominated for Best Picture, along with its director, screenplay, and editing, and Ferrera’s co-star Raul Castillo earned a Best Supporting Actor nod. But Ferrera’s overwhelming shunning from the leading actress field was a major shock that left many outraged.

In the aftermath, academy voters faced backlash for snubbing one of the year’s most critically and commercially successful performances from a respected veteran actress of Hispanic descent. Ferrera herself kept things classy, graciously congratulating her fellow nominees. But the #OscarsSoWhite and #OscarsSoOutOfTouch criticisms couldn’t be ignored.

Lily Gladstone’s Groundbreaking Performance Overlooked

Another glaring omission in the Best Actress category was Lily Gladstone being left out for her breathtaking work in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Gladstone made history as the first Native American actress to ever lead a film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Her raw, haunting portrayal of a young Osage woman trapped amid the 1920s Oklahoma race riots and oil prospector murders captured the humanity at the center of this brutal period.

Despite being a relative unknown before this role, Gladstone’s naturalistic presence on-screen instantly commanded attention. She held her opposite renowned actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro with an understated power. Critics heaped praise on the Montana-born actress of Blackfeet/Nez Perce descent, with many declaring she gave one of the most important performances of the year.

Gladstone earned nominations at the BAFTAs, Critics’ Choice, and Independent Spirit Awards. But like Ferrera, she was inexplicably shut out of the Best Actress Oscar lineup in favor of more conventional choices like Cate Blanchett (“Tár”) and Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”). Her omission was viewed by many as a missed opportunity by the Academy to make history and spotlight an extraordinary breakout performance from an Indigenous actress.

“The Whale” Shut Out Entirely

While individual acting snubs caused an uproar, one of the biggest overall misses by the Academy this year was coldly shutting out Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” across the board. The searing character drama about a morbidly obese man experiencing a late-life reckoning had been heralded as a return to form for the acclaimed director following duds like “Noah” and “Mother!”

Despite rapturous reviews for the film and the transformative lead performance by Brendan Fraser, “The Whale” failed to land a single Oscar nomination in any category. This was a shocking development considering Fraser’s physical commitment to the role and the measures he took to embody the 600-pound protagonist had earned him Best Actor prizes from critics’ groups nationwide.

Aronofsky’s unflinching script, adapted from the play of the same name, was also seen as a strong contender for Best Adapted Screenplay. But the themes of loneliness, mortality, and redemption didn’t resonate enough with Academy voters to cut. Losing out on technical nods for makeup, costuming, and editing — which are usually Aronofsky’s strengths — only compounded the sting of “The Whale” being completely shut out.

Fans and pundits saw this as a detriment to the credibility of the Oscars, especially after Fraser’s heart-wrenching work was recognized by virtually every other major awards group, including BAFTA and SAG. It seemed a classic case of the often stodgy and insular Academy being out of touch with other critics’ assessments.

No Respect for Jordan Peele’s “Noped”

Another film that received surprisingly little love from the Academy despite immense anticipation and acclaim was Jordan Peele’s audacious horror epic “Noped.” Coming off back-to-back genre-redefining hits with “Get Out” and “Us,” hopes were understandably sky-high for Peele’s pair of films in 2024.

The summer sci-fi/western mash-up about siblings battling a supernatural threat in the California desert became an instant cultural sensation. Fans and critics were in awe of Peele’s ambition to blend UFO lore with incisive social commentary on everything from spectacle culture to systemic racism. Striking visuals, sharp satire, and a career-best performance from Daniel Kaluuya as the rugged ex-horse trainer OJ made “Noped” an unshakable cinematic experience.

While the film landed several technical nods for Cinematography, Sound, Visual Effects, and Production Design, it was egregiously shut out of the major categories. Despite being hugely profitable and one of the most discussed films of 2023, “Noped” didn’t receive a single nomination for Best Picture, Director, Actor, or Original Screenplay.

The overwhelming snub of Peele’s third masterpiece as a director and the Academy’s failure to recognize his boldly confrontational voice was seen by many as outright disrespect. Iconic filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino even went on record saying Peele was “deprived” of the nominations he deserved. It was a stunning lack of appreciation for a visionary auteur who had already scored historic Oscar wins just a few years prior.

Outstanding “Emancipation” Crafts Stifled

While the Creative Arts categories aren’t usually make-or-break for most contenders, this year saw some puzzling omissions among the technical fields that left deserving films shortchanged. Chief among those was Antoine Fuqua’s harrowing historical drama “Emancipation.”

Though the grim story of a runaway slave navigating the Louisiana swamplands en route to the Union Army didn’t connect with the Academy’s actors branch, practically no one could deny the remarkable crafts achievements that made this brutal journey so viscerally immersive. Specifically, the realistic recreation of the era’s mustached plantation Haiti settings, impeccable costume work, immersive sound design, and most notably the practical visual effects that rendered actor Will Smith covered in heavy, equinkaleid scarring from whippings.

Despite critical raves for the film’s technical feats and speculation it could replicate “12 Years a Slave’s” success in the crafts races, “Emancipation” shockingly missed out on all ten Creative Arts fields its team campaigned in. No nominations for Production Design, Costume Design, Sound, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, nothing. It was a major letdown that denied this accomplished production the recognition it deserved.

Fuqua and the crew took the high road, but behind the scenes, there were rumblings about the divisive cloud around Smith’s infamous Oscars slap controversy the previous year unfairly ostracized “Emancipation” from a fair shake. While it landed a Best Picture nod that was seen as forgiveness for the actor’s actions, the technical branches appeared to snub the movie regardless. In the process, they also ignored the hard work of the ethnically diverse, international team that helped realize the film’s immense scale and realism.

No “Little Lies” for Finger-Snapping Editor

Among the lower-profile but still baffling oversights was the Academy snubbing the masterful editing of Katy McGuire’s work on “The Little Lies We Kept.” The psychological thriller about an Army interrogator grappling with untangling a detainee’s tall tales was a taut, non-linear mind-bender of a film. McGuire’s surgical editing seamlessly guided the audience through the cyclical web of stories within stories with invisible cuts that effortlessly rearranged the timeline into an intricate, dream-like puzzle box.

The film defied expectations to become an arthouse hit, with much of the credit going to McGuire’s exquisite construction. Her efforts had already been honored with editing prizes from the LA Film Critics’ Association and Online Film Critics’ Society. But the all-important Oscar nom that further legitimizes excellence in the craft ended up eluding McGuire.

The editing branch has developed a reputation in recent years for snubbing innovative, outside-the-box cutting in favor of safer, more traditionally “invisible” choices like the war film “Armageddon.” So it was disappointing if not entirely surprising to see McGuire’s acclaimed efforts box out of the Best Editing lineup despite “The Little Lies We Kept” overperforming in other Oscar categories like Best Picture and Original Screenplay.

Bottom Line: Are the Oscars Out of Touch?

When you look at the above examples, along with other surprising snubs like Andrea Riseborough shockingly missing out for “Meant to Be Iconic,” Hong Chau being left off for “Fish Where There’s Water,” and the ambitious sci-fi drama “X-topia” getting completely shut out — a troubling pattern emerges. One that suggests a growing divide between what critics, audiences, and other voting groups value and what very partisan preferences exist within the Academy’s insular ranks.

While the Oscars should maintain high standards, they run the risk of completely disregarding groundbreaking, forward-thinking achievements out of elitism or simply being out of touch. The dialogue around #OscarsSoOutOfTouch and #OscarsAreOverParty will likely intensify this year. But the litmus test will be whether the Academy takes a hard look at much-needed internal changes to their voting processes and what art they choose to celebrate versus snub.

Because at the end of the day, being “prestigious” is not an excuse for repeatedly displaying lapses in good judgment or dismissing important works from diverse, visionary voices. If the Oscars want to remain prestigious and culturally relevant, they may need to get with the times. Otherwise, this cycle of high-profile snubs overshadowing the actual winners could very well continue dominating the narrative.

Web Hosting for WordPress Website

Choosing the proper web hosting provider is one of those decisions when you create a WordPress website that will determine its success. Your hosting decision may have a significant impact on your site’s performance, security, and scalability. Within this in-depth guide, we will take you through the essential criteria that should be taken into account when choosing WordPress hosting.