Bright and early on the morning of me writing this (Jan. 23) at 5:30 a.m. the nominations for the 96th Academy Awards were revealed. I was not awake. In fact I was sound asleep. I woke up at 7:30 a.m. and the first thing I did was open my phone to check the Academy’s twitter account. Before I got there, I did see a few tweets at the top of my home page from “The Big Picture” host Sean Fennessey. 

SURPRISES & SNUBS

“America Ferrera in but Margot Robbie out is genuinely one of the weirdest acting decisions related to one movie that I can remember,” read the first of his tweets that I saw. Oh God, I thought. I went to the Academy’s page to see if it was true. It was. Wow. Margot Robbie was snubbed in Best Actress for her work in “Barbie,” and as insinuated in the tweet, America Ferrera did receive a nomination in Best Supporting Actress. Ryan Gosling also got a Best Supporting Actor nod. On top of this, Greta Gerwig did not receive a Best Director nomination. 

The tough question is always gonna be “Well, what would you take out in its place?” and it’s hard to say for both of those categories. This is an unequivocally GREAT class of nominees, and there are a half-dozen contenders for each category that would’ve been equally deserving as those who made it. 

Gerwig is the first director ever to have all three of her first feature films be nominated for Best Picture (“Lady Bird,” “Little Women” and “Barbie”). Gerwig’s slot in Best Director seems to have been taken by Justine Triet for “Anatomy of a Fall,” which has gained serious steam since the Golden Globes. 

Just a truly bizarre batch of nominees for a film that I really love. As much as I love Gosling as Ken, him and Ferrera getting nominations but Gerwig and Robbie being ghosted feels backwards to me. Though Gosling’s nomination is as much a recognition of Gerwig’s writing and directing of that performance as it is for Gosling’s execution. I’m truly confounded at Ferrera getting recognized. She obviously has her monologue which is a truly great scene, but are we giving out nominations for lone scenes now? 

“KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON missing in Adapted Screenplay, sheesh,” was directly below the other tweet. What???? For real?? It was indeed for real. “Killers of the Flower Moon” did miss in Best Adapted Screenplay. Granted, once “Barbie” got moved to Best Adapted instead of Best Original Screenplay, that category got really crowded really fast. 

This miss wouldn’t be as bad if it wasn’t also paired with Leonardo DiCaprio being flat-out robbed of a Best Actor nomination. Like, highway robbery. There were signs that this might happen, notably him missing out on a Screen Actors Guild nomination, but I didn’t think it would go this far. Would I, the leader of the “Maestro” army, take Bradley Cooper out of Best Actor for Leonardo? I’m unsure. But I shouldn’t be the one making this decision. 

WINNERS 

“Oppenheimer,” was the big winner of the morning, netting 13 nominations, one shy of the all-time record which is held three-ways between “All About Eve,” “Titanic” and “La La Land.” Among those 13, Christopher Nolan was nominated for Best Director, Cillian Murphy for Best Actor and Robert Downey Jr. for Best Supporting Actor. The sense is that all three of those are sewn up, but if anyone were to fall, I think Murphy might lose Best Actor to Paul Giamatti for his work in “The Holdovers.” 

Weirdly, “Oppenheimer” didn’t receive a nomination in Best Visual Effects, which would’ve put it in that elusive group of 14 nominations. I frankly don’t know what more you have to do to make it into that category when you successfully recreate an atomic bomb. But sure. 

“Anatomy of a Fall,” and specifically Justine Triet are massive winners. “Anatomy of a Fall” was nominated in five categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing. Triet was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. This comes after Triet’s film was not selected by France to compete in Best International Feature because of her fiery and political speech as she accepted the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May. 

Triet condemned the French government for its “Commodification of culture that the neo-liberal government is defending [that] is breaking the French cultural exception.” She dedicated her award “to all young female and male directors and to those who today are unable to make films.”

Despite his script not being nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, and his lead actor getting snubbed for Best Actor, Martin Scorsese is still a big winner. He secured his 10th Best Director nomination for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which makes him the most nominated living director of all time. ALSO! Lily Gladstone was nominated for Best Actress for her work in the film, which is amazing. She becomes the second indigenous North American to be nominated for Best Actress (Yalitza Aparicio was nominated in 2019 for “Roma”). 

Will he get the win? I doubt it. I’ll write about the Best Director race more in-depth as the weeks go by, but Christopher Nolan might as well already have a spot on his bookshelf for it. 

LOSERS

Arguably the biggest loser of the morning was the cast and crew of “May December.” Charles Melton, Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman were all snubbed of nominations in their respective categories. The film failed to get a Best Picture nomination, and Todd Haynes didn’t get acknowledged in Best Director. The film’s lone nomination came in Best Original Screenplay. Sad break for a movie that seemed to be a lock for Best Picture no more than a month ago.

As said before, Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie could be considered losers. Though, they both accumulated generational wealth from “Barbie,” and were both nominated in other categories (Gerwig for Best Original Screenplay and Robbie as a producer on the film in Best Picture). 

“Past Lives” is somehow a loser? Despite being nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, it received no other nominations. It has the same amount of nominations as “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part One” (which got two technical nominations). I loved “Past Lives,” and would’ve liked to have seen Celine Song in Best Director or Greta Lee in Best Actress. 

The country of France! Big loser! You got bitter at Justine Triet calling you out on the big stage and lost out on a Best International Feature Oscar! Now her movie is arguably the biggest dark horse to steal some awards away from the big boys. Not to mention “Napoleon” didn’t get nominated in any above-the-line categories. Tough beat.