This year’s Oscars possibly contain the most snubs ever, some great films, actors and directors were snubbed, here I will list those that were snubbed which deserved nominations and sometimes even win.
Best Picture
Before I start this category I just want to say that the Best Picture category is allowed anywhere from 5 to 10 nominees, this year the academy nominated 9. To which I say fuck you the academy, you couldn’t put one of the below films in your nominations? Fuck. You.
Drive
Drive was a great film, was a lot of critic’s favourite film of the year and while it wasn’t my personal favourite it definitely deserved a nomination. This is perhaps the biggest Oscar snub that has happened in recent years. Drive was extremely well made, had a great story, a fantastic director and great acting, I cannot fathom why it wasn’t nominated even if it did not win. A nomination would have cemented it’s greatness, but alas it will just have to be a cult classic.
50/50
50/50 was one of my personal favourites of the year, it came pretty much out of nowhere, it was funny, clever and serious, an impossible feat in a film about cancer, just ask Adam Sandler, but 50/50 pulled it off perfectly, Joseph Gordon Levitt was pitch perfect, the film got the balance between drama and comedy just right, honestly it is just a great film.
Shame
Shame was a very risky film to make yet it was executed brilliantly. A film about sex addiction that was rated NC-17 in America was always going to be a risk with both box office and Oscar nominations but it truly was a great film with great performances. Being this niche however should have got academy voters frothing at the mouth to nominate it for Best Picture, yet it was snubbed, maybe being too risqué for its own good that the academy didn’t dare nominate it, however ridiculous that sounds.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a weird choice I know, however the academy had seemed to start wanting younger viewers, hence the nominations of Avatar, Inception and other blockbusters. If the academy wanted to nominate a blockbuster film to draw in younger audiences Rise of the Planet of the Apes would have been a perfect choice, it is not a typical mindless blockbuster, it is a thinking man’s blockbuster, it had great performances, especially by Andy Serkis (I will get to him later), a great script and considering almost everyone, including me, was expecting it to be shit, it was a great film. If this film had been nominated, it wouldn’t have saved the academy fully, but it would be a redeeming feature of what is an extremely predictable nomination line up.
Best Actor
Ryan Gosling
I have no idea how Ryan Gosling is not nominated. He is a fan favourite, a critical darling and an amazing actor. He starred in 3 films this year, Drive, The Ides of March and Crazy, Stupid, Love. His performance in all three of these movies is nomination worthy. In Drive he was a calm, silent bad ass and pulled it off with such flair and ease that it was a great surprise. In The Ides of March he played a political cut-throat with ulterior motives, double and triple crossing everyone, his range showcased in this movie alone should have been enough to earn him a nomination. Finally his role as the suave ladies’ man in Crazy, Stupid, Love was him showcasing even more of his talent. It is rare for actors in comedies to get nominated, but Gosling truly deserved it.
Andy Serkis
Yes, him again. Serkis gave the best performance of the year by far as Caesar the ape in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and definitely deserved a nomination. Unfortunately the academy hates motion capture films and he was not eligible. However they nominated Avatar for Best Picture, which was almost entirely motion capture and they have nominated Rango this year for best animated film and although it is not technically motion capture, the actors on Rango had practical sets to work with while doing the voices together, for the animators to get a better idea of how the characters move, so why not nominate Serkis? If Serkis isn’t nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Hobbit next year I will be extremely pissed off.
Michael Fassbender
Michael Fassbender’s performance in Shame was fantastic and as he had just started to break through in Hollywood extremely risky on his career. It has yet to be seen whether this risk has paid off, however if he had been nominated there would be no question that his future in Hollywood was dead certain. Fassbender perhaps didn’t need the nomination though as after all he is still Magneto in one of the most popular X-Men films and with a sequel planned I doubt he will be leaving Hollywood just yet.
Best Director
Nicolas Winding Refn
I have been a fan of Refn since Bronson, his style is quite unique and works for his films, he has a great ear for music and places it in his films perfectly. Drive is arguably his best film yet, the overall directing in Drive is executed perfectly. I don’t think that any other director would have made this film half as great. It truly is a shame that Refn has not been nominated for either Bronson or Drive, however I doubt Refn has hit his peak yet and we will see many more great films from him.
Best Supporting Actress
Carey Mulligan
Carey Mulligan was not nominated for her performances in Drive or Shame, which is, pardon the pun, a shame. She is fantastic in both films and was seemingly an Oscar darling since her nomination for An Education. I feel that the reason Mulligan was not nominated was that Drive and Shame were snubbed entirely so the academy didn’t want her there to remind the audience that two great films were not nominated for best picture.
So there you have it, the Oscar snubs of 2011. Some glaring mistakes and some subtle ones, it just goes to show that although the Oscars is the most prestigious award ceremony in the movie industry, they very rarely get it right and should not be used by us, the audience, to judge films.