The nominees at the 95th Academy Awards, scheduled for this Sunday, Mar. 12, honor a wide range of exciting films, from intimate independent dramas to mind-bending blockbusters. But as always, the voters that make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences left out a number of the year’s most impressive pieces of cinema. So, as is my tradition with this column, before I write about the winners, I want to spread some love to some of my favorite films of this past year that definitely won’t be taking home a little gold statue this weekend. In alphabetical order, here are the Academy’s most egregious snubs from the past year.

“Armageddon Time”

It was always an uphill battle for “Armageddon Time.” While writer-director James Gray’s films, most recently 2019’s “Ad Astra,” have been critically respected, they’ve yet to garner any Oscar nominations thus far. Nonetheless, “Armageddon Time,” a tenderly made semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film about antisemitism, race, and privilege in 1980s New York, was a worthy contender, shining a sharp critical light on the past, free from the nostalgia of some period pieces. In particular, Anthony Hopkins’s standout performance as a kind-hearted but sharp-tongued grandfather seemed prime material for a Best Supporting Actor nomination. 

The biggest reason for the snub of “Armageddon Time” might just be the timing. After all, this year’s Oscars race already had a semi-autobiographical film about a stand-in for the director coming of age while grappling with antisemitism and misguided nostalgia: Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.” While very different in execution, Gray’s film might have sounded too similar to another Oscars favorite to garner much momentum. The fact that reviews were good, but not great, surely didn’t help either. Nonetheless, I remain a personal champion for Gray’s oeuvre and encourage more people to give “Armageddon Time” a shot. 

“The Batman”

While it was always unlikely for “The Batman,” or any superhero film for that matter (besides 2018’s “Black Panther”) to snag Oscar nominations outside of technical categories, it didn’t seem impossible. As I wrote in my review last year, the Matt Reeves–directed film presents a gripping, intense vision of the classic comic book hero that digs deep into its titular hero’s moral center. “The Batman” brought a fresh take to the increasingly stale superhero genre that was less “Avengers” and more “Se7en.” What it may have lacked in action, it more than made up for in psychodrama. 

What’s more, “The Batman,” unlike the other films here, wasn’t entirely shut out of the nominations, receiving nods for Best Sound, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Visual Effects. In an ideal world, someone from the film’s stellar ensemble, from Robert Pattinson to Zoë Kravitz to Colin Farrell, would’ve snuck into an acting category. If nothing else, the pulse-pounding, instantly iconic score by composer Michael Giacchino and chiaroscuro-filled, painterly tableaux from cinematographer Greig Fraser were certainly deserving of recognition in their respective categories. Fraser even won Best Cinematography last year for his work on “Dune,” so at least the Academy agrees that his work is Oscar-worthy.

“Bones and All”

“Call Me By Your Name” was one of the biggest hits of the 2017 awards circuit. So when director Luca Guadagnino and star Timothée Chalamet reunited for “Bones and All,” it seemed like a surefire recipe for Oscar buzz. The film, which stars Taylor Russell alongside Chalamet, with a delightfully bizarre supporting turn by Mark Rylance, presents a heartfelt and nuanced depiction of two outsiders finding love against a backdrop of tangibly rendered Americana. While it received decent reviews upon its November release, the film didn’t snag a single nomination from the Academy.

Honestly, this movie was probably one where the premise was enough to put Academy voters off. If you didn’t know already, “Bones and All” is about cannibalism. We are treated to multiple blood-soaked sequences of our two young lovers feasting on raw human flesh. The Oscars are no stranger to cannibal flicks, as “The Silence of the Lambs” swept the five major categories (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay) in 1992. But at least in that one, the cannibal is a sinister villain, not a young heartthrob with whom we otherwise sympathize, driven to eat people by an irrepressible urge that leads to self-loathing and alienation. While I found “Bones and All” remarkably moving and sensitively made, given some of the repulsed reactions I heard from the crowd when it screened at Film Series the other week, it clearly isn’t for everyone. 

“Decision to Leave”

South Korean director Park Chan-wook, known for films like “Oldboy” and “The Handmaiden,” is among our greatest contemporary filmmakers, but has, thus far, never been nominated for an Oscar. After the landmark success of Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” in 2020 and the one trophy and multiple nominations for Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” last year, the Academy appeared to be moving towards greater recognition for Asian cinema. As “Decision to Leave” built up buzz on the awards circuit, it seemed a shoo-in for a Best International Film nomination, if nothing else.

But ultimately, “Decision to Leave” came away with a whopping zero nominations, a stinging snub for one of last year’s best films. What’s more, this year’s Best International Film nominees are the category’s first slate in six years to not contain a single Asian film. Despite this, “Decision to Leave” is eminently worthy of a watch by any movie lover. A slow-burn neo-noir romance about an insomniac detective who, while investigating a suspicious death, finds himself drawn to the dead man’s widow, the film features two richly textured lead performances from Park Hae-il and Tang Wei. Park’s direction is moody and engrossing, and the film delves into fascinating psychological questions around love, morality, and the ambiguity of language. 

“The Menu”

When one thinks of genres that typically get Oscar buzz, horror-comedy isn’t at the top of the list. But “The Menu” from director Mark Mylod, best known for his work on “Succession,” proved to be one of last year’s surprise hits, garnering great reviews and a high box office. The film, which centers on a group of wealthy diners who realize that the exclusive restaurant where they’re dining is not what it seems, offers a full course of thrills, social satire, and gorgeous production design. Ralph Fiennes’s turn as Slowik, the restaurant’s eccentric head chef, as well as the film’s screenplay, by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, seemed to be particularly strong candidates for awards. 

“The Menu” coming up short, while disappointing, isn’t particularly surprising. At the end of the day, movies of this kind aren’t usually contenders at the Oscars. Besides, for this year’s slate of nominees, the lane for satirizing the uber-wealthy was already occupied by films like “Triangle of Sadness” and “Glass Onion.” Nonetheless, “The Menu” is already a success for proving that original, mid-budget fare still has a shot in today’s increasingly franchise-dominated Hollywood. 

“Nope”

Director Jordan Peele’s latest film, an exhilarating, thought-provoking mash-up of science fiction, horror, and thriller, was one of last summer’s most anticipated releases. Its leading actors gave three of the year’s best, most nuanced performances: Daniel Kaluuya as the quiet, reflective OJ, Keke Palmer as the exuberant Emerald, and Steven Yeun as the slick, troubled Jupe. Its story, centering on the arrival of a mysterious UFO, provided both edge-of-your-seat thrills and richer themes to consider, from animal abuse to the repression of childhood trauma to the human toll of Hollywood’s quest for spectacle. Yet, when the slate of nominees came around, “Nope” was nowhere to be seen. 

Sadly, this seems to be becoming a pattern for Peele’s films. Despite multiple nominations and a win for “Get Out,” Peele’s 2019 follow-up “Us” similarly went empty-handed despite its thematic richness and a killer double performance from Lupita Nyong’o. Peele’s work, no matter how great, suffers from the Academy’s long-ingrained biases, both against filmmakers of color and against “genre” movies, like horror and science fiction. Indeed, as Peele’s films keep getting snubbed, it seems increasingly like Academy voters were only open to seeing a Black filmmaker address themes of race, as in “Get Out,” but not other social messages. What’s more, the themes of “Nope,” which raise thorny questions about the exploitation that undergirds Hollywood and the trauma that can be involved in the creative process, may have hit Academy voters the wrong way. 

Conclusion:

These films may not have a shot at winning Oscars, but they’ve already won over this Oscar. Stay tuned, Oscar on the Oscars will return after spring break with a look at this Sunday’s ceremony and the films that did end up winning.

Oscar Kim Bauman can be reached at obauman@wesleyan.edu.