Oscar nominations 2024 snubs and surprises: No best director nominations for Bradley Cooper, Greta Gerwig
In a year overstuffed with terrific film performances, there were bound to be disappointments when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its nominees for the 96th Academy Awards this morning — and three past winners were among those left out in the 2024 Oscar nominations.
There was particular backlash over the fact that "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig and star Margot Robbie were left out, despite the film's other nods, including for best picture.
Leonardo DiCaprio didn't make it into the top five for best actor for his starring role in "Killers of the Flower Moon," and neither Natalie Portman nor Julianne Moore received a nod for "May December." (Nor did that film's breakout star, Charles Melton.)
The best actress category in particular was highly competitive this year, and it's populated by past winner Emma Stone (for "Poor Things"), three-time nominee Carey Mulligan ("Maestro"), five-time nominee Annette Bening ("Nyad"), and first-time nominees Lily Gladstone ("Killers of the Flower Moon") and Sandra Hüller ("Anatomy of a Fall") — which didn't leave room for Margot Robbie ("Barbie"), Greta Lee ("Past Lives"), Cailee Spaeny ("Priscilla"), Fantasia Barrino ("The Color Purple") or Michelle Williams ("Showing Up").
The supporting actress category did include Emily Blunt for "Oppenheimer," America Ferrera for "Barbie" (after she'd been shut out of the SAG Awards and Golden Globes), Danielle Brooks for "The Color Purple" (that film's sole nomination), Jodie Foster for "Nyad," and Da'Vine Joy Randolph for "The Holdovers." Left out were Rosamund Pike ("Saltburn"), Penelope Cruz ("Ferrari"), Rachel McAdams ("Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret"), Claire Foy ("All of Us Strangers"), Viola Davis ("Air"), Taraji P. Henson ("The Color Purple"), Juliette Binoche ("The Taste of Things") and Tilda Swinton ("The Killer").
Bradley Cooper received three nominations for his passion project, "Maestro," for best picture, best actor, and best original screenplay, but he did not receive one for his directing. He was similarly shut out by the directors' branch for his 2018 film "A Star Is Born." Also shut out from a directing nomination were "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig and Celine Song of "Past Lives." But it's not an all-male category this year; Justine Triet is up for "Anatomy of a Fall." She's joined by past winner Martin Scorsese ("Killers of the Flower Moon"), past nominees Christopher Nolan ("Oppenheimer") and Yorgos Lanthimos ("Poor Things") and first-timer Jonathan Glazer ("The Zone of Interest").
Gerwig and Song did receive nominations in the screenplay categories.
Following the nominations announcement, "Barbie" stars Ferrera and Ryan Gosling, who received a nomination for best supporting actor, expressed disappointment at the Academy's snubs of Robbie in the category of best actress and Gerwig in best director.
"I am extremely honored to be nominated by my colleagues alongside such remarkable artists in a year of so many great films. And I never thought I'd being saying this, but I'm also incredible honored and proud that it's for portraying a plastic doll named Ken," Gosling's statement said. "But there is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no 'Barbie' movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally-celebrated film. No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit and genius. To say that I'm disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement."
Ferrera spoke to Variety about the way she found out about her nomination. "I still haven't really been able to get in my feelings because I'm still on like the top layer of 'I can't even believe that this is real,'" Ferrera said. But she added, about Robbie and Gerwig, that she was "was incredibly disappointed that they weren't nominated."
"What Margot achieved as an actress is truly unbelievable," Ferrera told the publication. "One of the things about Margot as an actress is how easy she makes everything look. And perhaps people got fooled into thinking that the work seems easy, but Margot is a magician as an actress in front of the screen, and it was one of the honors of my career to get to witness her pull off the amazing performance she did."
"Barbenheimer" (sorry, "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer") received a collective 21 nominations, but missed out in some surprising technical categories. "Barbie" earned nominations for production design and costumes, but not in makeup/hair nor editing. Meanwhile, the visual effects branch ignored the practical effects used to create the visuals of "Oppenheimer," and the screenplay for "Killers of the Flower Moon" failed to score a nomination.
Happy surprises: The eye-popping "Poor Things" earned a whopping 11 nominations. The Academy did recognize one of the most effective uses of sound in a movie: nominee "The Zone of Interest," in which the horrors of Auschwitz are heard but not seen. And let's hear it for "Godzilla Minus One" — it received a nomination for best visual effects, the first time Japan's favorite monster has ever made it to the Oscars.
Black-and-white cinematography is getting its closeup, with three nominees this year: "Oppenheimer," "Maestro" (both filmed partially in black-and-white), and the vampire film "El Conde."
For the latest installment in the Indiana Jones franchise, composer John Williams earned his 54th career nomination — the most of anyone except Walt Disney — while Robbie Robertson earned a posthumous nomination for his score for "Killers of the Flower Moon."
Among the feature documentary candidates that didn't make the final five were "American Symphony," about musician Jon Batiste, and "Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie," about the actor's struggle with Parkinson's.
And missing out on the 10 nominees for best picture? "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," "The Color Purple," "Air," "May December," "Ferrari," "Napoleon," "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret," "Asteroid City," "Priscilla," "Origin," and "Rustin."
The Oscars will be presented on March 10.