Oscars 2020 Snubs and Surprises

The 92nd Annual Joaquin Phoenix’s transformation), Joker also overperformed with its full 11 nods, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Yet it is also the Best Director category that is causing the most introspection and head-scratching. In what was one of the most crowded Best Director fields of the decade, 2019 saw masterworks from respected auteurs like Jojo Rabbit. This leads, once again, to a Best Director category dominated by five men.

Indeed, Oscar nominee announcer Issa Rae not so subtly dinged the Academy after the Best Director nominees were announced by saying, “Congratulations to these men.” Intriguingly, this mirrors one of the themes Gerwig picked up on and expanded in her Little Women adaptation, which sees protagonist Jo March (Saoirse Ronan) struggle mightily to be taken seriously by men in the literary world. Her own publisher often condescends and dismisses the importance of stories about female relationships.

The cast of Little Women has since commented on the surprise snub, with Florence Pugh, who was nominated for Best ing Actress, saying, “I think the most important thing—and I’ve said this all along, ever since the Golden Globes started it off—is Greta made a film about women and their relationship with money, and their relationship with men in a man’s working world. And it’s just highlighting the point. It’s just completely underlining how important this film is, and how the themes are still apparent now.”

Another major snub was Jennifer Lopez going ignored in the Best ing Actress category for her work in Avengers: Endgame.

Best Actress, however, also had some bitter surprises, including the absence of Awkwafina for Us, went equally overlooked, although that was always a long shot given she starred in a horror movie, a genre the Academy traditionally ignores. Instead a surprise nomination went to Cynthia Erivo for her movie-elevating work in Harriet. Erivo being nominated after the BAFTAs infamously nominated only white performers in its 20 acting slots is refreshing—but only by a little bit since the other 19 Oscar nominees in these categories are still all white.

In fact, the Best Actor category also saw its share of upsets and surprises, including Uncut Gems. Also despite starring in one of the most nominated movies of the year, and one that he personally pushed for a decade to get made, Robert De Niro went strangely omitted here.

Other snubs include Frozen II missing out on Best Animated Feature, Lee Smith’s editing of 1917 going ignored, and Beyoncé’s original song for The Lion King remake also getting ed over.

David Crow is the Film Section Editor at Den of Geek. He’s also a member of the Online Film Critics Society. Read more of his work here. You can follow him on Twitter @DCrowsNest.