Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | January 22, 2026
The Oscar nominations are here and, frankly, it’s all pretty decent? Any year where we can get through awards season with a pleasant shrug of, ‘hey, it could have been a hell of a lot worse’ is a success, in my opinion. 2025 is a fascinating year, one where things feel truly competitive in a number of categories. Records were broken — Sinners’s 16 nominations is a new high for the Academy - and so were a few hearts. Such is the case every year. Cuts have to be made, things will be omitted, and, at least once, I’ll yell, ‘oh, f*ck off’ at my screen.
Sometimes, you know why a cut is made. It was never going to happen, no matter how many Etsy witches you paid to magic it into existence. Other times, you wonder if the producers just didn’t prepare a big enough steak dinner and champagne feast for voters. Here are some of the snubs that left us the most surprised and perplexed.
ZERO NOMS FOR NO OTHER CHOICE
Did Park Chan-wook piss in the Academy’s cornflakes? He’s maybe the most important Korean filmmaker of his generation - and certainly one of the most influential directors working today - and yet they blank him every dang time. Nothing for Oldboy, The Handmaiden, Decision to Leave, and, now, zilch for No Other Choice. Was being one of the most acclaimed movies of 2025 just not good enough? Is it anti-Korean cinema bias in a post-Parasite world? Usually, the Oscars only pay attention to one non-English language movie in any given season, but this year, they spread out the love between The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value, with some solid tech noms for Sirat. Did they just decide that they’d hit their quota? Speaking of…
HUGE DROP-OFF FOR IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
Jafar Panahi, one of the kings of the Iranian New Wave, a man who has gone to jail for his right to free speech under the rule of the Iranian government, won the Palme d’Or for It Was Just an Accident. Hopes were high that he could do big business with the Oscars, but, despite two well-earned noms in Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay, the movie was absent elsewhere. Nothing in Director or Picture (but you let F1 in? Choices.) Recently, an anonymous Academy voter admitted they hadn’t seen this one because it just wasn’t in their algorithm. That explains a lot about these people, doesn’t it?
NOTHING FOR THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE
This one was less surprising but no less painful. We knew that Mona Fastvold’s fascinating historical musical was probably going to be snubbed because of its absence on the tech longlists, but damn, no nominations at all? Sometimes, a film is just too out-there for this middle-of-the-road bunch. It did seem a bit mean to have one of the movie’s stars, Lewis Pullman, doing the nominations and not giving him a little treat.
NO PAUL MESCAL?!
Hamnet was dominant, as expected, with Jessie Buckley currently the Best Actress frontrunner. It was smart of Paul Mescal to go supporting, but it didn’t pay off with a nomination. I think he deserved one, but I cannot be mad at this category when it’s got Stellan Skarsgard, Benicio ‘a few small beers’ Del Toro, Jacob ‘he can act, he’s not just tall’ Elordi, and DELROY F**KING LINDO! If you’re going to be kicked out of the top five, let it be for Delroy.
NO CHASE, AMANDA, OR JENNIFER IN BEST ACTRESS
Remember how I wrote that piece last night about Kate Hudson’s hyper-determined Oscar thirst and how she might get a Best Actress nomination for a movie about a Neil Diamond tribute act? It happened. It’s tough being the Cassandra of the site. Song Sung Blue didn’t get nominated anywhere else but Hudson secured her first nom since Almost Famous. But that meant, in a very stacked year for the category, a lot of tough cuts were made. So, say goodbye to Chase Infiniti for One Battle After Another, Amanda Seyfried for The Testament of Ann Lee, and Jennifer Lawrence for Die My Love. It really does suck that Best Actress continues to be so averse to nominating Black women, even when they’re the lead in the most acclaimed movie of the year that is all but guaranteed to win Best Picture.
WICKED IS GONE FOR GOOD
The Academy stopped holding space for Wicked when its sequel, Wicked: For Good, didn’t do as well with critics. Ariana Grande was a possibility for Best Supporting Actress but voters gravitated towards Wunmi Mosaku and the women of Sentimental Value instead. They also blanked the original songs written for the movie, perhaps because they were bad and they had to keep a slot for yet another Diane Warren dirge. The buzz just wasn’t there this time around, and the Oscars aren’t big on sequels.
JAY KELLY FLOPS
Hey, remember Jay Kelly? You know, the Noah Baumbach movie starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler that was a loving meta-examination of a Hollywood movie-star? Nope? We don’t blame you. apparently, Netflix forgot this one existed too, even though it was hyped up as one of their guaranteed frontrunners months before anyone saw it. Such is the harsh tyranny of the Oscar race. Netflix ended up prioritizing Frankenstein, which did big numbers across the board, and the dark horse run of Train Dreams resulted in nominations in Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Original Song, and Cinematography.
