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Oscars: The Biggest Snubs of 2013

Ah, the Oscars. Hollywood’s biggest night. A night to celebrate the best films of the year, and to reward those that brought those films to the screen with Hollywood’s most coveted prize. While the Academy got a few things right this year (the stunning indie favorite Beasts of the Southern Wild up for Best Picture, the incomparable Christoph Waltz up for Best Supporting Actor), there were a handful of snubs that made us shake our heads in disbelief. Furthermore, it made us ponder one question: could the Academy really be this out of touch? Here’s the ten biggest Oscar snubs of 2013.

1 Ben Affleck-Best Director "Argo" Really Academy? You have no problem nominating the white-knuckle political thriller of the year for seven Oscars (including Best Picture of the year, which it most likely will win), but choose to completely ignore the film’s leader? You’ve gotta be kidding me. Sure, Affleck has been involved with some truly awful films in his time (remember Gigli?), but it’s time to get past that. That was ten years ago, and Affleck has matured not only as a man but as a filmmaker as well. His handling of Argo deservers recognition, and I would say that he deserves the Best Director Oscar more than any nominee in the running. It’s challenging enough to deliver a fantastic performance as a lead actor in a film. It’s even more challenging to direct that same film. This is not only the biggest snub of this years event, but one of the biggest and most disappointing snubs in Oscar history.

2 Kathryn Bigelow, Best Director "Zero Dark Thirty" God forbid Hollywood glorify torture. Even if that torture is of deplorable people used to gain valuable, history-making information. Zero Dark Thirty is such an astounding work that the Academy could not possibly ignore it, even if the members may have winced at scenes of Taliban members being waterboarded. The film scooped up five well deserved noms (including Best Picture), but the Academy failed to recognize the woman who made the film into the masterpiece it turned out to be. Bigelow, who won a few years back for The Hurt Locker, takes her place among the biggest snubs of the year. This was the Academy’s way of saying “Hey, you made a great film. We’ll give it some recognition. But don’t think you’re gonna get rewarded for depicting torture so realistically.” Another classic example of how the Academy lets politics interfere with art.

3 Quentin Tarantino, Best Director "Django Unchained" If you haven’t figured out by now, this year’s director category is nothing more than a bad joke. Save for Stephen Spielberg’s exquisite direction of Lincoln, none of the other four deserve to be there. I’m not saying they are not gifted filmmakers, however there are four individuals that deserve the nominations more than Benh Zeitlin, David O. Russell, Michael Haneke, and Ang Lee. One of those is the genius Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino wrote, acted in, and directed the best film of the year, Django Unchained. While the Academy members are much too old and conservative to vote a movie about slavery to ever win best picture (it’s a small miracle that Django even got nominated), the least they could have done was nominate one of Hollywood’s most talented directors. Tarantino’s blood-soaked revenge western is a two and a half hour roller coaster ride through the antebellum South, and a film that could only have been made by Tarantino. QT pays such attention to detail, and is almost obsessed with making his films the best they can possibly be. With Django, he’s created an enduring masterpiece that will live on in the same timeless vein as his previous masterpieces Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds. But hey, I guess in the Academy’s eyes, the man that directed the depressing tale of octogenarian love deserves a nod more than than the man who crafted one of the most exciting and unique films of the past decade.

4Moonrise Kingdom, Best Picture Speaking of unique films, Wes Anderson’s quirky love story about two children who find love in a small New England town and run off together is without a doubt the most unique film of the year. Bringing together an ensemble cast that includes Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Jason Schwartzman, and Tilda Swinton as Social Services, the film is beautifully written and entertaining from start to finish. Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman manage to outshine the ensemble cast as the young lovers, and light up the screen with their fantastic performances. It’s a crime that this little masterpiece only scored one nod for screenwriting. An extremely early frontrunner for Best Picture upon it’s release this past summer, the film was forced into Oscar obscurity as more and more heavyweight contenders were released. If it was up to me, I’d say take out Life of Pi (though a great film in it’s own right) to make room for Moonrise Kingdom. It deserves recognition for more than just it’s excellent screenplay.

5Leonardo DiCaprio, Best Supporting Actor "Django Unchained" Only Quentin Tarantino can craft such a detestable, deplorable, and maniacal villain that you actually hate them as if they were your personal sworn enemy. He did it a few years back with the Nazi Hans Landa (for which Christoph Waltz won an Oscar) in Inglorious Basterds, and he did it again this year with Monsieur Calvin J. Candie. It takes a truly gifted actor to bring such characters to life, and DiCaprio makes it look easy. Transforming yourself into a racist psychopath would be tough for any civilized person, but DiCaprio manages to get inside Candie’s mind and steals the last half of the movie with his amazing performance. I believe the Academy had the choice between nominating DiCaprio or Christoph Waltz, and ultimately went with Waltz simply because he plays a charming character with a heart of gold and not a charming character with a penchant for holding Mandingo fights between his slaves. I do believe Waltz deserves the Oscar for his astounding performance, and I think he has a great chance of pulling off an upset win this Sunday. Still, how hard could it have been to give DiCaprio a nod instead of say, Alan Arkin? It all comes down to the fact the Academy will probably never celebrate a character as blatantly racist and evil as Calvin Candie.

6John Hawkes, Best Actor "The Sessions" A little film you might’ve missed this year, The Sessions stars John Hawkes as poet Mark O’Brien, a man confined to an iron lung due to polio complications. The film is based on an essay by O’Brien, and chronicles the true story of his relationship with Cheryl Cohen-Greene, a professional sex surrogate whom he hires to take his virginity. Helen Hunt is up for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Cohen-Greene, but Hawkes‘ performance is truly brilliant. Hawkes has been nominated before, for his work as a meth addict in 2010’s Winter’s Bone (which also features a fine performance from one of this years Best Actress nominees, Jennifer Lawrence). The simple fact is that this year there were much too many fantastic performances like this one for each to get a nomination. With only five slots, Hawkes just came up short and failed to get a nod for a definite Oscar-caliber performance. It’s not like this really matters though, because this year’s Best Actor Oscar will most certainly be awarded to the masterful Daniel Day-Lewis for his career-defining performance as Abraham Lincoln.

7Tom Hooper, Best Director "Les Miserables" Les Miserables is easily one of the top 5 films of the year, and that is due in large part to the direction of Tom Hooper. Hooper won this category in 2011 for The King’s Speech, and while it would be much too soon for the Academy to give him the award again, omitting him from the nominees completely is a crime that only helps to the argument that this year’s Best Director category is one of the worst in history. I really cannot find a reason or excuse as to why this snub happened. I’m sure Hooper isn’t too broken up inside about it though, as Les Miz racked up a total of eight nominations this year and has made an absolute killing at the box office.

8Samuel L. Jackson, Best Supporting Actor "Django Unchained"- Sam Jackson’s performance as Stephen, Calvin Candie’s head house slave and right-hand man, is truly a remarkable feat. On one token, Stephen is a shuckin’ and jivin’ 1920’s blackface stereotype, making bad jokes and walking hunched over with a prominent limp. But when the white folks aren’t looking, Stephen is a sinister and brutal head slave, and treats his own people just as bad as Candie treats them. Again, this is the case of the Academy not being ready to celebrate this kind of a character. Django Unchained is a movie full of great performances, but there’s something about Jackson’s take on this slave that sets it apart from every other performance in the film.

9Flight, Best Picture- Flight is a difficult film to watch. It’s the story of drunken pilot Whip Whitaker, who manages to save many lives after crash landing a seemingly doomed plane. As if that isn’t impressive enough, he did this drunk and high on cocaine. Denzel Washington’s performance as Whitaker reminds us why he’s such a sought after talent in Hollywood, and it’s no surprise the Academy has nominated him for Best Actor for this role. But from beginning to end, Flight is a darkly entertaining tale of a man’s personal struggle with demons that ultimately end up changing his world. John Goodman provides some much needed comic relief as Whitaker’s drug dealer, and if this weren’t a year filled with such great supporting actor performances he’d be a shoe-in for a slot in that category. Flight would not have had much of a chance of winning, as there were some better films made last year. But it deserves recognition among the best of the best of 2012.

10“Who Did That To You” John Legend, Best Original Song, "Django Unchained" This year’s Best Original Song category is fairly strong, with Adele’s “Skyfall” the frontrunner. But there is one head-scratcher; the utterly asinine inclusion of “Everybody Needs a Best Friend” from Seth MacFarlane’s hilarious Ted. The film itself is one of the funniest comedies of last year, but this song is obviously only included because MacFarlane is serving as host of the show this year. The song that should have taken that spot is John Legend’s stirring, emotional soul ballad “Who Did That to You”. One of the most exciting moments in Django Unchained occurs when Django picks off the Le Quint Dickey Mining Company Employees, and saddles up to ride back to Candieland to the resounding notes of this great song. While it would most likely not triumph over Adele’s beautiful “Skyfall” (the best Bond theme in years), it would lend the Best Original Song category a bit more credibility.

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