It sure did. Andrea Riseborough received a Best Actress nomination this morning, but sadly she won’t be competing against any Black women for the Oscar win, because yet again, no Black women received a Best Actress nomination. And of course, that’s just one of the morning’s many disappointments.
In the days to come, videos of nominees hearing their names get called will start to circulate online, and particularly with the short film, international film, and documentary races, these videos are beautiful, contagious, and seem to immediately justify the whole Awards Industrial Machine that drives us all so crazy year after year.
But right now we haven’t seen those videos yet, and sharing in that ecstatic joy feels far off in some theoretical future. No, right now is for outrage. Oscar nominations morning always feels a bit cruel in the moment, when what doesn’t get announced somehow feels so much louder, so much more real, than what does.
It’s important to remember that no movie you love is any different today than it was yesterday. It’s still there for you, eagerly awaiting that next rewatch. But a lack of Oscar nominations does mean that, perhaps, fewer eyes will find their way to these movies over the next few months. Here’s a list of some movies and performances that we’re suddenly sad might not be watched by as many people as they should have been.
Danielle Deadwyler for “Till”
While it wasn’t necessarily the morning’s most shocking snub (indeed, some pundits have been predicting it for a while), perhaps the saddest omission today was Danielle Deadwyler missing out on a Best Actress nomination for her heartbreaking lead performance as Mamie Till in Chinonye Chukwu’s “Till.” The strength and conviction of Deadwyler’s resolve on screen, particularly in a long, deeply powerful single take during the film’s emotional climax, elevated one of the saddest stories in American history far above any “tragedy porn” tropes, and instead created one of the most inspirational portraits of motherhood to ever grace the screen.