To snub something or someone is an active choice. If the nearly 10,000 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences all got together in a single place, they couldn’t agree on the best time to break for lunch. So it has never sat right that people consider that this voting body as a whole has chosen not to nominate an actor, filmmaker, or film. It’s far less sinister when you realize that the performance, artistry, or film that you love just didn’t have the right amount of votes. It’s unlikely it had no votes, just not the right amount. Your favorite is just the Cardinal Bellini of this particular conclave.
While a snub is a misnomer, it is true that voting bodies can be swayed for and against. It is also true that voting bodies have members who take their duty seriously as well as studiously and members who ask their friends who they’re voting for and write that title down. It is also true that some films are just not the right film at the right time. They exude or lack something that those films that have become nominees exude or lack in the opposite way. It’s all about how it’s done. It’s about how sex and politics are handled.
Sex
There is plenty of sex in this year’s crop of Best Picture nominees. The sex in these films is just done in a way that’s more palatable than in those films not nominated. The sex in Anora, while graphic and prevalent, is entirely heterosexual and acceptable to most audiences. In The Brutalist, explicit sex is used in metaphor either as exerting power, emotional openness, or a block on the creative process. Sex in Emilia Pérez is not made explicit but is implied. The sex in The Substance is more subliminal and teasing.
Whereas several films not nominated engage in sex and sexuality that is strange, beautiful, and against the mainstream. The obvious example here is Babygirl, with its submissive/dominant sexual relationship. The less obvious is Challengers, which never labels its couples but challenges traditional relationship structures. You could also add Love Lies Bleeding to the list as a woman’s pursuit and experience of pleasure, as well as lesbian narratives not involving men have always been a topic avoided by Academy members.
Politics
The right political message is a delicate one, and this year especially, the right message, or at the very least a clear message, is important. For I’m Still Here, the truth behind the horrifying tactics employed by brutal regimes is a necessity. In Conclave, progress cannot be stymied by backward thinking, yet it should be progress for all and progress that acts. Dune: Part 2 is about revolution against despotic rule.
A political message cannot be vague, but it can’t also put too fine a point on the ideas it wants to evoke. Though, September 5 may have taken on a neutral stance about journalism in the face of terrorism, its subject matter may have struck the wrong cord as the current conflict between the Israeli government and Hamas is still simmering in Gaza with millions of civilians caught in the crossfire. The Apprentice shows the man behind the man and the evolution of a conman, but since it depicts a now sitting president, the points it makes explicitly are going to be picked apart. The same could be said for a film like Civil War in a time when the United States is at a deep political divide. The vagaries of journalistic neutrality don’t make the statement the film needed to.
There can be other reasons a film doesn’t make the cut. It may be that votes for Sing Sing and for Ghostlight canceled each other out as they have similar themes. It may be that A Real Pain‘s parts were stronger than its whole. It’s definitely true that animated features like The Wild Robot are not seen as equal achievements in the art of filmmaking in the way that their live-action counterparts are.
There are hundreds of films that deserve a place among the ten nominees for Best Picture, but they weren’t chosen. It’s time to forget the past and focus on these ten. Focus on them and pick them apart piece by piece until Oscar night, when one will be named Best Picture, to the ire of many of us out there who can’t and will never vote for the Oscars. If you aren’t interested in these ten, there’s a new crop of potential nominees in a theater and streaming at home every week until the nominations announcement for the 2026 awards.
