5 biggest 2021 Oscars snubs on Netflix

As is expected in 2021 Oscars season, there are some snubs in the nominations, which were announced this morning.

Fortunately, there’s nothing nearly as outrageous as various instances in the past where the Academy inexplicably caters to one film (or one race) at the expense of other talent, and nomination love was spread wide and well this year.

Netflix came away with lots of nominations, including Mank with the most noms for a single movie, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t talent that went unrecognized in the Oscar nom pool.

Below, we’ll list, in no particular order, the five biggest Oscasrs snubs on Netflix from the Academy lists.

2021 Oscars snubs

Snub 1: Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods) for Best Actor

Netflix campaigned seriously hard for this movie, most of all for Lindo’s layered, woeful portrayal of steadfast determination, but Da 5 Bloods only received one nomination for Best Original Score.

The Best Actor category is quite stacked this year and boasts one of the most diverse lineups of this year’s ceremony – with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom‘s Chadwick Boseman more or less a lock – but Lindo delivered such a forceful, powerful character in Spike Lee’s joint. More “too bad” than “unjustly outrageous,” I’d like to think that Lindo was No. 6 on the Academy’s longlist ranking of Best Actor contenders.

Snub 2: Dick Johnson is Dead for Best Documentary Feature

How did this happen? Seriously, this one makes no sense. The Best Documentary Feature category is getting more and more cutthroat every year, with documentaries becoming a fantastic return-on-investment for home and theater viewers alike, as well as allowing directors to display artistry and athletic cinematography unhindered by narrative film restraints. But Kristen Johnson’s ode to the familial celebration and the art of documentary filmmaking itself won Best Documentary at the Critics’ Choice and numerous awards at the IDAs. If you substitute out The Mole Agent or My Octopus Teacher for Dick Johnson is Dead, you’ve got a much more interesting category. Come on.

Snub 3: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom for Best Picture

Hmm. I can’t say I understand the Academy’s logic here. Best Picture nominee pools typically range anywhere between 7 and 10 nominees, with more recent years landing on 9. This year they chose 8, and Ma Rainey was nominated in key acting and design categories, though not the telling Director, Screenplay, or Editing categories. In a year when the Best Picture category seems to heavily favor one film already (that would be Nomadland), I would have expected Ma Rainey to rack up that ninth nom, but the Academy, for little apparent reason, thought otherwise.

Snub 4: Jack Fincher (Mank) for Best Original Screenplay

This elicited the biggest gasp from me during the broadcast. Nominated at the Globes, the BAFTAs, and the Critics’ Choice Awards, the Mank script penned by David Fincher’s late father seemed surely to be a shoo-in in this category. A screenplay win is usually the first sign of Best Picture glory as well later in Oscars night, so the fact that the Mank script wasn’t even recognized was a notable omission in itself, but also dashed hopes of Mank winning Best Picture. The category, however, is full to the brim with worthy contenders, so, again, merely unfortunate. Sorry, Mank.

Snub 5: i’m thinking of ending things for any category

It’s a left-of-center pick by nature, so I totally get the Academy not recognizing, say, Jessie Buckley’s brilliant performance in this movie. I’m more shocked by the snubbing of this movie in the craft categories, like Production Design and Cinematography.

I’ve written before here about the talents of Łukasz Żal and Molly Hughes in i’m thinking of ending things and how rad it would be for them to get some Oscar love. But those two categories in particular steered more straight and narrow this year than they previously have been. Perhaps that’s just wishful thinking on my part on behalf of one of the best movies of last year.

What did you think got snubbed from this year’s Oscar nom pool? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!