8 Most Egregious Snubs Of The 2016 Oscar Nominations

It's that time of year again: we get all excited at the prospect of a night of good old-fashioned Hollywood glamour, watching stars accept gold statues for their accomplishments. But then (and this usually starts happening even before the night of the Oscars), reality sets in. Our favorite actors don't get nominated, the politics of the Academy Awards become obvious to even the casual viewer, and despite everyone's eternal optimism, we have to face the fact that maybe no one is good at hosting the Oscars. At any rate, this is where the disappointment begins. When they announce the nominations, and you wonder how on earth they could have left such talented and deserving people off their short list. Sure, there are only so many slots available, and the idea that every solid performance over the course of a given year is going to be nominated is unrealistic. But in exploring what the Academy has selected, it's easy to see their preferences, prejudices, and oversights amplified to a massive degree. Then, of course, the people who didn't get nominated will receive nominations for the next major performance they do, to make up for the perceived slights of past years, and the whole cycle will continue on and on until one day we decide that a massive paycheck and a pat on the back might be a good enough reward for turning in a good performance.

8. Jacob Tremblay - Room

Acting is not easy: it requires you to realistically portray experiences and emotions that you quite possibly have never gone through. Which is why we give a free pass to child actors so much of the time; they have such a limited range of experiences that most directors are happy when they can learn their lines and remember to hit their mark. So what happens is that the line becomes blurred between good child actors and the merely serviceable ones. But when a truly great child performance comes along, it's hard to miss. Unless, of course, you're the Academy, in which case you refuse to acknowledge child actors unless they are the Hollywood version of Jesus Christ himself. But look, just because Jacob Tremblay was only eight years old when he starred in Room does not mean that it wasn't one of the best performances of the year. He's a rare unicorn of child actors, one who is completely natural and real in his portrayal of emotions that he (hopefully) has never experienced. You can train a child to parrot lines, but you can't teach them how to look at the sky like they're seeing it for the first time. Jack is the emotional heart of the film, and since we are seeing the world through his eyes, it's vitally important that it feels genuine. This is where he succeeds, and deserves to have been recognized.