Another year, another surprising Oscar nominations list revealed, with no love for Sam Mendes' exceptional Skyfall, a surprising amount of nominations for both Beasts Of The Southern Wild and Silver Linings Playbook, and an Original Screenplay nod to a film based on real-life events. Not entirely sure how that works... Aside from Seth MacFarlane's Hitler joke (always onto a winner with Nazi-based humour, I find) and the traditional problems with production values that bafflingly always seems to effect any Academy ceremony, there were a number of glaring mistakes in the nominations, as ever. Though of course no nominations list could leave everyone happy, the fact that the following ten films or individuals did not make the list will be considered the ten biggest snubs of this year's round of nominations.
7. Skyfall - Best Picture
To be perfectly frank, it was never going to be a popular choice with the Academy, given the heritage of the Bond franchise, and the rather unfortunate connotations that sort of extended lifespan can have for films. The sorry fact is that the Bond franchise is viewed much like a soap opera is in TV circles, or Call of Duty is among gamers - all can be critically acclaimed, but when it comes to higher brow awards time, even in their own industries they're likely to be looked down upon. But Skyfall was unlike a Bond we'd seen for a while - yes it paid service to the older Bonds, and offered a revisionary opportunity for whoever makes the next Bond film, but it was good enough to have been classed as so much more than "just a Bond." Sam Mendes' direction was top-notch, the writing was particularly strong, and the acting across the board was excellent. Quite how it was pushed out by Django Unchained, I'll never know.