The 85th Academy Award nominations have been announced, and the Internet is presently exploding with everyone's reactions about what the Academy got right and wrong. Like every year, I find myself lamenting the fact that the Academy's old-school mindset partied with some of its bizarre qualification regulations means that there's a pretty unsavoury turnout as usual. A lot of great stuff was nominated, sure, but this year more than most there were some absolutely shocking omissions (admittedly I always say this), as well as a few undeserving inclusions that reek of the old, white boy network that characterises the majority of the Academy. Here are 10 things the Academy got wrong.
10. Snub: Ben Affleck & Kathryn Bigelow For Best Director
It's inconceivable that Ben Affleck didn't receive a Best Director nomination for Argo, given the absurdly high praise that the film was earned over the last few months, with it being widely believed that Affleck was a frontrunner for the gong. To see him not included in this afternoon's list can only suggest a certain Academy prejudice, that they still remember the "old" Ben Affleck who starred in mediocre movies and are refusing to let go of that. Similarly, Kathryn Bigelow missed out, though perhaps we shouldn't be surprised given how few females have ever even been nominated for Best Director (even if she herself became the first woman to
win the thing a few years ago). Instead, they chose David O'Russell, who did a competent but not especially spectacular job on Silver Linings Playbook.