Shut Outs
These are instances where I believe certain films or individuals unfairly missed out on a nomination.
Ron Howard for Directing Apollo 13 (1995)
I spoke about this earlier, but I was never really on the Braveheart train. I 100% believe Apollo 13 was the superior film that year, so I find it quite surprising that he wasn’t even nominated for Best Director. I was probably in middle school the first time I saw this movie and I remember thinking it was good, but nothing too special (better than Braveheart, though). It wasn’t until this year when the film returned to Netflix that I gave it a re-evaluation. As I was watching, I forgot how exciting the film was. This is no small part due to Howard’s direction. The kinetic camera movements paired with the editing allow the audience to feel, particularly during the NASA scenes, the urgency involved in getting these astronauts home. I think I should note that I watched this film on my phone at the gym. To me, if you can make me forget that I’m on a treadmill because I am so engrossed in the film, I consider that a huge victory. Plus, if it was exciting on my six-inch phone screen, I could only imagine how much better it would have been on the big screen. It’s a shame that Howard did not get recognized for his direction, but the Academy has a unique relationship with actors turned directors. That, ladies and gentlemen, will become abundantly clear when we talk about Ben Affleck.
Paul Giamatti for Best Actor (2004)
Paul Giamatti’s performance as Miles Raymond in Sideways, a depressed writer reduced to teaching eighth-grade English, may end up being the one he is remembered for down the line. Miles as a character is pathetic. There’s no denying that, but what makes him great is that you empathize with him and want him to get the girl (Virginia Madsen). Despite getting SAG and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor, Giamatti was shut out at the Oscars. Long thought to be a lock, the surprise nominee in the category was Clint Eastwood in Million Dollar Baby. Million Dollar Baby is a hopeful yet tragic masterpiece that I believe deserved its Best Picture and Director trophies (both for Eastwood), but Eastwood as an actor? I don’t think so. For starters, he doesn’t show much range. He plays the stereotypical gruff, crotchety old man who finds his redemption by coaching a young female boxer (Hilary Swank). I guess that most people who watch the film don’t come out thinking that Clint Eastwood was a revelation. He was serviceable at best. If you came out talking about anyone’s performance, it was Swank’s. This film earned her the second Oscar win of her career. You could have even been talking about Morgan Freeman’s performance that somehow won him the only Oscar of his career. You sure as hell weren’t talking about Eastwood as an actor. I understand that Best Actor that year was a crowded category. Competing for the trophy were Jamie Foxx (Ray), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator), Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda), and Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland). I know I have been picking a lot on Eastwood. I will be upfront with you and tell you I never saw Saving Neverland, so maybe it is Depp I should be picking on? I don’t know. I do know that the other three nominees deserved to be there absolutely. Trying to look on the positive side, I am at least happy that Sideways got nominations for Best Picture, Directing, Supporting Actress (Madsen), Supporting Actor (Thomas Haden Church), and a win in the Adapted Screenplay category.
Andrew Garfield for Best Supporting Actor (2010)
I think Andrew Garfield is one of the best actors of his generation. He earned well-deserved nods for his roles in Hacksaw Ridge and Tick, Tick, Boom…,” but I believe that his first nomination should have come in the Best Supporting Actor category for The Social Network. Playing Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook, Garfield’s warmth perfectly counteracted Mark Zuckerberg’s (Jesse Eisenberg) cold, isolating behavior. To watch him go from Zuckerberg’s right-hand man to getting squeezed out of the company is a treat. The scene where he confronts Mark at the million-member launch party after discovering his shares have been significantly reduced, therefore dissolving his role in the company, was powerful enough to warrant a nomination in my book. I think what went against Garfield ultimately, was a stacked category of other deserving actors. He was up against John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone), Jeremy Renner (The Town), Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech), and winner Christian Bale (The Fighter). I agree with Christian Bale’s win completely and I’ll talk more about his performance in another post, but which nominee should have been bumped in favor of Garfield? I can’t answer that, but maybe you can?
Ben Affleck for Directing Argo (2012)
Remember how I told you that the Academy has a unique relationship with actors turned directors? It’s a hot and cold relationship. Robert Redford (Ordinary People) and Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves) won the award for their directorial debuts. Other actors turned directors who won the award after their directorial debut include Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind), Warren Beatty (Reds), Mel Gibson (Braveheart), and Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby). On the other hand, actors turned directors like Ron Howard (Apollo 13) and Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born and Maestro) directed Best Picture nominated films without receiving a nomination for directing.
Nobody epitomizes this hot and cold relationship better than Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck won the Golden Globe for Best Director and like Howard, won the top prize at the Director’s Guild of America Awards. Unlike Apollo 13, however, Argo actually won Best Picture. This makes it the first Best Picture winner since Driving Miss Daisy in 1989 not to earn a nomination for Best Directing. Fun side note: In his opening monologue, 1990 Oscar host Billy Crystal remarked that it was “the film that apparently directed itself.” This occurrence has happened only twice since with Green Book and CODA. The night Argo won, the award for Best Director went to Ang Lee (Life of Pi). Other nominees include Michael Haneke (Amour), David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook), Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), and Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild). I think to many, the surprise nominee was Zeitlin. He didn’t secure nominations at the DGA or Golden Globe Awards (often precursors to the Oscars), but he did manage to snag an Academy Award nomination. I don’t know what else I can say. I think Affleck was robbed of a nomination. Pure and simple.