Photo: Tim P. Whitby (Getty Images)
Every year there are Oscar snubs but 2019’s edition hurt a little more because it was such a fine year for film. We’ve narrowed it down to the 9 Biggest Oscar Snubs of 2019 because if the Academy won’t acknowledge them, at least Mandatory will.
The 2019 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Feb. 24. What films or stars do you think got robbed?
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Oscar Snubs
Ethan Hawke - Best Actor
It's sacrilegious that Ethan Hawke wasn't chosen for a Best Actor nomination. He killed it in Paul Schrader's comeback film, First Reformed , playing Travis Bickle with a priest collar.
'Won't You Be My Neighbor'
Morgan Neville's critically-acclaimed tearjerker was the Oscar frontrunner but was inexplicably not even nominated. Boo! We can't really explain why other than this year's Best Documentary category was stacked with the likes of Minding the Gap, Free Solo, and RGB .
'Paddington 2'
In a year filled with trials and tribulations, no other movie gave us more pure joy than Paddington 2 . Yet when it was time to give back to our beloved British bear, the Academy had nothing.
Robert Redford - Best Actor
How could the Academy not let the Sundance Kid ride off into the sunset with a Best Actor nomination? The living legend stole our hearts and more in the underrated Old Man & the Gun and deserved a better fate for all he's done for film.
Elsie Fisher - Best Actress
Every awkward middle-school note Elsie Fisher hit in the painfully funny Bo Burnham coming-of-age-tale was spot-on. Thankfully, this future star-in-the-making will have plenty more opportunities to be acknowledged.
'Crazy Rich Asians'
The other ground-breaking blockbuster of 2019 was Crazy Rich Asians . Although Black Panther got much-deserved Oscar love, Jon M. Chu's wildly entertaining rom-com was shunned despite earning top honors at both the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards this year. What's up with that?
'First Man'
Damien Chazelle and Ryan Gosling's Neil Armstrong biopic was a fine film that never took off with Oscar voters. Ironically, First Man might have been hurt by the success of the golden boys' past, namely La La Land.
Bradley Cooper - Best Director
The Academy always has a soft spot for actors-turned-directors so a Bradley Cooper for Best Director nomination was easy money. Well don't count your chickens before they hatch because the first-time director was shut down. Don't feel sorry for him, besides dating supermodel Irina Shayk , he was nominated for Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and A Star is Born is in the running for Best Picture.
'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'
Okay we know Spider-Verse got nominated for Best Animated Feature, but this Spider-Man remix movie did the impossible: it made us fall in love with comic movies again. We weren't alone. It has a 97 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. All that deserved a shot at the big boy table for Best Picture.