The 2016 Oscar nominations announced this week had their usual share of snubs and surprises, including "Star Wars: The Force Awakens'" missing best movie nod, Sylvester Stallone's "Creed" recognition, and Aaron Sorkin's absent "Steve Jobs" nomination.
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" received strong reviews while raking in $1.7 billion globally at the
box office, according to BoxOfficeMojo. But, though it received some technical nominations, the movie did not land any nods in the major categories of best movie or best director for J.J. Abrams.
"While mainstream blockbusters don't usually get the nod, this highly pedigreed project isn't exactly
'Furious 7,'" Us Weekly's Mara Reinstein wrote. "And don't forget that 'Avatar,' the previous all-time box-office champ, got the coveted Best Picture nomination back in 2010. Poor J.J. Abrams will now have to wipe his tears with all those hundred dollar bills."
The Hollywood Reporter writer Hilary Lewis said, up until last week, Sorkin was considered the frontrunner in the best adapted screenplay category for "Steve Jobs" but, in the end, the 2011 Academy Award-winner was not even nominated.
The movie's lead actors Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet
were, though, for best actor and best supporting actress, respectively.
Even though Stallone won the Golden Globe last week for his Rocky Balboa reprise in "Creed," it wasn't clear whether that would translate to an
Oscar nomination, USA Today noted.
"Oscar prognosticators had wondered if Stallone's relationship with Academy Awards voters had stalled after so many years absent from the awards game, but a best supporting-actor nod for bringing back Rocky Balboa in "Creed" — a character he was first nominated for in 1977 ('Rocky' won best picture that year) — erased any doubts," the newspaper said.
But snubs for Stallone's costar Michael B. Jordan and "Creed's" director Ryan Coogler, both African-American, brought complaints of the Academy Award's lack of diversity among its main categories.
The absence of "Beast of No Nation's" Idris Elba, "Concussion's" Will Smith, and the whole cast of "Straight Outta Compton" from the acting and best movie nominations echoed the diversity complaint.
Variety writer Tim Gray called the omissions "surprising."
"Some may conclude that the nominations reflect institutional bias against minorities and women within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, but the problem is with Hollywood’s major studios and agencies," Gray wrote.
"Straight Outta Compton" screenwriters Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff and story writers S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus, and Berloff, were, however, nominated for best screenplay.
Other perceived snubs included "The Martian" director Ridley Scott, "The Hateful Eight" director Quentin Tarantino, Johnny Depp for "Black Mass," and "Carol" in the best picture category.
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