Hollywoodโs Oscar voters passed over big names including Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro on Monday, while issuing a surprise first Academy Award nomination to actor Antonio Banderas for Spanish film โPain and Glory.โ
Singer and actress Lopez was widely praised for her role as an enterprising pole dancer in โHustlersโ as was Murphy for his lead role in โDolemite is My Name.โ But neither landed among the contenders for acting honors that will be awarded at the Oscars ceremony on Feb. 9 after both had been nominated for Golden Globe awards.
โThe big surprise of the day has to be Jennifer Lopez not getting a best supporting actress nomination,โ said Variety chief film critic Owen Gleiberman. โThere was just so much buzz about it, so much expectation. A lot of people thought she was going to win.โ
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the roughly 8,000-member group that hands out the Oscars, also continued Hollywoodโs streak of giving a cold shoulder to Robert De Niroโs performance in โThe Irishman.โ
Two-time Oscar winner De Niro was nominated as a producer of โThe Irishman,โ which will compete for best picture, but not for his acting in the gangster epic. He also failed to land a Golden Globe or Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for the part.
Comic actor Adam Sandler had won acclaim for his dramatic role in crime thriller โUncut Gems,โ but voters left him out of the Oscar nominations. Gleiberman called Sandlerโs performance โextraordinary.โ
โItโs an amazing movie, a truly great performance that shows that Adam Sandler really had a kind of greatness in him,โ Gleiberman said.
Awkwafina, who won a Golden Globe for playing a doting granddaughter in โThe Farewell,โ also was left out of the acting nods.
Walt Disney Coโs blockbuster sequel โFrozen 2โ failed to secure a spot in the best animated feature category, which included two lesser-known entries from Netflix Inc โ โKlausโ and โI Lost My Body.โ
The academy attracted renewed criticism for failing to recognize female directors by leaving out โLittle Womenโ filmmaker Greta Gerwig. She was nominated for adapted screenplay but not for best director.
Actress Issa Rae, one of the presenters of the nominations, quipped โcongratulations to those menโ when the director nominees were announced, and #DirectorsSoMale became a trending topic on Twitter.
The Academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment about criticism regarding lack of diversity.
Overall, โLittle Womenโ received six nominations including best picture and a surprise nod for supporting actress Florence Pugh as difficult daughter Amy March.
Gerwig said she was โbrimming with happinessโ after the nominations were announced.
โI donโt necessarily see the omission of Greta Gerwig from this yearโs slate of nominees as a gender-based decision,โ Gleiberman said.
โThe larger gender-based thing is that we need many, many more movies, major movies directed by women. Thatโs only going to happen when we have more and more women in the positions of power,โ Gleiberman added.
Only one of the 20 acting nominees was a person of color. Cynthia Erivo was nominated for her lead role as anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman in โHarriet.โ
That prompted some Twitter users to revive the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag that exploded in 2015.
The film academy has since moved to diversify its mostly white, male membership by inviting more women and people of color to join.
Banderas, the 59-year-old veteran of movies including โThe Mask of Zorroโ and โEvita,โ received his first Oscar nomination for playing a film director reflecting on his life choices in โPain and Glory.โ The movie was directed by Pedro Almodรณvar, who based the film on his own life story.
REUTERS