After months and months of speculation, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its Academy Award nominations this morning, honoring the supposedly best of 2014 in film. But the most egregious omission is the sadly not-entirely-surprising absence of Selma’s Ava DuVernay from the five contenders nominated for Best Director. Selma’s short-shrifting is particularly galling when you consider that American Sniper got more nominations, two of them in “major” categories (best actor and editing). Ms. DuVernay directed one of the very best films of the year and has been lauded and celebrated accordingly for the last two months and yet she was shoved aside for at least a few contenders who were nowhere near as celebrated. There is a real chance that this terrific and towering achievement that highlights the profoundly heroic and blood-stained work of those who worked with and for Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement will be forever defined by the notion that it wasn't nice enough to a powerful white guy in a supporting role. So it is both ironic and infuriating that it has now been defamed because of the (I would argue false) notion that it isn't nice enough to a really powerful white guy who plays a key supporting role. Only three black men have ever been nominated in the best director category: John Singleton for Boyz n the Hood (1991), Lee Daniels for Precious (2009) and Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave just last year. Clint Eastwood’s messily reverent biopic of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle does exactly the opposite of what Selma does, occluding important sociopolitical truths behind a veil of macho patriotism. The films will earn their critical plaudits, make their money, and win their awards, but the respective directors have already won. The lack of nominations doesn't bode well for a Best Picture win — the only film in history to take home the top prize without a director or acting nomination was the 1932 film Grand Hotel. I hope I’m wrong about both Selma’s cinematic legacy and about DuVernay’s career prospects. Laura Dern, beloved by an obsessive subset of the nation, got a nomination—for Wild, but frankly it doesn’t matter what it was for, it’s good news no matter what. “We’re in the second decade of the 21st century, and it’s a whole new environment for entertainment,” Boone Isaacs told Variety.
– The Oscar nominations come once a year, and so too the avalanche of stories on the biggest snubs. But in terms of 2015, Richard Lawson at Vanity Fair puts it thusly: "Don’t the nominations this year feel so wrong?" Our roundup of this year's particularly vocal snub-coverage: Director Phil Lord is grabbing a ton of headlines for his "touché" response to the Lego Movie somehow not being nominated for Best Animated Feature: "It's okay. Made my own!" he tweeted along with an image of an Oscar made entirely from yellow Legos. He's nearing 12,000 retweets. How Jezebel sums it up: 2015 Oscar Nominations Snub Basically Everybody Who Isn't a White Dude. Mashable notes "this will be the whitest group since 1998." In that vein, Scott Mendelson at Forbes zeros in on one "egregious" omission: Selma director Ava DuVernay. His lengthy piece explores why her snub matters. Mashable notes that no black female director has ever gotten a nod; only three black male directors have (John Singleton, Boyz n the Hood; Lee Daniels, Precious; Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave). None won. Lawson looks beyond Selma's Best Director snub, expanding it: "That the movie’s wonderful acting, directing, writing, editing, and cinematography were shut out is a real oversight, sad in the story it tells and troubling in how grimly predictable it was." (Its only nods were Best Picture and Best Original Song.) For a meaty rundown, check out Huffington Post's list of today's 29 biggest snubs.