DOES NO ONE IN HOLLYWOOD KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORD “SNUBBED???”

If I hear the word “snubbed” used erroneously one more time to describe people who don’t get award nominations, I’m going to scream. Actually, I have, but only in my house, not publicly.

Leonardo DiCaprio in Killers of the Flower Moon.

So I figured it’s time to share my rant on the topic.

Idiots both in and out of the biz like to dub some of the nominations “snubs and surprises” for the alliteration. But—and I cannot stress this enough—they are not snubs!!! Some may be surprises, (like that Leonardo DiCaprio’s brilliant performance in Killers of the Flower Moon did not get nominated; in my opinion, he should always be nominated, even when he doesn’t make a movie!,) but no one is snubbing anybody here. To “snub” is to “rebuff” or “spurn” or even when it is used to denote being ignored, it means to do so “disdainfully.”

In the case of awards nominations, all that’s happening is that the voting bodies feel that a handful or so of other performances (or directors or creative works) are better than others! That’s it. No one is snubbing anyone. Example: the Oscars choose five Best Actor nominees by a vote of their Academy members. The top five vote-getters are in. Period. Someone else may come in a close sixth, even by one vote, but five is all they take, so that’s it for that category of nominees.

Plus, each awards body has a different system of voting, both for the nominations and the winners themselves. Sometimes it’s flat-out one vote a person, and the entity with the most votes wins. Period. At other times, each member has to list their Top Five, say, and there’s a point system. Someone who has all second place votes may win out over someone who had more first place votes, but also some fifth place ones! (If you’re really interested in exactly how each awards-bestowing group works, look it up.)

If the Academy Awards voters were truly snubbing someone, they would have to get together and decide that, no matter what, they were going to ignore what that artist had done. And, as far as I know, they’ve never done that. To have “snubbed” Margot Robbie, for example, (as all these morons keep saying they did,) that’s what they would have had to do, which, of course they did not.

Yes, some of the omissions for all the major awards have been questionable. I can’t understand how the Oscars voters found five performances that are better than Leo’s. Or how the Golden Globes voted Lily Gladstone’s one-note performance better than Annette Benning’s brilliant portrayal of Diana Nyad. A lot of choices are head-scratching for me.

But again, no one was snubbed! Please keep in mind that in the concept of the first five or six or seven works being nominated, (each awards body has a different number of nominees that is set ahead of time,) the others, no matter how good they are, just don’t get in. Don’t be a fool yourself just because some writers, pundits, creatives, and members of the public are.

Two people who did not deserve Oscars nominations, so, therefore, did not get them: Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie. (I adore Margot, by the way, but this was not an award-worthy performance.)

And, by the way, Barbie does not deserve inclusion in most of the awards nominations. (If you missed my thoughts on that movie last August, just click here: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/movie-review-barbie-movie-do-not-take-the-kids-and-stay-away-yourself.) It’s a travesty, and an insult to films, for it to have received any nods outside of Best Set Design, for the beautiful colorful sections.

I adore Ryan Gosling, and he provided the only fun in this stupid movie, but for him to have received any nomination, let alone one for a formerly-prestigious Academy Award, for playing Ken, is just pure nonsense.

And don’t get me started on America Ferrera getting an Oscars nod. I’ve never seen Mr. X be so disgusted over a nomination. He keeps asking me every day how that happened. I actually keep checking the nominations because I can’t really believe that she really got one. What America basically did in Barbie is read a political speech, not act. Compare that to Jodie Foster’s gut-wrenching performance in Nyad. Ridiculous.

I actually feel that the voters for this 2024 awards season bestowed any nominations on Barbie because they felt pressure from the public. And the box office! They would look like a bunch of old out-of-touch fogies if they had ignored the financial success of the movie. And they also need the viewers to tune-in to their TV presentations, so they figured what the heck.

So, to sum-up, all the voting entities actually snubbed my feelings on all the film nominations this season! And that’s how you use the word “snubbed!!!”