There are only so many Oscar nomination slots to go around, which means that every year there will be some noteworthy contenders who will get shut out. The reasons for this vary widely, and aren’t always the same from year to year. Some films aren’t high-profile enough. Some might be too controversial, or too risque. Some are the types of films or genres the Academy tends to disregard, like science-fiction or horror. Others simply miss the cutoff by a small margin.
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This year looks to be no exception. Plenty of fine films from 2023 will fall into one of these categories, or maybe one we haven’t even thought of yet. With major releases like Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Killers Of The Flower Moon taking up so much space in the run-up to the nominations, we figured we’d give the rest of the field the credit they deserve. Just in case no one else does.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
Judy Blume waited 50 years before she found a filmmaker she trusted to bring her seminal coming-of-age book Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret to the screen, and that person was Kelly Fremon Craig. There’s so much to love about Craig’s heartfelt adaptation—especially the terrific performances of Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret and Rachel McAdams as her mother Barbara—but it’s not the kind of flashy, dramatic fare that usually gets the attention of the Academy.
Bottoms
All the things that make Bottoms enjoyable to watch—the raunchiness, the queerness, the absurdity, the high school setting, the violence—might not be disqualifying elements on their own, but put them all in one film together and you’re likely to turn off enough old-school Academy voters to cancel out the supporters. It’s too bad, because this delightfully subversive comedy starring Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott (who also co-wrote the screenplay) as gay teens who set up a fight club to flirt with cheerleaders in the name of female empowerment is one of the best films to come out this year.
The Burial
Before The Burial came out there was some talk about its Oscar chances, but with so many other films to consider, it’s lost some steam. But the fact that it’s now running behind the pack in the awards race doesn’t take away from the power of Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones as an unlikely but effective on-screen duo. It feels like the kind of engaging mid-budget courtroom drama we don’t see anymore, and it deserves some recognition for being a well-made, modern example of how to do the genre right.
Dream Scenario
This quirky A24 release might have been more of a real contender if the release had been timed and promoted better. Despite featuring a nearly unrecognizable Nicolas Cage at the top of his game and a clever premise that critiques celebrity and influencer culture, Dream Scenario just never really caught on. There’s a chance it may still find an audience now that it’s available to stream, but its awards chances are diminishing by the day.
Godzilla Minus One
This Japanese reboot came out too late in the U.S. to make it onto our list of the best films of 2023, but Godzilla Minus One is still eligible for awards consideration. What may hold it back is the legacy of the kaiju genre, which has never received the respect it deserves from formal organizations like the Academy. This is really a postwar melodrama, offering a more inward look at Japan’s military legacy in retrospect than the Godzilla movies of the past. You just have to look past the giant fire-breathing, city-stomping monster to see it.
How To Blow Up A Pipeline
Even as the Oscars makes an effort to be more progressive, the thorny and complex issues that How To Blow Up A Pipeline deals with—namely climate change, eco-terrorism, and extremist ideologies, to name a few—might still be too radical for awards consideration. Though the film doesn’t fit neatly into any of the usual buckets, it’s a restrained yet well-crafted achievement that succeeds on its own terms.
Passages
Franz Rogowski gives one of the best film performances of the year in Passages, so it’s a shame that the film’s already notoriously explicit sex scenes have been taking up so much of the discourse surrounding it. Also getting lost in all the noise is the proficiency of writer-director Ira Sachs in capturing intimacy at its ugliest and most beautiful. Perhaps the film community will someday reach a point where it can look beyond the appropriateness or inappropriateness of sexual content in a film, but it seems we’re not there yet.
Polite Society
If there was an Oscar category for stunts or fight choreography (and there really should be), Polite Society might not have made it on this list. As it is, this crossover Bollywood-influenced action rom-com with a witty script and fantastic cast will most likely go unrecognized by the Academy. This may not be writer-director Nida Manzoor’s year for an Oscar nomination, but she’s got a promising career ahead of her and we’ll be on the lookout for whatever she comes up with next (besides a new season of We Are Lady Parts, obviously).
Robot Dreams
In another year, with less robust competition in the animation category, we might have seen a film like Robot Dreams make the cut. Unfortunately, there were quite a few excellent animated features in 2023. Which means this whimsical, dialogue-free, surprisingly emotional story about a dog and his robot may very well get overlooked. We still think there should be room for something as original and intricate as this creation from Spanish filmmaker Pablo Berger among the more prominent studio releases.
Rye Lane
If classic rom-coms are poised to make a comeback, Rye Lane would be a solid model to emulate. It balances the romance and the comedy with a fun hook and a pair of charming leads in David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah, whose energy leaps off the screen. It’s nice to see that the film has been getting some love from organizations like the British Independent Film Awards, and the Toronto Film Critics Association, but an Oscar nod seems like a longshot at this point.
Suzume
Perhaps it’s unfair to Suzume to compare it to this year’s other big anime release, The Boy And The Heron, but it was bound to happen. If there’s only room for one Japanese title in the best animated feature category (not that it’s a rule or anything), the nomination will probably go to Hayao Miyazaki’s maybe-final masterpiece. That shouldn’t overshadow this ethereal and gorgeously animated adventure about a girl and her chair (sort of) from Makoto Shinkai, the director of the equally brilliant and mind-bending Your Name and Weathering With You.
Talk To Me
This year it seemed like A24 was starting to move away from “elevated horror” and getting into a wider variety of projects. Talk To Me was one of the few exceptions. An impressive debut from directing team Danny and Michael Philippou, it’s perfectly aligned with the indie studio’s artsy, thoughtful approach to the genre. The Academy still has some catching up to do, though. There’s still only been a handful of Best Picture nominees that could be considered horror films (the most recent being Get Out in 2017), and only one, The Silence Of The Lambs, has ever won the category.
Theater Camp
There’s a category for Best Documentary at the Oscars, so why can’t there be one for Best Mockumentary too? After all, they require the skill sets of both fictional and non-fictional productions to achieve the effect of a narrative feature that looks and feels unscripted. If the category did exist, Theater Camp would be a lock for at least a nomination. The film, from longtime pals Molly Gordon, Noah Galvin, Nick Lieberman, and Ben Platt, gleefully approaches that tricky task with the same energy a theater kid brings to a starring role in their high school production of Bye Bye Birdie. Sadly, no such award exists at this time, and we don’t need a tear stick to cry over that.
You Hurt My Feelings
Writer-director Nicole Holofcener’s most recent film, You Hurt My Feelings, is about creative self-doubt and the little white lies we tell ourselves and each other, just to get by. So, in the spirit of the film, we’d like to say that it’s absolutely worthy of an Oscar nomination in at least one major category—Julia Louis-Dreyfus for her performance in the lead role of Beth, for starters—and that if it doesn’t get one, it’s only because the Academy doesn’t recognize greatness when it sees it. The nice thing is, we wouldn’t be completely lying about that.
Cindy White writes for the A.V. Club, which like the Root is owned by G/O Media
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