This Thursday, the Oscars’ nominations were announced and brought some wonderful and surprising news. To start, I’m a huge Ariana Grande fan, and of course, I was rooting for her nomination in the “Best Supporting Actress” category. When she was announced, I was walking to my Biology class, and I wanted to scream right there in the hall, because of how proud I was of her. But, I wasn’t really surprised, since she’s been doing so well in the awards season. After hearing her announcement, I entered the classroom, and my teacher asked me to put my phone away. I was upset because I was waiting to hear Fernanda Torres being announced too.
When I got my phone back, I instantly opened Twitter/X—not gonna lie, I was afraid of Torres not being nominated, since we all know how the Oscars are—and I gladly got the news that she was not only nominated for “Best Actress”, but the movie, I’m Still Here, that she starred in, was also nominated in “Best Picture,” and “Best International Feature,” which actually got me surprised. I was expecting “Best International Feature,” but when I saw that it was also nominated for “Best Picture,” I wanted to cry because of how proud I was of Torres and everyone involved in the project—especially because it is a Brazilian project, and I know how hard Brazilian people work to get recognized in the international industry.
If the Oscars were a fair award ceremony, I wouldn’t be surprised, but we all know how they like to snub projects, especially projects from foreign countries. Because if it were all about quality, I’m Still Here would get every award that it could win. The film is really a masterpiece, and I highly recommend people to watch it.
There were some snubs too, just like every other year. When I was reading through the list of nominees, I was surprised not to see Nicole Kidman on it. I recently watched Babygirl, and her performance was spectacular. She really got into the role; it was a big snub. Another big snub was Luca Guadagnino. Guadagnino not being nominated in the “Best Director” category was really shocking, since he was involved in one of the best and most popular movies of the year, Challengers and Queer, and he did a wonderful job in both of them. Not limited to these two, he also directed Diciannove, a great movie that deserved its flowers. I could write about the other people and projects that, in my opinion, were snubbed and why they should get more recognition, but instead, I’ll just drop the list: Pamela Anderson, Challengers, Jon M. Chu, Danielle Deadwyler, Margaret Qualley, Nosferatu, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Denzel Washington, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and many others.
Surprises and snubs are always unexpected, of course, and I think they are one of the main reasons that make the film awards season exciting to watch. Rooting for a project or a person, waiting impatiently for the nominations, and getting proud or frustrated—there’s no feeling like the joy of following an award season. Now, the only thing left is to impatiently wait for March 2nd and see who’ll come out as a winner of the ceremony. I’m hopeful that I’ll witness Fernanda Torres become the first Brazilian to ever win an Oscar, and if she doesn’t, I’ll be locked in my room for an entire year.
