The nominees are in.

Every single year when the nominees for the Academy Awards come in there is an immediate backlash from moviegoers. Sometimes this backlash is justified (e.g. Ben Affleck’s for Best Director for Argo), other times it’s a little bit silly (e.g. The Force Awakens not getting a Best Picture nom).

This year the film staff of Pop Break voiced their opinions on what they think are the biggest Oscar snubs of 2019.

Best Picture: Wildlife

As is bound to happen every year, nominations went to the most prolific and ‘uncontroversial’ films quietly agreed upon beforehand. This results in some of the truly brilliant films are left out in the cold. Their exclusion is not a mark against their cinematic merits, of course. But because they lack either the budget or the promotional skill to make a meaningful play in the Academy Award political theater.

Based on the novel by Richard Ford, Paul Dano’s directorial debut Wildlife is one of 2018’s very best films. It features astonishing performances by its central cast (Carey Mulligan, Ed Oxenbould, Jake Gyllenhaal) elevated by careful cinematography and a devastating script written by Dano and his wife, Zoe Kazan.

It achieves the kind of sought-after contemplative nuance some filmmakers work for decades unable to grasp. It is melodramatic without being overly morose. By the end of the film we watch a functioning marriage fall apart, but the focus on the couple’s son rather than either parent makes the experience more thoughtful than depressing.

IFC Films can usually be counted on to make interesting and quality films, rarely do they ever get the Awards consideration to show for it (its last nominee was Boyhood, and they have distributed over 50 films since). Wildlife made an impressive case for itself during the festival circuit, then dropped into limited theaters in October amid little fanfare.

Despite its overwhelming critical success, the word of mouth has not been nearly strong as it would need to be to secure serious consideration from the Academy. Under a better distributor, or with a better campaign budget, Wildlife would easily be in contention for Best Picture, Best Actress (Mulligan) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Dano and Kazan), as a start.

-Matt Gilbert

Best Actress: Toni Collette (Hereditary)

The Academy Awards are famous for snubbing horror films by including them only in minor categories such as Best Sound Editing, Best Costume Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling (e.g. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Beetlejuice, Aliens). There are exceptions to this rule, of course, and horror films have won for Best Actor/Actress/Supporting, Best Director and Best Picture categories, but let’s be honest here, it isn’t often. In fact, the only horror film in this year’s nominees is A Quiet Place, which is nominated for Achievement in Sound Editing. 90% of that film is silence.

I understand that a film like Hereditary isn’t going to be for everyone, but that doesn’t mean that it should not be considered for awards. Perhaps it wasn’t good enough or understood well enough to be Best Picture this year, but we cannot overlook the parts because of the whole.

Toni Collette was absolutely incredible in Hereditary as a grieving mother and daughter. She is hardened from a mother who didn’t love her enough, while weakened by the violent death of her only daughter and she makes us feel every single bit of it. The dinner table scene between her character Annie and her son, Peter (Alex Wolff, another snub), over his part in the death of his sister, is one of the most powerful scenes in the entire film. You can actually feel the battle she is having between loving and hating her son at the same time and it is a hard punch to the gut.

To overlook such an amazing performance because the film wasn’t perfect is unfair and, frankly, unjustified.

-Ann Hale

Best Actor: Ethan Hawke (First Reformed)

First Reformed is this year’s Nightcrawler. Both were nominated only for the Best Original Screenplay, both could have (and perhaps, should have) been easily nominated for Best Picture, and both feature a heavily character-driven role portrayed to perfection by one of the better actors of our time, unjustly robbed of a Best Actor award by a committee that seems to get it wrong more often than not.

Ethan Hawke portrays Reverend Ernst Toller, the leader of a small New York church becoming increasingly smaller. He’s wracked with pain both emotional and physical, from the guilt of encouraging his son to enlist in the military (where he died) and the stomach pain that a doctor suspects is cancer. He despairs at environmental damage and man’s callous indifference. And through it all, he is expected to provide counsel to those in need. But who is there to counsel the counselor?

Ethan Hawke portrays this role with a pathos I’ve rarely seen. He is immensely pitiable, facing these issues while taking on more and more emotional baggage. He emanates a quiet desperation, eager for someone to break through his walls while reinforcing them to prevent further heartbreak. He is both reserved and emotive, communicating his agony through his eyes while seeking all the while to relieve the pain of others. To be blunt: he is the year’s best actor and deserved not just to be nominated but to win.

-George Heflter

Best Director: Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born)

A Star is Born may have been cliched, predictable, and perhaps even trying a bit too hard to be “Oscar bait.” Let’s not to forget the film had already been made three times already. But nonetheless, first time filmmaker Bradley Cooper took A Star is Born and did exactly what most movies in general set out to do: entertain us.

Paired up opposite pop superstar Lady Gaga in her film debut, no one expected the movie to be as good as it was. Theater goers, myself included, were legitimately blown away by the chemistry between Cooper and Gaga, as well as the original music that was created and performed by the two leads. I give due credit to Cooper for surprising me with his versatility. The entire production truly felt like a prestige film and a popcorn flick all rolled into one, and that’s something that is extremely rare to pull off nowadays.

Cooper has been rightfully nominated this year for his work as an actor, writer, and producer for his incredible work on and off camera. However, it seems like an egregious mistake to not give him a nod as a director. A critical darling and a box office smash, the musical drama would not have been possible without Captain Coop steering the ship.

-Michael Vacchiano

Best Supporting Actor: Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther)

Black Panther’s Best Picture nomination is a staggering success for superhero films, Marvel, Disney, and the masses who helped this film gross over a billion dollars in box office receipts. If you’ve never seen it, don’t scoff at the nom. This isn’t just another Marvel movie, this is a Shakespearean drama in MCU clothing. It’s a classic tale about a power struggle within a kingdom, it’s about treason, heroism, inclusion, birthright, love, and giant rhinos. While the cast is absolutely fabulous, there’s only one person that truly stirs the drink in this film — Michael B. Jordan.

From the first time we saw him in The Wire you knew MBJ was a star. With every subsequent role this actor has somehow gotten exponentially better. He’s evolved into the new era Denzel Washington, and sadly the Academy has failed to recognize him time after time. Nothing for Fruitvale Station, Creed, and now Black Panther. As Erik Killmonger, Jordan is singlehandedly the best villain to ever be in a Marvel film, and I’ll say it — he’s one of the best villains in an action movie, period. We all laud Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight (for which he won an Oscar), I say Jordan is on par with Ledger.

Jordan gives a wildly complex and emotionally charged performance as a man hellbent on reclaiming his birthright. And like any good villain, you kind of agree with his stance. In fact, you could actually totally agree with it. But unlike most villains, they do not radiate the intensity fueled by years of hate, loss, and abandonment that has scarred Killmonger like the kill markers on his chiseled frame.

There were a lot of questionable noms in the Best Supporting Actor field, so it’s a definite snub that the engine behind what made Black Panther a box office, cultural, and cinematic phenomenon was left out of the nominees yesterday.

-Bill Bodkin

Best Documentary Feature: Won’t You Be My Neighbor

So, we’re just going to ignore this, are we? The most heartfelt, beautiful, and cherished documentary of 2018 didn’t get nominated for an Oscar. Why? Who knows? Probably because it actually made people feel good instead of misery and shame. It wasn’t a Michael Moore production (on the record, I actually like his films). It’s just a damn shame. Here’s why.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor perfectly encapsulated the man known as Fred Rogers, someone who has been in the cultural zeitgeist for nearly 50 years. He fought against racism, homophobia, sexism and treating kids as though they had no opinions long before it became an everyday thing. In two hours, this film fills the audience with so many emotions, a dry eye was not present in the theater I was in, which, by the way, had to add 15 more screenings because the first two sold out within minutes.

Critically lauded, universally loved and praised, Won’t You Be My Neighbor is hands down one of the biggest Oscar snubs of all time. Nothing against the other films, as I’m sure they’re great, but this was the clear-cut winner from the moment the beautiful tones of Fred Roger’s voice hit the screen.

-Tommy Tracy