Snubbed!
Every year since the Academy Awards were invented, somebody has been overlooked, ignored, passed over, disregarded or brushed off. You know what they say about beauty and beholders.
But perceived Oscar omissions — snubs, as we have come to call them — have grown into a frenzied annual conversation, with people left off the nomination list, or nominated but denied a statuette, sometimes receiving as much attention, or more, as those who win. “Barbie” was nominated for eight Academy Awards, but Greta Gerwig’s exclusion from the best director lineup has been the headline (never mind that she is in the running for adapted screenplay). The academy and ABC, which will broadcast the Oscars on March 10, has been promoting the show with a commercial that pointedly references the lapse.
“I know a few of you are feeling snubbed by the Oscars,” Judd Apatow, host of this year’s Directors Guild of America Awards, said from the stage. “I know how you feel,” he continued, pointing out that he was overlooked for “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up” and “Trainwreck.”
He explained: “I’ve never even been mentioned in the articles about the people who got snubbed. That’s a double snub! Next time, I’m going to hire a publicist to just get mentioned in articles about who got screwed — a snublicist.”
Snubs can be a serious matter. The #OscarsSoWhite outcries from 2015 and 2016, prompted by all-white slates of acting nominees, led the academy to diversify its membership.
But there was also truth in Apatow’s tease: In many ways, the rise of the snub can be traced to Hollywood publicists and modern Oscar electioneering.
Studios have always campaigned for Oscars. In the 1990s, however, Harvey Weinstein turned the pursuit into a blood sport. The game evolved to include squadrons of publicists who, starting months before the ceremony, whisper in the ears of journalists about which actors, directors, writers and other artists are front-runners. Pundits pontificate. Articles are written, and rankings posted on sites like Gold Derby. Fans continue the conversation on X and Instagram.
This creates expectations.
“The proliferation of so many other honors and awards and telecasts has also created this sense that there is room for everyone,” said Dave Karger, a Turner Classic Movies host and author of “50 Oscar Nights.” Karger said he loathed the word “snub,” which makes omissions “sound like a personal attack, when really it’s just math.”
Because vote counts are secret, added Tony Angellotti, a veteran publicist and awards campaigner, “we never know how close one comes to being a nominee or a winner.” (Fun fact: The Variety magazine online archive goes back to 1913. In a search, “snub,” as related to an award, first appears in 1965: “Bob Hope Stunned by Another Emmy Snub.” It doesn’t appear again until 1993.)
Some people in Hollywood dismiss snubs as the invention of a clickbait-focused news media. “I think it’s tawdry to play the snub game!” the film historian Sam Wasson said in an email. “Not everyone wins. Not everyone is nominated. This brings a lot of anger — mostly to those not in the movie business.”
Still, as soon as the Oscars are over on Sunday night, you can be sure that Hollywood phones will start to ring with gleeful schadenfreude. Can you believe so and so lost? Snubbed.