The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday announced shortlists for a number of ‘below the line’ categories, revealing that several buzzy movies, including Michael Moore’s latest documentary and upcoming Aquaman, were snubbed for Oscars.
The shortlists nominees that are still in the running for Oscars fall in the documentary feature, documentary short subject, makeup and hairstyling, foreign language film, music (original score), music (original song), animated short film, live action short film and visual effects categories.
Shortlists, decided on by executive committees in the film academy, help narrow the playing field in many of the categories before they are whittled down further to five final nominations in late January.
Aquaman was among the movies snubbed when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed its shortlists for nine categories in the 2019 Oscars
Michael Moore’s latest, Fahrenheit 11/9, was left off the documentary features shortlist
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald also failed to make the visual effects shortlist
Notable films that got nods in the documentary features category included Minding the Gap, a 12-year odyssey about a group of skateboarders growing up in Rockford, Illinois, the too-wild-to-be-true Three Identical Strangers, about triplets separated by adoption at birth who find each other later in life, and the intense climbing film Free Solo.
But, while the Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary, RBG, and Fred Rogers film, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, were also among those that made the documentary features short list, Michael Moore’s latest political critique, Fahrenheit 11/9, and Netflix’s Quincy Jones documentary, Quincy, directed by his daughter Rashida Jones and Alan Hicks, were conspicuously omitted.
Meanwhile, over on the visual effects shortlist, seemingly every new Marvel Universe made the list — Black Panther, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers: Infinity War — but the hotly-anticipated Aquaman, which premieres December 21, did not.
Visual effects-heavy movies Bumblebee, also premiering December 21, Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald also failed to make the list.
Netflix’s Quincy Jones documentary, Quincy, directed by his daughter Rashida Jones and Alan Hicks, did not make the documentary feature film shortlist either
Annie Lennox, who song a song from A Private War, and Tim McGraw, who appeared on the Free Solo soundtrack, were did not make the music (original song) shortlist
This year marks the first time since 1979 that the film academy has released a shortlist for the music categories.
Fifteen original songs were selected from 90 submissions and include Shallow from A Star Is Born, All The Stars from Black Panther, Dolly Parton’s Girl in the Movies from Dumplin’, and two songs from Mary Poppins Returns – The Place Where Lost Things Go and Trip a Little Light Fantastic.
Snubbed songs included Annie Lennox’s track Requiem for a Private War, from A Private War; Tim McGraw’s Gravity from Free Solo, and Kesha’s Here Comes the Change’ from On the Basis of Sex.
Mary Poppins Returns and Black Panther were among those shortlisted for best original score, as was Vice and If Beale Street Could Talk, which were both composed by Nicholas Brittell.
The foreign film category included Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma — believed to be a front-runner for a best picture nomination as well — and Lee Chang-dong’s thriller Burning, which is based on a Haruki Murakami story and could make history by becoming South Korea’s first ever nominee.
Songs from Mary Poppins Returns landed on the newly announced shortlist thrice – twice for music (original song) and again for music (original score)
Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, believed to be a front-runner for a best picture nomination as well, landed on the foreign film category shortlist
Lee Chang-dong’s thriller Burning also made the foreign film shortlist. If it stays on the list, it could make history by becoming South Korea’s first ever nominee
Other that made the foreign film shortlist include Poland’s Cold War, which was snubbed by the Golden Globe Awards, Lebanon’s Capernaum, Japan’s Shoplifters, Colombia’s Birds of Passage, Denmark’s The Guilty, Germany’s Never Look Away and Kazakhstan’s Ayka.
But, as the Hollywood Reporter pointed out, the Oscars turned up its nose at several foreign language films that were heavily-lauded throughout the year, including Italy’s Dogman, Sweden’s Border and Belgium’s Girl, which all received recognition at Cannes Film Festival.
Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on January 22, with one month before the Oscars on February 24.