10 Stunning Performances Outrageously Snubbed by the Oscars

Awards season is well underway and the Oscars are inbound, so it’s time to look at ten stunning performances the Academy outrageously snubbed…

Oscar season is an exciting time of the year. We’ve had the Globes which really kicked the award season into gear and can often give some indication about the runners and riders in the big dawg of the award ceremonies. 

It’s fair to say that every year, for one reason or another, contentious decisions are made as well as glaring omissions. The desperation from some actors to snag an Oscar nomination sees them resorting to prosthetics and well-rehearsed impersonations in bait movies, only to fall at the final hurdle, however, some of the most egregious oversights come from films that didn’t strike the box office or critical gold on their first run. Here are ten stunning performances outrageously snubbed by the Oscars…

Paul Giamatti – Sideways

The Holdovers looks like a good bet for several Oscar nominations this year, including its leading man Paul Giamatti. His new film with Alexander Payne isn’t the first collaboration between the pair who worked together on Sideways, which amazingly is now 20 years old. A critical darling, Sideways scored nominations for best picture, director and screenplay (for which it won) as well as acting nods in support for Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen.

However, Giamatti’s incredible performance was sorely overlooked. Of course, Haden Church gets a classic showy supporting role that befits that category, but there’s so much nuance to Giamatti’s performance as he perfectly brings an exceptionally written character to screen. It’s a career-best turn (to date) that could easily have usurped at least two or three performances that year in what you might call a year bolstered by Oscar-bait movies. He was undoubtedly in the running having already been nominated for a Globe for his turn as Miles.  

Jim Carrey – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

That very same year another actor starring in one of the year indie darlings was also snubbed for the performance of his career. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the film from 2004 that arguably had the most lasting legacy and cult following. Perhaps it didn’t have the heft to compete with grandiose big studio Oscar fare like Million Dollar Baby or The Aviator, but it’s easily the best film of 2004 and was snubbed for Best Picture in favour of an okay Ray Charles Biopic (that rested a lot on Jamie Foxx’s excellent performance), those aforementioned films and does anyone really remember Finding Neverland? 

As much as Charlie Kaufman was the shit-hot writer of the time for his work, such quirkiness would often see acclaimed films fall at the final Oscar hurdle. It probably came down to those reasons for Carrey, in his most restrained and melancholic performance. Like Giamatti, he earned a Globe nod but missed out on an Oscar nomination. 

Rutger Hauer – Blade Runner

Given the initially mixed reception from critics for Blade Runner, it probably isn’t too surprising that the film largely bypassed the Oscars. It still got recognition for its art direction and VFX but let’s face it, this is a film that was criminally overlooked in the cinematography and music departments in particular.

It was also unfairly snubbed in the best supporting actor category with Rutger Hauer crafting an ultimately iconic character so unlike any other archetypal role (and it was a year filled with mostly archetypical nominations for picture, director and acting roles). Hauer’s legendary performance is capped off by a line he created to embellish the screenplay and like a few other films from 1982, the most long last pop cultural favourites were all overlooked for some films that have been a little forgotten in time (like tears in rain). 

Toni Collette – Hereditary 

A few years back Ari Aster became the darling of folk horror cinema with Hereditary. The film was greeted with great reviews, a huge stamp on pop culture as well as becoming a favourite among under 30 cinephiles across the world of social media groups. You almost had to love it and if you didn’t, you just didn’t understand it. 

Whether you quite saw the brilliance and genre-redefining qualities others did, no one could argue that Toni Collette’s performance was a powerhouse. The Oscars almost wilfully overlook horror though but despite this, she still seemed like a dead cert to not only get nommed but perhaps even win. She was snubbed. The film didn’t get a single nomination but Collette’s omission was by far the most glaring. 

Song Kang-ho – Parasite

One of the all-time greats of Korean cinema, Song Kang-ho has probably got a pretty full trophy cabinet. If you have some awareness of Korean cinema dating before Parasite, you’ll have no doubt seen him in innumerable great films, always delivering great performances. He’s able to blend affable, slightly bumbling naivety with moral complexity and dark undercurrents. He brought all this gravitas to Parasite which tore up convention and swept awards across the major international ceremonies. 

Yet one area that Parasite seemed to come up short was in acting categories. Despite the exceptional script, cinematography, direction and screenplay and the uniformly brilliant cast, those fine performances generally got snubbed. Was it a case of too many great turns to pick from? Still, Kang-ho’s inimitable warmth and hound-dog melancholy provide the backbone of the film. He delivers something more interesting than several of the other performances that year including a film which, as good as it was, was effectively a lesser Kramer vs Kramer. 

Sidney Poitier – In the Heat of the Night

As the first black actor to win the Best Actor trophy in 1964, Sidney Poitier was a trailblazer. He had to be exceptional to get the notice he deserved and to get the platform as a leading man that his inimitable presence deserved. He was rarely less than stellar and one of his most unforgettable roles came as Virgil Tibbs with In The Heat of the Night. 

The film won five Oscars from its seven nominations but remarkably, Poitier wasn’t among those nods. He’s matched toe to toe in the film by Best Actor winner, Rod Steiger and perhaps the omission came down to the rarity of two actors in the same film competing for the same category, but seriously… how do you overlook Poitier entirely? 

Isabelle Adjani – Possession

Okay, Possession wasn’t exactly a box office behemoth or one which made significant waves during its initial arrival stateside, but sometimes the Oscars seem a bit safe and short-sighted. It can be hard to identify just what will go on to become a cult favourite for decades to come or a film that will still be discussed decades later, but it’s not as though Possession didn’t make a few waves initially. 

Isabelle Adjani won best actress at Cannes for one thing and given the 1982 Oscar ceremony has a largely forgettable line-up in the best actress category and Adjani gives one of the most mesmeric performances in history, I still find it an enormous oversight. She’s incredible and it’s the definition of a performance that gives absolutely everything.

Willem Defoe – The Lighthouse

Some of the best performances are when an actor is so immersed they become the character entirely. Some actors have that ability to just give themselves completely over to a role and create something unforgettable. Willem Defoe is once such a superb character actor, willing to take a role to places others won’t/can’t. 

As the salty sea-dog wickie in The Lighthouse, Defoe delivered one of the best, if not THE best performance of 2019, yet seemed to be a head-scratching omission at the Oscars. Whether in the lead or support category, there should have been space for Willem. Many of the other characters felt like variations on things we’d seen many times over, whilst Leonardo DiCaprio’s nod almost felt like a lazy choice (he’s great, but it was a real comfort zone performance/role). 

Gene Hackman – The Conversation

Gene Hackman is an all-time great. 5 Oscar acting nominations, winning twice, suggest he’s never lacked attention from the academy but arguably his greatest performance of all was overlooked. 

The Conversation is a film on almost any other given year, could have been a board sweeper but it happened to come out the same year as director Francis Ford Coppola’s other film, The Godfather Part 2. The best actor category did have fierce competition but in time some of the other films and performances have been a little forgotten in time (unfairly perhaps). Hackman’s enthralling and introspective performance as an espionage specialist slowly succumbing to paranoia is incredible. 

David Thewlis – Naked

Mike Leigh is a British staple, an institution and well-known as one of the finest purveyors of kitchen sink cinema. He has some recognition stateside too with Secrets and Lies being the film that probably brought him to attention outside of Europe with the film getting five Oscar nominations. A few years prior, and Leigh’s breakout feature, Naked saw him gain recognition across Europe. 

The film is one of his darkest and most cerebral, taking the central character on a number of night odysseys through a hyper-real, almost ethereal London.  At the core of the compellingly dark and nihilistic adventure is a powerhouse performance from David Thewlis. It’s a performance for the ages with a character quite unlike anything you’d generally expect from a protagonist. The film undoubtedly made waves, with Thewlis winning at Cannes but perhaps it was too dark for the likes of the Oscars and Bafta. 

Honourable Mentions: Jeon Jong-seo and Steven Yeun: Burning, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung: In the Mood for Love, Michael Shannon: Take Shelter, Guy Pearce: Memento, Harry Dean Stanton: Paris Texas, Mia Farrow: Rosemary’s Baby, Henry Fonda: 12 Angry Men (in fairness you could argue for several others from that cast, who maybe made it hard to pick), Pam Grier: Jackie Brown, and John Cazale: The Godfather Part 2.

Which performances have been criminally overlooked by the Oscars? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth or hit me up @jolliffeproductions…