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The 97th Academy Award nominations have been announced and, sorry, Pamela, you’re not on the invite list. But take comfort, you’re in very good company.
Every year brings the inevitable snubs when Oscar puts together its dance card. Wags and critics in various circles this season were predicting that Pamela Anderson (“The Last Showgirl”) or Daniel Craig (“Queer”) or Margaret Qualley (“The Substance”), among others, might squeeze onto the list.
But if any of those inarguable talents is feeling the sting of omission, know that you’re still good enough.
Just listen to this abbreviated list of luminous actors whose names have never been uttered as part of the early-morning roll call: Meg Ryan, Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Grant, Glenn Ford, Donald Sutherland …
Donald Sutherland!?! Yes, the actor whose career spanned some six decades and included such titles as “MASH,” “Don’t Look Now,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “Pride & Prejudice” never walked the Oscar carpet as a nominee. Perhaps the biggest insult came in 1981 when “Ordinary People” picked up nominations for best picture (winner), director (Robert Redford, winner), actress (Mary Tyler Moore) and supporting actor (Timothy Hutton, winner). Even Judd Hirsch was nominated for supporting actor. But no Sutherland, arguably the heart of the film.
The academy did try to make amends, handing Sutherland an honorary Oscar in 2017. But those “thanks for playing” trophies don’t count — outright nominations in competitive acting races only, please.
Columnist Glenn Whipp sounds off on the biggest snubs and surprises of the 2025 Oscar nominations, announced Thursday in Los Angeles.
How could Ryan be overlooked for “When Harry Met Sally”? Bruce Willis for “The Sixth Sense”? Jeff Daniels for “Terms of Endearment” or “The Purple Rose of Cairo”? Mel Gibson for “Braveheart” or “The Year of Living Dangerously”? Even Jennifer Lopez for “Selena” or “Hustlers”?
If nominated, Ryan would have been up against the winning Jessica Tandy for “Driving Miss Daisy.” Other nominees that year were Pauline Collins (“Shirley Valentine”), Isabelle Adjani (“Camille Claudel”), Michelle Pfeiffer (“The Fabulous Baker Boys”) and Jessica Lange (“The Music Box”) — all wonderful performances. But 35 years later, which role still resonates in popular culture (“I’ll have what she’s having”)?
Not that the Oscars should be a popularity contest, though it sometimes feels that way.
And if it were, surely Monroe, one of the reigning queens of 1950s Hollywood, would have been tapped for any number of performances that have been elevated by time and reappraisal. Besides her obvious iconic comedy roles in “Some Like It Hot” and “The Seven Year Itch,” even more dramatic turns in “Bus Stop” and “The Misfits” might have garnered notice from a more attentive academy. And voters did choose to give nods to her male co-stars in “Hot” (Jack Lemmon) and “Bus” (Don Murray).
Then there are those whose mere presence can lift the material to award-worthy regard. Peter Sarsgaard, Catherine O’Hara, Alfred Molina, Kevin Bacon, Thandiwe Newton, Mia Farrow, Parker Posey, Ewan McGregor … nope, not a single nomination here.
If you expand the conversation to those who have been nominated but never sealed the deal with Oscar, the oversight can be even more startling.
This includes the obvious — eight-time bridesmaid Glenn Close, the “Susan Lucci of the Oscars” — as well as Golden Age legends — Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Charlie Chaplin, etc. The list of the robbed goes on. Later matinee idols (and talented actors) who ended careers empty-handed run the gamut from Doris Day (the top box-office star in 1960, ’62, ’63 and ’64), Deborah Kerr and Lauren Bacall to Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum and Montgomery Clift.
Sometimes it’s a simple matter of bad timing. In his first outing, eventual eight-time nominee Peter O’Toole saw his towering “Lawrence of Arabia” performance go up against Gregory Peck’s beloved Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” It was Peck’s fifth and final nomination, and he landed the prize. O’Toole never did.
All film buffs have personal favoritees they think have been shamefully ignored. In my mind are three exquisite actresses who danced with Oscar multiple times without taking the gold man home: Jane Alexander, Joan Allen and the late, incomparable Gena Rowlands.
Between 1971 and 1984, Alexander was nominated four times; her performances in “All the President’s Men” and “Kramer vs. Kramer” remain master classes today. Allen had a creative burst from 1996 to 2001 with three noms (“Nixon,” “The Crucible,” “The Contender”). Shockingly, Rowlands was nominated only twice, for “A Woman Under the Influence” and “Gloria.” The academy tried to atone in 2015 with an honorary trophy. You know where we stand on that.
The nominations for the 97th Academy Awards, to be held on March 2, have been announced. Here’s the list of 2025 Oscar nominees.
Some previous nominees whose absence from the winner’s circle could (and should) be rectified when that next, hopefully great role comes along: Annette Bening (!), Sigourney Weaver, Samuel L. Jackson, Amy Adams, Michelle Williams, Debra Winger, Mark Ruffalo, Miranda Richardson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, John Travolta, Naomi Watts, Laura Linney, Tom Cruise …
You read that right. One need only rewatch Cruise’s “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Magnolia” and even “Tropic Thunder” to know he has the acting chops and deserves a walk to the podium (though in his case, it could be a high-speed run).
When Travolta got the first of his two nominations for “Saturday Night Fever,” his competition included Burton in “Equus,” on his seventh and final nomination. Both lost to Richard Dreyfuss in “The Goodbye Girl.” That same year, a little-known actor drew critical notice for a small, raw performance in “Looking for Mr. Goodbar.” Richard Gere wasn’t nominated for that film, or for “Days of Heaven” or “An Officer and a Gentleman” or “Chicago” or anything that followed.
So what can he and this season’s shutouts cull from all this?
Simple: The Oscars are a crapshoot. Sometimes you win, more often you lose … and sometimes you don’t even get in the game.
From the Oscars to the Emmys.
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