It’s hard to say that anyone had an idea of the final Oscar nominees this year. After two years of obvious favorites as winners in the main category – Parasite and Nomadland for Best Picture, with directors Bong Joon-ho and Chloé Zhao as Best Directors – the race for the prize has been a little tricky. Other awards of this award season have been divided, excluding them as a thermometer of the Academy Award. For example, the nominees nominated for the BAFTA weren’t selected for the Critic’s Choice. Even the critics and awards strategies didn’t know who would be an Oscar nominee this year.

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But now that the nominees are announced, it’s possible to know who are the favorites finally – or at least try to bet on them – and talk about the biggest snubs for the Academy Awards 2022 Oscar race.

Denis Villeneuve - Dune

     Warner Bros. Pictures

Dune was the second most nominated movie at the Oscars this year. With ten nominations, one of them being Best Picture, the film is only behind Power of the Dog’s 12 nominations.

Villeneuve’s director work was also recognized at other awards, such as the Critic’s Choice Awards and Satellite Awards. Even so, Denis Villeneuve wasn’t nominated as Best Director for the ambitious and acclaimed movie – which was one of the few films to do well in the box office with simultaneous releases in cinema and streaming.

Villeneuve still has the chance of getting the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, or he can try again with Dune Part Two.

Lady Gaga - House of Gucci

     MGM

When Lady Gaga was announced for the role of Patrizia Reggiani – the widow and mastermind of the murder of Gucci’s heir Maurizio Gucci – in Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, few were the people who thought that she wasn’t the right choice for the role. Gaga is Italian, a fan of fashion, and takes a method approach to acting. She also starred in the acclaimed remake of A Star is Born in 2018 and received an Academy Award nomination for the part, along with an Oscar for Best Original Song for “Shallow,” co-written by Mark Ronson for the soundtrack.

Gaga campaigned furiously this awards season, which granted her nominations for BAFTA, Critic’s Choice, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Golden Globe. These nominations made her the only actress of the season to get nominated for all the awards that act as a thermometer for the Oscar. But, she didn’t get the final cut. Lady Gaga’s snub at the 2022 Oscars was not only surprising for critics but also her enormous fandom.

Tony Kushner - West Side Story

     Amblin Entertainment, TSG Entertainment

Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story is one of the most acclaimed movies of this year, and none of this would be possible without Tony Kushner’s screenplay. It is kind of hard to adapt a screenplay and print your version as a remake. Still, Kushner accomplished this in a remarkable way, giving the musical a new touch of creativity and keeping its sensibility.

But even with the Critic’s Choice and the Writer’s Guild of America nomination, Tony Kushner was unrecognized at the 2022 Oscars.

Ruth Negga - Passing

     Netflix

After the #OscarsSoWhite manifests in the last few years, it is fantastic that the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role has two Black nominee actresses this year. Even so, it is hard to see that Ruth Negga, who had a phenomenal performance in Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut Passing wasn’t nominated.

The film, which also stars Tessa Thompson, Bill Camp, and Alexander Skarsgård, is critically acclaimed, with critics highlighting Negga’s performance as a Black woman passing for white in the 1920s.

Passing earned her a BAFTA, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but not an Oscar, making her one of the biggest snubs of this year.

Ariana Grande - Don’t Look Up

Don’t Look Up has been divisive among critics and audiences, but there’s something that most of the watchers agree: Ariana Grande was hilariously wonderful in her role. The artist, who started as an actress in Nickelodeon’s Victorious, is not only a great interpreter with excellent comedic timing but is also one of the most extraordinary singers of her generation. So, being a singer in Adam McKay’s movie was the right choice.

Grande made a significant contribution to the screenplay as “Just Look Up,” the song sung by her character, Riley Bina, was co-written by Ariana Grande. The funny and ironic pop song was a great contender for the Best Song category, and a performance by Grande could be one of the highlights of this year’s broadcast.

Alana Haim - Licorice Pizza

     United Artists Releasing

The Haim sisters are long-time collaborators of Paul Thomas Anderson, as he was a student in their mother’s class during elementary school. So it wasn’t a real surprise when Anderson chose Alana Haim as the lead actress of his new movie, Licorice Pizza. The real surprise was when Alana showed herself as a great actress. As assistant photographer Alana Kane, her role was critically acclaimed and was nominated for several awards, like BAFTA and Critic’s Choice Awards.

Unfortunately, Alana didn’t get the Oscar nomination. But now she knows that she has a chance of getting other awards than a Grammy.