2011's Oscar nominees are well chosen in all the categories but there are still a few select nominees who were inexplicably left off the final ballot. Here are six films or people who should have showed up on the nominations list but somehow didn’t make the final cut.
Best Picture: Let Me In
It was ignored at the box office, it’s a remake of a stellar 2007 foreign film, and it’s a horror movie, but Matt Reeves’ brilliant, gorgeous, and very bloody vampire tale deserved not only nominations for Directing, Screenplay, Original Score, Cinematography, and a Supporting nod for 2010’s ultimate superstar Chloe Grace Moretz, but also a Picture nod as well. If the equally terrifying The Silence of the Lambs can win the Oscar for Picture in a field of five nominees, Let Me In deserves at least a nom in a field of ten!
Best Director: Lee Unkrich, Toy Story 3
Before the Picture field opened to ten nominees, it was damn near impossible for an animated film to be nominated in that top category, but do you know what’s even harder to pull off and to date still unprecedented? A director of an animated film being recognized in the Director category. Unkrich deserved a nom for his years of painstaking work he put into capping off one of the best trilogies ever made with possibly Pixar's finest achievement yet.
Best Actor: Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine
This year’s group of potential Best Actor nominees was more crowded than ever, with an easy additional five names that could’ve made the main five that ended up getting nominated. Gosling was always hovering around the fifth slot but ultimately got pushed out by Javier Bardem, who got an unexpected nomination for Biutiful. It’s a shame because while Michelle Williams received a rightfully deserved nomination for Blue Valentine, Gosling’s work in this magnificent film was just as emotionally raw and powerful.
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right
Almost everyone agrees that Julianne Moore’s performance was just as good, if not better than, Annette Bening’s in The Kids Are All Right, and yet Moore has been hiding in Bening’s shadow most of this awards season. Maybe her character’s infidelity rubbed certain voters the wrong way, but Moore gives one of her all-time best performances in this film, just as nuanced and magnetic as her supporting role in last year's A Single Man, which also went unrecognized by the Academy. A shame.
Best Supporting Actor: Andrew Garfield, The Social Network
Despite his lack of a nomination at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, it looked likely that Garfield would receive a nomination for his career-making performance in the film that defined 2010: The Social Network. No other moment in the film ringed more emotionally devastating than the scene where Garfield’s character learns he’s getting ripped away from the company. His equally devastating work in the underrated Never Let Me Go made this a great year for the young actor. A nomination for either one of these movies would've been welcome.
Best Supporting Actress: Barbara Hershey, Black Swan
The biggest question mark of the year when it came to the acting nominees at all the major awards shows was the complete shut-out of Barbara Hershey. Kunis was fine in the film, but it seems unfair that she received Golden Globe and SAG nominations for her performance, when the more chilling, resonant Hershey performance as Portman’s obsessive mother went completely overlooked. Hershey should’ve gotten a surprise Oscar nomination for her memorable work in this amazing film.
See the next six choices here: 12 Nominees Left Off the Academy Awards Oscar Ballot Part 2 of 2
