Awards Watch: When is a Snub Not a Snub?

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The Golden Globe nominations were announced yesterday, and about five minutes later the press started posting stories with breathless exuberance. Trouble is, everybody couldn’t stop talking about everyone who didn’t get nominated. There is virtually no coverage that doesn’t include the word “snub”:

  • The Daily Beast lamented the lack of Oprah Winfrey (for Lee Daniels’ The Butler) and Jon Hamm (for TV’s Mad Men).
  • Variety said Hugh Jackman (Prisoners), Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Saving Mr. Banks all deserved more love.
  • Yahoo Movies called the lack of a James Gandolfini nomination (for Enough Said) “mind-blowing.”
  • E Online tsk-tsked at the omissions of Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station) and Forest Whitaker (Lee Daniels’ The Butler) from the Best Actor category.

Folks, there were something like 300 movies released this year. Of those, there may be a couple dozen whose acting, direction or technical achievements merit year-end recognition. There are only five slots (usually) for any given category. Many, many more people are not going to be nominated than those who are. It’s math.

The actual nominations look pretty good to me. I still haven’t seen all the year-end films, but it doesn’t surprise me to hear praise heaped upon American Hustle, and 12 Years a Slave (pictured above) is that rare combination of a film whose subject matter deserves recognition and whose quality demands it.

More significant than all the movies and performances that weren’t nominated is the fact that 2013 saw a lot of good-to-great movies and performances. This is a positive thing. I like that the Best Actor field is hideously crowded this year. It means there were that many great performances.

And for the record, Lee Daniels’ The Butler didn’t get “overlooked” or “snubbed.” I think the Globes voters probably paid a lot of attention to Lee Daniels’ The Butler, and then promptly determined that Lee Daniels’ The Butler was a bad movie. Oprah Winfrey’s performance was the best thing about an overly self-important, too-laden-with-distracting-cameos affair. It would not have bothered me to see a Winfrey nomination, but Sally Hawkins (for Blue Jasmine) is not an unjust alternative. When is a snub not a snub? When it speaks truth to power.