For the first time in years, the Oscars have created a great deal of controversy over their surprises and snubs. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is usually known for being predictable and choosing in accordance with what other critics' outlets have picked during the course of awards season. However, some major omissions have gotten numerous critics talking.
In an article published by Niles-Morton Grove Patch, reporter Pam DeFiglio spoke with a film specialist Cecilia Cygnar who stated that "They left out of lot of key nominations that I thought were shoo-ins...such as the ones that everyone is talking about...Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow for Best Director." Otherwise Cygnar stated that she was relatively unsurprised by the picks of the Academy.
The Associated Press remarked that the Academy nominations have completely shifted the state of the race and made the "Golden Globes show a little less relevant." The AP remarks that the omission of Affleck and Bigelow in the director category essentially makes Steven Spielberg and his film "Lincoln" the front-runners to win the major prizes on Feb. 24. "While a Globe might be a nice consolation prize, it could be a little awkward if Affleck, Bigelow or Tarantino won Sunday and had to make a cheery acceptance speech knowing they don't have seats at the grown-ups table for the Feb. 24 Oscars," says the article.
The AP does note that the Hollywood Foreign Press, made up of 90 out-of-state reporters, could be more interested in the global stories told in "Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty" than in the purely American one recounted in "Lincoln." "Zero Dark Thirty" relates the manhunt for Osama Bin-Laden while "Argo" portrays the Iranian Revolution and its takeover of the US Embassy in the late 1970s. "Lincoln" narrates the creation of the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution.
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