What is awards season without a bit of drama? Last year, it came from all angles: there was the revelation of Emilia Pérez’s star, Karla Sofía Gascón’s racist and sexist social media posts, the use of generative AI in The Brutalist and the controversy around Sean Baker not using intimacy coordinators (amongst other things) on the set of Anora. This year, the drama seems to be mostly surrounding Timothée Chalamet, who came out swinging on the Marty Supreme press tour. It started with his 2025 SAG Awards speech, where he declared that “I’m really in pursuit of greatness”, and ended with him essentially shitting on other art forms, specifically ballet and opera, which has pissed absolutely everybody off. There is something beautiful and even galvanising about wanting to be the best so badly, but when you mess up, the vulnerability of that declaration can make you an easy target — and Chalamet is learning that the hard way.

All that drama aside, here at Dazed, we’re still thinking about those who weren’t nominated. So here is our list of films, actors, and scores we believe have been outrageously snubbed by year’s Academy Awards.

A$AP ROCKY IN IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU 

This one may come across as a little rogue – and dare I say contrarian – as this person has never been in contention for any major acting awards this season… but ROCKY ROBBED! The exclusion of Rakim Athelston Mayers from the supporting actor categories this year is nothing short of a disgrace (in my opinion). His borderline puppy dog performance as James in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You – constantly vying for the attention of Rose Byrne’s Linda while convincing himself that he’s not – is the perfect counterpoise to the film’s unrelenting pace.

The minor criticism that Rocky received for this role – that he is, in fact, “just playing himself” – is actually a huge compliment. The note is an accusation levelled only at true movie stars, a dwindling group whose effortless charms mean their on-screen selves often seem like an extension of their real life personas. In reality, it takes a lot more acting instinct than you’d think to simply “be yourself” on film, after a director yells action and there’s multiple cameras pointed at your face. So, once again, in the category of Best Actor in a Supporting Role… ROCKY ROBBED!! (EH)

JENNIFER LAWRENCE IN DIE, MY LOVE

There’s a few people I think were snubbed this year, but this is the only one I feel truly outraged about: Jennifer Lawrence is incredible in this film. Playing a woman descending into post-partum depression, she is painfully sympathetic and often very funny, but also willing to lean into the ugliest sides of mental illness, in a performance which pulses with a wild, knife-edge intensity. Lawrence doesn’t just deserve to be nominated, she deserves to win as much as anyone. I’m sorry to pit two women, and two friends, against each other, but get Emma Stone outta there!! (JG)

GWYNETH PALTROW IN MARTY SUPREME

I’m not sure I’d die on the hill that Gwyneth deserves to win the award for Best Supporting Actress - maybe it’s not the most complex or demanding role - but she should at least have been nominated. I was captivated every time she was on screen – the woman is a damn movie star! (JG)

DANIEL LOPATIN’S MARTY SUPREME SCORE

Daniel Lopatin (AKA Oneohtrix Point Never) was cagey about his score for Marty Supreme when he spoke to Dazed late last year, just before the film hit cinemas, but it was worth the wait. Ethereal synths and flutes meet ominous bass meet cosmic choirs meet rogue frog sounds in this criminally overlooked soundtrack. Is it slightly anachronistic? Yes. In fact, it slides some three decades forward in time from the film’s mid-century setting. But it’s not by mistake: the 50s simply couldn’t contain the driving force of Marty’s passion for ping-pong. (TW)

NO OTHER CHOICE 

Over the last decade, we haven’t suffered from a shortage of satirical thrillers about how capitalism is bad, but No Other Choice really is next level: the story of a desperate, unemployed man man who embarks on a killing spree to thin out the job competition, it’s one of the most visceral depictions of life in a free market economy I’ve ever seen, all delivered with Park Chan-wook’s characteristic elegance. At a time when anxiety about the looming AI jobs apocalypse has reached a fever pitch, it’s rivalled only by One Battler After Another in terms of its relevance to the current moment. Maybe it’s not the best film of the year, but I think it’s quite clearly better than five of the Best Picture nominations (if you must know: F1, Frankenstein, Bugonia, Hamnet and Train Dreams.) (JG)

THE ROCK IN THE SMASHING MACHINE

If the F1 movie can be nominated for best picture (and three other categories), A24’s The Smashing Machine deserved more than just its one makeup and hairstyling nomination. May I suggest a best actor nomination for The Rock, who completely transformed himself for this highly emotional slice-of-life story? I know it wasn’t a box office success, but it has the potential to become a cult classic with age. Also, in an award season where Marty Supreme is plastered everywhere, I think Benny Safdie also deserves some love for this one. (LP)

ANYTHING OTHER THAN FRANKENSTEIN 

Now listen. I have a lot of respect for Guillermo del Toro – I mean, this is the man who wrote and directed Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water. He's a freaky weirdo, and I love him. But his adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was one of the worst films I watched last year, ruined by its horrible pacing, which made it feel long as fuck, and some really poor acting, especially from Oscar Isaac. It actually pains me to write that because I love Oscar Isaac! I also love Christoph Waltz, but the performances felt so flat. The film also felt difficult to get into fully, perhaps because it had a certain Netflix quality, continuously reminding me that I was watching people run around in costumes. Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth were the film’s saving grace – but that doesn’t mean I think Elordi should be nominated for an Oscar; he shouldn’t have been! And the movie should not be nominated for Best Picture either. I feel like I’m going crazy. In comparison to Frankenstein, anything and everything was snubbed. (HJ)