Twitter Reacts To The 2019 Oscar Nominations

The Academy announced its 2019 Oscar nominations in the early morning of Jan. 22, 2019, with The Favourite and Roma dominating the field with ten nods apiece, including the coveted Best Picture award. BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book, A Star Is Born and Vice round out the Best Picture category, with the Academy only nominating eight films instead of their allotted ten. The Paddington Bear 2 contingent will be upset about that one.

A Star Is Born and Vice look to be strong contenders with eight nominations each, but as always, there were a few snubs and surprises. "It's about f***ing time," veteran actor Sam Elliott joked about his first ever Oscar nomination for A Star Is Born. His director, Bradley Cooper, wasn't as lucky, but he's talented and impossibly handsome, so we're guessing he'll find the strength to carry on. But no Crazy Rich Asians? And we can't believe [insert your snub/surprise of choice]! We're with you on that one for sure. Social media, of course, was all over the noms as well with endless hot takes, jokes, and outcry. So without further ado, here's a roundup of the best Twitter reactions about the 2019 Oscar nominations.

Lady Gaga's star is already born, but it's growing brighter now that she secured two Oscar nominations for Bradley Cooper's musical drama reboot A Star Is Born. Her nominations were pretty much a given, but in true Gaga fashion, she made history.

"Lady Gaga is now the first person to be nominated for Best Actress and Best Original Song in the same year," Crooked Media's Louis Virtel tweeted, echoing the reporting of outlets like E! News. However, Virtel also had jokes aimed at Gaga's predecessor in the 1976 version of the film. "Barbra Streisand is ripping up all of her ivory turtlenecks in tears. #OscarNoms," Virtel quipped (check out one of those ivory turtlenecks here).

Filmmaker April Wolfe doesn't share the Academy's excitement. "So I guess the voters really bought that moment when Lady Gaga screams in the bathroom and then later when she screams in a hallway," she tweeted. "I'm just... do people know what actors do? The fact Glenn Close already had to share an award with her, that is not right," she continued. "People don't understand that the naturalistic, conversational type of acting she was doing was good enough and where beginners start, but not GREAT." We can see the Little Monsters marching towards her mentions in full battle gear now.

First Reformed was one of the best-reviewed films of 2018, carried mainly by the performance of Ethan Hawke. The Tribeca Film Institute called the actor's portrayal of pastor Ernst Toller "the performance of his career," so it was a shock to many when Hawke didn't receive a Golden Globe nod. Spoiler: Hawke's work was passed over by the Academy as well. 

"Ethan Hawke not getting an Oscar nomination is yet another example of Generation X getting overlooked," Uproxx writer @Steven_Hyde tweeted. Crooked Media's Louis Virtel chimed in with another zinger, quipping, "Looking at the upside of #Oscars snubs, 'Ethan Hawke, Toni Collette, and Timothee Chalamet get robbed' sounds like a terrific indie."

Twitter user @alyssajaylor lumped Hawke in with another snubbed performer (that we'll get to in a moment), writing, "Toni Colette (sic) and Ethan Hawke are somewhere smoking a blunt." But it was Slate's senior editor Sam Adams who nailed the hot take on how it usually goes when a great actor with an iconic career doesn't get nominated for his best performance: "Someday Ethan Hawke will win a make-up Oscar for his worst performance."

Marvel's mega-blockbuster Black Panther set a new bar for comic-book movies by scoring a whopping seven nominations including Best Picture. While it could be easy for some to dismiss Black Panther as just another superhero movie, the cultural impact on the importance of representation it had cannot be overstated. "All told, Black Panther's greatest legacy may not be what it's done for Marvel, Hollywood, or box office records, but what it's done for the culture," Vox writes. "In Wakanda, which offers much to marvel at for audiences of all backgrounds, black viewers in particular have found a cultural oasis that feels like nothing we've seen before."

Although the groundbreaking celebration of black culture made Oscar history, the reactions to its Oscar love were more diverse than the cast. "Prediction: it will be a very long time until another superhero movie is nominated for Best Picture (and if Black Panther 2 doesn't make the cut, it'll be a lot longer)" Indiewire senior film critic David Ehrlich predicted.

On the other hand, the Internet has this take you can enjoy. "How the hell is Black Panther nominated for best picture when it's just a mediocre super hero (sic) movie. One of the most overrated movies this generation. If the Dark Knight couldn't even get nominated, Black Panther shouldn't even be in this discussion," @mebboss wrote. 

Toni Collette is fantastic in everything, but in the slow burn horror freakout Hereditary, the Aussie actress gave "the performance of her career" (per Rolling Stone) as the matriarch of a seemingly cursed family with a horrific legacy. The Academy didn't see it that way, and fans of Collette's turn in the horror flick were not pleased.

"Toni Collette got robbed. We're going to be talking about that performance for ages. #Oscars," film critic William Bibbiani tweeted. Horror fans were quick to point out that the Oscars rarely acknowledge scary films, no matter how acclaimed. "Toni Collette not getting a nomination for her BLISTERINGLY phenomenal performance in @HereditaryMovie is a huge disappointment...and not even remotely unexpected," Jonathan Barkan, Editor-In-Chief of Dread Central lamented. "This is par for the course for horror/genre fans. We knew it was coming even if we didn't want to admit it. Ah well."

Ironically, in an interview with The Guardian, Collette admitted that she doesn't like horror films, but took the role because the script was "complicated, layered, dense and honest." Hereditary is most definitely a horror film, "but it isn't just a horror film," Collette explained. "It's this kind of beautiful fragile story about people living with huge amounts of emotional pain."

After more than three decades of making films that defined the black experience for a generation, Spike Lee is finally an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture and Director. If you're shocked to learn that the director of the seminal Do The Right Thing was shut out at the Oscars, presenter Kim Basinger was right there with you in 1989 when she ignored the teleprompter and blasted the Academy for snubbing Lee's film "that told the biggest truth of all." The Best Picture that year went to Driving Miss Daisy (more on that later).

Now, thirty years later, Lee's BlacKkKlansman has his first chance to take home the gold. Topher Grace, who plays KKK Grand Wizard David Duke in the film, told Collider in an Aug. 2018 that Lee remains "warm and funny" while at the same time tackling serious issues. "My experience has been that what you like about the film is what you would like about Spike. He really says profound things, and he says them in a way that speaks to a lot of people. He just makes people feel comfortable, in a way that is a real gift as a director."

So when it was announced that Lee secured his nomination, Grace ran to Twitter to sing his director's praises: "It's ridiculously overdue but I'm beyond proud to be a part the movie that finally got this guy his nom. #spikelee #genius #academyawards #dotherightthingvoters."

Green Book is one of those films the Academy loves — racism gets solved in a feelgood two hours, and everyone goes home happy. These films tend to be the star of the show on Oscar night: Driving Miss Daisy, The Blind Side, and Crash — dubbed the "the worst film of the decade" by journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates — were all nominated for Best Picture.

To make matters worse, the family of Mahershala Ali's character called the film "a symphony of lies." The film's co-writer Nick Vallelonga was caught agreeing with a debunked 9/11 Muslim conspiracy Donald Trump shared on Twitter. "If I may paraphrase a favorite politician of one of its screenwriters, GREEN BOOK could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and it wouldn't lose voters," tweeted Flavorwire film critic Jason Bailey, in an apparent reference to then-presidential-candidate Donald Trump's infamous campaign remark. 

However, despite the controversy and the Academy not realizing these films are going the way of the dinosaur, Green Book is up for Best Picture, and the internet is not happy. Noting the obvious parallels between the themes of the films and director Spike Lee's involvement with the dark horse contenders both times around, the New Yorker's Doreen St. Felix tweeted, "Thirtieth anniversary of Do The Right Thing and Driving Miss Daisy, we have Green Book and BlacKkKlansman....oh, the sands of time!"

Where were you when La La Land won Best Picture in 2017 then Moonlight won three minutes later? While the chaos of that night has long since settled, director Barry Jenkins' indelible masterpiece will live forever. It would be difficult task to follow up that success, but Jenkins delivered once again with the hauntingly beautiful and tragic If Beale Street Could Talk. Neither Jenkins nor the film received Oscar nods. You can understand what happened next.

"One silver lining to global warming is that our children will probably be too busy scrambling for high ground to ask us how we could possibly have given a Best Picture nomination to VICE but not IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK," David Ehrlich ‏joked on Twitter.

"Self-proclaimed cinephile" Aidan Flynn, on the other hand, wasn't ready to make jokes. "The lack of love for If Beale Street Could Talk is frustrating. Barry Jenkins has one of the most unique and delicate touches of any American director working today. His love, appreciation and deep knowledge of cinema shows through his films. #OscarNoms," Flynn wrote. 

"If Beale Street Could Talk & Sorry To Bother You were snubbed for Best Picture. White voters must have hit their Black limit before they got to them. #OscarNoms," comedian Hari Kondabolu added. Let's not bring up Green Book.

Bohemian Rhapsody was the worst-reviewed Best Picture winner at the Golden Globes since 1986, according to ET Canada, but hey, a win's a win, right? And with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 62%, the blockbuster Queen biopic faces another uphill to climb to snag the Oscar for Best Picture: Bryan Singer.

On Jan. 23, 2019, after a year-long investigation with over 50 sources on record, The Atlantic published a disturbing and graphic report in which four men accuse the director of sexually assaulting them when they were minors. Since Hollywood put themselves at the forefront of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements, would the Academy risk handing out it's most prestigious award to Bohemian Rhapsody? The filmmakers were able to distance themselves from Singer after their Golden Globe Best Picture win, but these allegations might be too much for voters to ignore.

Vulture associate editor Jackson McHenry addressed the filmmakers' erasure of Bryan Singer with a little snark. "Bohemian Rhapsody got a Best Picture nomination even though no one directed it, weird," he tweeted. On a lighter note, film critic Guy Lodge wants you to remember all those unfortunate wigs littered throughout the flick. He tweeted, "Yes, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY got more nominations than it should have done, but one of them wasn't for Best Makeup & Hairstyling. Silver linings!"

Who knew a B-list superhero movie would make over over $1 billion at the box office at the box office? Congrats, Aquaman. You did it. Thanks to the film's visual effects, it made you think Atlantis was a real place. Or a video game. Either way, if DC's favorite underwater king expected an Oscar nomination, his army of VFX artists was his best hope. Unfortunately for the movie's fans, Aquaman won't be spearing a trophy. 

Fans were less than thrilled. "No vfx nom for Aquaman....the academy was like oh pretty girl, let's hate on her," @almaeIson tweeted, accompanied by epic screenshots of the underwater world. "Maybe Aquaman didnt get best vfx cause maybe atlantis really is real and James Wan and the rest of the crew really went there and shot the whole movie," @henrycavjII quipped.

Maybe the Academy should have looked a little further, like in director James Wan explanation to The Wrap on why he uses CG extensively. "CG or visual effects [are] just another piece of filmmaking tool for me to tell my story because the telling of the story is the most important thing," he said. "I'm always trying to find different visuals and unique things to create my world with and so, yeah, it has a lot of visual effects — but have you seen visual effects like that before? That's the key: to make it unique."