The 95th Academy Awards are shaping up to be quite the controversial addition to this long history of recognizing talent and satisfying egos. No category is drumming up quite as much scrutiny as Best Actress, which is home to two nominees that aren’t sitting particularly well with anyone, especially with Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler having missed out on that particular nod.
One of them is Andrea Riseborough, who received the nomination for her role in To Leslie, an indie drama directed by newcomer Michael Morris that totaled around $27,000 at the box office. What once seemed like an uplifting campaign for a film that missed out on the spotlight has begun having its curtains pulled back, revealing what might be a fair shake of dishonest enthusiasm for what would otherwise be considered a run-of-the-mill grassroots campaign, especially, again, in the wake of Davis’ and Deadwyler’s snubs.
The other, however, is infinitely more mind-boggling, with Ana de Armas‘ leading turn in Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde earning her the nod, despite the film itself leading the Golden Raspberry Awards with eight total nominations, including Worst Picture.
It’s true that de Armas’ well-respected talent was on full display in Blonde, but it’s also true that the film leads the Razzies for a reason, and especially considering how the character of Marilyn Monroe was depicted in the film, one has to seriously consider if that’s a performance that can even be recognized in an ethical sense.
Either way, the news of de Armas’ nomination has been met with many shakes of the head, even for those that have worked closely with her, such as Lil Rel Howery (Get Out), who starred alongside the actress in the 2022 psychological thriller film Deep Water. He noted in an interview with Vulture that although he holds her in high regard as an actress, an Oscar nomination makes absolutely no sense in the surrounding context.
“Somebody else should have got bumped. I’m not going to say anything, but it’s a movie nominated as a Razzie. [The Oscar nomination] doesn’t make sense to me. It’s just — and that’s somebody I did film with. I did Deep Water with her, with Ben Affleck. Amazing. I’m just talking about the Academy. What are y’all doing? Come on, fam. For real?”
As he points out, his comments are more of a shot at the Academy than de Armas herself; the competition-wide snubs of both The Woman King and Till do not bode well for the Academy’s promises to improve its recognition and consultation of diverse talent, and with the likes of Riseborough and de Armas getting rather suspicious nods in a category that would have made the most sense for Davis and Deadwyler, suspicion can only mount.