Oscar Nominations - 'Hundreds of Beavers' (And 'Terrifier 3') Snubbed Amid Comcast, Netflix and A24 Domination

Universal Filmed Entertainment Group pulled 25 nominations as Netflix's 'Emilia Perez' nabbed 13 nods and 'I'm Still Here' and 'Nickel Boys' made surprise appearances in the Best Picture race.

Considering the comparatively outside-the-lines nature of a few of the Best Picture nominees, quality notwithstanding, maybe we should have done a GoFundMe for a proper Hundreds of Beavers awards campaign. That’s not remotely a criticism, and it is bemusing the extent to which folks in the bubble still talk about a stereotypical Oscar movie or the kind of movie that doesn’t play into the Academy safe zone. We’ve had a decade’s worth of Best Picture winners like Birdman, Moonlight, Parasite and Everything Everywhere All at Once. And now The Substance is among this year’s Best Picture nominees, which is somewhat wild and comparatively on par with the course of late.

I mean, The Shape of Water won Best Picture in 2018, and that was a sci-fi melodrama where a woman fucks a fish. She fucked the fish; it was glorious and it won Best Picture. I’m sure Jeff Fowler and friends are just thinking if they had just... (redacted, censored, muted), then Sonic the Hedgehog 3 might be among this year’s Best Picture nominees. I didn’t even like The Substance all that much, but A) I’m kinda jazzed that it made the cut on principle and B) I’m now sad we didn’t get a Substance versus Terrifier 3 battle for Best Make-up. Next time, Art the Clown... next time.

Netflix boasted the most nominations for a “single studio,” with thirteen of its eighteen nominations specifically for Emilia Perez. A24 had fourteen nominations, with ten for The Brutalist and two for Sing Sing. However, the titles under the Comcast umbrella (Universal, Focus Features and DreamWorks Animation) netted a record-high 25 nods, with more spreading of the wealth. Wicked Part One earned ten nods, Conclave earned eight, Nosferatu nabbed four and The Wild Robot pulled nods in three categories. And now, category by category, the hot (and not so hot) takes...