Barbie and JAWS: Oscar snubs almost 50 years apart

The Oscars giving blockbuster films the cold shoulder is nothing new, this year there has been uproar that Barbie – which is nominated for Best Picture – leaves its director Greta Gerwig and title star Margot Robbie without even a nomination.

Still, with Robbie being a producer of the film, she does still get an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Film, where she is also against Steven Spielberg and others for Maestro.

It was a similar story back at the 1976 Academy Awards when JAWS (1975) was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture, but neither its director Steven Spielberg – famously filmed when the Oscar-nominations were announced – and its cast – yes, including Robert Shaw who played Quint – also didn’t gain a Best Actor or Supporting Actor nod. It almost seems unfathomable now.

At least Barbie gets two Best Supporting nominations, Ryan Gosling, as Ken, and America Ferrera, as Gloria. Barbie also came away with eight nominations in total, double that of the four that JAWS was nominated for.

JAWS ended up winning for Best Editing, Best Sound and Best Original Score – the latter was won by John Williams, who was even conductor for the show that year, at least meaning he didn’t have too fah to walk from where he was standing in the orchestra pit.

Of course, there are exceptions to the blockbuster rule, with you only needing to look as far as Oppenheimer (still a very traditional Oscar friendly film) but also the likes of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and the film where having a bigger boat made absolutely no difference, Titanic.

Can you think of any blockbuster film or performances from those films which have been unjustly snubbed by the Oscars?

Words by Dean Newman

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