academy awards

When the 2017 Academy Award nominees were announced this morning, the list offered the usual array of snubs and surprises — the latter of which ranged from pleasant to baffling; Moonlight picked up eight nods and a record number of black actors were nominated (Oscars #NotSoWhite this year), while Passengers picked up two nods (they just had to give that movie something, didn’t they). As expected, many of this year’s picks feel “safe”; it says something when the most divisive nominee is a musical about jazz — or is it? Maybe the Academy’s La La Land love and its increased inclusivity are distracting from the low-key elephant in the room.

The full list of nominees for the 2017 Academy Awards are out, and while there’s plenty to celebrate about this year’s batch of Oscars contenders, there are also plenty of surprises. And some of those surprises are of the not-so-good kind that involved leaving out our favorite movies or filmmakers of 2016. Below, the staff of ScreenCrush picked out the biggest Oscar snubs of 2017, along with a few of the most pleasant shockers from this year’s list of nominees. The winners of all the awards will be announced on Sunday February 26 at the 89th Academy Awards.

To date, only one R-rated animated film has ever been nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the Oscars: Anomalisa, Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s acclaimed 2015 drama. If execs at Sony Pictures get their way, Sausage Party will become the second R-rated animated film to receive that honor — and according to Sony chief Tom Rothman, they may very well win.

Okay, so there was a fair amount of disappointment around the 2015 Academy Award nominations. Everything was not awesome for ‘The Lego Movie,’ robbed of a Best Animated Movie nod, and David Oyelowo’s dreams of a Best Actor nomination vanished when Steve Carell and Bradley Cooper’s names were mentioned instead. ‘Force Majeure’ got snubbed for a Best Foreign Language Film nomination and ‘Selma’’s Ava Duvernay was robbed in the Best Director Category. I just keep looking at the list of nominations and playing “Sad Trombone” over and over again. It’s basically the official theme song of the 2015 Academy Awards.

We all knew Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy were hitting the 2012 Oscars red carpet, but what most weren’t expecting was a surprise duet. But it wasn’t between these two ‘Muppet’ love birds. Instead, Kermit joined up with ‘Glee’s’ Darren Criss for a stirring rendition of ‘Rainbow Connection.’

The Academy Awards are slated for Sunday evening. While you can catch the live broadcast on ABC at 7 p.m. ET, there’s no reason you can’t get into the spirit of Hollywood’s biggest night now. Here’s a look at this year’s nominees in the major categories. Let your voice be heard and tell us who you think will win!

Looks like the rumors were true — actor and comedian Eddie Murphy has been officially tapped to host the 84th annual Academy Awards. Although Murphy has hosted other awards shows, this will be his first gig at the Oscars. “Eddie is a comedic genius, one of the greatest and most influential live performers ever,” said show co-producer Brett Ratner, who also directed Murphy in the upcoming comedy ‘T

There weren't a whole lot of surprises at the 83rd Academy Awards -- as expected, "The King's Speech" took the big prize as Best Picture. The film about King George VI overcoming his stutter also garnered a Best Actor statue for Colin Firth and a Best Director win for Tom Hooper. "King"'s four statuettes tied "Inception," which also nabbed four awards in technical cat

This year's opening sequence of the Academy Awards featured hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway trying to tap Alec Baldwin's dreams for Oscar hosting advice. The skit featured a bunch of this year's nominees for best picture, and a surprise appearance from an iconic film of yore.  Read on to check it out.

Montages speaches and funny, weird moments and more!

See what all the stars wore down the red carpet at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. We've got 46 pictures of all the biggest names and proof of just how good or bad their style is.

I missed many of the movies that are creating Oscar buzz but that just means I have a summer of great DVD's to look forward to. Also, I feel a bit better falling asleep on my own couch and not the person sitting next to me in the theater. Who do you think will take home the gold? We've got Cinema Blend's predictions of the big night right here.