As we await the resolution of the SAG/AFTRA strike and the welcome kickoff of the awards season, the time is ripe for discussions about a number of perpetual bridesmaids who have, in most cases, been recognized by the general public, critics and the industry for their unparalleled performances or work behind the camera over the years, yet have never earned the long-sought after prize: an Academy Award. Could this post-COVID/strike-impacted year create opportunities for a crop of certifiable greats to find themselves clutching that long-elusive golden statue?
We'll find out come March 10, 2024, when the 96th Academy Awards take place.
Filmmakers
Christopher Nolan
Universally recognized as the filmmaker whose snub for The Dark Knight led to an overhaul of the nominations process that resulted in increasing the slate of Best Picture nominees from five to up to 10 films, Nolan easily stands as the greatest working filmmaker without an Oscar, despite five nominations (Best Original Screenplay – Memento; Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture – Inception; Best Director and Best Picture – Dunkirk). With Oppenheimer, the three-hour biopic capturing the life and times of the father of the atomic bomb project, Nolan has plainly decided to give the Academy the exact kind of film they want, but because he is Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer remains first and foremost a Christopher Nolan project — complete with fractured timelines, buzzy technical genius, and the precision found only in his beautiful mind. Vote against him if you dare.
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Greta Gerwig
Gerwig has blazed a familiar trail in her work behind the camera. From Lady Bird and Little Women to Barbie, the through-line has been a sharp, modern focus on women as the authors and agents of their own stories.
Barbie spent years in development as a host of filmmakers struggled to find the surest narrative path forward for a character based on an iconic childhood toy. This wasn't GI Joe or a Transformer or even a product built from a successful franchise property (think: Star Wars merchandise) which meant having to find the humanity in this impossibly perfect plastic form. With three Academy Award nominations (Original Screenplay – Lady Bird; Adapted Screenplay – Little Women; and Directing – Lady Bird) Gerwig stands on the cusp of earning writing and directing nominations for Barbie, which means there is a chance for her to finally snag the iconic statue.
Ava DuVernay
Snubs drive the greats. DuVernay has been nominated for an Academy Award once thus far in her career — as part of the team behind the 2017 documentary feature 13th — but most insiders remember the head-scratching lack of nominations for her 2015 film Selma, which did earn her a Best Directing nod from the Critics Choice Association. The Directors Guild acknowledged her steady hand at the helm of the limited series When They See Us in 2020, but based on the reactions of fall festival audiences this year (Venice and Toronto, in particular) it feels like Origin, her latest masterwork, might be undeniable. Of course, if the Academy again misses the mark, there's no doubt that DuVernay will already be focusing on the next project, the next chance to remind folks that she should be among the heads of the class.
Actors
Robert Downey Jr.
Thirty years ago, Downey Jr. was nominated in the Best Actor category for his role in Chaplin, which many assumed would be the first of several for a fiery young performer with leading man good looks and the kind of off-the-charts talent that would allow him to transition from drama and comedy like a racecar on a solo track. It took well over a decade before he snagged his second nomination for 2009’s Tropic Thunder (Best Supporting Actor) in a role that would challenge the social order in today's world. And now, he seems poised to garner acclaim for his supporting work in Oppenheimer, after thoroughly entertaining audiences in blockbusters (from Sherlock Holmes to Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe). This is what happens when a performer can dazzle us with charisma and then completely disappear into a historic character role in one of the biggest films of the year.
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Michelle Williams
Where should the discussion start about Williams? How about her nominations — Best Supporting Actress for Brokeback Mountain, Best Actress for Blue Valentine, Best Actress for My Week with Marilyn, Best Supporting Actress for Manchester by the Sea, and Best Actress for The Fabelmans? That is a staggering list of films and memorable performances likely recognized by even casual filmgoers. So, what will it take for Williams to claim an Oscar? Whatever that is, there's no doubt that Williams will have given it to us and so much more.
Jeffrey Wright
In most cases, being on this list means having been nominated multiple times, but somehow coming up short. With Wright, the slight is even more egregious because he has never been nominated at all. No recognition from the Academy, although he has several Emmy noms (and a Supporting Actor win back in 2004 for Angels in America). He has bounced between Best Actor and Supporting Actor categories for his work on the HBO series Westworld and even played Martin Luther King (in 2002's Boycott, another HBO project). He got his first taste of awards season glory with his Independent Spirit Awards Best Debut Performance nomination in 1997's Basquiat and will certainly be in the conversation for this year's Best Actor Oscar for his skewed straight man role in American Fiction. Still delivering the goods and, currently, still waiting for the Academy to come a'calling.
Peter Dinklage
Part of a dynamic duo with Wright, Dinklage has never been included in an Oscar nominations call, which is quite bewildering. The Spirit Awards saw something special back in 2004 and granted him a Best Male Lead nomination for The Station Agent. Rather than waiting around for the perfect film role befitting his talent, Dinklage played a different game in the HBO series Game of Thrones and hit pay dirt, winning three Supporting Actor Emmys. Critics groups were intrigued by his performance in Cyrano, and I personally am quite a fan of his latest turn as a blocked composer who discovers a surprising muse in She Came to Me. While it won't generate the necessary buzzy blip on the Academy's radar, for the serious watchers out there, it will be yet another piece of evidence that will remind us of how right we've been about Dinklage when the Oscars finally take note.
Carey Mulligan
Two Academy Award nominations is nothing to sneeze at — Best Actress for An Education in 2010 and Promising Young Woman in 2021 — but Mulligan was just as unforgettable in Never Let Me Go, Shame, Drive and She Said. She has held her own opposite the likes of Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender and Ryan Gosling (all two-time Oscar nominees with no wins to show for their efforts). It feels like a cheat, lumping this class of performers altogether, but Mulligan emerges for me as the head of the class because she is the Kevin Bacon of snubbed nominees and my pick as the one who will break through first for a win.
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Aunjanue Ellis
With a career that includes work in films like Men of Honor, Ray and The Help, it is shocking that Ellis had to wait for King Richard in order to be seen as a powerhouse worthy of recognition. But that kitchen scene opposite Will Smith took everyone's (especially Smith's Richard Williams) breath away. And she didn't make us wait long for an encore.
Expect Ellis to shake the Academy's cage again in DuVernay's Origin. Her Isabel Wilkerson is stunning in grief and as she develops an argument for American society to look beyond race to explain our ills. Ellis projects the pure strength and grace that we don't always see in our fragile and fractured humanity.
Angela Bassett
As this list shows, lots of performers have been nominated twice and been found wanting in one way or another, but Bassett's two times came almost 30 years apart. To make matters worse, that first nomination — for Best Actress in What's Love Got to Do With It? — has been a calling card for her over the years. What she did to transform herself into Tina Turner feels like the stuff of legends, because to a certain extent, Bassett never stopped being a Tina Turner-like iconic presence. That's probably why filmmaker Ryan Coogler tapped Bassett to play the regal queen mother of Wakanda in his two Black Panther movies, the second of which earned Bassett that long-overdue follow-up nomination. This year, Bassett will receive an honorary award from the Academy, but that won't take the place of the inevitable win somewhere down the line.
