Oscar nominations morning is always a mixed bag. It consistently brings news to be happy or infuriated about, with a lot of both emotions bubbling up on Tuesday morning.

For starters, yay, 11 nominations for Everything Everywhere All At Once , the weird little multiverse movie that could! Yay for consistently great actors like Brian Tyree Henry and Hong Chau finally getting their due! Boo to zero women getting nominated for Best Director because, come on, theres no excuse in the year 2023. Boo to one of the best movie experiences of the year, The Woman King, getting completely shut out.

Here are some of the surprises and snubs of this years Oscar nominations.

SURPRISES

Brian Tyree Henry For Best Supporting Actor

Brian Tyree Henry has been one of those actors who deserved an Oscar nomination for seemingly forever, especially the year he was in Widows, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. Whenever he shows up in anything, you know it will be good. In Causeway, his performance as a car mechanic dealing with the repercussions of past traumas elevates whats otherwise a fairly standard drama. Somewhat frequently, the Academy finally recognizes an actor who has deserved a nomination for a long time, and that actors nomination isnt necessarily for their best or most memorable performance. The nomination or the win is more for their entire body of work. Well take it even if it provokes mixed emotions because its a testament to that actors consistency. Thats certainly true of Henry. Its great to call him an Oscar nominee at long last.

Hong Chau For Best Supporting Actress

Like Henry, Hong Chau is one of those actors whos been working for a while and is consistently great. Again, I have mixed emotions about this nomination, though for slightly different reasons. Theres a lot of controversy surrounding The Whale, starring Brendan Fraser as an obese writing teacher , particularly whether the film perpetuates fatphobic tropes. But putting that aside, theres no question that Chau, who plays Frasers characters best friend and caretaker, is remarkable, and she has deserved recognition from the Academy for a while.

Stephanie Hsu For Best Supporting Actress

I put this as a surprise because many people were understandably worried that Stephanie Hsu would be omitted in place of her much more well-known Everything Everywhere All At Once co-star Jamie Lee Curtis. Instead, both women, pleasantly, were nominated. Hsu has to carry some of the most arduous scenes of that movies wild ride. She has to play two characters simultaneously: Joy, the daughter of protagonist Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), and Joys alter-ego Jobu Tupaki, the films villain. A star of stage and screen, Hsu is undoubtedly on the rise, and its great that this Oscar nomination will add to her growing career.

Paul Mescal For Best Actor

From making his television debut in Hulus Normal People adaptation (and giving audiences some well-needed horniness during those dark days of 2020) to being an Oscar nominee in just three years, Paul Mescal has had quite the meteoric rise. In Aftersun, directed by Charlotte Wells, he delivers a tender and introspective performance as a young father struggling with his mental health while taking his daughter (Frankie Corio) on vacation. Its the kind of performance that isnt exactly showy and, therefore, not the kind the Academy often rewards. So its nice to see the recognition for him.

Andrea Riseborough For Best Actress

In probably one of the biggest head-scratchers of the morning, British actor Andrea Riseborough got nominated for the little-seen indie film To Leslie, thanks to a partially self-funded awards campaign and support from famous peers in the industry. They mounted a coordinated Twitter campaign and hosted awards screenings and panels moderated by big names like Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Charlize Theron. (Vulture has a more detailed explainer here .) Its an interesting tactic. However, its also worth noting that while Riseborough has undoubtedly had a respected career working steadily in acclaimed independent films, only certain types of people tend to have the connections, resources and industry-level support for this kind of come-from-behind Oscar nomination.

Ana de Armas For Best Actress

Blonde was one of the most divisive movies of 2022 for a host of reasons (one of them: its anti-abortion scenes, which did not sit well, especially at this particular moment in American politics). But many people agreed that however they felt about the movie, Ana de Armas did A LOT in it, taking on a demanding and perhaps impossible role as Marilyn Monroe. Plus, with lead roles in Knives Out, No Time to Die, and Deep Water, she has had a major couple of years.

Top Gun: Maverick For Best Adapted Screenplay

The Academy sure loved Top Gun: Maverick, nominating it for Best Picture, which was somewhat expected, given its huge box office returns (it was a common refrain to joke that Tom Cruise saved the movies in 2022). But a screenplay nomination? OK, I guess? Action flicks arent exactly known for their writing. But when the Academy loves a movie, they really love it and tend to nominate it across the board.

SNUBS

No Women Best Director Nominees

Did Women Talking direct itself? Did members of the Academy just not see The Woman King? (See below for much, much more on that.) Gina Prince-Bythewood and Sarah Polley and all the women who directed acclaimed films this year deserve way better than this.

The Woman King Completely Shut Out

As my colleague Candice Frederick has pointed out , this is the kind of movie that the Oscars would typically really go for: A sweeping historical epic with big and technically daring action sequences. (Case in point: the new German adaptation of World War I epic All Quiet on the Western Front garnered nine nominations on Tuesday morning.) Plus, The Woman King became a huge box-office hit in a transitional year for theatrical releases.

But wait, it was directed by a Black woman and stars an incredible cast of Black women (of them, Lashana Lynch especially deserved way more awards buzz than she got). So yeah, that explains it. So deeply demoralizing that this happens time and time again.

Viola Davis For Best Actress

See above. Though Davis has been nominated four times and won an Oscar before and certainly has always demonstrated how much shes a legend the Academy keeps ignoring leading roles by Black women.

Case in point: On Tuesday morning, Angela Bassett was the only Black woman nominated for an acting award for her supporting role in the Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever. It came a whole 30 years after her first (and until now, only) Oscar nomination as Tina Turner in Whats Love Got to Do with It. And if you need a reminder of the Academys abysmal history, in the 95 years of the Oscars, only one Black woman has ever won Best Actress: Halle Berry for Monsters Ball over 20 years ago.

Danielle Deadwyler For Best Actress

See above. My best guess is that Riseborough and de Armas surprise nominations pushed out Davis and Deadwyler. The latter delivered a remarkable and really challenging performance as Mamie Till-Mobley in Till, directed by Chinonye Chukwu. Depicting Till-Mobleys journey to civil rights activism in the wake of her sons brutal death, the movie received mixed reviews and was underseen, in part due to its tough subject matter. But Deadwylers work was undeniably great, and once again, it is abysmal to see no Black women nominated for leading roles.

Decision to Leave For Best International Film

Widely considered one of the frontrunners for Best International Film, South Koreas Decision to Leave is the latest film from director Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden, Oldboy). Its a twisty, Hitchcock-inspired mystery about a detective, Hae-jun (Park Hae-il), who is investigating the murder of a man and then starts falling for the mans widow Seo-rae (Tang Wei), who is also a suspect in the case. Its a gorgeously shot thriller with nods to classic film noir and mystery films. As both a highly entertaining and dramatic film, its a strange omission for the Academy, which has really embraced a wider range of international films in recent years.