With the 92^nd Academy Awards now over, here’s a look back at the films that should have been up for various Oscars this year.

Best Picture: Booksmart (dir. Olivia Wilde)

How Booksmart wasn’t nominated for a single Academy Award will baffle and haunt me until the day I die. Olivia’s Wilde’s film is wickedly smart, laugh-out-loud funny, and deeply emotional all at once. It’s a painfully realistic story of two best friends in high school dealing with, y’know, all of that good ol’ high school stuff: post-secondary plans, dating, sexuality-questioning, studying, and trying to stay close with the people you care about through it all. It’s a film that’s a little too relatable for all of us in one way or another, and is one of the only films that I would rate 5/5 stars without hesitation. (Billie Lourd should’ve also been nominated for Best Actress with this one, but the Academy isn’t ready to experience the full power of Gigi). 

Best Picture: Us (dir. Jordan Peele)

Best Actress: Lupita Nyong’o (Us)

To say that people were shocked when Us didn’t receive any Oscar nominations this year would be a massive understatement. With Jordan Peele’s immense success from Get Out in 2018, it seemed that Us—which featured the incredible acting of Lupita Nyong’o playing two separate characters—was a shoo-in for Best Picture and Best Actress. And yet, nothing. Us is thrilling, terrifying, and has a brilliant commentary, just as Get Out did, but isn’t receiving the same kind of attention. Worse, Nyong’o’s exceptional acting isn’t getting the accolades that it deserves.

Best Director: Greta Gerwig (Little Women)

I’m certainly not the first to point this snub out, and I definitely won’t be the last. With Little Women having been nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Costume Design, it makes no sense that Greta Gerwig wasn’t nominated for Best Director. But, when looking at the other nominees for Best Director (all-male nominees, of course), it becomes unfortunately clear why Gerwig missed out on her well-deserved nomination. Sexism and racism has always been apparent in the Academy Awards and it seems that for every one step forward, there are two steps backward. 

Best Documentary: Tell Me Who I Am (dir. Ed Perkins)

As a lover of investigative, dark documentaries, I was immediately grabbed by Tell Me Who I Am’s Netflix synopsis: “Alex trusts his twin, Marcus, to tell him about his past after he loses his memory. But Marcus is hiding a dark family secret.” I didn’t know what to expect of this documentary and it was good all the way through, but the last ten minutes absolutely brought me to tears and became one of the most emotionally impactful documentaries I’ve ever seen. I think it might’ve been a lack of promotion that kept this one from the Oscar noms, as I hadn’t even heard of it until I was doing some late-night Netflix pursuing. Tell Me Who I Am is documentary at its most basic, with little more than two interviews, some photographs, and a few recreated scenes. And yet, from just this, the story is still so intensely powerful and well-told. While I highly recommend this documentary, there are some serious trigger warnings for sexual violence, rape, and sexual assualt. 

Best Picture: Midsommar (dir. Ari Aster)

Another creation from the A24 team, Midsommar is a favourite of anyone who is an A24 disciple (i.e. if the stylings of Lady Bird, The Lighthouse, The VVitch, and The Lobster were to your taste). Through this self-described folk horror film, Ari Aster manages to capture the beauty in horror and the horror in beauty. With elements of gore and terror sewn into a visually bright, gorgeous scenes, Midsommar combines Swedish paganism, cult-worship, and European-vacationing into a sickening, twisted, fantastical film, completely unlike anything else. While this is not the typical sort of film recognized by the Academy Awards, The Lighthouse’s singular nomination for Best Cinematography shows how indie horror is crawling its way into the mainstream. 

Best Picture: Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu) (dir. Céline Sciamma)

Best International Feature Film: Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu) (dir. Céline Sciamma)

An exceptionally high-rated film (97% on Rotten Tomatoes, for those who care about Rotten Tomatoes’ scoring), it came as a shock to many that France submitted their version of Les Misérables over Portrait of a Lady on Fire to be considered for Best International Feature Film. A historical drama, which tells the story of two women, a painter and an aristocrat, who have a forbidden affair. A beautiful, truly breathtaking film, it has left a deep emotional impact on everyone who has seen it. Like Parasite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire deserved to have not only been nominated for Best International Feature Film, but Best Picture as well. It is the mark of a truly exceptional film that it can affect its audience deeply, shake them to the core, and leave them a different person walking out of the theater than when they walked in. 

Best Documentary: Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator (dir. Eva Orner)

Sometimes, a good documentary is not marked by the actual quality of the filmmaking itself, but by the social effect that it has. Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator doesn’t have a billion-dollar-budget and it isn’t the Citizen Kane of documentary filmmaking, but the outrage it inspired in its viewers was comparable to the effects of Black Fish and The Cove. This documentary tells the story of Bikram Choudhury, one of the most famous yoga gurus in the world, and how the once (and still) revered spiritual visionary became loathed and despised for sexually abusing those who trusted him most. What’s most fascinating about this documentary is the duality in responses, both within the film and from audience members: people either violently hate Choudhury or believe that he is something akin to a saint. This film is disturbing, rage-inducing, and asks viewers what they value more: the principles of what someone teaches, or the principles of the teacher themselves.

Best Picture: Knives Out (dir. Rian Johnson)

Must a film be technically exceptional and dramatically well-written? Is it not enough for a movie to be fun, unpredictable, and have Daniel Craig talking about donuts in a terrible Southern accent for three straight minutes? While Knives Out is certainly not the type of ‘Best Picture’ film that the Academy Awards go for, I argue that there is more to film than being well-made: the best movies are ones that can keep the audience engaged and entertained from start to finish, and Knives Out undoubtedly does exactly that. That being said, Knives Out is also a gorgeous film to watch. The shot compositions and cinematography are absolutely stunning. Oh, and Knives Out has an opening overture. Like, an overture in the opera or in musicals. If that’s not the marker of an incredible film, I don’t know what is.