Oscars 2023 snubs and surprises

The 2023 Oscars went down largely as expected. 

However, there were some tight acting races that turned out differently from what many pundits assumed and some shocking slights in the less-glamorous categories. 

Here are the biggest snubs and surprises from the 95th Academy Awards.

‘Elvis’ totally shut out

Austin Butler, who played the King, versus Brendan Fraser in “The Whale” for Best Actor was always a neck-and-neck fight. Even after Fraser was victorious at the SAG Awards, many thought Butler would still nudge him out at the Academy Awards. He didn’t. Few, however, expected Baz Luhrmann’s popular biopic to be such a huge loser overall. It was defeated in all eight categories it was nominated in, including Best Hair and Makeup Styling where it was favored to win.

Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” went home empty-handed, too, but that result was less bruising as the front-runner had been sliding for weeks.

Jamie Lee Curtis edged out Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett was riding high for her acclaimed performance in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” after winning the Golden Globe Award for Supporting Actress and beating competitor Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”). But Curtis swung back at the SAGs a week ago, and managed her first Oscar Sunday night. After her loss, Bassett didn’t stand up or visibly clap for Curtis, which rankled some Twitter users.

No Award for Lady Gaga or Rihanna

Awards pundits weren’t surprised when the favored “Naatu Naatu” from the Indian movie “RRR” won Best Original Song, but viewers at home were surely confused to see heavy hitters Lady Gaga (“Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick”) and Rihanna (“Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) lose to a tune they were hearing for the very first time.

Paul Sorvino, Anne Heche and Charlbi Dean left out of the In Memoriam

The most unfortunate snub of all is when great artists are excluded, purposefully or on accident, from the annual In Memoriam segment. This year, Anne Heche, who died in a car crash at age 53, Paul Sorvino, who died at 83, and actress Charlbi Dean, who unexpectedly died at age 32, were all not in the roster. Dean is a particularly unfortunate egregious omission, because she was a star in this year’s Best Picture nominee “Triangle of Sadness.”

Voters hated ‘Babylon’ more than anybody realized

Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” which host Jimmy Kimmel mocked as a $100 million flop, wasn’t going to be an Oscar darling, but it was expected to win Best Score and, perhaps, Production Design for its lavish old Hollywood scenery. It lost both to the German “All Quiet On The Western Front.”