Oscar Snubs That Hurt
It’s the Oscars season!!! A time for cinephiles to argue, predict, and pretend to be Academy insiders. My boyfriend and I have a ritual: one Oscar-nominated movie every weekend. It’s a fun little tradition, except when we realize that some of the best films of the year didn’t even make the cut.
Let’s talk about Challengers and Nosferatu — two movies that, for some reason, were left out in the cold.
What exactly kept Challengers off the Oscar ballot? Was it too modern? Too sexy? Too entertaining?
Luca Guadagnino took tennis — a sport typically associated with precision, politeness, and overpriced strawberries — and turned it into a warzone of lust, power, and manipulation. The film isn’t about tennis — it’s about control. It’s about how relationships are won not just with skill, but with psychology.
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And then there’s that score.
If you weren’t already on the edge of your seat watching the film, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross made sure you got there. The score in Challengers doesn’t just accompany the movie — it drives it. The pulsing electronic beats, the hypnotic rhythm — it’s relentless, like the film itself. Every match, every scene, every unspoken moment of tension between characters is underscored by a soundscape that keeps you locked in, like you’re the one playing a high-stakes final.
It’s the kind of score that should have been nominated on instinct.
And then there’s Nosferatu — a gothic, horror dream that had all the elements of an Oscar darling: stunning cinematography, atmospheric tension, and William DeFoe. Can we talk about Lily Rose-Depp? She was hauntingly good, and she isn’t just a damsel caught in Nosferatu’s grasp — she is the heart of the film, pulsating with longing and fear.
The cinematography on the other hand is a masterclass in atmosphere. Eggers crafts each shot with meticulous care, evoking the silent horror era while infusing it with his signature attention to historical detail. Especially the scene where Nosferatu’s shadow encompasses the whole town slowly emphasizing his hold on Lily Depp.
The Oscars have their patterns, and maybe Nosferatu and Challengers simply didn’t fit them. But here’s the thing —I believe great films don’t need awards to be remembered. Years from now, people will still be talking about Challengers, still listening to that electrifying score. They’ll still be haunted by Nosferatu, still captivated by Lily-Rose Depp’s performance.
And as for me and my boyfriend? We’ll keep watching, keep debating, and keep rooting for the films that make us feel something — Academy recognition or not.
