The full list of nominations for this 94th Academy Awards has arrived. And, sorry, Marvel fans, but Spider-Man: No Way Home has drawn the short straw. Seeing as the MCU threequel was the biggest movie of 2021 by far and made a considerable cultural impact, there was a lot of speculation over whether it could manage to replicate the Oscar buzz of 2018’s Black Panther. That Marvel Studios film that managed to break the Academy’s typical prejudice against superhero cinema and land itself a Best Picture nom. But, no, that’s proven not to be the case.
That said, No Way Home hasn’t walked away completely empty-handed, however. Jon Watts’ film has earned itself a nomination for Best Visual Effects, something that’s well-deserved given the painstaking job its VFX team did in de-aging many of its cast, such as Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina, who had to match their appearances from 20 years ago. The movie’s official Twitter account was happy to celebrate the one bit of Oscar recognition:
This is the second time a Spider-Man flick has achieved a nomination in this category, with the first being 2002’s Spider-Man 2, which likewise featured Molina — in his debut as Doctor Octopus — alongside Tobey Maguire, who returned to reprise his role as the original Peter Parker in No Way Home. Spider-Man 2 also managed to walk away with the statuette that year and picked up noms for Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing.
We probably shouldn’t be too surprised that NWH didn’t achieve a place in the coveted Best Picture category, but that hasn’t stopped fans blasting the Academy for overlooking it…
They might not be up for their turns as Peter 3 and Doctor Strange, but Spider-Man: No Way Home co-stars Andrew Garfield and Benedict Cumberbatch are running against each other in the Best Actor category this year for their performances in tick, tick… Boom and The Power of the Dog, respectively. The ceremony takes place on March 27.
