This year’s Academy Awards had celebrated choices, as well as bitter disappointments. Following the ceremony, fans weighed in on the highs and lows of the evening, rejoicing the long awaited recognition of Spike Lee’s work for his “BlacKkKlansman” screenplay and condemning the pick of “Green Book” for Best Picture winner. However, a number of noteworthy films didn’t even make the final cut in the list of works nominated. As audiences look back to reflect on whether or not the Academy made the right calls, here are some of brilliant films that were left behind this Oscar awards season.

 

1. “First Reformed” – Best Picture and Best Actor

This film, undoubtedly, was not given the credit it was due this Oscar season. A profoundly harrowing story of a priest whose worldview falls apart after becoming engrossed in how climate change will bring an early end to humanity, this transcendental film should have easily ranked among other Best Picture nominees, as well as given Ethan Hawke a well-deserved nomination for Best Actor. Though Paul Schrader thankfully was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, this was among the best films of 2018 and should have received far more celebration than it got.

2. “Hereditary” – Best Actress

Horror films aren’t often commemorated during awards season and, usually, this is for a good reason — few contemporary horror films are able to overcome the temptation to string a mediocre premise together with typical jump scares and plot contrivances. “Hereditary,” however, was unlike any other recent film of its genre, terrifying audiences with chilling psychological torment. Embodying this torment was actress Toni Collette, who did a fair amount of heavy lifting in making this film the gut-wrenching descent into hell that it was. Giving a performance that, if there was any justice in world, would go down as one of her best, Collette should have been held up among her fellow actresses in the category of Best Actress.

3. “Annihilation” – Best Adapted Screenplay

Jeff Vandermeer’s “Southern Reach” novel trilogy was thought to be nearly unadaptable prior to the release of the 2018 film “Annihilation.” The final product of the film proved skeptics wrong, transforming Vandermeer’s artistic prose about mankind’s sabotage of the environment into a foreboding narrative of disjointed identity, paranoia and fear of the unknown. While the film can also easily be praised for its immersive worldbuilding and viscerally chilling final scene, it was the written work of director and screenwriter Alex Garland that turned this novel into deeply affecting film, distinct from the source material, but arguably just as profound.

4. “Eighth Grade” – Best Original Screenplay

Adolescent girlhood is seldom captured on screen with any semblance of dignity, and “Eighth Grade” did well to speak to the awkward and tumultuous years of middle school insecurity with heart and relatability. This film provided not only a knockout directorial and screenwriting debut on the part of comedian Bo Burnham, but also an early career defining role for actress Elsie Fisher. Whether a nomination for Best Original Screenplay, Best Director or Best Actress, this film should have been nominated for something, and yet took home a whole zero nominations.

5. “You Were Never Really Here” – Best Director

Praise for writer, cinematographer and director Lynne Ramsay is overdue, and 2019 should have been the Oscar season to deliver it. Following the 2011 masterpiece “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” “You Were Never Really Here” proved to be another success on Ramsay’s part, ignored by the Academy as well as viewing audiences. Following Joaquin Phoenix as a hired gun who rescues trafficked young women, the film received a seven-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival where it premiered, and yet saw no glory from the Academy in a regrettable oversight.