Inside Llewyn Davis, Anybody? The 5 Biggest Oscar Nomination Snubs

Ok, so the Oscar nominations pretty much played out as we expected on Thursday morning (January 16, 2013) with a minimal amount of surprise nominations and plenty for the big boys, 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Dallas Buyers Club and The Wolf of Wall Street. However, it was the Oscar snubs that really made the headlines, with the Coen Brothers Inside Llewyn Davis - described by critics as the filmmakers' best work - ignored completely.

Inside Llewyn Davis. The folksy Greenwich Village-set movie was the Grand Prix winner at last year's Cannes Film Festival and certainly warranted one of the ten best picture spots. It was one of the Top 10 movies of the year. It just was. The Academy didn't think so. It didn't receive a single nomination in the major acting categories. Not for Isaacs, not for Timberlake, not for Mulligan, not for the Coens, not for makeup, not for costumes. Nothing. 

Robert Redford. Yep, this is a big one too, considering Redford has been the second favorite to WIN best actor at the Oscars for months now. We've written tons about his exceptional performance in J.C Chandor's All Is Lost and the veteran actor - who hardly as a word in the survival flick - won a Gotham Award, a New York Film Critics Circle Award and an Independent Spirit nomination for the performance. That said, for whatever reason Redford hasn't been nominated for an Oscar for over 40 years and the Academy clearly weren't ready to change their mind on the Sundance founder this year.

Tom Hanks. Ok come on now, Academy. Yeah, we realize that the category for best actor is pretty jam packed with excellent performances this year. Bruce Dern for Nebraska? Yep. Leonardo DiCaprio for Wolf Of Wall Street? Yep. Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club? Of course? Chitiwel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave? Sure. But Christian Bale for American Hustle instead of Tom Hanks in the exceptional Captain Phillips? The actor's performance as a hostage merchant mariner was one of the finest of his career though the Academy also snubbed Paul Greengrass for best director.

Fruitvale Station. What? What are you talking about? No Fruitvale Station? Ryan Coogler's Harvey Weinstein-backed project found fans everywhere in 2013 and was clearly one of the most hard-hitting pieces of cinema out there. It tracked the last days of Oscar Grant III who was shot down in a subway station on New Year's Day 2009. The Wire's Michael B. Jordan turned in a huge accomplished performance and Oscars talk had been rife all year. Unfortunately for Coogler and company, the Academy plumped for Philomena and Her as this year's slightly-left-field-but-not-really-that-left-field choices. 

Emma Thompson. Quite ridiculous. Quite ridiculous. It was generally accepted that the only woman who could beat Cate Blanchett to the Oscar for best actress was the British star for her stunning turn as Mary Poppins author P.L Travers in Saving Mr Banks. The film was a big hit, though it was national treasure Thompson who stole pretty much every scene away from Tom Hanks as Walt Disney. In a way, her exclusion from the Oscar nominations is the single biggest error the Academy have made this year. Like leaving out Ben Affleck from the best director mix last year.