Jimmy Kimmel calls out Oscars over Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Best Picture snub

10 February 2022, 20:12

Tom Holland & Zendaya Hint 'No Way Home' May Be MJ's Last Spider-Man Movie

By Katie Louise Smith

"You’re telling me Don’t Look Up was better than Spider-Man? It most certainly was not."

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There is absolutely no denying that Spider-Man: No Way Home was one of the best films of 2021. Thanks to the film's astronomical success, box office takings, critical acclaim and sheer popularity, many fans thought it was in with a fair chance of being nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

However, on Tuesday (Feb 8) when the Oscar nominations were announced, No Way Home was nowhere to be seen. (It got one nomination for Best Visual Effects.)

Now, late night host Jimmy Kimmel is calling out the Academy and asking why Spider-Man: No Way Home was snubbed.

"The biggest snub in my opinion, and I am actually angry about this, I'm kind of embarrassed to say is the unforgivable omission of Spider-Man: No Way Home. How did that not get one of the 10 nominations for best picture?" Jimmy asked his audience on his Tuesday (Feb 8) show.

Spider-Man's Best Picture Oscar snub called out by Jimmy Kimmel. Picture: Sony Pictures/Marvel via Alamy, ABC via YouTube

"Forget the fact that the movie made $750 million [in the U.S.] and is still going," he continued. "This was a great movie. It wasn’t in the top 10 best movies of the year? There were three Spider-Men in it...You’re telling me Don’t Look Up was better than Spider-Man? It most certainly was not."

He then joked: "Even if you go by the critics reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, Don’t Look Up got a 46% and Spider-Man: No Way Home has 90%. For God’s sake, Jackass Forever has an 89%."

Jimmy then went on to question why Best Picture nominees "have to be serious": "When did that become a prerequisite for getting nominated for an Academy Award? You wanna know what happened? Voters looked at the list and saw the names Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep, and they checked the box, and then they put their kids in the car and went to see the movie Spider-Man. And they loved it! But they didn’t vote for it.”

Spider-Man cast react to No Way Home trailer

Netflix's Don't Look Up divided opinions when it was released back in December 2021.

Despite the movie's Rotten critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Netflix reports that the film broke the weekly viewing record with 152.29 million hours watched in the week of December 27th - January 2nd. It now ranks in second place for the most viewed Netflix movie of all time, just behind Red Notice.

Don't Look Up picked up four Oscar nominations ahead of the 2022 ceremony: Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Original Screenplay. The star-studded cast did not pick up any nominations for acting.

Spider-Man: No Way Home picked up one Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects, alongside Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The other nominees are Dune, No Time To Die, and Free Guy.

Jennifer Lawrence returns in Don’t Look Up trailer

Many film fans have criticised the Best Picture category at the Oscars over the years because huge blockbuster comic book movies are often left out of the race. After the The Dark Knight was snubbed back in 2009, the Academy even increased the number of nominations in the category from 5 to 10, so a wider variety of films could have a chance.

Marvel's Black Panther made history in 2018 as the first comic book and superhero film to be nominated for Best Picture, as well as the first film in the MCU to win an Academy Award. (It eventually ended up winning three.) Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix, also picked up a Best Picture nomination in 2019.

What do you think? Should Spider-Man: No Way Home have been nominated for Best Picture?