Glitz, glamor, and a naked John Cena was the recipe for the Oscars on the evening of March 10 — although if you’re Apple, then it might not have been so fun.
Apple TV Plus had a handful of nominations for its movies Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon, but none of these materialized into one of the coveted awards for the streamer, with both losing most of the time to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
No wins for Apple
Before the awards, Apple likely thought it was sitting pretty with 13 nominations for its pictures. After the show, however, it was likely looking at the likes of Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., and Christopher Nolan with jealous eyes.
While Killers of the Flower Moon was nominated for Best Picture, it was beaten by Nolan's historical WW2 biopic. Best Actress’ hopeful Lily Gladstone was beaten by Poor Things’ Emma Stone, and Oppenheimers’ Jennifer Lame beat out Killers’ Thelma Schoonmaker for Best Film Editing.
Napoleon too lost out, its three nominations coming to a grand total of zero awards at the show. It missed out on Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, and Best Production Design, which it lost to Godzilla: Minus One and Poor Things respectively.
It’s a big snub for movies that felt tailor-made for the Oscars, and one that might put a pause on the continued big-budget push that Apple has been making with its movie projects. If nothing else, it's a slap in the face and a wake-up call — even Apple TV Plus' best movies aren't immune to a snubbing at the Oscars.
Apple TV Plus wasn’t the only streamer to lose out at the awards, however, with Netflix only coming away with one Oscar for its short film The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. That’s despite the red streamers' investment into the big-budget biopic ‘Maestro’, which, like Apple’s multi-million dollar movies, came away with a grand total of zero awards.
For Apple TV Plus execs, this is an awards show to forget — for everyone else, however, we have the best Oscars skit yet to remember for years to come.
