There are always snubs on Oscar nomination day. Some snubs are bigger than others. Because they’re so unexpected. This year’s #1 Oscar snub is Bradley Cooper for Best Director. And yet, it was not a bad morning for A Star is Born. ASIB earned 8 nominations, including Best Picture, tied with Vice for second-most nominated film after Roma and The Favourite. That’s amazing by any standard. It’s amazing to direct your very first feature film and have it go all the way to stand among the Best Picture candidates. 

In addition to Best picture, A Star is Born was also nominated for: 

-Bradley Cooper, Best Actor
-Lady Gaga, Best Actress
-Sam Elliott, Best Supporting Actor
-Best Adapted Screenplay
-Best Original Song
-Best Cinematography
-Best Sound Mixing

That means Bradley Cooper, as a producer and writer and actor, was nominated THREE TIMES today. It’s a lot to celebrate! But, well, there’s this:

Clearly some people can’t believe it. The thing is though…

Spike Lee just got his VERY FIRST Oscar nomination after a 30-plus year career that hasn’t exactly been low-key. For Bradley to be “snubbed” on his first time out when there’s a Spike Lee in the game, well, I don’t know, can we really be mad? Joanna is convinced that this moment during THR’s Directors Roundtable had something to do with it, LOL:

Here’s the clip – it happens at the 11 second mark, if you want to relive it:

Still. Maybe… in the end… this might work out for Bradley Cooper? 

As Sarah just wrote, this is the most wide open Oscar Best Picture race that we’ve seen in years. Yes, Roma looks strong. But Roma is still Netflix. There’s a very good possibility that the Academy gives Roma this much shine in the nominations but draws the line at the win(s). And remember what I said just last week about Oscar nominations: it’s one thing to go into the Oscars with a lot – or the most – nominations; it’s another to leave the Oscars with not a lot of Oscars, or none. I wonder if the Academy’s solution might be to give Alfonso Cuaron and Roma their day in the director category but Best Picture…well…

If we’re using the Ben Affleck and Argo comparison, which many seem to be doing right now – that Bradley Cooper is this year’s Ben Affleck – we all know what eventually happened: Argo won Best Picture. Not to be that asshole but, OK, I will: I alerted you to this a couple of weeks ago in the site open on January 8 in a post looking back at Argo’s victory:

Bradley Cooper was part of award season that year with Silver Linings Playbook (8 Oscar nominations), nominated for Best Actor. He was interviewed on The Today Show about Ben Affleck. His response was that Ben “got robbed”. Coop, then, of course, understands how the situation can change during award season. Like Ben Affleck, he too has directed a Warner Bros film that is contending for Oscar that is coming off an alleged snub – at least that’s how many people are referring to A Star is Born only winning one award on Sunday night. It’s not impossible for the ASIB campaign team to turn that perceived “snub” into an advantage, if they play it right. 

Bradley Cooper may have gotten Spiked. But there’s a chance he could also be Argo-ed. Everything gets reset from here. I can’t wait to see what these campaigns are going to look like. And is this the push Coop needs to turn himself back into Jackson Maine?!