Jimmy Kimmel stunned by No Way Home Oscar snub (and rightfully so)

Marvel fans can count Jimmy Kimmel among those left shocked by the lack of Oscar love for 2021’s biggest film, Spider-Man: No Way Home.

On Feb. 8, the Academy announced the complete list of films set to compete for this year’s top honors. As expected, the list of 2022 Oscar nominations was lacking any major love for the superhero genre with the genre’s sole nominations coming via a pair of competing nominations for Spider-Man: No Way Home and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings within this year’s Best Visual Effects race.

While disappointing, the snubbing of the latest crop of Marvel and DC titles came as little surprise to fans of the genre who have long been accustomed to the Academy overlooking the year’s superhero films — which traditionally pull in the most returns at the box office — with the occasional exception such as Black Panther and, most recently, Joker. 

However, that doesn’t mean fans aren’t ready for change and they now have a very vocal supporter in late-night host Jimmy Kimmel who has put the Oscars on blast for their snub of No Way Home in favor of a lackluster Netflix film which he argues only caught voters’ eye because of its cast.

What did Jimmy Kimmel say about No Way Home’s Oscar snub?

Like many, Kimmel could not believe that the Academy thought the year’s biggest film wasn’t deserving of a place in this year’s Best Picture race and has not held back on his displeasure with Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s snub.

"“How did [Spider-Man: No Way Home] not get one of the 10 nominations for best picture?” Kimmel asked viewers during his monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “Forget the fact that the movie made $750 million [in the U.S.] and is still going. 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.”"

As Kimmel pointed out, No Way Home is not only one of the biggest films of all time — a goal it’s managed to achieve in the midst of an ongoing pandemic — but the film has managed to attain a higher critical review on Rotten Tomatoes.

"“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%,” Kimmel pointed out."

Jimmy Kimmel shades Oscars over No Way Home snub

Taking things even further, Jimmy Kimmel alleged that there is a problem with the Academy only looking at films that are “serious” as a prerequisite for getting nominated going as far as to claim that voters only voted for Don’t Look Up because of its cast list — not on the merit of the film itself.

"“Why do 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.”"

It’s a more than fair assessment and one which we can only hope others will continue to challenge as a means of putting pressure on the Academy to one day change their nomination system to pave way for movies such as No Way Home to finally break into the Oscar races.