The Oscars Snubs Draft. Plus: ‘Sirāt’!

February 16, 2026·2 hr 52 min·5 clips

What exactly is an Oscar snub, and does the term even make sense?

Oscar snubs turn into sport. After a TELUS read and quick introductions, Sean and Amanda set the room up as a draft table, with CR, Joanna Robinson, and Katie Rich joining the fight. Katie does not love being called a pundit, and that hesitation gives the episode its shape. This is awards history treated as expertise, play, and a little bit of live self-correction. Hitchcock becomes the pressure point. Rebecca and North by Northwest get weighed against personal favorites, career achievement, and the wreckage of 1940. John Ford makes the pick harder. The Grapes of Wrath is treated like a real winner, not an easy target, which makes the Hitchcock case feel more like litigation than nostalgia. His Girl Friday takes the hit. The group keeps moving, though Greg Toland still pulls them into a cinematography detour and a pile of open Wikipedia tabs. The room likes a tangent. Wuthering Heights, book adaptation choices, and Emerald Fennel all wander into the thread before the draft rules drag everyone back. The best parts are procedural and personal. Nobody just names a snub; they ask whether stealing the Oscar from someone else would actually feel fair. The closing stretch jumps forward. Todd Field for Tar comes up as a 2022 answer, partly because taking Michelle Yeoh's Oscar away feels loaded even to the people tempted by Blanchett. That race still sounds fresh. Everything Everywhere All at Once, social media rules, and general Oscar messiness make recent history feel as contested as 1940. It is brisk, nerdy, and argumentative. The fun is hearing smart movie people make the hard version of a simple barroom question: who should have won?

As heard by us

A lively Oscar snubs draft where old Hollywood detours and awards grudges do most of the work.

The Big Picture treats Oscar snubs as draft-board combat, with Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins, Chris Ryan, Joanna Robinson, and Katie Rich arguing over which Academy losses still sting.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a snub draft that treats Oscar history like a heated group chat.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Big Picture