Anora, one of the best thriller movies of 2024, swept the Oscars this year. Sean Baker won 4 Oscars for editing, writing, directing, and co-producing, and Mikey Madison won a fifth for the film in the Best Actress category. Among others in her category was Demi Moore for her performance in The Substance, another great thriller that came out last year. The other three acting categories included nominations for actors in another thriller, Conclave. 2024 wasn’t the strongest year for thrillers, but the few good ones shared many nominations between them.

Among the most overlooked thrillers is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which is a 2024 flop movie that could become a cult hit in the future. Few sci-fi movies have been as successful at the Oscars as Mad Max: Fury Road, but despite maintaining some of its quality, its prequel was largely panned by critics and failed to perform well commercially either. Chris Hemsworth’s performance in the movie deserved a nomination at least. While Anatomy of a Fall, an essentially perfect legal drama, was recognized at the Oscars, the Academy has snubbed great thriller movie performances over the years.

10

Emily Blunt – Sicario (2015)

As Kate Macer

It wasn’t until she appeared in a Christopher Nolan movie as a supporting character that the Academy finally decided to nominate Emily Blunt for an Oscar. She has given us memorable and compelling performances throughout her career, including in films like The Devil Wears Prada, My Summer of Love, and The Girl on the Train. The Academy has never looked at horror films favorably, so her performances in the A Quiet Place movies didn’t stand a chance either. However, the one that stands out as most ignored is Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario.

To this day, performances in Denis Villeneuve’s movies regularly get snubbed at the Oscars. Many of Blunt’s performances snubbed by the Academy earned her SAG-AFTRA, BAFTA, or Golden Globe nominations at least, but they all pᴀssed on Sicario. Her character, an idealistic FBI agent, quietly unravels while reconciling with the lawlessness of her coworkers, and Blunt’s expert portrayal of her emotional turmoil deserves more recognition.

9

Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler (2014)

As Lou Bloom

For someone with his talent and repertoire of incredible performances, it’s disappointing and surprising that Jake Gyllenhaal doesn’t have an Academy Award yet. Apart from his work in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, none of his performances have even been nominated for an Oscar. Donnie Darko, Zodiac, Prisoners, Enemy, Demolition, Southpaw, and Stronger – there’s an endless list of great Gyllenhaal performances that have been snubbed. However, none of his Oscar snubs are perhaps as egregious as Nightcrawler.

Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, an enthusiastic news reporter who goes overboard in his zeal to become the best. Nightcrawler is a drama film that verges on becoming horror because it follows Lou’s descent into madness. Gyllenhaal’s performance is measured, and he gradually starts transforming the seemingly harmless Lou from the opening scene into a psychopath toward the end of it. Despite a fantastic awards season with BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, and Golden Globe nominations, he didn’t receive an Oscar nomination for Nightcrawler.

8

Jeon Jong-seo – Burning (2018)

As Shin Hae-mi

Based on Haruki Murakami’s short story Barn Burning, Lee Chang-dong’s Burning is one of the best thriller movies of the 2010s. A slow-burn thriller, it’s one of the director’s finest films to date, meandering through seemingly disjointed story segments before culminating in a 15-minute climax that changes everything. It follows Lee Jong-su, whose ordinary life gets chaotic after he meets an old acquaintance, who later introduces him to a charismatic man with concerning interests.

A compeтιтor for the Palme d’Or in 2018, Burning received critical acclaim for its unnerving atmosphere, which leaves a sense of unresolved angst hanging in the air even after the film is over. All three primary actors in the film received a host of nominations, but none of them were nominated for an Oscar. Jeon Jong-seo was nominated for the Baeksang Award, which she later won for The Call. Her whimsical performance, meticulously delivered to portray her character’s unease, deserved a nod from the Academy.

7

Adam Sandler – Uncut Gems (2019)

As Howard Ratner

Comedy is another genre that the Academy barely ever recognizes at its awards ceremony. So it’s not surprising that Adam Sandler, known for crude and slapstick comedy films, has never been nominated for an Oscar, no matter how good he is in his comedic roles. However, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, which won Anderson the Best Director award at Cannes, showcases Sandler’s versatility. He even received a Golden Globe nomination for it, but the Academy snubbed him, and the film.

While Punch-Drunk Love is a niche absurdist comedy, Sandler’s career-best performance is in a Safdie brothers thriller that deserved more recognition during awards season than it got. Uncut Gems follows jeweler Howard Ratner during a particularly tumultuous period of his life. He is trying his best to make ends meet as all his shady deals and his recklessness come catching up to him. Watching it makes one forget that Sandler is a comedy actor. His work in Uncut Gems gave us one of the best performances in an A24 movie, and it’s a shame he wasn’t nominated for an Oscar.

6

Lupita Nyong’o – Us (2019)

As Adelaide/Red

Yes, Lupita Nyong’o has an Oscar, let alone a nomination. It is even more impressive that she won it for her first-ever acting role, in Steven McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave. Only 16 people have ever managed to win an Oscar for their acting debuts. However, given the acclaim that brought Nyong’o, her career’s not grown as expected. She played minor characters in the Star Wars sequels and the MCU’s Black Panther franchise, but hasn’t had that many leading roles.

Apart from a voice-acting role in The Wild Robot, one of the best 2024 animated movies, Nyong’o has only led three horror movies and was part of the main ensemble in 355. Of A Quiet Place: Day One, Little Monsters, and Us, Nyong’o’s double role in the last one is particularly deserving of critical acclaim. Not only does she play two characters, she plays one of them pretending to be the other for the whole film. She should have received her second Oscar nomination for Us.

5

Song Kang-ho – Parasite (2019)

As Kim Ki-taek

Before Lee Chang-dong’s Burning got shortlisted for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, no Korean film had come that close to getting a nomination. The next year, not only did Parasite get nominated for that category, it was also nominated for Best Picture, both of which it won, creating a record. While it received six nominations and four wins at the Oscars, the acting in the film wasn’t deemed worth nominating.

Parasite follows a family of four who all work for or know the members of a rich upper-class family who live in a large house in the city. After their employers announce that they’re going away on vacation for a while, the working family moves in, and things come to a head soon. Song Kang-ho plays Kim Ki-taek, the father of the central family, who works as a chauffeur. His character has an air of calmness wrought with sorrow and a sense of tragedy, and of the cast members, at least Song Kang-ho should have received an acting Oscar nomination.

4

Jurnee Smollett – Eve’s Bayou (1997)

As Eve Batiste

A decade ago, the lack of diversity among the nominees at the Academy Awards in 2015 led to the coining of the #OscarsSoWhite tag. It has since turned into an activist movement, with many prominent Black stars boycotting the awards every year. If that’s the case even in 2025, there was obviously no hope in 1997 for an independent Southern gothic film starring African Americans in all the major roles, and written, directed, and produced by Black people too.

Kasi Lemmons both wrote and directed Eve’s Bayou, which marked her directorial debut. It follows 10-year-old Eve, played by Jurnee Smollett, who lives with her family in Eve’s Bayou. She has the gift of foresight, and her coming-of-age is marked by emotional turmoil from discovering secrets about her father that makes her mad at him. Jurnee Smollett delivers a remarkable performance that is exactly the kind of thing the Academy loves to nominate. The poignant family drama belongs in the Academy Awards hall of fame, but alas, it wasn’t to be.

3

Hugh Jackman – Prisoners (2013)

As Keller Dover

Another great actor who, surprisingly, has only one Oscar nomination despite having an impressive roster of performances is Hugh Jackman. Apart from his role in Les Misérables, Jackman has never been nominated for an Academy Award, despite delivering powerhouse performances throughout his career, including in Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners the same year as his nomination. Despite being a fantastic slow-burn thriller and Villeneuve’s third amazing movie after two good ones, it was largely unrecognized at the Oscars, except for a nomination for Roger Deakins’ cinematography.

Hugh Jackman plays Keller Dover, whose daughter gets kidnapped on a lazy afternoon. The distraught father starts pursuing his own investigation because he has lost faith in the police. He kidnaps his primary suspect and brutally tortures him in the hope of finding his daughter. Paul Dano as the suspect, Jackman, and Jake Gyllenhaal as the unraveling detective ᴀssigned to the case, each deliver career-defining performances. Jackman particularly gives us one of the best male leading performances of the 2010s, and he shouldn’t have been snubbed.

2

Pam Grier – Jackie Brown (1997)

As Jackie Brown

Jurnee Smollett’s snub for being a rising child actress wasn’t the only Oscar snub of a Black actress in 1998. One of the most infamous snubs in Academy Awards history occurred that year, when Pam Grier didn’t get a nomination for portraying the тιтular Jackie Brown in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. Despite Robert Forster getting an Oscar nomination, both Pam Grier and Samuel L. Jackson were snubbed.

A pioneer of the blaxploitation genre of films, Pam Grier is America’s first female action hero, and Tarantino’s film is like a love letter to her career as a leading lady in action cinema. It is criminal that Grier was snubbed for her last lead performance as a flight attendant who deals with criminals. Based on Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch, the movie gives Grier a stage as a veteran, 25 years into her career, to showcase her skills, highlighting her impressive presence as an action star and her ability to portray complex emotional moments.

1

James McAvoy – Split (2016)

As Kevin

Once a celebrated director known for his famous twist endings, a string of underwhelming movies has permanently ruined M. Night Shyamalan’s reputation. He has, however, consistently put out movies over the years, and many of them are good, a few even excellent. Among his underrated movies is the third part to his Unbreakable trilogy, which features James McAvoy as the main character Kevin.

Kevin has dissociative idenтιтy disorders with 23 known personalities and a 24th waiting to manifest, known as The Beast. An intense thriller, Split follows Casey, a girl who is kidnapped by Kevin along with her friends. McAvoy expertly portrays the various personalities that live inside Kevin, seamlessly switching from one to the other. His performance in Split is perhaps the best thriller movie performance in the history of the genre, and it should have earned him an Oscar nomination at least, if not a win.