Nicolas Cage Snubbed by Oscars Despite Rave Reviews for New Movie

By Michael Hein

Fans are devastated to see that Nicolas Cage was not nominated for an Oscar this year. The 2021 Academy Award nominations were announced on Tuesday, and apparently, the voters did not think Cage's performance in Pig warranted a Best Actor nod. Over on social media, everyone from casual viewers to professional critics disagree.

Pig was released in theaters in July of 2021, which didn't help its chances of being widely seen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now streaming on Hulu and on most major digital stores for rental or purchase. It tells the strange story of a former chef named Rob (Cage) who lives alone in the forests of Oregon and makes his living by foraging for expensive truffles and selling them to restaurant distributors. The movie follows his quest to reunite with his prized foraging pig, and uncovers some dark secrets about him and the Portland, Oregon, restaurant business in the process.

The movie was an undisputed critical success – at the time of this writing, 97 percent of the 229 reviews of Pig aggregated by Rotten Tomatoes are positive, and its average score is 8.2 out of 10. It has a score of 82 out of 100 on Metacritic as well, and both sites specifically shout out Cage's performance. If that's not enough to earn an Oscar nomination, fans wonder, what is?

The Oscar nominations were trending on social media as usual after they were announced on Tuesday, but so was Cage. His performance may go down as the snub of the year, and it's clear that fans are not going to forget it anytime soon. Here are some of the top reactions to Cage's Oscar snub.

Robbed

Many fans tweeted as though they were already assuming Cage would get the Oscar nomination. Not giving it to him was tantamount to robbery as they saw it.

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Sequel

Some also joked that Cage should reprise his role and go on another revenge quest – this time against the Academy.

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Pessimistic

In the hours before the nominatiosn were posted, many fans were already tweeting their disappointment that Cage wasn't likely to get recognition.

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Recommendations

This snub motivated some fans to recommend Pig to their friends and family more insistently than ever.

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Lost in the Shuffle

There were many commenters who didn't even think of Cage until they had already read through the nominations and formed their opinions. Once they realized Cage had been glossed over, they had to reconsider everything.

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Presumption

Fans joked as though they'd already pre-written tweets about Cage's nomination only to be let down.

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Fixed

Fans posted their own "fixed" version of the nomination lists – in some cases identifying which actors should have been snubbed in Cage's place, and in other cases simply giving Cage the entire category.

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