Angelina Jolie is allegedly reeling after being brutally snubbed by the Academy Awards despite her impeccable performance as opera legend Maria Callas in the biopic “Maria.” Adding insult to injury, insiders claim the snub is less about her acting and more about Hollywood’s messy allegiance to her ex-husband, Brad Pitt.
After pouring her heart and soul into the role, including spending months mastering the art of singing, Jolie, 49, reportedly feels “devastated” over being overlooked by the Academy. She’s no stranger to critical acclaim, but this time around, Hollywood’s voting bloc left her out in the cold.
While Jolie earned a Golden Globe nomination for her latest work, the Oscars and SAG Awards failed to extend the same recognition to her this awards season. The Academy’s list of nominees, revealed Thursday, Jan. 23, was a stark reminder of the uphill battle Jolie faces, even with Netflix backing her new film.
“Angelina will be devastated,” a senior awards insider dished to Page Six after the nominations were announced. “Look at all the press she did for the film — she wanted to get nominated. She did Jimmy Fallon, her first late-night show in over a decade. She even went to the Gotham Awards. She did all these magazine covers.”
“Maria” marked Jolie’s highly anticipated acting comeback after a years-long hiatus. While the film scored one Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, the snub for Jolie’s performance as lead actress is quite jarring. One Hollywood awards expert called the situation a blow not only to Jolie but to Netflix, which had high hopes for the movie.
Since the movie premiered in August, talks about Jolie securing an Academy Award nomination started floating around. However, now that she’s officially off the list of nominees, sources say her public divorce from Pitt played a shadowy role in her Oscars fate.
“This just shows that Hollywood is Team Brad,” a movie insider claimed. “The Globes showed that the foreign press loves her, but that’s not Hollywood. Nobody was going to go against Brad and give Angelina a vote… people just love Brad.”
If true, this proves that Jolie is far from being free from the clutches of her ex-husband even though they finalized their divorce in December after eight long years of legal battles. Jolie’s attorney admitted at the time that the actress was already “exhausted” and trying to find a path toward healing for her family.
However, not everyone is buying the “Team Brad” narrative. Another source suggested via the same outlet that Jolie’s snub is more about industry trends than divorce drama. “The divorce is done, and yes, politics do come into play a little alongside the films and the performances. But the fact is that there are a lot of first-time nominees shows that we still have a healthy industry.”
This year’s Best Actress nominees include Mikey Madison (“Anora”), Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”), Demi Moore (“The Substance”), Karla Sofía Gascón (“Emilia Pérez”), and Cynthia Erivo (“Wicked”). Of the group, only Erivo has been nominated for an Oscar before, for her work in 2019’s “Harriet.”
Despite the snub, Jolie is already no stranger to Oscar gold. She won Best Supporting Actress in 2000 for “Girl, Interrupted” and earned a Best Actress nod in 2009 for “Changeling.” She was also honored with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2013. But her sons Maddox, 23, and Pax, 21, who worked as production assistants on “Maria,” know just how much this project meant to her — and how much it took out of her.
“Maria was personal to me,” Jolie said during press rounds, revealing that her sons witnessed firsthand the toll the role took on her. And while the Academy may have snubbed her, there’s no denying Jolie’s dedication to her craft — something that Pitt can’t take away from her.
