When Wonder Woman came out in 2017, there was a world of expectations heaped on the shoulders of the first female-led superhero movie. Lucky for everyone, the movie was well-received at the box office and by the public, which is why fans were surprised to see Wonder Woman conspicuously missing from the recently released Academy Award nominations list, a reality that has a few fans very upset.
In an awards season that seems determined to shine the spotlight on the place of women in Hollywood, it does seem odd that Wonder Woman's many achievements would go uncelebrated by the Academy, which is not to say that it deserved a shot at any of the acting awards or Best Picture, but that its technical achievements may have been worth a second or harder look.
It's also fair to note that movies like Wonder Woman are typically not made with the idea that they will go on to win Oscars. Summer blockbusters are made to entertain, tell a story, and in Wonder Woman's case, connect the story to a greater, comic-based cinematic universe. Patty Jenkins and her team made a good movie, but the things that make Wonder Woman good — its humor, pacing, characters, world-building, and action — are not often what the Academy takes into account when doling out its nominations. Modern superhero movies are generally not considered Oscar bait (the biggest Oscar-nominated hero films are The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 2, which both came out before super-cinematic universes took hold of the box office). However, some fans have pointed out that Logan, one of 2017's other big superhero movies, was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, which suggests that it's not the superhero genre that turns the Academy off, but the merits of Wonder Woman specifically.
In any case a lack of nominations doesn't make Wonder Woman a bad or unloved movie, and fans who love it can continue to enjoy the film regardless of its placement in the annals of Academy Award–nominated masterpieces. Diana of Themyscira wouldn't care about the Oscars anyway — little gold men sound like the exact kind of nonsense she'd want to hack in half with a sword.
