‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Falls Short in Long-Shot Bid for Best Picture Nomination

Spider-Man: No Way Home couldn’t quite swing its way to a best picture nomination Tuesday, despite hopes from fans and the filmmakers behind it.

No Way Home has earned $1.77 billion at the box office globally, an unprecedented number in the pandemic age. The superhero film was considered a long shot in the best picture race, though producers Sony and Marvel launched an Oscars campaign on the heels of its success, and there was hope that the Academy would recognize it for helping reinvigorate theater-going.

The film united three generations of Spider-Man actors, with Tom Holland teaming up with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield to take down assorted villains from the past 20 years of Spidey films.

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Despite falling short in the best picture race, it will compete in the best visual effects category along with fellow Marvel Studios title Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Those are the only two nominations for Marvel Studios this year.

In recent years, films based on comic books have made headway at the Academy Awards. Marvel Studios’ Black Panther (2018) and Warner Bros.’ DC film Joker (2019) were nominated for best picture. Both stood out amid the multiple comic book movies that debut every year. Black Panther broke ground as the first movie of that scale to be led by a predominately Black cast, while Joker was not marketed as a comic book film and rather was positioned as a prestige picture.

More than a decade ago, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) was snubbed in the best picture category; the ensuing outcry led to the Academy expanding the best picture nominees from five to 10 the following year.

In a story in December about No Way Home’s Oscar hopes, Marvel boss Kevin Feige told The Hollywood Reporter: “It’s a good thing when people are in a theater and they stand up and cheer. It’s a good thing when people are wiping tears because they’re thinking back on their last 20 years of moviegoing and what it has meant to them. That, to me, is a very good thing — the sort of thing the Academy was founded, back in the day, to recognize.”

Though No Way Home fans may have been disappointed, Spider-Man fans had reason to celebrate. No Way Home actor Garfield landed his second best actor nomination for Tick, Tick … Boom!, while co-star Benedict Cumberbatch, known for playing Doctor Strange, earned his second best actor nomination for The Power of the Dog. Kirsten Dunst, who played Mary Jane Watson in the original Spider-Man trilogy from 2002-07, secured her first supporting actress nomination for The Power of the Dog. And J. Jonah Jameson actor J.K. Simmons, already an Oscar winner for Whiplash, was nominated for supporting actor for Being the Ricardos.