Oscar Nominations 2015 Snubs, Surprises: Aniston, Lego Movie, Selma

No Cake for Jen, after all. The 2015 Academy Awards nominees were announced early Thursday, Jan. 15, and several big contenders were overlooked by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The biggest snubs included Jennifer Aniston, who many believed deserved a Best Actress nod for her role in Cake, as well as Amy Adams for her Big Eyes character in the same category. Nightcrawler star Jake Gyllenhaal was also left off the Best Actors list, and surprisingly, The Lego Movie did not make the cut in the Best Animated Feature category.

Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler — Jake Gyllenhaal in “Nightcrawler”

Despite getting no love from the Oscars, Aniston received a Best Actress nod from her peers in the Screen Actors Guild, which will hand out awards live on Jan. 25. She was also nominated by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for the same role at the 2015 Golden Globes, although the award ultimately went to Julianne Moore instead. Adams was also a big winner at Sunday night’s Globes, receiving the Best Actress recognition in the comedy movie category.

Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz in Big Eyes — Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz in “Big Eyes”

In their places, the actresses to be nominated included Marion Cotillard, Felicity Jones, Julianne Moore, Rosamund Pike, and Reese Witherspoon. Surprising to viewers was Pike’s nomination for her role in thriller Gone Girl.

Meanwhile, frontrunner films like Birdman, Boyhood, and The Grand Budapest Hotel all received nominations in the Best Picture category, but Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken did not. The World War II epic, based on the true story of late Olympian Louie Zamperini, did receive recognition from the Academy on Thursday, however, in the Cinematography, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing categories.

The most obvious film to be snubbed was Ava DuVernay‘s Selma, a biopic about Martin Luther King Jr., which has generated immense acclaim. Selma was nominated in the Best Picture category, as well as Best Original Song, but actor David Oyelowo (who portrayed King) and director DuVernay were left off.

David Oyelowo in Selma — David Oyelowo in “Selma”

The Internet then lashed out against the lack of minorities selected as nominees. (Not a single person of color received a nod in any of the acting categories this year.)

Anyway, congratulations to all the white dudes on the Oscar nominations.

— olilyttelton (@olilyttelton) January 15, 2015

huh, this Oscar guy sure likes white dudes

— Lex (@lexcanroar) January 15, 2015

were the legos not white enough for the oscars

— lauren ashley bishop (@sbellelauren) January 15, 2015

Social media users reacted most acerbically, however, to The Lego Movie‘s snub.

The movies to be recognized instead in the Best Animated Feature category included: Big Hero 6, The Boxtrolls, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Song of the Sea, and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Phil Lord, the writer of the Lego Movie, used humor to diffuse the snub.