Oscar Shortlists: Academy Snubs Michael Moore, 'Quincy,' 'Aquaman'

Songs from Annie Lenox and Tim McGraw also failed to make the cut.

As the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences narrowed down the Oscar contenders in nine categories on Monday, a number of hopefuls were left by the wayside. Among them was Michael Moore, whose latest film of political criticism, Fahrenheit 11/9, failed to make the documentary feature shortlist.

Also among the missing were Quincy, the Netflix documentary about Quincy Jones, directed by his daughter Rashida Jones and Alan Hicks; and Eugene Jarecki’s The King, a study of Elvis Presley and his place in America.

In the best original song category, names that failed to register included Annie Lennox, whose “Requiem for a Private War” from the film A Private War did not make the shortlist. Tim McGraw's “Gravity” from Free Solo also didn’t secure a spot, nor did Kesha's "Here Comes the Change" from On the Basis of Sex. But while the Quincy doc itself is no longer in the running, "Keep Reachin'," a song for the film that Quincy Jones wrote with Mark Ronson featuring Chaka Khan, was shortlisted.

As for the visual effects category, the upcoming releases Aquaman and Bumblebee were left out in the cold, along with such films as Mission: Impossible – Fallout, A Quiet Place, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Paddington 2.

Not even recognition at the Cannes Film Festival was enough to assure several films a spot on the foreign-language feature shortlist. Omitted from the Academy's shortlist of nine foreign-language films were Italy's Dogman, Matteo Garrone's film which earned Marcello Fonte best actor honors at Cannes, as well as Sweden's Border and Belgium's Girl, both of which won prizes in Cannes' Un Certain Regard sidebar. Israel's The Cakemaker, which was named best film at Israel's Ophir Awards, also got the cold shoulder.