When this year’s Oscar nominations came in, a lot of the year’s best films – from Parasite to The Irishman to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – were duly recognized for their craft by the Academy. But one movie that excelled in a few areas, the Safdie brothers’ panic-inducing crime thriller Uncut Gems, didn’t receive a single nomination.

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There are a couple of awards that this movie definitely should’ve been nominated for, and in some cases, Uncut Gems arguably exceeded one of the actual nominees. So, here are 5 Oscars Uncut Gems Was Snubbed For (& 5 Nominees It Should’ve Replaced).

Snubbed For: Best Actor (Adam Sandler)

Howard showing a Furbies jewelry in Uncut Gems

Moviegoers tend to have a chip on their shoulder about Adam Sandler because he’s responsible for such abysmal cinematic outings as Jack and Jill, Pixels, and Grown Ups. But when he’s not resting on his laurels, and he steps outside his comfort zone to star in a drama like Punch-Drunk Love or The Meyerowitz Stories, Sandler can prove that he’s a phenomenal actor.

His performance as Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems, the jewelry dealer whose best-laid plans often go awry, is possibly the finest of his career. He really embodied the character. It doesn’t feel like you’re watching Sandler; it feels like you’re watching Howard.

Should’ve Replaced: Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes)

Adam Driver, Leonardo DiCaprio, Antonio Banderas, and the eventual winner Joaquin Phoenix more than earned their nominations for Best Actor this year (and a case could easily be made that Robert De Niro deserved to be recognized alongside his Irishman co-stars Al Pacino and Joe Pesci), but Jonathan Pryce’s nomination for playing Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio felt like the odd one out.

While The Two Popes was a fine dramatization of a curious chapter in papal history, it didn’t stand out as anything special. The acting by Pryce and his co-star Anthony Hopkins carried the whole thing, but Adam Sandler’s portrayal of Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems blew their bickering popes out of the water.

Snubbed For: Best Director (Josh & Benny Safdie)

Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) looking behind him on the streets of New York in Uncut Gems

Throughout their filmography, Josh and Benny Safdie have positioned themselves as masters of nerve-racking cinema. Uncut Gems is their best movie yet – the pinnacle of their filmmaking powers – and it should’ve been the one to put them on the map with a Best Director nomination.

Related: The Oscars: 5 Times The Academy Got Best Actor Right (And 5 They Got Wrong)

Maybe the Academy voters look down on directing duos and prefer the singular vision of a solo director, or they’ve got a prejudice against Adam Sandler for being the guy from Billy Madison. Either way, the Safdies were robbed of a nomination.

Should’ve Replaced: Todd Phillips (Joker)

Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in Joker

As a study of mental health and the class divide, Joker was about as meaningful as one could expect from the director of The Hangover, The Hangover Part II, and The Hangover Part III.

Todd Phillips’ direction of Joker boiled down to ripping off the work of his fellow Best Director nominee Martin Scorsese (particularly Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, and a little bit of Raging Bull) and allowing his incredible lead actor Joaquin Phoenix and his incredible director of photography Lawrence Sher to do their thing and carry his movie.

Snubbed For: Best Supporting Actress (Julia Fox)

Julia Fox sitting down looking nervous in Uncut Gems

This year’s Best Supporting Actress was pretty much a lock for Laura Dern’s portrayal of a ruthless divorce lawyer in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, and she unsurprisingly ended up taking home the award, but Julia Fox at least deserved a nomination. Her turn in Uncut Gems as Julia, Howard’s employee and mistress is revelatory.

She threw herself into scenes like arguing outside The Weeknd’s party and making up in Howard’s office the following day and formulating a plan to bet all their money on Kevin Garnett and created one of the most memorable characters of the year.

Should’ve Replaced: Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit)

A close-up of Rosie in Jojo Rabbit

Scarlett Johansson was great as the titular young Nazi’s political activist mother in Jojo Rabbit. Her performance went hand-in-hand with the zany comic tone that director Taika Waititi was going for.

Related: Oscars 2020: The Best Actor & Actress Nominees, Ranked By Who Deserves To Win

However, the role didn’t give Johansson the chance to show off the same range that Julia Fox did in Uncut Gems. And Johansson already had a nomination for Best Actress for her turn in Marriage Story, so the Academy had a chance to share the love.

Snubbed For: Best Original Screenplay (Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie, & Ronald Bronstein)

The Safdie brothers and their co-writer Ronald Bronstein worked on the screenplay for Uncut Gems for a decade before it got made. During that time, they kept finetuning the story and the themes and each individual scene until it was as great as it could possibly be.

The writers deftly mixed the events of real Celtics games into the plot. As different NBA players dropped in and out of the role that eventually went to Kevin Garnett, Bronstein and the Safdies had to keep tweaking the script, but never lost sight of their characters’ arcs.

Should’ve Replaced: Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917)

1917 Movie Ending Schofield

With its narrative simplicity and technical genius, the focus of Sam Mendes’ 1917 is on the visuals, not the script. The script only serves to get the characters from one set piece to another.

Mendes and his co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns did a fine job of getting this uncomplicated story down on paper and laying out the blueprint for a masterclass of filming. There was no doubt that 1917 would easily clinch Roger Deakins another Oscar for Best Cinematography, but the script wasn’t the star of the show.

Snubbed For: Best Picture

The Best Picture nominations are the Academy’s way of naming the best movies of the year. That was mostly true of this year’s nominations, but Uncut Gems is undeniably one of the year’s finest movies and the Academy failed to recognize it as such.

This whole movie is designed to keep you on the edge of your seat, and the acting, cinematography, storytelling, editing, and score all converge to create a nonstop sense of anxiety. If that’s not Best Picture-worthy, what is?

Should’ve Replaced: Joker

The Academy voters mostly honored the year’s best films with their Best Picture nominations (and the history-making winner, Parasite), but one inclusion was baffling, and that’s Joker. Somehow, that was the movie that emerged with the most nominations of all. Joker was not a bad movie. For all intents and purposes, it’s a pretty good movie. But the Academy Award for Best Picture, or even a nomination for it, shouldn’t go to a pretty good movie.

Joker might’ve gotten a lot more attention than Uncut Gems, but that’s only because Joker is based on a comic book property. Without ties to Batman, if it was just a movie about a clown-turned-criminal, Joker would’ve been deservingly dismissed by the moviegoing public. Uncut Gems has so much more substance, thematic resonance, and overall cinematic power than Joker.

NEXT: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Uncut Gems