Zero nominations. Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 hit film that took the pop culture world by storm received zero Oscar nominations while films like Emilia Perez acquired thirteen. The die-hard fans of Challengers want answers.

Guadagnino’s film stars Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor in the roles of Tashi Duncan, Art Donaldson, and Patrick Zweig, respectively. Tashi Duncan, a D1 tennis player turned coach, helps her husband Art Donaldson become a grand-slam champion. She enters him into the Challenger tournament so he gets off his losing streak. However, Patrick Zweig, Art’s former friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend, is also playing at the Challenger because he needs the prize money. The film heavily relies on flashbacks to show things like the boys first meeting Tashi and when her tennis career ends, setting the film up for the rest of the events to follow. The movie is tension-filled, action-packed, romantic, and all together, an out of body experience. 

We first saw the movie in theaters, and as soon as we stepped out, our minds were blown. How was a film able to have such comedic yet meaningful dialogue, an invigorating soundtrack, and beautiful cinematography all in one? Guadagnino created a riveting film that kept us and everyone else in the theater enthralled for the entire duration. 

Within days, it quickly grew to be one of our favorite movies and topics to discuss. It also slowly took over our lives. From buying Art and Patrick stickers, to dressing up as them for Halloween and for the WHHS coffeehouse, we fully immersed ourselves into this movie and the characters Guadagnino masterfully crafted. 

Imagine our dismay when we found out that this movie that revolutionized our lives wasn’t honored properly during award season, specifically at the Oscars — the mother of all film award ceremonies. Sure it did receive some accolades including Best Original Score at the Golden Globes and Best Score at the Critics Choice Movie Awards. However was this really enough? The actors poured their hearts, souls, and sweat into this movie all to receive nominations and not win them. Guadagnino himself worked tirelessly on this movie, seen through his vibrant, thrilling story, and he has yet to receive credit for the masterpiece he created. 

And we aren’t the only ones upset about this disappointing outcome. Other fans across platforms like TikTok have claimed that the lack of nominations was shocking, crazy, and said it even enraged them, with one girl commenting, “Challengers was the best cinema experience I have had in years. This is INSANE.” So how did this film slip the minds of Academy voters when it came to deciding the nominees? 

Some argue that it missed a message or story worthy of the Oscars, lacked in box office numbers, or that their press tours just weren’t enough. In some aspects, this is true. Due to issues related to timing and the actors’/actresses’ schedules, Challengers missed out on a huge amount of campaigning compared to other movies. This decreases the chance of a nomination because of the absence of media attention.

Despite the speculation of the different reasons Challengers walked away empty handed, in the end it was up to the Academy voters. Maybe had it been open for public voting, there would have been a different outcome. However, we know our love for Challengers and its incredible actors and actresses will not end just because of this let down.