Mia Goth: The Pearl actor says the Oscars snubbing horror is “very political”

As with every year, when the nominations for the 95th Academy Awards were announced, it wasn’t just the nominees at the center of discussion but also those that were snubbed. And, as seems to be tradition, the Oscars again left out the horror genre.

Now, Pearl actress Mia Goth is chiming in on why she thinks the Oscars and horror movies don’t match. “I think that it’s very political…It’s not entirely based on the quality of a project per se. There’s a lot going on there and a lot of cooks in the kitchen when it comes to nominations. Maybe I shouldn’t say that, but I think that’s true. I think a lot of people know that.”

Ti West’s Pearl–a prequel to the same year’s X–earned rave reviews (Martin Scorsese called it “deeply disturbing”), with Mia Goth, in particular, being singled out by numerous critics associations. Still, it was an extremely long shot for Mia Goth to get nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards. Whether making a bid for herself or not, Goth added, “A change is necessary…A shift should take place if they wanted to engage with the wider public. I think it would be of benefit, really, [to nominate horror movies].”

Goth may have a point here. As the Oscars are always trying to up their viewership, making genuine considerations to include the horror genre would offer one approach. Nobody would expect Scream VI to compete with the next Scorsese film, but acknowledging strong performances by Mia Goth or smart screenplays like Barbarian’s would be a good look for the Academy.

But realistically, it’s unlikely that the Oscars will ever consider horror a “legitimate” enough genre to let it vie for major categories consistently. It is a stunning rarity that the genre is nominated for Best Picture, with The Exorcist, Jaws, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, Black Swan, and Get Out being the only ones–and even some of those would be better labeled as thrillers.

What do you think? Did Pearl deserve any recognition from the Academy? Are horror movies far too underrepresented at the Oscars? Let us know below!