Andrew Garfield Reacts To No Way Home Not Being Nominated For Best Picture

Andrew Garfield reacts to Spider-Man: No Way Home not being nominated for Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars. The actor revisited his Marvel role from The Amazing Spider-Man movies to join Tom Holland’s third solo Spider-Man film in the MCU, alongside fellow former wall-crawler Tobey Maguire. Both Garfield and Maguire surprised many by turning out to be very important players in the Homecoming threequel, after rumors of their appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home were initially expected to be brief cameos.

Given the popularity of the web-slinging character and the exciting multiversal teases that characterized the film’s marketing, Spider-Man: No Way Home was almost guaranteed to be a box office hit. But when it became clear that critics also had high praise for the film, conversations about No Way Home potentially getting some award season love began to swirl. The fact that the Academy expanded its Best Picture category to have 10 nominated films gave some fans hope that the Jon Watts-directed movie would be among the selection. However, when the official list of Oscars 2022 nominees was released, many loyal Marvel followers were disappointed to learn that Spider-Man: No Way Home didn’t get the Best Picture nod they were hoping for.

Fresh off his own Best Actor nomination for his performance in tick, tick…BOOM!, Garfield was asked by THR about Spider-Man: No Way Home not being nominated for Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars. The actor was quite candid in his answer, simply saying that he didn’t feel able to comment on the matter. Nonetheless, Garfield reiterated how much he “love[d]” the film, and also pointed out its role in “keeping cinemas alive” during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic given its impressive box office numbers, as most theaters continue to struggle to bring in audiences. Read the actor’s full answer below:

“I’m not able to comment on that, particularly. I really love that movie and I really love Amy [Pascal] and Jon Watts and Kevin [Feige] and, obviously Tom [Holland], and Zendaya and Jacob [Batalon] and Tobey [Maguire] and all the cast. That movie has been a kind of juggernaut of proportions that I don’t think any of us really expected. I can only speak for myself and I just feel grateful to be a part of something that is keeping cinemas alive right now, keeping cinemas full, and helping in that regard and making sure that the live experience or the communal experience of going to the movies remains intact. It’s very, very cool to see audiences still deeply longing for the thing that I know that we’re all deeply longing for. I think Spider-Man is obviously one of those movies right now and that’s so cool, and I’m so, so grateful to be a part of that.”

Andrew Garfield

Spider-Man: No Way Home was certainly one of the most highly anticipated releases of 2021. And given its overwhelmingly positive critical reception (it is currently sitting at 93% on the Rotten Tomatoes critics score, and 98% for its audience score), it is understandable that some may be surprised not to see the film in the 2022 Oscars nominations list. Back in December, it was reported that the team behind Spider-Man: No Way Home was pushing hard for the MCU film’s Best Picture consideration, but hopes for this were dimmed when it missed out on a Producers Guild of America award nod earlier this year. Ultimately, record-breaking box office numbers and countless adoring fans failed to earn No Way Home the most coveted nomination.

While some fans are still shocked that Spider-Man: No Way Home didn’t get nominated for Best Picture, history suggests that the chances of this were quite slim. Despite their popularity and box office dominance, MCU films aren’t typically given awards love. While the Spidey threequel has been recognized for Best Visual Effects, ultimately, the competition across 2021 was incredibly strong. Films like Spielberg’s West Side Story, King Richard, The Power of the Dog, Dune and Belfast have been generating awards season buzz since well before their release, and Spider-Man: No Way Home simply missed out on a nod in such a jam-packed and exciting year for the industry. However, this hasn’t taken away from how beloved the film has been by people all over the world.