Every year, as the end of February approaches, I can hardly contain my excitement for the Academy Awards, the most excruciating but most rewarding awards show of the season, and my favorite televised celeb event. Until now.

Oscar nominations are never exactly what you want them to be, but there are usually enough deserving films and actors that it’s  worth watching anyway. Not this year. Okay, maybe that’s not entirely fair — this year’s Oscar bunch is by no means devoid of talent and merit.  The issue isn’t what made the cut — it’s what didn’t. The list of snubs is appalling.

Let’s start with Drive. From the beginning, I knew this gory indie wouldn’t land too high on the Academy’s radar, but I never thought it would be left out completely. Drive was probably my favorite movie of 2011 — brilliant direction, terrific performances (where is Albert Brooks’ Supporting Actor nod? Not to mention Strike 1 for Ryan Gosling) and an overall awesome movie. Where’s the love? I know I’m not crazy, because Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers named it his No. 1 movie of the year and it had a 93 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. C’mon. How is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (which was a flop with critics) on the Best Picture list and Drive isn’t? And I’ll admit it: I think Hugo is completely overrated. It was well done, but far too precious, and a bit of a snoozefest.

Best Picture aside, consider the year’s best performances. True, there is rarely enough room to honor them all, but 2011 in particular had some serious oversights. First off, The Descendants — a great movie, and George Clooney received widespread acclaim for his turn as Hawaii lawyer Matt King. The sound of Matt’s flip-flops slapping the pavement echoes the vulnerability of Clooney’s performance. He is the Best Actor frontrunner, and rightly so. But the Academy failed to acknowledge his young and talented costar, The Secret Life of the American Teenager’s Shailene Woodley. Though Clooney was terrific, she was the most watchable, from her heartbreaking underwater crying scene to the scene where she drops the bomb of her mother’s infidelity on Matt. Melissa McCarthy was hilarious and all, but Woodley deserved a Supporting Actress nod.

Elsewhere, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Best Actor nom continues to elude him. I wasn’t a big fan of J. Edgar as a whole, but Leo was its saving grace, and if ever there was a time to nominate him, it would have been now. Better luck next time — maybe 2012’s The Great Gatsby will be his big chance.

I didn’t see The Ides of March, but I would like to take a moment to shed one more tear for Ryan Gosling, who has been dissed twice. As if leaving him out last year after his killer performance in Blue Valentine wasn’t bad enough.

Another ouch: Michael Fassbender (Shame) and Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) were left in the cold. They deserve mention simply because everyone was expecting them to get nominations for Best Actor and Actress.   

And as far as writing goes, Bridesmaids was hysterical, but REALLY? Best Original Screenplay? Yet nothing for Will Reiser’s cancer comedy 50/50? Tell me, what takes more skill: making people laugh at a goofy bunch of desperate women, or making people laugh at CANCER? I’ll always love Kristen Wiig, but that’s just messed up.

The Original Screenplay category, however, holds for me the greatest Oscar surprise: a nod for A Separation, truly the year’s best film. The Artist stole my heart and it’s my pick for Best Picture, but A Separation deserves the statue for Best Screenplay. Won’t happen, but it should.

Okay, so maybe it’s not all bad. The Artist is a gem. Even though the screenplay win is doubtful, A Separation should be a lock for Best Foreign Film. The ladies in The Help have earned their awards glory. I guess my problem with the  Academy Awards is that in a year of films so full of emotion, I’m feeling rather apathetic toward the show. Not a lot to root for, not a lot of close races. And Billy Crystal as the host? Classic, maybe, but been there, done that. He’ll probably be sober, and more on top of things than James Franco and Anne Hathaway, but we’re sustaining a serious loss in the eye candy department.

The plus side is, when  Sunday rolls around and the Oscars come to a close, I know I won’t be disappointed. This year, I’m not expecting anything.

Mina Asayesh-Brown is an IB senior at St. Petersburg High.