When the Oscar nominations were announced Thursday morning, “Emilia Pérez” and other movies had plenty to sing about. But which would-be contenders were instead greeted with sad trombones? As your Projectionist, here’s my analysis of the morning’s biggest surprises and omissions.

What does Daniel Craig have to do to receive his first Oscar nomination? Typically, academy members love it when a well-respected movie star plays against type, but Craig’s portrayal of a lovesick drug addict in “Queer” was still overlooked: In a tight race for the final best-actor slot, Sebastian Stan (“The Apprentice”) nabbed the position instead. The first sign that Craig was in trouble came when his British contemporaries in their academy, BAFTA, failed to nominate him. Oscar voters failed to pick up the slack. Perhaps the surreal, sexually charged “Queer” was just too challenging for awards season.

Initially, it was a rough road for the Donald J. Trump biopic, “The Apprentice,” which failed to earn a major studio buyer after its Cannes Film Festival premiere despite the presence of two stars, Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong. Though threatened lawsuits from Trump’s team failed to materialize, American moviegoers didn’t seen eager to turn out for “The Apprentice”: The film did much better abroad, taking in $13 million overseas compared with a paltry $4 million stateside. Still, the movie bounced back on Thursday, earning a lead-actor Oscar nomination for Stan’s Trump and a supporting-actor one for Jeremy Strong as his mentor, the lawyer and fixer Roy Cohn. How soon will it be before Trump himself weighs in on the results?

Just when it seemed like the best-picture field was settled, Oscar voters sought to mix things up. Contenders like “A Real Pain,” “Sing Sing” and “September 5” were presumed to be vying for the last two best-picture slots, which instead went to the Brazilian film “I’m Still Here” and the critically acclaimed “Nickel Boys” — though “Nickel Boys” was passed over for a cinematography nomination despite its astonishing first-person perspective. Still, at least the three movies snubbed for best picture showed up elsewhere: All were nominated in the screenplay categories, while “Sing Sing” star Colman Domingo and “A Real Pain” supporting actor Kieran Culkin also scored nominations.

After a scandal-ridden few years that had the Golden Globes on the ropes, that awards body’s influence could be felt all over the Oscar nominations. Would “I’m Still Here” have overperformed — picking up nominations for picture, international film and lead actress Fernanda Torres — if Torres hadn’t won a Golden Globe for best actress in a drama just before the extended Oscar-voting process began? Would Demi Moore be considered an Oscar front-runner if she hadn’t delivered such a dynamite Golden Globe speech? Though the Globes don’t always get it right, it’s hard to beat the impact of a televised awards moment, and Oscar strategists will be eager to repeat these victories next season. Not bad for a ceremony that Hollywood banded together to drive off the air in 2022.

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