The Oscars 2025 has made a huge mistake by snubbing Saoirse Ronan

It’s far from the first time she hasn’t secured a potentially deserved statuette (Picture: Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

As I looked through the Oscar nominations, one category, and one glaring omission stood out. 

Saoirse Ronan, who has been snubbed for best actress. 

Of course, this has been a stacked year for actors vying for that coveted Academy Award nod with standout performances from all five stars who made the final cut – Mikey Madison (Anora), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Demi Moore (The Substance), Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here) and Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez).

But I couldn’t help but feel there was a gaping hole in that talented line-up after what should have been an acclaimed year for the 30-year-old Irish actor.

In 2024, the Little Women actor starred in not one but two major movies that clearly fit the bill for awards clamour due to the decorated talent associated with the projects and the impactful and unique take on the subject matters they were tackling.

These were memoir adaptation drama The Outrun and Steve McQueen’s World War Two saga Blitz (neither of which received any Oscar nominations).

In Blitz, Saoirse played a mother desperately trying to reunite with her son in war-torn England and brought her usual gravitas to the role. 

Although she is on top form in this movie – providing the viewers with weep-worthy scenes as much as moments of quiet reprieve – I appreciate it was perhaps not quite enough to secure her a nomination. 

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Hollywood is seemingly becoming too accustomed to the steady stream of World War movies, even in this year’s race Tyler Perry’s Netflix blockbuster Six Triple Eight got only one nod, and even that was in the best original song category. 

And Blitz didn’t make quite the splash when it was released in cinemas despite a high profile and decent budget, quickly leaving mainstream discourse as it landed on Apple TV just weeks after showing in multiplexes. 

But what truly blew me away was how and why the Academy managed to overlook her powerful lead performance in The Outrun (for which she is Bafta-nominated).

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The Outrun is based on the memoir by Amy Liptrot and recounts her recovery from alcoholism as she returns to her home in the remote Orkney Islands. 

Saoirse spends much of the movie alone and is undeniably the heart of every scene she shares with other actors as she evocatively portrays the torment of addiction in a jarring juxtaposition to the overwhelming beauty of her childhood home. 

There’s a tipping point in the movie when her character, Rona, is tempted to drink again while visiting her absent father that leaves you wanting to scream at the screen for her to turn away and save herself.

Saoirse’s performance in the Outrun has truly stayed with me (Picture: Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

It’s a scene that flexes Saoirse’s skills, and stands alongside any of the sea of impressive moments from the best actress Oscar nominees.

From Cynthia Erivo’s soul-soaring rendition of Defying Gravity at the end of Wicked to the heated moment Demi Moore rabidly removes her makeup in body horror The Substance.

It’s been a powerhouse year where it’s difficult to have your voice breakthrough among the crowd, but Saoirse’s performance in the Outrun has truly stayed with me.

This is far from the first time Saoirse has delivered such a stellar performance (Picture: Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

In the flashbacks to her life in London opposite Paapa Essiedu – where we dip into what she left behind and understand the desperation that drove her to this isolation – she perfectly captures the unnerving path she treads to completely losing control over her life. 

At its core, it’s one of those movies that leaves you slightly breathless and reluctant to step back onto the polluted streets of London after sharing the wild Scottish air with Saoirse for a couple of hours and revelling in its healing powers. 

This is far from the first time Saoirse has delivered such a stellar performance. And it’s far from the first time she hasn’t secured a potentially deserved statuette. 

I’ve been following her career since I was a child, and she deserves better. 

In Blitz, Saoirse brought her usual gravitas to the role (Picture: Apple TV+ via AP)

When I was 10, I remember feeling Ronan’s palpable fear in her disturbing role in the horror-thriller Lovely Bones, and the haunting impression she left behind. 

I remember the first time I watched Lady Bird, on the eve of moving out of home for the first time and feeling an affinity with her character over the turbulence of the changing mother-daughter dynamic and the fear of facing the future.

Watching Little Women, when I was 20, I shed more than one tear as she confessed her inner fears of loneliness to her mother in a society where a woman’s value is so wholly tied to marriage. 

Of course, Saoirse is widely acknowledged as one of the best of her generation, already collecting four Oscar nominations in her tender 30 years including for her aforementioned roles as well as Atonement (2008) and Brooklyn (2016). 

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Although she is yet to secure the win, something she is all too aware of. 

‘I just think I’ve gotten so used to losing now, like I don’t win anything,’ she told Jimmy Kimmel in an interview at the end of last year. 

But after so much anticipation for 2025 to finally be the year she broke the curse, it is even more disheartening that she doesn’t even get a shot, especially with two incredible performances. 

If there’s one solace we can take from this year’s slew of nominations, however, it is that there are still many, many years for Saoirse to find the perfect project to finally secure her that statuette, especially now she is starting to produce her own projects, like the Outrun. 

After all, Demi Moore, 62, just landed her first Oscar nomination over four decades into her career – but hopefully it won’t take Ronan 30 more years to finally win. 

Sadly, Oscar snubs are just a fact of the annual ceremony, and this year was no different. There were plenty of eyebrow-raising omissions – like Challengers losing out on best original score, Payal Kapadia’s acclaimed All We Imagine As Light securing zero nominations and Margaret Qualley being snubbed on best supporting actress for her turn in The Substance.

But, for me, Saoirse stands out as one of the most galling. And although she doesn’t need an Oscar to define her worth in the industry, it’s about time the Academy gave the star her flowers. And a golden statuette to match.

This article was originally published on January 26, 2025.

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