This key Oscars snub could spell trouble for Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood

Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood just hit a speed bump in the race to the Best Picture Oscar.

Awards pundits every year keep a close eye on the Best Film Editing category at the Oscars, as there's a strong correlation between being nominated in this category and ultimately taking Best Picture. In fact, as The Ringer's Sean Fennessey points out, just a single film has won Best Picture this century without also being nominated for film editing: 2014's Birdman.

So it was particularly notable on Monday morning when Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood, which prognosticators have considered the frontrunner to win Best Picture this year, was snubbed in the category. 1917, another Best Picture frontrunner, was also snubbed. The nominees instead were The Irishman, Ford v Ferrari, Parasite, Jojo Rabbit, and Joker.

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When Birdman was left out of the editing category a few years ago, that made some degree of sense seeing as that film is constructed to appear as if it's playing out in one long continuous shot without any edits. That's also true of 1917, so Sam Mendes' film being snubbed for editing might not be detrimental to its Best Picture chances.

On the other hand, Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood getting snubbed is potentially a much bigger deal, and its chances of winning Best Picture just became slightly more questionable. Parasite is looking like a stronger Best Picture contender with its editing nomination, though. The surprise editing nod for Joker, which also scored the most nominations of any film with 11, is also quite significant. Some scoffed at the idea that Joker could legitimately win Best Picture, but no one's laughing now.