Hollywood is still reeling and dealing from the Oscar nominations for the 98th Academy Awards, set to take place on March 2 and hosted by Conan O’Brien at the Dolby Theater.
And while some celebrated historic wins, several notable performances were left out, including Paul Mescal for Best Supporting Actor for Hamnet, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande for Wicked: For Good, and Jesse Plemons for Bugonia.
That last omission appears to have struck a personal chord with Kirsten Dunst, Plemons’ wife and co-star in The Power of the Dog. The 2022 film earned both actors Oscar nominations, and this year, industry chatter—including Gold Derby predictions—positioned Plemons as a strong contender for Best Actor thanks to his performance in Bugonia.
His name, however, was absent from the nominations.
This year’s Best Actor nominees include Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme, Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon, Michael B. Jordan for Sinners, and Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent.
Despite Plemons’ omission, Bugonia still performed well overall, landing nominations for Best Picture, Best Original Score, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Co-lead Emma Stone also earned a Best Actress nomination. Still, much of the online conversation centered on the absence of Plemons’ name—including, notably, Dunst herself.
First, the Marie Antoinette star reposted an Instagram Story from comedian and Bugonia castmate Stavros Halkias. In the image, Halkias stares sternly into the camera as a photoshopped hand points a gun at the camera.
The image was captioned:
“[M]e to everyone who didn't nominate Jesse Plemmons [sic] for best actor tho.”
You can view the post here:
@kirstendunst/Instagram
Dunst then reshared a video from film-focused podcast The Bluff Council, featuring co-host Ev Durán praising Plemons’ performance while arguing that Chalamet’s work in Marty Supreme didn’t measure up. The repost quickly became the most polarizing of her responses, with some viewers taking issue not with her support of Plemons but with the comparison itself.
Durán put it bluntly:
“Jesse Plemons gives one of the greatest performances of all time. Jesse Plemons in this film gives Daniel Day-Lewis, Sidney Poitier, transcendent level performance that I worry is being completely overlooked for f**king Chalamet's Marty Supreme, which was a very good performance, but wasn’t…what Plemons does in this movie is beyond."
The comments landed amid an awards season that has largely favored Chalamet. The actor received Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the 2026 Golden Globes and took home the Critics’ Choice Award for the same role. He is also nominated for an Oscar and an Actor Award (formerly the SAG Award).
The Bluff Council co-host doubled down on his Plemons’ praise:
“He so fully transforms into a different person, and plays every emotion so subtly and brilliantly, without ever, like, acting. I cannot heap enough praise on it.”
You can view the podcast clip below:
For those who haven’t reached Bugonia yet during their Oscars movie binge, the premise is deliberately unsettling. Plemons plays Teddy Gatz, a mentally unstable conspiracy theorist beekeeper who believes he is saving humanity by kidnapping a corporate CEO he’s convinced is an Andromedan alien. Emma Stone portrays the executive, who is forced into a terrifying ordeal.
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the film is an English-language remake of Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! and marks Plemons’ second collaboration with the filmmaker. Dunst had already signaled her enthusiasm for Plemons’ performance well before nominations were announced.
On January 9, she shared a still from Bugonia on Instagram:
Dunst has received mixed reactions to her reposts, with some fans calling them “disappointing,” particularly the video that appeared to dismiss another nominee’s work. Others defended her, arguing that publicly backing one’s spouse—especially after a high-profile awards snub—is hardly surprising.
You can view the mixed reactions here:
Despite missing out on an Oscar nod, Plemons’ performance in Bugonia was widely recognized throughout the 2026 awards circuit, earning him Best Actor nominations from the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Astra Awards.
Looking ahead, Plemons has been cast as a young Plutarch Heavensbee in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, set to be released on November 20, 2026. He is also attached to an untitled Alejandro G. Iñárritu film starring Tom Cruise.
Dunst, meanwhile, is set to star in Ruben Östlund’s The Entertainment System Is Down and has confirmed a fifth collaboration with director Sofia Coppola.
So, as the Oscars approach, the snub—and Dunst’s unapologetic response—continues to fuel debate about where support ends and comparison begins in an awards season already crowded with strong performances.
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