Spider-Man: No Way Home did earn an Oscar nod, just not the one fans were hoping for

Sorry, Spidey fans: Spider-Man: No Way Home didn't earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture — at least not in this universe.

Despite racking up more than $1.7 billion worldwide, making it the biggest box office hit since the start of the pandemic, Marvel and Sony's latest Spider-Man adventure couldn't turn those box office receipts into awards gold. The film — which stars Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire as three versions of webslinger Peter Parker — did earn one Oscar nomination, for Best Visual Effects.

To be clear, No Way Home was always a long shot in the Best Picture race: A multiverse-hopping comic book flick isn't exactly your standard Academy fare, and in recent years, only a handful of superhero movies have earned major Oscar attention outside of the traditional technical categories. 2018's Black Panther became the first Marvel film to snag a Best Picture nomination, followed by DC with 2019's Joker. (Fellow webslinger Miles Morales also won the Oscar in 2019 for Best Animated Feature Film with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.)

Still, after No Way Home swung to the top of the box office and webbed up a slew of good reviews, some fans and awards pundits wondered whether that might translate to awards recognition.

Best Picture race aside, there's still plenty of celebrating to be done in the multiverse: No Way Home will compete in the Best Visual Effects category, alongside fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe entry Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. As for the cast, Garfield snagged a Best Actor nomination for Tick, Tick… Boom!, while his Spidey costar Benedict Cumberbatch also earned a Best Actor nom for The Power of the Dog. J.K. Simmons, who appears in the film as J. Jonah Jameson, also earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Being the Ricardos.

See the full list of this year's Oscar nominations here.

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