Sometimes being snubbed on the biggest movie awards stage brings more media attention and marketing gold than actually winning one of those golden statutes every film maker, actor and director covets to put on the mantle.
Sunday night the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the Best Picture Oscar to Birdman over Boyhood, and the social media outcry and feedback came fast and furious after the four-hour awards show came to a close at little after midnight EST time.
Boyhood, which took a dozen years to make, told the story of a child as he grows from six to 18 years of age and was nominated for six awards but only picked up Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette. The other nominations were for Best Director for Richard Linklater, Best Supporting Actor for Ethan Hawke and Best Original Screenplay.
Birdman relates the story of a down and out actor, played by Michael Keaton, best known for a superhero role he once played who is striving for a career comeback by taking on a Broadway play.
Initially the backlash about Birdman beating out Boyhood lit up Twitter, with more than a few disappointed and disgusted at the decision.
One tweet, by @parispective, called the Academy's choice the "worst mistake in 20 years," and another tweet noted "disappointed for Boyhood, too subtle for its own good. To win, the boy needed to grow up to be a serial killer or die appealingly#Oscars2015."
@Cameron Strang noted "I can't believe Boyhood wasn't recognized tonight. One of the most honest, beautiful, hardest, terrifying, gut-wrenching films I've seen."
Then, within the next few hours, the entertainment media critics began posting and the big question posed was not why not Boyhood but more why the heck Birdman.
Online magazine Slate was one of the most vocal, declaring in a Tweet linking to its opinion piece, "The academy blew it tonight, when Boyhood lost." The Mirror put it most concise: The Boyhood snub "was the biggest shock."
The U.K. news outlet The Guardian also didn't hold back on its befuddlement of Boyhood losing out to Birdman and linked to its 2014 essay on the beauty of Boyhood.
Critic Kevin Fallon, prior to the awards shows, stated "Boyhood is a cinematic masterpiece. It is, literally, a BEST Picture.'
Yet not every film critic views the best picture decision as a snub. Dorothy Pomerantz, who writes about Hollywood and the business of film making, states "Few people will consider either [Birdman or Boyhood] robbed if the other one wins and there's no one staking their reputation on one or the the other movie winning. Both [Boyhood director Richard Linklater] Linklater and Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu will continue to do original work that will (or won't) find an audience regardless of if either of them go home with a gold statue."
