Kirsten Dunst is not entirely thrilled with this year's batch of Oscar nominations. The *Marie Antoinette* actress shared a pair of posts expressing her admiration for her husband, Jesse Plemons, for his work in *Bugonia*, while lamenting the Academy's apparent oversight of his remarkable performance in the film.
Dunst first reposted an Instagram Story from one of Plemons' *Bugonia* costars, the comedian Stavros Halkias, that featured him with a stern expression and a Photoshop-altered hand pointing a gun at the camera. The caption read, "Me to everyone who didn't nominate Jesse Plemons [sic] for Best Actor."
The *Spider-Man* star also shared a video post from the *Bluff Council* podcast, where cohost Ev Durán showered Plemons with praise and declared that Timothée Chalamet's latest Oscar-nominated portrayal didn't hold a candle to the *Friday Night Lights* alum's work. "Jesse Plemons gives one of the greatest performances of all time," Duran says in the video. "In this film, Jesse Plemons gives a Daniel Day-Lewis- and Sidney Poitier-level transcendent performance that I worry is being completely overlooked for the sake of Chalamet's *Marty Supreme*, which was a very good performance, but wasn't—what Plemons does in this movie is beyond."
Before the Oscar nominations were announced, Dunst shared a still of Plemons in *Bugonia* on January 9th. "Some top-level s---," she wrote in her Instagram caption.
In *Bugonia*, Plemons portrays a cynical conspiracy theorist who kidnaps a CEO (Emma Stone) because he suspects that she is an extraterrestrial invader in disguise. The movie marks Plemons' second collaboration with filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, who previously directed him in 2024's *Kinds of Kindness*.
Plemons' performance in *Bugonia* has received widespread acclaim, earning him Best Actor nominations from SAG's Actor Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Astra Awards. His success during the 2026 awards circuit even led *Entertainment Weekly*'s awards experts to predict that he'd nab an Oscar nom. However, Plemons ultimately didn't make the cut, with the Academy announcing that this year's five nominees were *Marty Supreme*'s Chalamet, *One Battle After Another*'s Leonardo DiCaprio, *Blue Moon*'s Ethan Hawke, *Sinners*' Michael B. Jordan, and *The Secret Agent*'s Wagner Moura.
But *Bugonia* wasn't completely passed over for nominations. The film received a nod for Best Picture, and Stone received her third Best Actress nomination for her performance. Screenwriter Will Tracy also nabbed a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, and composer Jerskin Fendrix received a nod for Best Original Score.
Plemons' only Oscar nom to date came in 2022, when he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Jane Campion's *The Power of the Dog*. Dunst appeared alongside Plemons in the film and snagged her only Oscar nom to date for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
