She has a pretty valid reason
Taylor Swift has been utterly ubiquitous as of late—she has flitted from state to state to support her football-star beau Travis Kelce at his games with the Kansas City Chiefs, from country to country for her iconic Eras Tour—and is, of course, always on our minds. One place the mastermind wasn’t present, however, was tonight’s Oscars ceremony.
Despite stepping out for the Golden Globes and Grammys on this year’s award circuit, the “Cruel Summer” songstress was not among the stars at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre for the 96th Academy Awards. While Swifties may be understandably disappointed not to get a red-carpet moment (and another potential Easter egg–filled outing) from their queen, her absence does not come as a surprise, for two reasons.
First, the music mogul is on the international leg of her record-breaking tour, having just closed out a show in Singapore on Saturday (nearly an 18-hour flight away). Although she is not scheduled to perform today and is no stranger to making long trips on a tight schedule (such as last month, when she had less than a day to jet from Tokyo to Las Vegas to see Kelce and his team win the Super Bowl), there is also explanation number two: Swift was not nominated for an Oscar tonight.
For a second year in a row, fans projected Swift finally clinching an Oscar nod, this time for her concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. However, according to the Academy’s bylaws, the project was never eligible to win the Documentary Feature category or any other. The documentary branch rules state: “Works that are essentially promotional or instructional are not eligible, nor are works that are essentially unfiltered records of performances.”
Swift is also simply not typically in attendance on film’s biggest night. It’s still unclear whether she quietly attended last year’s ceremony—but she was spotted accompanying then-boyfriend Joe Alwyn to the Vanity Fair after-party that followed. She has been to the glamorous fete several times, including in 2011, 2014, and 2016, but has yet to walk the Oscars red carpet.
In happier news, we can expect to see a lot of Swift in the coming months, as she continues to perform through the end of the year and prepares to drop her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. Swift broke the news about her new record on music’s biggest night while accepting her 13th Grammy award, for Best Pop Vocal Album, for 2022’s Midnights.
