Oscar shortlists are like exit polls released on Election Day before balloting has ended: they’re the best information yet available about how actual voters are feeling, but they don’t necessarily tell you the whole story.

In Tuesday’s announcement of this year’s 10 shortlists — which were, as always, chosen by different branches of the Academy, not the full membership — we saw a terrific show of strength from Netflix’s Emilia Pérez, with a field-leading six mentions; and very solid showings from Universal’s Wicked, with four; and Fox’s Alien: Romulus, Apple’s Blitz, Warners’ Dune: Part Two, Paramount’s Gladiator II and Universal’s The Wild Robot, with three each.

But the fact that, say, Neon’s Anora, Searchlight’s A Real Pain and Amazon/MGM’s Nickel Boys showed up on none of the shortlists is actually not an indication that they are failing to resonate with the Academy.