Can the ontological models framework accommodate Bohmian mechanics?

•We argue that the ontological models framework is inadequate.•Bohmian mechanics cannot be fit into the ontological models framework.•Ontological models do not allow for the right kind of contextuality.

The ontological models framework has been proposed as a tool to prove general results about many competing interpretations of quantum mechanics at once. I argue that the ontological models framework is at best ambiguous, and at worst unable to accomplish its task of representing even the most well known interpretations of quantum mechanics. I show that when the framework is made mathematically precise, it cannot accommodate Bohmian mechanics, a well known interpretation of quantum mechanics in terms of hidden variables.