Just when you think Birdman will have an easy path to victory at the Oscars the BAFTA's come and give two big awards to Boyhood.  The British Academy anointed Boyhood Best Film and Richard Linklater Best Director.  While I don't think it will be enough to push Boyhood into Oscar frontrunner status it keeps the awards race interesting.  But also continuing to rack up awards us Eddie Redmayne for Best Actor.  With the amount of awards he has won it is easy to have him as the frontrunner for the Oscar but I think it is still a close race between him and Michael Keaton for Birdman.  The Grand Budapest Hotel did win the most awards of the night with 5 including Best Original Screenplay.  Also of note The LEGO Movie won Best Animated Feature which the Oscars did not even nominate.  

Full list of winners is below.  

The 2015 Directors Guild Awards were handed out last night at a ceremony in Los Angeles.  The big winner and somewhat of a surprise to some was Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman.  A log of people were expecting Richard Linklater to win for Boyhood.  Now, after winning the PGA and the SAG for best ensemble there is no doubt that it is the frontrunner at the Oscars and could have a big night.  

Winning Best Director of a Documentary was Laura Poitras for CitizenFour which pretty much cements it as the frontrunner for Best Documentary Oscar.  If anything else wins at the Oscars it would be a major shocker.  

Other winners are
Best TV Movie/Miniseres- Lisa Cholodenko for Olive Kitteredge
Best Comedy Series - Jill Soloway for Transparent 
Best Drama Series - Lesli Linka Glater for Homeland
Best Variety/Talk/New/Sports Special - Glenn Weiss - The 68th Tony Awards
Best Variety/Talk/News/Sports Regulary Schedule programming - Dave Diomedi - The Tonight Show
Best Reality Program - Anthony B. Sacco - The Chair
Best Children's Program - Jonathan Judge - 100 Things To Do Before High School 
Best Commercials- Nicolai Fuglsig - Sapeurs, Guinness AMV BBDO
                                                 Waiting, FEMA Deutsch NY  

The day finally came.  After months of guessing this bright and early this morning we found out what the Oscar nominations are.  With the announcement come surprises, snubs, and controversy.  The full list of nominees is below.  But here are the nominations by movie

Birdman – 9
The Grand Budapest Hotel – 9
The Imitation Game – 8
Boyhood – 6
American Sniper – 6
Whiplash – 5
Interstellar – 5
Foxcatcher – 5
The Theory of Everything – 5

THE EXPECTED.

Birdman did really well with 9 nominations including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Supporting Actress, and Actor.  The one surprise was that it missed best editing.  The movie was made to look like one take so the editing was had to be really good to make it feel seamless.  But apparently they did too good of a job and made it look like no editing was done. 

The Grand Budapest Hotel proved that even though it came out early in the year there is still a lot of love for it.  People expected it to do well but probably no that well.  It could be the dark horse for Best Picture.

Boyhood, Imitation Game, Whiplash, and The Theory of Everything did about as expected.  No big surprises with them. 

THE SURPRISES

Guess the first surprise after the announcements was that for the first time there are 8 nominees for Best Picture.  There can be anywhere from 5 – 10 but since that rule went into effect it has always been 9.  So it was a surprise to see only 8 movies and a lot if questions of what that 9th movie would have been.

American Sniper had been building up momentum but still felt like a surprise that it got 6 nominations including Best Picture and Bradley Cooper for Best Actor.  Not many people saw him getting that nomination.  Despite that it did not get the coveted Best Director Nomination for Clint Eastwood.  Which if one place I thought it might breakthrough would be for Eastwood since he is a beloved Hollywood Icon. 

This could go as a snub but since the movie wasn’t well received I will just say it was a bit of a surprise that The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies missed out on Best Visual Effects.  All three Lord of the Rings movies won the award and the first two Hobbit movies were nominated.  So it was almost a given that it would get the nomination. 

Inherent Vice is a movie that didn’t seem like it was going to resonate with the Academy so it was a bit of a surprise it got two nominations including one for Best Adapted Screenplay. 

THE SNUBS

Here is where I got to some serious grievances. 

First how did The Lego Movie not get a Best Animated Film nomination?  It was one of the best reviewed animated movies of the year and was expected to win the category so a major shocker. 

Speaking of major shockers Life Itself was not nominated for Best Documentary.  It was never expected to win but a movie about a Roger Ebert seemed like a movie that the Academy would eat up.  It was also one of the best reviewed docs of the year.  The other documentary that was shocking to not appear was The Overnighters.  I have heard a lot about the movie and it was fully expected to get a nomination.

Foxcatcher got 5 nominations including 2 acting nominations, Best Director, and Best Screenplay but missed out on the Best Picture nomination. 

A minor snub but worth mentioning is Force Majeure for Best Foreign Language film.  Definitely had the momentum so not sure what happened.

Nightcrawler was high on the list of movies people wanted to see nominated but it wasn’t too surprising it got passed up.  Although it would have been nice to see Jake Gyllenhaal get an acting nomination.  But the movie will have to settle with a Best Screenplay nomination. 

There are two movies that got snubbed in multiple categories, Selma and Gone Girl. 

I was totally shocked when Gone Girl only got one nomination for Best Actress.  It was one of my favorite movies and totally expected to get multiple nominations including Best Picture and Best Screenplay.  But the biggest snub for Gone Girl has to be for best Score.  It was one of the most original scores of the year and by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross who won for the score of The Social Network.  Guess they figure one win for them is enough. 

Selma is another story.  I haven’t seen the movie yet but it has got high praises and was expected to score multiple nominations.  Despite getting a Best Picture nomination it was snubbed Best Director, Screenplay, and Best Actor.  With only two total nominations (the other is for Best Song) it is the least nominated movie to be nominated for Best Picture.

THE CONTROVERSY

The biggest controversy revolves around the lack of diversity of the big nominees.  No women in the director or screenwriting categories. And no person of color in any of the big nominations.  Not entirely surprising but it does fan the flames that the Academy is made up of old white guys that don’t think out of the box.  Selma is at the center of the controversy as many expected Ava DuVerney to get a Best Director nomination which would make her only the 5 women to be nominated for Director and the first Black Female.  It is also the first time since 1998 that no person of color was nominated for an acting award. 

Best Picture
            American Sniper
            Birdman
            Boyhood
            The Grand Budapest Hotel    
            The Imitation Game
            Selma
            The Theory of Everything
            Whiplash

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
            Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
            Bradley Cooper – American Sniper
            Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
            Michael Keaton – Birdman
            Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
            Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night
            Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
            Julianne Moore – Still Alice
            Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
            Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
            Robert Ducall – The Judge
            Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
            Edward Norton – Birdman
            Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
            J.K. Simmons – Whiplash

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
            Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
            Laura Dern – Wild
            Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
            Emma Stone – Birdman
            Meryl Streep – Into the Woods

Best Achievement in Directing
            Alejandro G. Inarritu – Birdman
            Richard Linklater – Boyhood
            Bennett Miller – Foxcatcher
            Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
            Mortem Tyldum – The Imitation Game

Best Adapted Screenplay
            American Sniper
            The Imitation Game
            Inherent Vice
            The Theory of Everything
            Whiplash

Best Original Screenplay
            Birdman
            Boyhood
            Foxcatcher
            The Grand Budapest Hotel
            Nightcrawler

Best Animated Feature Film
            Big Hero 6
            The Boxtrolls
            How to Train Your Dragon 2
            Song of the Sea
            The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Achievement in Cinematography
            Birdman
            The Grand Budapest Hotel
            Ida
            Mr. Turner
            Unbroken

Achievement in Costume Design
            The Grand Budapest Hotel
            Inherent Vice
            Into the Woods
            Maleficent
            Mr. Turner

Best Documentary Feature
            CitizenFour
            Finding Vivian Maier
            Last Days in Vietnam
            The Salt of the Earth
            Virunga

Best Documentary Short Film
            Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
            Joanna
            Our Curse
            The Reaper (La Parka)
            White Earth

Achievement in Film Editing
            American Sniper
            Boyhood
            The Grand Budapest Hotel
            The Imitation Game
            Whiplash

Best Foreign Language Film
            Ida
            Leviathan
            Tangerines
            Timbukto
            Wild Tales

Acheivement in Makeup and Hairstyling
            Foxcather
            The Grand Budapest Hotel
            Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Original Score
            The Grand Budapest Hotel
            The Imitation Game
            Interstellar
            Mr. Turner
            The Theory of Everything

Best Original Song
            Everything is Awesome – The Lego Movie
            Glory – Selma
            Grateful – Beyond the Lights
            I’m Not Gonna Miss You – Glen Campbell… I’ll Be Me
            Lost Stars – Begin Again

Best Achievement in Production Design
            The Grand Budapest Hotel
            The Imitation Game
            Interstellar
            Into the Woods
            Mr. Turner

Best Animated Short Film
            The Bigger Picture
            The Dam Keeper
            Feast
            Me and My Moulton
            A Single Life

Best Live Action Short Film
            Aya
            Boogaloo and Graham
            Butter Lamp (La Lamp Au Beurre De Yak)
            Parvaneh
            The Phone Call

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
            American Sniper
            Birdman
            The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
            Interstellar
            Unbroken

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
            American Sniper
            Birdman
            Interstellar
            Unbroken
            Whiplash

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
            Captain America: The Winter Soldier
            Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
            Guardians of the Galaxy
            Interstellar
            X-Men: Days of Future Past

The Academy announced the 9 movies moving on in the Oscar race for Best Foreign Film. A few surprises as Canada's "Mommy" and Belgium's "Two Days, One Night" two movies that have been expected to be serious contenders didn't make the cut.



Here are the 9 that made the cut.



Argentina, “Wild Tales,” Damián Szifrón, director;
Estonia, “Tangerines,” Zaza Urushadze, director;
Georgia, “Corn Island,” George Ovashvili, director;
Mauritania, “Timbuktu,” Abderrahmane Sissako, director;
Netherlands, “Accused,” Paula van der Oest, director;
Poland, “Ida,” Paweł Pawlikowski, director;
Russia, “Leviathan,” Andrey Zvyagintsev, director;
Sweden, “Force Majeure,” Ruben Östlund, director;
Venezuela, “The Liberator,” Alberto Arvelo, director.

The Golden Globe nominations were announced this morning and of course there were a few surprises. 

Biggest surprise was the complete shutout of Unbroken. Once thought to be the frontrunner for award season the lack of any nomination shows it might not be the juggernaut once thought. Although it still seems likely to get an Oscar nomination. 

No major nominations for Interstellar which isn't much of a surprise as it has been fading. 

Selma gets a huge boost after being shut out at the SAG nominations. Getting 4 nominations including Picture, Actor, and Director. Foxcatcher is another movie that got a boost today. After being shutout for most of the award season so far it grabbed a best Actor and Best Supporting Actor nomination yesterday at the SAG nominations and added Best Picture to that today. It still has a way to go to get back into the Oscar race but it's a start. 

Jennifer Aniston and Robert Duvall continue their quest for an Oscar nomination getting Golden Globe nominations following their SAG nominations. 

Birdman continues to dominate with 7 nominations followed by the usual suspects Boyhood and The Imitation Game with 5. Gone Girl, Selma, The Theory of Everything and The Grand Budapest Hotel follow with 4. I am glad to see The Grand Budapest Hotel getting some love. It was a great movie from early in the year and I wasn't sure it could get the recognition at the end of the year. 

And a snub in my opinion is no "Everything is Awesome" for best song from The Lego Movie
Full list of nominees below

Well more critic awards and the SAG nominations have been announced and it is time to update my predictions.  There has been a few shake ups but the front runners continue to be Birdman and Boyhood.  

Now that some of the Critics have had their say it's time to get to the guild award nominations.  These are sometimes more telling of the Oscar race because these are the same people that will be voting for Oscars.  Also the Screen Actors Guild is somewhat telling because the Actor branch makes up the largest part of Oscar voters so what they love will crossover more.  
That being said there are some surprising choices.  
First no love for Selma at all.  I was expecting Selma to challenge the top boys for Best Picture. But now it's hard to say. 
Other surprises Robert Duvall for the Judge hasn't been getting much buzz.  The biggest surprise might be the  nomination of Naomi Watts for Best Supporting Actress for St. Vincent. 
Foxcatcher did get a few nominations but not sure its enough to push it to a best picture nomination.  And it looks like it will fall short. 


Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Robert Duvall, The Judge
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward Norton, Birdman
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Naomi Watts, St. Vincent

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture


Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture

Jennifer Aniston, Cake
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Motion Picture

Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything

The Academy announced today the 10 movies that are moving on in the Special Effects Oscar race. Should be an interesting race. I think "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes", "Guardians of the Galaxy", and "Interstellar" are the front runners. But you can't count out "The Hobbit"

Here are the 10. The only movie I am surprised not to see is "Edge of Tomorrow".  Also even if it wasn't one of my favorite movies the special effects in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was pretty good and am a little surprised it didn't crack the top 10. 

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
“Godzilla”
“Guardians of the Galaxy”
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”
“Interstellar”
“Maleficent”
“Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb”
“Transformers: Age of Extinction”
“X-Men: Days of Future Past”