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