2015 Oscars: My Thoughts, Picks and the Nominees
Posted by Leah on
1/17/2015 12:11:48 PM
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Let me start by addressing the so-called controversy that’s been brewing over this year’s movie selections. At the moment many people in the media and in Hollywood are in an uproar because there were no African American nominees for Best Actor or Actress and the director of the film Selma, Ava DuVernay was “snubbed” out of being nominated for Best Director. I think the whole thing is ridiculous! First, it seems like there’s a new hubbub every year when the nominees are announced and it really wouldn’t be in “Oscar” fashion if there wasn’t some sort of controversy this year. Second, just because no African Americans were nominated for the higher awards doesn’t mean that the Academy is racist or that they were trying to put black people down. It simply means that against the competition this year (which is rather fierce) there were no African American performances that stood out from the pack; not to mention that Selma IS still nominated for Best Picture! I mean do we really expect them to start giving out the highest awards Hollywood can offer simply because of an actor’s skin color in the name of diversity? Does anyone really think that Madea Goes to Space (or whatever Tyler Perry’s latest installment is) or Kevin Hart’s latest film actually warrant Best Actor (or any other) awards? I don’t think so! Not to mention that Lupita Nyong’O and 12 Years a Slave won numerous awards last year. This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with merit. I also think that Oprah has a lot to do with it, but that’s just my own observation.
I think that a far bigger (and way more real) controversy is the fact that The Lego Movie wasn’t nominated for Best Animated Feature, despite being the highest grossing children’s movie of last year and the 4th highest grossing overall. The nominees in this category are How to Train Your Dragon 2, which was number 16 on the highest grossing films of 2014 list, Big Hero 6, which was 9th on the list, The Boxtrolls, which was 66th, Song of the Sea, which was 456th and The Tale of Pricess Kaguya which came in 219th. I know that the Academy has a long history of paying no attention to many of the films that make the most money, (just look at the nominees for Best Picture this year!), but this just seems like there was some sort of personal vendetta against the film makers or something. Last year’s winner in this category, Brave, was the 8th highest grossing film of 2012. Rango, 2011’s winner was 22nd on that year’s list. These awards are supposed to showcase the best that 2014 had to offer us, cinematically speaking, and if The Lego Movie isn’t included than someone obviously didn’t do their job. I call shame on the Academy for this glaring omission!
As for my thoughts on who will take home what, I have some clear favorites I want to win, although my favorites almost never win. For Best Picture I would love to see either The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game or Birdman win, but I have a feeling that due to all the (unwarranted) hype surrounding it Boyhood will take home the gold. For Best Actor it’s a tossup between Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Keaton and personally I’d be happy with any of them. For Best Supporting Actor and Actress my feeling is that as long as Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette from Boyhood lose in both cases I’ll be happy. I don’t really have a pick for Best Actress. I’d love to see The Boxtrolls win for Best Animated Feature since The Lego Movie is missing from that category. As far as the rest of the awards go I don’t want Boyhood to win any of them and I’ll be thrilled if The Grand Budapest Hotel takes as many as possible.
And now, here is the list of nominees for the 87th Academy Awards:
Best Picture: American Sniper, Birdman (or the unexpected virtue of ignorance), Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Selma and Whiplash
Best Actor: Steve Carell (Foxcatcher), Bradley Cooper (American Sniper), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), Michael Keaton (Birdman) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
Best Actress: Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night), Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Julianne Moore (Still Alice), Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) and Reese Witherspoon (Wild)
Best Supporting Actor: Robert Duvall (The Judge), Ethan Hawke (Boyhood), Edward Norton (Birdman), Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher) and J. K. Simmons (Whiplash)
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood), Laura Dern (Wild), Keira Knightly (The Imitation Game), Meryl Streep (Into the Woods) and Emma Stone (Birdman)
Best Animated Feature: Big Hero 6, The Boxtrolls, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Song of the Sea and The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Cinematic Acheivement: Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Ida, Mr. Turner and Unbroken
Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Inherent Vice, Into the Woods, Maleficent, Mr. Turner
Best Director: Alejandro G. Inarritu (Birdman), Richard Linklater (Boyhood), Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher), Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Morton Tyldum (The Imitation Game)
Best Documentary (Feature): Citezenfour, Finding Vivien Maier, Last Days in Vietnam, The Salt of the Earth, Virunga
Best Documentary (Short): Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, Joanna, Our Curse, The Reaper, White Earth
Best Editing: American Sniper, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game and Whiplash
Best Foreign Film: Ida (Poland), Leviathan (Russia), Tangerines (Estonia), Timbuktu (Mauritania) and Wild Tales (Argentina)
Best Makeup: Foxcatcher, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Original Score: Alexander Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Alexander Desplat (The Imitation Game), Hans Zimmer (Interstellar), Gary Yershon (Mr. Turner), Johann Johannson (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 Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitaton Game, Interstellar, Into the Woods and Mr. Turner
Best Animated Short: The Bigger Picture, The Dam Keeper, Feast, Me and My Moulton, A Single Life
Best Live Action Short: Aya, Boogaloo and Graham, Butter Lamp, Parvaneh and The Phone Call
Best Sound Editing: American Sniper, Birdman, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Interstellar, Unbroken
Best Sound Mixing: American Sniper, Birdman, Whiplash, Interstellar, Unbroken
Best Visual Effects: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, Interstellar and X-Men: Days of Future Past
Best Adapted Screenplay: American Sniper, The Imitation Game, Inherent Vice, The Theory of Everything and Whiplash
Best Original Screenplay: Birdman, Boyhood, Foxcatcher, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Nightcrawler
Tune into ABC on February 22 at 7pm to find out who’ll take home the gold and if any of my picks were correct!