Thursday 15 January 2015

2015 Oscar Nominations

So the Oscar nominations finally came out today! As always, it feels like some sort of a whirlwind and there's always at least one or two things that make you go "whaaaaaaa?" So below are the nominations with how well I did on predictions, and a few thoughts. 

BEST PICTURE
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash


This is hard to score because I predicted all 8 of these, but had predicted 9 being nominated. So overall, I did pretty well. Some of the weird inclusions/exclusions don't seem as weird if only looking at this list, but if looking with the context of all the nominations, it's a little strange. Selma only received one other nomination for Best Original Song. It feels a little pointless to have it included here... I had wondered if there might be some sort of Selma snub, and while it still managed to get in here, I'm not overly surprised it missed everywhere else. Also, Foxcatcher being left off here is one of the more bizarre things of this morning. While I didn't have it predicted, it did manage a Best Director nod, as well as Original Screenplay and 2 acting nods. Must've been a tight race for that last slot. I imagine Foxcatcher only just missed. Also, Gone Girl was left off here (which I had predicted would get in) but as it was left out so many other categories (aka only 1 nomination) it isn't overly surprised, but still disappointing. 

BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman)
Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game)
Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher)

4/5
Wes Anderson!!! Guys, Wes Anderson is a Best Director nominee!!! I mean, I figured it would happen but I'm so happy! His movies are some of my favourites and I'm so happy to see him included and finally get recognition. Also, Bennett Miller was a big surprise for me. He wasn't on a lot of peoples radars for getting in here. Especially since Foxcatcher didn't end up with a BP nomination. Snub for Ava DuVernay is not overly surprising, but still a little sad. I like seeing women nominated here. 


BEST ACTOR
Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)
Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
Michael Keaton (Birdman)
Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

3/5
The big thing here for me is Steve Carell! I'm just so darned happy he got included here. I can't speak for the "snubs" of David Oyelowo and Jake Gyllenhaal since I've seen neither Selma nor Nightcrawler but I know a lot of people are not happy. Also, Bradley Cooper's inclusion is only somewhat surprising, to me. I figured it wouldn't get just sound nominations and Picture. Again, I haven't seen American Sniper so I have no idea if this is a worthy inclusion, but I will be seeing it soon.  

BEST ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)
Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

4/5
I'm really kicking myself for originally having Marion Cotillard here but then changing it. But I was right, I just really couldn't see Jennifer Aniston getting nominated here. Otherwise, no big surprises here. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Robert Duvall (The Judge)
Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
Edward Norton (Birdman)
Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

5/5
Literally no surprises here. Just still happy to see Ethan Hawke nominated. He was the one who really stuck with me. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
Laura Dern (Wild)
Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)
Emma Stone (Birdman)
Meryl Streep (Into the Woods)

4/5 
Only surprise here is Laura Dern getting in over Jessica Chastain. 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Jason Dean Hall (American Sniper)
Graham Moore (The Imitation Game)
Paul Thomas Anderson (Inherent Vice)
Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything)
Damien Chazelle (Whiplash)

3/5
I really should've put American Sniper here. I'm not overly surprised to see it included since it got in for Picture. The surprise, for me, here is Inherent Vice. 

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo (Birdman)
Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman (Foxcatcher)
Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler)

4/5
I had Selma in here, which was a mistake. I also, for whatever reason, didn't see both Foxcatcher and Nightcrawler getting here, but they did. 

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Big Hero 6
The BoxTrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

3/5
Of all the snubs, the biggest one comes from here. Where is the Lego Movie????? I seriously do not understand. AT ALL. 

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
CitizenFour
Finding Vivian Maier
Last Days in Vietnam
The Salt of the Earth
Virunga

2/5
I haven't seen any of these. I just know I had originally put Virunga on here but swapped it off in the end. 

FILM EDITING
Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach (American Sniper)
Sandra Adair (Boyhood)
Barney Pilling (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
William Goldenberg (The Imitation Game)
Tom Cross (Whiplash)

3/5
Again, another place I should've seen American Sniper coming. I also swapped off Whiplash at the last moment for Gone Girl. Mistake, it seems. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Emmanuel Lubezki (Birdman)
Robert D. Yeoman (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal (Ida)
Dick Pope (Mr. Turner)
Roger Deakins (Unbroken)

4/5 
I only missed out on Ida here, originally having Interstellar here over it. 


ORIGINAL SCORE
Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Alexandre Desplat (The Imitation Game)
Hans Zimmer (Interstellar)
Johann Johannsson (The Theory of Everything)
Gary Yershon (Mr. Turner)

4/5
Happy to see double nominations for Desplat. Can he please win for The Grand Budapest Hotel? I love love love that score. Disappointed at lack of Gone Girl here. Another fab score this year. 


ORIGINAL SONG
"Lost Stars" from Begin Again
"I'm Not Gonna Miss You" from Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me
"Everything is Awesome" from The Lego Movie
"Glory" from Selma
"Grateful" from Beyond the Lights

3/5
The fact that Lego Movie got in here and then didn't in Animated Feature is what really had me going whaaaaa? Disappointed Boyhood didn't make it in here, but overall I don't care about this field. 

SOUND MIXING
American Sniper
Birdman
Interstellar
Unbroken
Whiplash

3/5

SOUND EDITING
American Sniper
Birdman
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
Unbroken

3/5

 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

3/5
I'm kind of surprised at the amount of Superhero movies in here. However, this feels like a fairly solid line up. 

COSTUME DESIGN
Milena Canonero (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Mark Bridges (Inherent Vice)
Colleen Atwood (Into the Woods)
Anna B. Sheppard (Maleficent)
Jacqueline Durran (Mr. Turner)

3/5

PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Mr. Turner

4/5

MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Guardians of the Galaxy

 2/3

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Tangerines
Ida
Leviathan
Timbuktu
Wild Tales

4/5

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Crisis Veterans Hotline: Press 1
Joanna
Our Curse
The Reaper (La Parka)
White Earth

ANIMATED SHORT FILM
The Bigger Picture
The Dam Keper
Feast
Me and My Moulton
A Single Life

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Aya
Boogaloo and Graham
Butterfly Lamp (La Lampe au Beurre de Yak)
Parvaneh

The Phone Call



So overall, out of the 106 predictions to get right (8 Picture nominees) I got 75 of them right (with a -1 for predicting 1 too many BP nominees). In comparison to last year, I predicted 97 nominations and got 76 of those correct. So I did better last year, but doing less good is always kind of interesting though. It means not everything was too predictable, which is always fun. Overall, the fact that The Grand Budapest Hotel tied for top nominations makes me really happy. As well, the inclusion of Steve Carell as Best Actor also makes me happy. Everything else is interesting and I have a few nominees to see (where the heck am I going to see Whiplash before the Oscars??) I'm hoping the winners are as predictable as they seem to be currently, I'm really hoping for some game changes in the next few weeks. As much as I love Boyhood, how fun would it be if The Grand Budapest Hotel won? We'll see in roughly a month!

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