Once again, the Oscar® nominations are unveiled and, once, again, there are some moments of controversy. This year, more than most, the concept of a Best Film nominee apparently directing itself will spark a ton of controversy – making the argument that the nominee list for directors should be expanded to match that of Best Film.
Also once again, a lot of the nominees are films that haven’t been seen by anyone outside the academy and residents of Los Angeles and New York City who felt inclined to see them over the holiday crush.
For now, though, here are the nominees and a few thoughts that wandered lonely across my mind as I encountered them for the first time.
BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
American Sniper
Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Bradley Cooper and Peter Morgan, Producers
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole, Producers
Boyhood
Richard Linklater and Cathleen Sutherland, Producers
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson, Producers
The Imitation Game
Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky and Teddy Schwarzman, Producers
Selma
Christian Colson, Oprah Winfrey, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, Producers
The Theory of Everything
Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce and Anthony McCarten, Producers
Whiplash
Jason Blum, Helen Estabrook and David Lancaster, Producers
With the exception of American Sniper, I’ve seen everything on this list and it’s a good one – four of my year’s favorites are here; a couple more are in the documentary category, and the other three made Honorable Mentions
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Steve Carell in Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper in American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything
The only real surprise here is that David Oyelowo is absent from the list. I might have chosen him over Steve Carell (who gives an eerily brilliant performance). This is just a case of an overabundance of brilliant lead roles for actors and no way to choose five without pissing off someone.
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Robert Duvall in The Judge
Ethan Hawke in Boyhood
Edward Norton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Mark Ruffalo in Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons in Whiplash
Another incredibly strong category. Just because Robert Duvall might be a sentimental favorite to get a nomination doesn’t mean he didn’t do great work (he was the best thing about The Judge).
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones in The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore in Still Alice
Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon in Wild
Who says there was no real competition for this category?
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Patricia Arquette in Boyhood
Laura Dern in Wild
Keira Knightley in The Imitation Game
Emma Stone in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Meryl Streep in Into the Woods
There are no soft noms here: every one of these performances is deserving.
ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game
Just the fact that Ava DuVernay was no nominated for Selma points out that this category should be expanded to match the number of selections in the Best Film category. Oscar®-nominated films don’t direct themselves, people!
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
Big Hero 6
Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli
The Boxtrolls
Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable and Travis Knight
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Dean DeBlois and Bonnie Arnold
Song of the Sea
Tomm Moore and Paul Young
The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya
Isao Takahata and Yoshiaki Nishimura
The LEGO Movie – on of the best reviewed films of the year (in any category) – didn’t get a nomination? And How To Train Your Dragon 2 (an adequate but not especially brilliant sequel) did? That’s just all kinds of wrong.
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
Ida (Poland)
Leviathan (Russia)
Tangerines (Estonia)
Timbuktu (Mauritania)
Wild Tales (Argentina)
The only foreign language film I watched (or at least tried, several times, to watch) was Force Majeure. I may not have seen these, but I’m glad Force Majeure didn’t make the cut.
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
American Sniper
Written by Jason Hall
The Imitation Game
Written by Graham Moore
Inherent Vice
Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson
The Theory of Everything
Screenplay by Anthony McCarten
Whiplash
Written by Damien Chazelle
The two screenplay awards usually go to one of the writer(s) in the Best Film category who didn’t win, which is rather odd. Following that logic, Inherent Vice should be a lock.
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo
Boyhood
Written by Richard Linklater
Foxcatcher
Written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Screenplay by Wes Anderson; Story by Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness
Nightcrawler
Written by Dan Gilroy
Nightcrawler wasn’t nominated for Best film, unlike the other four scripts in this category. Personally, no matter what film gets the big prize, I’d pick it or Wes Anderson’s very specific, very meticulaous The Grand Budapest Hotel here.
ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Emmanuel Lubezki
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Robert Yeoman
Ida
Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski
Mr. Turner
Dick Pope
Unbroken
Roger Deakins
I haven’t seen Ida or Mr. Turner, but Unbroken is the best-looking of the three I’ve seen; The Grand Budapest is the most innovative (using different scree ratios to represent the periods in the action takes place, and Birdman is the coolest (the use of digital stitching to make the film seem like on continuing shot was pretty spiffy).
ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Milena Canonero
Inherent Vice
Mark Bridges
Into The Woods
Colleen Atwood
Maleficent
Anna B. Sheppard and Jane Clive
Mr. Turner
Jacqueline Durran
I haven’t seen Mr. Turner, but the other four entries here are all extraordinary efforts. I’d give Milena Canonero the edge because her costumes cover several different periods.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
CitizenFour
Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky
Finding Vivian Maier
John Maloof and Charlie Siskel
Last Days in Vietnam
Rory Kennedy and Keven McAlester
The Salt of the Earth
Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and David Rosier
Virunga
Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara
I’m surprised the sentimental favorite (and excellent documentary in its own right) Life Itself didn’t make the cut here. CitizenFour is certainly the most newsworthy choice – and paints a picture of a guy who’s just trying to do the right for the right reasons.
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Dana Perry
Joanna
Aneta Kopacz
Our Curse
Tomasz Sliwinski and Maciej Slesicki
The Reaper (La Parka)
Gabriel Serra Arguello
White Earth
- Christian Jensen
I haven’t seen any of these.
ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
American Sniper
Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach
Boyhood
Sandra Adair
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Barney Pilling
The Imitation Game
William Goldenberg
Whiplash
Tom Cross
Again, I haven’t seen American Sniper, but each of the other four nominees is brilliantly edited. I’m leaning toward The Grand Budapest Hotel for its melding of three distinct periods and three distinct scree ratios, making it one of the most difficult tasks in the field.
ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Foxcatcher
Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White
Guardians of the Galaxy. Gotta be.
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE)
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alexandre Desplat
The Imitation Game
Alexandre Desplat
Interstellar
Hans Zimmer
Mr. Turner
Gary Yershon
The Theory of Everything
Jóhann Jóhannsson
Three of the four nominees I’ve seen have amazing scores. Because of the way he captures the drama and the whimsy of Wes Anderson’s story so well, I’m hoping Alexandre Desplat takes this one.
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG)
“Everything Is Awesome” from The Lego Movie
Music and Lyric by Shawn Patterson
“Glory” from Selma
Music and Lyric by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn
“Grateful” from Beyond the Lights
Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
“I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me
Music and Lyric by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond
“Lost Stars” from Begin Again
Music and Lyric by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois
These are all good songs, but I might have chosen Lorde’s Yellow Flicker Beat (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1) over at least a couple of these nominees. I expect Glory will win, though Everything Is Awesome and Grateful are better songs – Glory just suits its movie better.
ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
The Imitation Game
Production Design: Maria Djurkovic; Set Decoration: Tatiana Macdonald
Interstellar
Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Gary Fettis
Into the Woods
Production Design: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Mr. Turner
Production Design: Suzie Davies; Set Decoration: Charlotte Watts
Tough, tough category. Building a world from scratch is never easy. My preference is for the finicky, precise, detailed worlds of Wes Anderson and the slightly more sprawling world of Into the Woods. I’m glad I don’t have to vote on this one.
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
The Bigger Picture
Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees
The Dam Keeper
Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi
Feast
Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed
Me and My Moulton
Torill Kove
A Single Life
Joris Oprins
I’ve only seen the one most of us have seen – Feast – and that was not one of the best Disney’s ever done.
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Aya
Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis
Boogaloo and Graham
Michael Lennox and Ronan Blaney
Butter Lamp (La Lampe Au Beurre De Yak)
Hu Wei and Julien Féret
Parvaneh
Talkhon Hamzavi and Stefan Eichenberger
The Phone Call
Mat Kirkby and James Lucas
I’ve seen none of these.
ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
American Sniper
Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Martín Hernández and Aaron Glascock
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Brent Burge and Jason Canovas
Interstellar
Richard King
Unbroken
Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro
Without seeing American Sniper, I have to say that Birdman or The Hobbit would seem to be the most interesting editing challenges here. Insterstellar, of course, was deliberately mixed like that, but I consider it a failed experiment. That’s just me…
ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
American Sniper
John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga
Interstellar
Gary A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten
Unbroken
Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and David Lee
Whiplash
Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley
These films must have been huge challenges – especially Birdman with its percussive score on top of everything else, and Whiplash, in which percussion was center stage as a plot point.
ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist
Guardians of the Galaxy
Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould
Interstellar
Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Waldbauer
And finally we come to the whiz-bang of visual effects. Every last one of these films deserves to be here. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes did something amazing in taking motion capture out of the studio; Guardians of the Galaxy created new aliens and a whole other section of the galaxy; X-Men: Days of Future Past had that incredible sequence with Qucksilver in the Pentagon kitchens (and that was just one part of its overall tapestry); Interstellar created new worlds, played with time and gave us the niftiest AI since HAL-9000, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier gave us an armada of helicarriers and some of the most spectacular ‘stuff getting blowed up real good’ we’ve ever seen.
Which gets me the most? I AM GROOT! Say n’more…