Thursday, January 15, 2015

My Reaction to the 87th Annual Academy Award Nominations

        Earlier today the nominees for the 87th Annual Academy Awards were announced and I'm here to give you the list of nominees as well as my 5 biggest surprises/snubs/takeaways. So without further ado...





Best Picture

American Sniper (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Boyhood (IFC Films)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
The Imitation Game (The Weinstein Company)
Selma (Paramount Pictures)
The Theory of Everything (Focus Features)
Whiplash (Sony Pictures Classics)

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

Actor in a Leading Role

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper – American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton - Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything

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

Actor in a Supporting Role

Robert Duvall - The Judge
Ethan Hawke - Boyhood
Edward Norton - Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons - Whiplash

Actress in a Supporting Role

Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
Laura Dern - Wild
Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game
Emma Stone – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Meryl Streep  - Into the Woods

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

American Sniper, Written by Jason Hall
The Imitation Game, Written by Graham Moore
Inherent Vice, Written by Paul Thomas Anderson
The Theory of Everything, Written by Anthony McCarten
Whiplash, Written by Damien Chazelle

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolas Giacobone, Armando Bo
Boyhood, Written by Richard Linklater
Foxcatcher, Written by Dan Futterman and E. Max Frye
The Grand Budapest Hotel, Written by Wes Anderson
Nightcrawler, Written by Dan Gilroy

Foreign Language Film

Ida (Music Box Films), Poland, Pawel Pawlikowski
Leviathan (Sony Pictures Classics), Russia, Andrey Zvyagintsev
Tangerines, Estonia, Zaza Urushadze
Timbuktu (Cohen Media Group), Mauritania, Abderrahmane Sissako
Wild Tales (Sony Pictures Classics), Argentina, Damián Szifrón

Animated Feature Film

Big Hero 6 (Walt Disney Pictures)
The Boxtrolls (Focus Features)
How to Train a Dragon 2 (DreamWorks Animation)
Song of the Sea (GKIDS)
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (GKIDS)

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

Cinematography

Emmanuel Lubezki - Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Robert Yeoman - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski - Ida
Dick Pope - Mr. Turner
Roger Deakins - Unbroken

Costume Design

Milena Canonero - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Mark Bridges - Inherent Vice
Colleen Atwood - Into the Woods
Anna B. Sheppard and Jane Clive - Maleficent
Jacqueline Durran - Mr. Turner

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

Documentary (Feature)

Citizenfour (RADiUS-TWC)
Finding Vivian Maier (Sundance Selects)
Last Days in Vietnam (American Experience)
The Salt of the Earth  (Sony Pictures Classics)
Virunga (Netflix)

Makeup and Hairstyling

Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard – Foxcatcher
Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White - Guardians of the Galaxy

Music (Original Score)

Alexandre Desplat - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alexandre Desplat - The Imitation Game
Hans Zimmer - Interstellar
Gary Yershon - Mr. Turner
Jóhann Jóhannsson - The Theory of Everything

Music (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

Sound Mixing

John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin - American Sniper
Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga - Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Gary A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten - Interstellar
Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and David Lee - Unbroken
Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley - Whiplash

Sound Editing

Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman - American Sniper
Martín Hernández and Aaron Glascock - Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Brent Burge and Jason Canovas – The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Richard King - Interstellar
Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro - Unbroken

Visual Effects

Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick - Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould - Guardians of the Galaxy
Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher - Interstellar
Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Waldbauer - X-Men: Days of Future Past

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 – J. Christian Jensen

Short Film (Animated)

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

Short Film (Live Action)

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


Surprises/Snubs/Takeaways
1. The Lego Movie was snubbed for Best Animated Feature. Look I get why the Academy nominated to other nominees, but you can't tell me that The Lego Movie was more deserving. It was highest grossing animated film of the 2014 and the highest critically rated film (96% on rottentomatoes.com) of 2014. The Academy does like the feel good stories and the classic styles of animation such as handrawn 2D films (Song of the Sea and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya) and stop-motion films (The Boxtrolls). The Lego Movie (before the nominations) was picked by 90% of prognosticators to win the award and now it's not even nominated.
2. The recent love for American Sniper is ridiculous. Look don't get me wrong it's a great film and I enjoyed, but I did not think it was worthy of a couple of nominations. The two that shocked me the most were its nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor. For Best Picture I didn't think it deserved the nomination becuase there are so many other films that could've gotten its spot like Gone Girl (I'll talk about below), Nightcrawler, Foxcatcher and Interstellar. As for Best Actor I am astonished that Bradley Cooper was nominated. I really like Bradley Cooper and he did a great job of portraying Chris Kyle, but to nominate him over Jake Gyllenhaal who gave the best performance of his career and David Oyelowo who did such an amazing job portraying Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and became this important figure in American history. Now Bradley Cooper is an Academy darling and if he is in a film expect it to be nominated as that has been the case for the past 3 years (nominations for Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and American Sniper).
3. Gone Girl got absolutely no love from the Academy. Now I know I'm a little biased towards Gone Girl because it was my favorite film of 2014. But still you can't deny that it should've gotten a lot more attention. It was only nominated for 1 Academy award and that was for Rosamund Pike for Best Actress. It sends the message that the Academy doesn't care about films that make a lot of money and are Oscar contenders. Gone Girl made $365 million worldwide and it has a rating of 88% on rottentomatoes.com. It has everything you need to be glaring choice to be nominated for several awards and it just didn't get what it deserved.
4. Selma was not respected what so ever. This was a film that a lot of people thought may have 5 to 7 nominations and it ended up getting two (Best Picture and Best Original Song). The Academy had the opportunity to nominate the first female African-American director in Ava DuVernay and they didn't and I thought David Oyelowo deserved a nomination as well. One thing that may have hurt the film is that they did not get DVD screeners out in time for the Academy voters.
5. Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night took a spot from Jennifer Aniston for Cake. Jennifer Aniston gave an amazing performance that showed the world she can really act and this would have broken her out of the trap she has been in since Friends went off the air. Two Days, One Night was getting a lot of love from foreign award bodies, but in America it got no love from the SAG Awards or the Golden Globes so I was really shocked that she was nominated when a lot of people (including myself) thought that Jennifer Aniston was getting a nomination.

        So ladies and gentlemen what do you think of this years nominees for the 87th Academy Awards and what are some of your biggest surprises/snubs? Let me know in the comments section and let your voice be heard.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Jonah Sparks

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