2015 Academy Awards Discussion

[Lief 🗽]

Nominations came out today, seen here: http://oscar.go.com/nominees

Very happy that Grand Budapest Hotel and Wes Anderson are finally getting some love from the Academy, but the snubbing of Selma in multiple categories and especially Gone Girl (which was a masterpiece, and both critically successful and very financially successful) is really egregious. The love for really mediocre films like The Imitation Game and American Sniper is also stupid.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

'Oscar nominated Eddie Redmayne' = something that should never be. Americans need to stop cooing over posh British people, it's ingratiating and embarrassing.

[Lief 🗽]

'Oscar nominated Eddie Redmayne' = something that should never be. Americans need to stop cooing over posh British people, it's ingratiating and embarrassing.

Well he's also nominated for a BAFTA award...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

'Oscar nominated Eddie Redmayne' = something that should never be. Americans need to stop cooing over posh British people, it's ingratiating and embarrassing.

Well he's also nominated for a BAFTA award...

BAFTA is an Establishment racket. They look after their own.

[bedstuy]

Why did Selma get a "Best Picture" nomination, but no nominations in the acting categories or Best Director category?  Kind of strange.  

I wonder if Selma is suffering because 12 Years a Slave cleaned up last year.

As for the historical biopics set in England, that type of thing is Oscar catnip.  British/historical things "seem good" because they seem like movies that smart, sophisticated people would like.  

[Paul Kemp]

Seems like a particularly Oscar bait-y year to me.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Boyhood is the only film I care about so all the nominations are expected and I will most certainly be rooting for all those (except maybe Simmons for Supporting Actor - he's excellent). Too bad "Ryan's Song" didn't get nominated for Song, but at least I have Glen Campbell to root for.

Good to see Foxcatcher doing better than expected.

And I liked Theory of Everything a great deal. Definitely an emotional ride that was enjoyable throughout. I went in with a poor mindset, and I actually liked it. Won't be rooting for it, but I have to defend the nominations.

[afleitch]

'Oscar nominated Eddie Redmayne' = something that should never be. Americans need to stop cooing over posh British people, it's ingratiating and embarrassing.

I fully agree. Naked, brooding, wistful, 'come away with me' Eddie Redmayne perhaps, but never Oscar nominated...

[afleitch]

Boyhood was impressive. Needless last half hour, but very impressive. Grand Budapest was one of the most beautiful films I have seen this past year.

[bedstuy]

Boyhood was impressive. Needless last half hour, but very impressive. Grand Budapest was one of the most beautiful films I have seen this past year.

The miniatures in the Grand Budapest Hotel were amazing.  That movie needs to win best art direction I think, just the furniture in that movie should win an Oscar. 

Boyhood I think will win Best Picture.  It's not a great movie, but it's an amazing achievement as a project.  I think the Oscars will reward that because it's easy to explain.  I actually think Boyhood would work better as something like a 10 hour miniseries.  Even at its length, the scenes were so short that you never got to spend enough time with the characters before you jumped ahead in time.

As for what should win Best Picture, I think Birdman was the best movie of the year.  Although that's the classic argument, should "Best Picture" be the best movie or should it be the movie that seems most like what a Best Picture winner tends to be?

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

All the SJWs on Facebook are flipping out about how there are no minorities or females. I'd challenge them to find more deserving candidates. Additionally, their hindsight was criticizing the nomination of Sandra Bullock for The Blindside and completely dismissed 12 Years a Slave because white society is already comfortable with it.

Seriously, who got snubbed? Oyelowo? I disagree with all the Redmayne criticism. It was a fine performance - by no means one of the best 2 or 3 of the year, but certainly nomination-worthy. Oyelowo was awesome too, but it's not like the other nominees weren't deserving. Fiennes and Gyllenhaal got snubbed in that sense too. (And in my opinion, Bill Hader and Miles Teller, but I won't pretend like they had a prayer)

And who did they want for Director? Obvious Ava DuVernay. But she got edged out by Imitation Game and Foxcatcher. I would have taken her and Eastwood for slots 4 and 5 probably, but it's far from an obvious choice. What other options were there? Jolie's flop? Or perhaps Chris Rock's ultra-noteworthy film?

All the yelling about two "snubs" from the same movie that the voters just didn't like as much as Foxcatcher. Is that such a horrible thing? Especially when there were by no means frontrunners (even removing Redmayne from the argument - I don't have him top 3). These were candidates that ranked somewhere between 3 and 8 in their respective categories. I would have given one to DuVernay not Oyelowo, but the same films tend to generate multiple awards.

The calls that Hollywood is racist and sexist are so unnecessary. You can't base it on one film. IMO, 12 Years a Slave got ridiculous benefits because it was far from the best picture last year - was 6th on my list.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Something about the way The Grand Budapest Hotel was written and acted didn't sit well with me--and I say this as somebody who's in general a huge Wes Anderson fan--but it was absolutely gorgeous and should definitely win in art direction, and maybe original score too considering that Gone Girl somehow managed to not be nominated for that. I haven't seen most of the Oscar bait-y films this year so a lot of the big categories I actually can't really comment on, but I'd be happy if either Boyhood or Birdman won Best Picture. (This is also an incredibly white Oscars all around, even by Oscars standards, but that might for all I know be a function of something disappointing going on in the industry in general for the past year, rather than the Academy itself being racist.)

[Knives]

Living for the Marion inclusion, the best performance of the year.

[BaconBacon96]

Just saw Birdman yesterday. A truly magnificent film. At the very least Michael Keaton should win Best Actor.

Also I hope Hans Zimmer wins Best Score for Interstellar. That was amazing.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Why did Selma get a "Best Picture" nomination, but no nominations in the acting categories or Best Director category?  Kind of strange. 

I wonder if Selma is suffering because 12 Years a Slave cleaned up last year.

As for the historical biopics set in England, that type of thing is Oscar catnip.  British/historical things "seem good" because they seem like movies that smart, sophisticated people would like. 

Selma is the first film since 1936 to get a BP nomination without any other major category nomination. Selma has been suffering from one of the WORST marketing campaigns from a studio, almost, ever. The film suffered some bad press from screenings, and because Paramount thought, due to Gravity last year, that Interstellar was going to be their main horse... then the new cut of Selma was winning raves everywhere from critics, and they couldn't get screeners out to guilds-groups in time for their deadlines. Which meant it missed virtually EVERY precursor or guild group. It built no momentum, so by the time the AMPAS voting kicked in, they'd seen other films and there are a lot of passion picks this year... so they couldn't rely on a last minute surge of AMPAS only campaigning to get them over the line.

This is not about race, this is about a s***-house campaign.

On topic - I'm thrilled for Birdman, Grand Budapest and Foxcatcher. I thought Boyhood was actually pretty un-impressive if you take the 12 year filming time out of it. It's a good movie... but a runaway BP winner? (which is what it will be) No. It's so weird that Picture, Director, Actress and the Supporting categories are kind of already locked and Actor seems a two horse race between Keaton and Redmayne.

[afleitch]

What's curious about the slate of nominations for Grand Budapest is how early the film was released with regards to Oscar season.

[riceowl]

Why did Selma get a "Best Picture" nomination, but no nominations in the acting categories or Best Director category?  Kind of strange. 

I wonder if Selma is suffering because 12 Years a Slave cleaned up last year.

As for the historical biopics set in England, that type of thing is Oscar catnip.  British/historical things "seem good" because they seem like movies that smart, sophisticated people would like. 

Selma is the first film since 1936 to get a BP nomination without any other major category nomination.

LOTR: TTT
Beauty and the Beast
Jaws

etc

[Mopsus]

The Lego Movie wasn't nominated for Best Animated Feature - now there's a snub to get upset about.

[King]

Yeah, I don't even know when Selma's release date was or where it was showing. Very poor marketing campaign. Quite stunning considering they had Oprah Winfrey to sell it.

Also, why is it that every year the Best Actress nominated films are completely obscure and not in the BP race?

[Mr. Morden]

Also, why is it that every year the Best Actress nominated films are completely obscure and not in the BP race?

Because women don't get the lead roles in that many BP-contending movies.  Most of the Oscar-baity movies are either ensemble movies or have a strong male lead with no correspondingly strong female lead.  To find the movies with strong female leads, the Academy has to go to the next tier down of contenders.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Rosamund Pike is kind of a weird choice for Best Actress, I don't think anyone would've considered anyone other than Ben Affleck the lead. I guess you could argue she was sort of a co-lead, but I'm sure if you told anyone she'd be nominated for Gone Girl everyone would've assumed it would've been for Best Supporting Actress.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Rosamund Pike is kind of a weird choice for Best Actress, I don't think anyone would've considered anyone other than Ben Affleck the lead. I guess you could argue she was sort of a co-lead, but I'm sure if you told anyone she'd be nominated for Gone Girl everyone would've assumed it would've been for Best Supporting Actress.

She carries half of the movie essentially by herself. And no, people have not been assuming that. She's been talked about as a Best Actress contender since it was released.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Why did Selma get a "Best Picture" nomination, but no nominations in the acting categories or Best Director category?  Kind of strange. 

I wonder if Selma is suffering because 12 Years a Slave cleaned up last year.

As for the historical biopics set in England, that type of thing is Oscar catnip.  British/historical things "seem good" because they seem like movies that smart, sophisticated people would like. 

Selma is the first film since 1936 to get a BP nomination without any other major category nomination.

LOTR: TTT
Beauty and the Beast
Jaws

etc

I stand corrected.

I think Selma came out Christmas Day.

Also, what is this, like the 3rd or 4th year with 9 best picture nominees? Of course when there were only 5 they all got another nomination.

8 nominations this year.

Rosamund Pike is kind of a weird choice for Best Actress, I don't think anyone would've considered anyone other than Ben Affleck the lead. I guess you could argue she was sort of a co-lead, but I'm sure if you told anyone she'd be nominated for Gone Girl everyone would've assumed it would've been for Best Supporting Actress.

It's a known marketing trick - you put people in the category that they're stronger in, Jennifer Connelly in a Beautiful Mind was CLEARLY co-lead, but she was put in supporting as they thought lead was going to be too strong that year (and it worked). Jim Broadbent, that same year in Iris - same concept, same result. There are examples of this pretty much every year.

This year it's Carell in Foxcatcher... to me, he was supporting (and that's where BAFTA put him) but because Channing Tatum is not getting an Oscar nomination but since Ruffalo is very obviously in supporting, they took a chance and put Carell in lead and again... it worked.

You should also remember that up until September... the Best Actress race was a wasteland. Pike was essentially considered the front-runner, then Wild came out and it became Witherspoon... then Julianne Moore comes along with Still Alice and the race no longer mattered, lol.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

I think Selma came out Christmas Day.

Also, what is this, like the 3rd or 4th year with 9 best picture nominees? Of course when there were only 5 they all got another nomination.

8 nominations this year.

(I was actually wrong about this being the 3rd or 4th year. I think it's the 6th with more than 5.)

On this note, I can't believe a 9th one didn't garner the low minimum for nomination. I though Foxcatcher or Nightcrawler would be in there to fill the spot "Unbroken" was supposed to take.  Pretty shocking to only have 8. I wonder if that means its a runaway or these 8 are all just getting a lot of votes.

Which makes the Selma nomination seem even more odd... considering Foxcatcher was more popular across the branches.

[King]

Rosamund Pike is kind of a weird choice for Best Actress, I don't think anyone would've considered anyone other than Ben Affleck the lead. I guess you could argue she was sort of a co-lead, but I'm sure if you told anyone she'd be nominated for Gone Girl everyone would've assumed it would've been for Best Supporting Actress.

I like it that way. It's how the award used to be. Supporting Actor/Actress used to be for true minor characters who only got 5-15 minutes of screen time. Anyone in the main cast was nominated for the top. Network, for example, had two Best Actor nominees and Best Actress nominee.

It changed over the years to try and get more films nominated.