2015 Academy Awards

[EnriqueH]

Do you have your picks yet?

I'm not a big Awards show guy, but I do make it a point to watch the Oscars EVERY YEAR.

It's the only awards show I watch.

I don't always agree with the Academy, but it's always a strong indicator of what might be worth watching at the movies. And so I usually watch every nominated film and make my own choice as to what the best movie is.

And then I go online and discuss with other film buffs.

Have you guys watched any of the nominated films?

So far, I've only seen Grand Budsapest Hotel, which was a fun watch.

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Best Picture

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

Best Director

• Alejandro G. Iñárritu - Birdman
• Richard Linklater - Boyhood
• Bennet Miller - Foxcatcher
• Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Morten Tyldum - The Imitation Game

Best Actor

• Steve Carell - Foxcatcher
• Bradley Cooper - American Sniper
• Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game
• Michael Keaton - Birdman
• 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
• Reese Witherspoon - Wild

Best Supporting Actor

• Robert Duvall - The Judge
• Ethan Hawke - Boyhood
• Edward Norton - Birdman
• Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher
• J.K. Simmons - Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress

• Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
• Laura Dern - Wild
• Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game
• Emma Stone - Birdman
• Meryl Streep - Into the Woods

Best Original Screenplay

• Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo - Birdman
• Richard Linklater - Boyhood
• E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman - Foxcatcher
• Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness - The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Dan Gilroy - Nightcrawler

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Jason Hall - American Sniper
• Graham Moore - The Imitation Game
• Paul Thomas Anderson - Inherent Vice
• Anthony McMarten - The Theory of Everything
• Damien Chazelle - Whiplash

Best Animated Feature

• Big Hero 6
• The Boxtrolls
• How to Train Your Dragon 2
• Song of the Sea
• The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Documentary Feature

• CitizenFour
• Finding Vivian Maier
• Last Days in Vietnam
• The Salt of the Earth
• Virunga

Best Foreign Language Film

• Ida
• Leviathan
• Tangerines
• Timbuktu
• Wild Tales

Best 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

Best Original Song

• “Glory” by Common and John Legend - Selma
• “Lost Stars” by Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley and Nick Southwood - Begin Again
• “Everything Is Awesome” by Shawn Patterson - The LEGO Movie
• “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” by Glen Campbell - Glenn Campbell: I’ll Be Me
• “Grateful,” by Rita Ora - Beyond the Lights

Best Cinematography

• Emmanuel Lubezki- Birdman
• Robert Yeoman - The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski- Ida
• Dick Pope - Mr. Turner
• Roger Deakins - Unbroken

Best Film Editing

• American Sniper
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Whiplash

Best Sound Editing

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

Best Sound Mixing

• American Sniper
• Birdman
• Interstellar
• Unbroken
• Whiplash

Best 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

Best Costume Design

• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Inherent Vice
• Into the Woods
• Maleficent
• Mr. Turner

Makeup and Hairstyling

• Foxcatcher
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Production Design

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

Best Documentary Short Subject

• Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
• Joanna
• Our Curse
• The Reaper
• White Earth

Best Live Action Short Film

• Aya
• Boogaloo and Graham
• Butter Lamp (La Lampe au Beurre de Yak)
• Parvaneh
• The Phone Call

Best Animated Short Film

• Feast
• The Bigger Picture
• A Single Life
• The Dam Keeper
• Me and My Moulton

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Did LEGO Movie not qualify for the animated feature category because it had non-animated scenes or was it just snubbed?

I don't think the Oscars should include more mainstream films but they're sure odd in the films they choose sometimes. Boyhood was obvious but they tend to focus more on talky tedious issue movies and self important melodramatic ones than ones with genuine artistic merit. Also penalizing films just for being in a language other than English.

 

[EnriqueH]

Yeah, but there's TONS of great movies that get overlooked.

And it's narrowed to 5-10, depending on the year.

Martin Scorsese didn't win an Academy Award until a few years ago despite being one of the most consistently great directors of his time. The man has been making quality, Oscar-worthy films since the 1970s and didn't win his first Oscar until, what, 2006?

Leonardo DiCaprio is the king of getting snubbed. I think some people like to pigeonhole him as a "pretty boy", but he's a great performer.

Personally, I thought the year they recognized Slumdog Millionaire was horrible.

I thought The Dark Knight, Gran Torino and The Wrestler were all better serious films than Slumdog.

But like I said before, I don't always agree with the Academy. I thought Lost In Translation was a better picture than Lord of the Rings. I thought American Hustle was better than 12 Years A Slave. I thought Pulp Fiction was better than Forrest Gump.

But for the most part, they're all pretty good movies. And I'm glad I saw them.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Not really interested in the actual awards, since the Academy is an old-white-men's club anyway, and the nominations reflect that. Gonna watch for the show, though, and this year's should be good.

 

[urbandefault]

Not really interested in the actual awards, since the Academy is an old-white-men's club anyway, and the nominations reflect that. Gonna watch for the show, though, and this year's should be good.

So only old white men are allowed into the Academy? I don't think that's how it works.

http://www.oscars.org/about/join-academy

It never occurred to me to look up how the process works until now.

http://www.oscars.org/oscars/regulations-concerning-promotion-films-eligible-87th-academy-awardsr

The complete rules are listed here:

http://www.oscars.org/oscars/rules-eligibility

Frankly, I don't watch award shows unless I know there's going to be a performance I'm interested in seeing. Usually there isn't.

For me, watching any group of people pat themselves on the back is like sitting through a high school attendance award ceremony. *yawn*

But calling the academy an "old white men's club" sounds like a reading from Al Sharpton's teleprompter.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I'm more interested in the Sight & Sound poll than the Oscars. Less focus on melodramatic issue films, less language bias. Under the Skin definitely deserved nominations.

I'd be surprised if Boyhood didn't win Best Picture. This is the one time I have ever seen near critical unanimity about a film.

 

[EnriqueH]

Ha! I just noticed that the two Hulks are nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Ha! I just noticed that the two Hulks are nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

Somewhere, Eric Bana is fuming.

 

[cardinal biggles]

I'm rooting for Boyhood and Birdman. The former was a daring achievement, quite literally gambling with time. The latter was both a stunning technical achievement with the visual effects and the editing and cinematography, plus Michael Keaton gave the batshit-insane performance of a lifetime.

My biggest disappointments are that LEGO Movie didn't make the Best Animated Feature nominees, and Life Itself didn't make the Best Documentary Feature nominees.

 

[EnriqueH]

I was hoping Eastwood would get another Best Director nomination because I've always loved him, but that's admittedly a sentimental choice based on the reaction American Sniper seems to be getting. I haven't actually seen the film.

I also would've thought Interstellar was shoo-in for a nomination, but I guess not.

Sci-Fi is the most shafted category.

If Keaton wins Best Actor, that would be the 2nd Batman to win an acting Oscar.

 

[tomalak301]

I saw Whiplash yesterday and if Boyhood does not win best picture, I hope Whiplash does. That was one of the best endings to a film I've seen in a long time and just the overall film was tense and gut wrenching.

I wasn't a fan of Birdman as I found the film nauseating and the score was really really bad.

 

[EnriqueH]

I just saw "American Sniper" and thought it was one of Eastwood's best movies in years.

I was glued to the screen from start to finish, and I thought it did a great job getting you inside this guy's head.

I tend to avoid any and all stories about a movie before I see it, but just today, I'm noticing there's some serious controversy about the movie.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

If Keaton wins Best Actor, that would be the 2nd Batman to win an acting Oscar.

I almost hope he does, just so George Clooney can no longer make that obnoxious joke about being the only Batman actor to win an Oscar.

Clooney will have to find another way to be fake modest.

 

[EnriqueH]

Clooney didn't win any acting Oscars though, has he?

EDIT: Nevermind, he won Best Supporting Actor for Syriana.

 

[urbandefault]

I just saw "American Sniper" and thought it was one of Eastwood's best movies in years.

I was glued to the screen from start to finish, and I thought it did a great job getting you inside this guy's head.

I tend to avoid any and all stories about a movie before I see it, but just today, I'm noticing there's some serious controversy about the movie.

The only controversy I'm aware of are comments by Michael Moore and Seth Rogen.

Michael Moore is, in my opinion, an irrelevant meathead.

Seth Rogen was just in a movie about assassinating the real leader of a real country, which in my view makes for very shaky credibility. I haven't seen it, but since I don't think he's funny or a good actor, I doubt that I ever will.

Consider the source, and draw your own conclusions.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Seeing that list reminds me that I haven't seen very many movies this year. In terms of Best Picture, The Imitation Game is one I've really wanted to see and took its sweet time getting to my local theatre, and The Theory of Everything wasn't shown at all..

 

[Timby]

But calling the academy an "old white men's club" sounds like a reading from Al Sharpton's teleprompter.

It depends. The entire voting population of the AMPAS votes for who wins each Oscar, the actual branches select their nominations -- the cinematographers nominate the cinematographers, so on and so forth.

For the directors' branch, its population is 91 percent male, and 90 percent white, according to some research done by the Los Angeles Times.

Edit:

Oscar voters are nearly 94% Caucasian and 77% male, The Times found. Blacks are about 2% of the academy, and Latinos are less than 2%.

Oscar voters have a median age of 62, the study showed. People younger than 50 constitute just 14% of the membership.

So, yeah, "old white guys club" isn't exactly a misnomer.

 

[cardinal biggles]

If Keaton wins Best Actor, that would be the 2nd Batman to win an acting Oscar.

I almost hope he does, just so George Clooney can no longer make that obnoxious joke about being the only Batman actor to win an Oscar.

Clooney will have to find another way to be fake modest.

Clooney hasn't been able to make that joke since 2011, when Christian Bale won Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter.

 

[EnriqueH]

And the new Batman, Ben Affleck, has already won a couple of Academy Awards.

 

[EnriqueH]

I just saw The Imitation Game.

I was looking forward to it, primarily because of Benedict Cumberbatch's involement, but I was rather disappointed.

To be brutally honest, I thought the first half was boring as hell. I actually began to doze off, (which is NOT typical for me to do, I *love* going to the movies). I wasn't sure where the movie was going. I thought it was about a mathematician team cracking NAZI codes, but it was taking forever.

The second half got much, much better and its themes became more clear. In fact, I may have to give it another viewing now that I know what the movie was going for. (I went into the movie cold, not knowing anything about the movie other than the fact that it stars Cumberbatch and it's nominated).

The cast gave it their all, but at this point, I think this was rather overrated.

Of the three nominated films I've seen so far, (Grand Budapest Hotel, American Sniper and this one), I would say this was the weakest.

In fact, I would say Nightcrawler, Gone Girl and Interstellar were all more worthy of the Best Picture nomination than this one.