Oscar Nominations 2015

Oscar nominations were announced this morning and like most years, there were a few surprises, as well as a fair amount of Oscar snubs. This year, the Academy decided to announce every category live. In past years, only the main categories were revealed live on the air. I really liked hearing every category and I hope they continue this trend every year. One thing the Academy has to make sure they change is to never let Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who represents the public relations branch of the Academy, ever announce the nominations again. She's horrible. She doesn't come off natural and I'm not really sure she can even read. She pretty much butchered any name more ethnic than Bradley Cooper. The only good thing to come out of it was another Oscar blunder, not as great as last year when John Travolta dismantled Idina Menzel's name, but still pretty funny. When it came time for Boone Isaacs to announce the nominees for Best Cinematography, she came to Dick Pope's name, the cinematographer for Mr. Turner, and accidentally called him Dick Poop. That was good for an early morning laugh from the sleepy Cali crowd. Anyway, here are some thoughts on the nominations.

• One of the bigger head-scratchers of the morning was the fact that only 8 films were nominated for best picture. A few years ago, the Academy made the choice to allow up to 10 films to be nominated. The last few years, 9 films have been honored. In a strong year for film, it surprised me that 10 films weren't nominated. I was really happy to see Whiplash snag a nomination, it's one of my favorite films of the year. It was odd how Foxcatcher was left out in the cold, especially since the director of the film, Bennett Miller, was nominated for Best Director.

• In the Best Actor category, everything was going according to plan until Bradley Cooper squeezed his way into the group. This is the third year in a row that Cooper has received a nomination. This meant that David Oyelowo, who garnered rave reviews for his portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, was snubbed. To me, the biggest snub was Jake Gyllenaal for Nightcrawler. He gave one of the best performances of the year. Hands down. He literally transformed himself and loses himself in that role. On the bright side, I was happy to see Steve Carell get nominated. He's known for his comedic roles and I thought he was great in Foxcatcher.

• I'm getting really tired of seeing Meryl Streep get nominated for everything. She's not even close to being the best part of Into the Woods. That distinction goes to Chris Pine and Emily Blunt. The Academy has to give it a rest with her. She took a possible nomination away from Jessica Chastain for A Most Violent Year. The big surprise here was Laura Dern for Wild.

• As I mentioned above, it's highly unusual to see a director get nominated, but not have his film receive a nomination for Best Picture. Many will be outraged that Bennett Miller stole a nomination from Ava DuVernay for Selma. Many thought the Academy was poised to nominate DuVernay, which would have made her the first African American female to be nominated for Best Director. I would have liked to see Damien Chazelle get nominated for Whiplash, but this was a fierce category.

• I guess the Academy didn't think The Lego Movie was awesome because they neglected to nominate it for Best Animated Feature. This was one of the bigger shockers of the morning. Most people thought The Lego Movie was a lock for a win, yet it didn't even get nominated. I find it hard to believe The Boxtrolls is better than The Lego Movie. I've yet to hear anybody rave about Boxtrolls.

• Nominating Rosamund Pike from Gone Girl for Best Actress was a no brainer, but the film was shut out everywhere else. Shockingly, Gillian Flynn didn't receive a nomination for Adapted Screenplay. Flynn did an excellent job of capturing the feel of her novel and bringing it to the big screen. A clear oversight by the Academy.

• I'm probably the only person that cares about Best Documentary Feature, but I was really disappointed to see Life Itself get snubbed. Life Itself chronicles the life and death of legendary film critic Roger Ebert. Since the doc had such close ties with the film industry, I figured it was a lock for a nomination. Another documentary about film was Jodorowsky's Dune. A fantastic documentary about a passionate director's failure to bring Dune to the big screen. It turns out Hollywood has turned its back on Jodorowsky twice now, once in 1975 when they didn't buy into his vision for Dune and failed to finance his film and now snubbing a documentary on the whole process.

• Thank god Whiplash was nominated for Best Editing or this whole piece would just be me ranting.

Overall, I think the Academy did a decent job. There were a few snubs that I disagree with, but that's how it is every year. In the end, the Oscars are what they are. We all know it's a popularity contest and it doesn't really matter in the end who wins and loses. I'm still waiting for the day that the Academy loosens up a little and nominates films like The Babadook, as well as performances that may have gone under the radar for one reason or another. In the end, I will take solace in the fact that even if the Academy doesn't recognize these films and performances, it was still my privilege to get to experience them. I'll remember them long after we forget about what was nominated and what was snubbed.

I've seen most of the films nominated for Best Picture, but I still have a few more to round out the rest of the categories. It should be an interesting few weeks leading up to Oscar night.

#oscars #academyawards