Oscar Nominations

Oscar Nominations were announced this morning. Here's the full list. Not counting the 15 shorts (of which I've seen none), 46 different movies got nominations and I've only seen 17 of them. Here they are by number of nominations, not including shorts or foreign language films (well it includes Ida which got a second nomination). Those in bold I've seen.

• 9 Birdman
• 9 The Grand Budapest Hotel
• 8 The Imitation Game
• 6 Boyhood
• 6 American Sniper
• 5 Foxcatcher
• 5 Interstellar
• 5 The Theory of Everything
• 5 Whiplash
• 4 Mr. Turner
• 3 Unbroken
• 2 Guardians of the Galaxy
• 2 Ida
• 2 Inherent Vice
• 2 Into the Woods
• 2 Selma
• 2 Wild
• 1 Begin Again
• 1 Beyond the Lights
• 1 Big Hero 6
• 1 Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• 1 CitizenFour
• 1 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
• 1 Finding Vivian Maier
• 1 Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me
• 1 Gone Girl
• 1 How to Train Your Dragon 2
• 1 Into The Woods
• 1 Last Days in Vietnam
• 1 Maleficent
• 1 Nightcrawler
• 1 Song of the Sea
• 1 Still Alice
• 1 The Boxtrolls
• 1 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
• 1 The Judge
• 1 The Lego Movie
• 1 The Salt of the Earth
• 1 The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya
• 1 Two Days, One Night
• 1 Virunga
• 1 X-Men: Days of Future Past

The only category I've seen all of the nominees in is Visual Effects. Though catching American Sniper, Boyhood and Foxcatcher will complete 7 other categories.

I hadn't really thought about making predictions but I'm not too surprised by things. Birdman was a great film and a technical achievement. I'm a little surprised by the 9 nominations for The Grand Budapest Hotel, but mostly because it came out so early in the year. It looked gorgeous, as all Wes Anderson films do, and for me it was his most engaging film in a while. It makes sense it got Cinematography, Costumes, Makeup, Production Design, etc.; Picture and Directing are deserved but a bit surprising. It also makes sense to me that it got no acting nominations and Birdman got three.

The one I'm really happy about is Whiplash. That was a small independent film that was a lot of fun and very well made. It's five nominations are well earned.

Apparently the big snubs are Jennifer Anniston not getting Best Actress for Cake, in place of Marion Cotillard. I haven't seen either. Also David Oyelowo not getting Best Actor for Selma, apparently in place of Steve Carell in Foxcatcher. I haven't seen Foxcatcher yet but Oyelowo was very good (and the best thing about the film).

I'm okay with Selma not getting other nominations (only one for song). I found it a little too long and brooding. There were lots of scenes of actors contemplating and actual dialog was often brief. There were a few times where a character got a full name and I thought oh, they're going to get killed the next time we see them (and they did). My take was a great story and just a good movie.

I would have liked Interstellar to get some more recognition, maybe cinematography and a picture nomination (there were room for two more). The weakest thing about the movie was the ending (and it was much better than I had been warned about) but that does hurt your overall impression of the film (mores than a weak beginning).

I haven't seen any of the nominated documentaries though I've heard very good things about Last Days in Vietnam and good things about CitizenFour. I really really liked Rich Hill and The Overnighters. You can watch Rich Hill on PBS online through Feb 3rd.