BEST PICTURE
American Sniper Birdman Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel The Imitation Game
Selma The Theory of Everything
Whiplash
Alright, so there it is, we have the “Best Pictures” of 2014 according to the Academy. They only selected eight films this year instead of the usual nine of prior years. Ever since expanding from five films they have the ability to select up to ten but have only selected nine. Nightcrawler or Foxcatcher definitely could’ve taken up those spots. Not that it really matters since this is Boyhood‘s category to lose
DIRECTING
Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Richard Linklater
Bennett Miller
Wes Anderson
Morten Tyldum
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Steve Carell
Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper
American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch
The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton
Birdman
Eddie Redmayne
The Theory of Everything
Super strong category here and lots of deserving people (Jake Gylenhaal, ahem) got left out. I think this is a two man race between Keaton and Redmayne. I still have to see American Sniper though, and I’ll be doing that this weekend.
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
My personal favorites in this category are Jones and Pike, but this is going to go to Julianne Moore. Her career is longer and her role more daring. A perfect recipe to win. All are amazing actresses. Still need to see Two Days, One Night, though that isn’t scheduled to screen anywhere close.
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Robert Duvall
The Judge
Ethan Hawke
Boyhood
Edward Norton
Birdman
Mark Ruffalo
Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons
Whiplash
Very bummed that Duvall got a nomination at all for a subpar typical picture like The Judge. I don’t like career achievement awards in categories like this. Simmons has it in the bag though. But it just would’ve been nice to see someone actually deserving of the award or someone who’s career it would boost.
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Patricia Arquette
Boyhood
Laura Dern
Wild
Keira Knightley
The Imitation Game
Emma Stone
Birdman
Meryl Streep
Into the Woods
I think Patricia Arquette should win this, and she probably will. Though lately I have been rooting for Keira Knightley because she was so good. Either would make me happy. Well, anyone winning except Meryl Streep would make me happy. There must be a rule that she get nominated every year despite what role she is in. This is just as bad as the Duvall nomination.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Ida
Poland
Leviathan
Russia
Tangerines
Estonia
Timbuktu
Mauritania
Wild Tales
Argentina
I’ve actually only seen Ida and I’m upset that Force Majeure wasn’t nominated. Leviathan is supposed to be great, but it won’t hit screens here until February 27th which is a week after the awards show. The others likely won’t be on screens anywhere near where I am unfortunately. Hopefully they pop up online somehow.
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Obviously the biggest disappointment of the whole nominations is that The Lego Movie was left out. A crime! After that I’m pulling for Big Hero 6, because that’s the only other one I’ve seen yet. I do want to see The Princess Kaguya because I love Japanese animation and Song of the Sea because it’s from the makers of The Book of Kells and is just another example of how Irish cinema is on the uptick.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
CitizenFour
Finding Vivian Maier
Last Days in Vietnam
The Salt of the Earth
Virunga
Here I’ve see Citizenfour, Finding Vivian Maier, and Virunga. All are great. I think Citizenfour is too timely and makes such amazing suspense out of just hotel room interviews that it will be impossible to ignore as the winner. The other two I haven’t seen but will check out. There were others on the short list of potential nominees hat I think deserved those spots more, but who knows. I won’t be definitive on the matter until I see them all.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
- Emmanuel Lubezki for Birdman
- Robert Yeoman for The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski for Ida
- Dick Pope for Mr. Turner
- Roger Deakins for Unbroken
DICK POOP! LOL. Ok, I think Dick Pope will win this for Mr. Turner. Amazing painterly shots. Though Lubezki is my favorite current cinematographer, he could win for the great work in the editless Birdman. Deakins is a god amongst cinematographers, but his work in Unbroken was just not as good as his prior works. Would’ve loved to see Hoyt Hoytema get a nomination for Interstellar here instead. A nomination for Ida here is great. Usually foreign films get ignored in categories except their own, but this was well deserved. I love cinematography! One of my favorite categories outside the major ones.
COSTUME DESIGN
- Milena Canonero for The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Mark Bridges for Inherent Vice
- Colleen Atwood for Into the Woods
- Anna B. Sheppard and Jane Clive for Maleficent
- Jacqueline Durran for Mr. Turner
Couldn’t care less about Into the Woods or Maleficent. Usually this category goes to period pieces so Mr. Turner has to be a frontrunner, but the costumes in Inherent Vice were so much fun. Tough one to call.
FILM EDITING
- Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach for American Sniper
- Sandra Adair for Boyhood
- Barney Pilling for The Grand Budapest Hotel
- William Goldenberg for The Imitation Game
- Tom Cross for Whiplash
Whiplash all the way here. Such inventive and frenetic editing. Loved it.
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
- Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard for Foxcatcher
- Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier for The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White for Guardians of the Galaxy
Would love to see Guardians of the Galaxy win something, so why not here? I think everyone is enamored with the work done in Foxcatcher, so that will probably win.
MUSIC – ORIGINAL SCORE
- Alexandre Desplat for The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Alexandre Desplat for The Imitation Game
- Hans Zimmer for Interstellar
- Gary Yershon for Mr. Turner
- Jóhann Jóhannsson for The Theory of Everything
A double nomination for Desplat. That’s pretty much a death knell since his votes will be split. I think Johannsson wins after picking up the Golden Globe last weekend. I am really pumped to see Hans Zimmer here. That was my personal favorite score.
MUSIC – ORIGINAL SONG
- “Everything Is Awesome”; Music and Lyric by Shawn Patterson from The Lego Movie
- “Glory”; Music and Lyric by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn from Selma
- “Grateful”; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren from Beyond the Lights
- “I’m Not Gonna Miss You”; Music and Lyric by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond from Glen Campbell… I’ll Be Me
- “Lost Stars”; Music and Lyric by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois from Begin Again
Not a category that I care about, though I hope The Lego Movie gets some love. Selma would also be a good choice.
PRODUCTION DESIGN
- Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration) for The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Maria Djurkovic (Production Design); Tatiana Macdonald (Set Decoration) for The Imitation Game
- Nathan Crowley (Production Design); Gary Fettis (Set Decoration) for Interstellar
- Dennis Gassner (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration) for Into the Woods
- Suzie Davies (Production Design); Charlotte Watts (Set Decoration) for Mr. Turner
I think The Grand Budapest Hotel deserves this, though Interstellar’s design was absolutely epic.
SOUND EDITING
- Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman for American Sniper
- Martin Hernández and Aaron Glascock for Birdman
- Brent Burge and Jason Canovas for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
- Richard King for Interstellar
- Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro for Unbroken
SOUND MIXING
- John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin for American Sniper
- Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga for Birdman
- Gary A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten for Interstellar
- Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and David Lee for Unbroken
- Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley for Whiplash
I’ll talk about Editing and Mixing here. Nolan’s films always get nominated. I know there is a big controversy over the sound in Interstellar but I think it will go down in history for being innovative. The Hobbit is also always a contender in these categories. Otherwise Birdman would be my third choice. I might have to revisit this after seeing American Sniper soon. You can toss Unbroken aside in this category entirely.
VISUAL EFFECTS
- Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick for Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
- Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould for Guardians of the Galaxy
- Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher for Interstellar
- Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Waldbauer for X-Men: Days of Future Past
Can’t there be a tie? I think Interstellar’s practical effects are more innovative, but Guardians of the Galaxy is more fun. I’d rather innovation win over fun. GotG didn’t offer anything new.
WRITING – ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
- Written by Jason Hall for American Sniper
- Written by Graham Moore for The Imitation Game
- Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson for Inherent Vice
- Screenplay by Anthony McCarten for The Theory of Everything
- Written by Damien Chazelle for Whiplash
Whiplash should win, though it’s not really adapted. The Academy considers this adapted because he made a short film from a scene in the full feature to get investors in on the project. This short screened at Sundance which then makes the feature film an adaptation. What? Well whatever. P.T. Anderson could win here too and I wouldn’t be mad one bit, his characters are so crazy it’s hard not to love his screenplays.
WRITING – ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
- Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo for Birdman
- Written by Richard Linklater for Boyhood
- Written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman for Foxcatcher
- Screenplay by Wes Anderson; Story by Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness for The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Written by Dan Gilroy
for Nightcrawler
I’d like to see Dan Gilroy win here for Nightcrawler but that’s a bit of a long shot. Otherwise it’s a hard fight between Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel. A real toss up.
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
- Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Dana Perry for Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
- Aneta Kopacz for Joanna
- Tomasz Sliwinski and Maciej Slesicki for Our Curse
- Gabriel Serra Arguello for The Reaper (La Parka)
- J. Christian Jensen for White Earth
SHORT FILM – ANIMATED
- Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees for The Bigger Picture
- Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi for The Dam Keeper
- Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed for Feast
- Torill Kove for Me and My Moulton
- Joris Oprins for A Single Life
SHORT FILM – LIVE ACTION
- Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis for Aya
- Michael Lennox and Ronan Blaney for Boogaloo and Graham
- Hu Wei and Julien Féret for Butter Lamp (La Lampe au Beurre de Yak)
- Talkhon Hamzavi and Stefan Eichenberger for Parvaneh
- Mat Kirkby and James Lucas for The Phone Call
I won’t say much about the shorts since I haven’t seen any yet. Luckily the Oriental Theatre puts on a program with all the shorts for Live Action and Animated and it’s a really fun time at the movies to go see those. I’ve done that the past two years and will do so again this year. They’ll be playing starting the weekend of January 30th. Unfortunately the Documentary Short Subject are pretty impossible to see anywhere. Maybe I can be sneaky and find them online.
So … what nominees are you cheering for? The Awards will be announced Sunday February 22nd. I’ll be watching attentively. Not sure if I’ll live blog again. That was pretty damn exhausting!
midwestmovieman 