87th Annual Academy Awards nominations

@Clauiu Dobre

“But to say the public (a.k.a. the masses) NEVER get it wrong is a bit naive, IMO. There are examples throughout history of them getting it way, way wrong””

LOL. Very true words. How else could Eddie Murphy’s The Golden Child have been a blockbuster? Or how could Adam Sandler be a success?

“Claudiu, with all due respect, movies that “totally sucked” do not, have not and will never earn three quarters of a billion dollars just in the United States. It’s just physically impossible. In fact, you’re dissing the moviegoing public as a whole. Sometimes we get it right, and Lord knows we got it right in 2009.”

Bit of a contradiction there, no? “Sometimes” we get it right – so you admit, therefore, that sometimes we (I assume you mean the public) get it wrong. I posit that Avatar is one of those times. You think it isn’t. You’ve expressed your opinion, and so have I. Not much to add on either side. 🙂

But to say the public (a.k.a. the masses) NEVER get it wrong is a bit naive, IMO. There are examples throughout history of them getting it way, way wrong. The most well-known example: who allowed the nazis to come to power? By democratic vote, no less… And box-office isn’t even an actual expression of how much people LIKE something, it’s mostly just an expression of how much people want to see something that looks good or is hyped, that they haven’t seen yet (OK, with maybe a few rewatchers thrown in there – but most movies have those, I imagine) and, therefore, can’t, in fact, know whether they like it or not. Which is how Avatar made all that money… And which is probably how Titanic made its money, while also happening to be a far superior movie, with similar, but less annoying problems, and far greater (and more) qualities to compensate for them.

I just took a look and it turns out that all 8 Best Picture nominees premiered first at film festivals:

Whiplash – January 16, 2014 (Sundance FF)
Boyhood – January 19, 2014 (Sundance FF)
The Grand Budapest Hotel – February 6, 2014 (Berlin IFF)
Birdman – August 27, 2014 (Venice FF)
The Imitation Game – August 29, 2014 (Telluride FF)
The Theory of Everything – September 7, 2014 (Toronto IFF)
American Sniper – November 11, 2014 (AFI Fest)
Selma – November 11, 2014 (AFI Fest)

1. Stop hating on Meryl Streep. She’s over 60 and getting more work then many actors dream of. She’s actually DIVERSE in each one of her roles; if you saw Into the Woods, you would know she SANG and sang well plus gave us the usual wonderful acting treat. She is NOT always nominated just because of her name; in 2004, she was in the running for Best Supporting Actress for “The Manchurian Candidate”- and was snubbed. So yep, it happens to her too darlings.

2. Stop hating on Bradley Cooper. He is FANTASTIC in American Sniper, completely focused and raw- and deserved this bid. If anything, he got it on merit alone- since he was snubbed from every other major precursor; the voters were not sheep this time and actually had to think. It was a crowded race. There were going to be snubs.

3. Movies actually CAN get nominated for Best Picture, and miss Best Director. Those complaining that “well movies don’t direct themselves” are missing the idea of what Best Picture and Best Director mean. They’re 2 Separate Categories; if every movie that got up for best picture had to get up for best director, then they should just have ONE category for Best Picture, and get rid of Director. But in fact- they’re two different things. Directing is just that- Directing. It’s achievement in how the director did artistically with the movie, his actors, crew, etc. Best Picture is Best Over-all Film. All the factors come into play, INCLUDING directing. I hope that clears it up for those frustrated. I understand it can be annoying, but this has been going on for years.

@ Rick Fertig
Buttercup Chamberbitch for “The Irritation Came”
L.O.L 🙂

@Rick Fertig 😀 I want to see those movies.

Not going to comment on the nominations, but I do have a suggestion for the show on February 22nd. Please, please, please have John Travolta return as a presenter. Can you imagine what he might do? Give him Best Actor, for example, and expect something like this:

Streep Cartel for “Fogcutter”
Bridey Cowpat for “Armenian Snippet”
Buttercup Chamberbitch for “The Irritation Came”
Mackerel Keister for “Birdbrain”
Edgy Rawhide for “The Theology of Ernestine”

The possiblilties are endless.

On the nominations:
Supporting actress — Rosanna Arquette is the only 1 there that I really like. Keira uttered her lines, smiled, frowned, then that’s it, nothing special. Laura had a one-note performance. Emma was outacted by all of her co-stars including Zach Galifianakis, they should have all been nominated first before her. And Meryl, that was an awful role in an inane film & she wasn’t particularly good.

BP — I would have been thrilled with a 9th nominee, either Gone Girl or Interstellar

animated feature — yeah, The Lego Movie was robbed

sound categories — I was so sure Fury would would have figured somewhere in there, but I guess not

editing — Birdman should have been nominated

I’m rooting for Boyhood for BP, director, screenplay, supp. actress & editing, Rosamund Pike for lead actress, Michael Keaton for lead actor & JK Simmons for supporting actor.

Just saw Selma, I thought it was terrific but I have issues, #1. Tim Roth, still acting as Cunningham from Rob Roy though this time sporting a southern accent, #2. Cinematography, several scenes were wrongfully dark, #3. Oprah’s first scene was compelling but she became a nuisance as she kept popping up unnecessarily throughout the film. That said, Selma was taut & never veered from it’s focal point, I was invested in it from start to finish. It deserves its BP nomination, its technical merits are OK but the competition is just superior, too bad for David Oyelowo the best actor race is too packed.

2001: A Space Odyssey was not nominated for Best Picture.

Happy nominations day to all!

“Based on the 30+ year old Editing theory, it looks like Best Picture is between Boyhood, Grand Budapest Hotel, and Imitation Game.”

Yup… Birdman loses to The Theory of Editing…

“Can we all just take a moment to kinda-sorta admit…. It’s been a pretty ‘meh’ year for movies and performances in GENERAL? REALLY think about that.”

I’ve never disagreed with this. Not that bad, but definitely not stellar.

“Regarding Birdman for editing-
I just want to point out to people that it likely missed because the branch didn’t see it as “traditional” editing. ”

Yeah, I was thinking that… Maybe it’s not a thing in this case. Who knows?! Anyway, I feel like something will sweep or near-sweep the precursors, and, as long as it’s not Birdman (and it will be Boyhood, of course), it’s, sadly, out of the running. It may well also lose the SAG to Grand Budapest (or maybe even Boyhood). I don’t know. It needs to do a lot to make up for the Globe defeat alone, and this editing thing casts further doubt on its chances, because we can never know for sure whether it’s legit or if it only happened due to the reason you stated.

“Bummed at no editing- deserved this more than 2 sound nods.”

Exactly! I hope it wins screenplay, at least! (Enough with the “Simpsons did it”, Jesus!)

“Ralph Fiennes was the frontrunner for a supporting Oscar. He didn’t get it. His film that year won Best Picture. Then he was up for a lead Oscar. He didn’t get it. His film won Best Picture. Since then not even a nomination : The End of the Affair, Sunshine, Spider, The Constant Gardener, In Bruges, The Reader, The Duchess, Deathly Hallows, The Invisible Woman and now The Grand Budapest Hotel…not a single nomination since 1997.”

For a second there I thought the only two movies nominated for BP that he’d been in had won BP, based on your list (plus Hurt Locker, so three, actually), but it turns out there are two exceptions: Quiz Show and The Reader. 🙂

“It’s refreshing to see two things:
A break from 9 to 8 BP noms.
A director nom with no BP nom.
Anomalies will happen when separate branches do the voting.”

I agree, that is nice!

“Ava should have titled the film AMERICAN SELMA and cast Bradley Cooper as Martin Luther King. Then it would have received ten nominations minimum.”

:)) Totally!…

“I think many are overlooking just how well The Imitation Game did. Pulling off that nomination for Tyldum definitely makes it Boyhood’s biggest competition by default (that plus the editing nom, plus Graham Moore may be a shoo in for Adapted Screenplay now). That being said, this comes just 4 days after it went 0 for 5 at the Golden Globes, so I could be wrong.”

Solid recap. Very unclear, but statistically it’s a definite threat.

“Budapest is this year’s American Hustle.”

Yeah, that’s what I think as well.

“Emma Stone has just one great scene.”

She has A LOT of great scenes, and is great in every scene she’s in. Not saying Meryl didn’t deserve the nomination, though, as I haven’t seen the movie yet.

My initial impressions:

Well, I was right about a few things, at least… I was right that the Nightcrawler love was smoke, I was right that there won’t be 9 BP nominees a fourth consecutive year (though I got the number wrong), I was right that Felicity Jones would get in (although that was more hope than certainty), but I wasn’t right about much else. And I was specifically wrong about a LOT of things. 🙂 At least the Best Picture nominees were 8 out of my 10. And, given how things went in the other categories, one can imagine, had there been a 9th, it would have been Foxcatcher. Not Gone Girl, though, which kind of sucks…

The good, the bad: I’m happy Selma got into BP (but sad DuVernay couldn’t make it), happy for all of Theory of Everything’s nominations and sad that Birdman couldn’t make the cut in editing, which makes the race even less likely to be an actual race (Grand Budapest couldn’t even get Fiennes in, so no acting nominations her or at the SAG, which is why I still very much doubt it’s a serious threat – coupled with the genre thing; The Imitation Game still looks like one, though, but I still doubt it, based on earlier events; the BFCA awards later today are very big in this context). I’m glad Eastwood didn’t get in for directing, that would have been too much, especially with all of the unnecessary love American Sniper got in the other categories. I’m happy for Cotillard, without even having seen the movie, because she’s one of my favorites, and for Emma Stone, of course, for the same reason (and also because she deserves it for her performance in Birdman). Not very happy Life Itself didn’t get in – it was pretty good, and Roger Ebert deserved a shout-out here. But maybe the other nominees were better, I could see that. I’ll have to wait until I get to watch them all. Happy for Whiplash’s deserved nominations (especially editing, so right). Same goes for Boyhood. Happy Birdman leads the nominations, although it won’t do it much good to do so, apparently, if it can’t win the Globe or get an editing nomination… Not that happy Imitation Game got 8 nominations (and all of the crucial ones), as it’s good, but not great, as far as I’m concerned. It’s not 8-nominations great… I’m happy The Hobbit at least got one nomination (which sounds about right, given that it’s probably the weakest of the six). Glad Dawn of the Planet of the Apes got a nomination, it would have sucked for it to be snubbed completely.

The weird: Selma getting just two nominations, although, based on what happened at the guilds (and elsewhere), honestly, this is pretty much what I expected, 1-2 nominations, and hoping for BP or BD to be among them. Bennett Miller for BD – don’t think many expected that one (though it was one of the possibilities). Laura Dern for Wild – did anyone see that coming? No Lego Movie for animated has got to be the biggest snub of the night, am I right?! Ida for cinematography was interesting – I don’t remember if people were expecting this at all, or not. The editing snub for Birdman was pretty weird… No Force Majeure for foreign… but nothing in this category is ever a huge surprise. A lot of weird stuff, though, in the end, certainly more than I expected there to be.

Very happy Gone Girl got shut out and Foxcatcher got some love. It really is a wonderful film that’s going to be admired as time passes.

Since I didn’t like Lego Movie and Gone Girl at all, I am really happy about the snubs. The Foxcatcher thing is odd though. Could it be that more people voted for Best Film than the lesser categories so Foxcatcher’s BP percentages fell below the threshold?

“When was the last time an actor had been nominated 3 years in a row? I think Coop can upset in his category…they’ll want to give that film something.”

Russell Crowe, from 1999-2001. Like Cooper, all three noms were from Best Picture nominees — though Crowe’s were all for Lead Actor.

The only thing that doesn’t surprise me is Paul Hanlin’s reaction.

To Ben Zuk: I think ”Boyhood” has a good shot to walk away with 4 Oscars: Picture, Director, Supporting Actress and Editing. But ”Grand Budapest” also has a good shot at 4: Original Screenplay, Production Design, Score and Costumes. Whaddaya think?
To Millie: Yes, I noticed that the writing team of ”Birdman” is Latino. I also noticed that a movie set in New York, one of the most multiethnic cities in America, has no roles of any consequence for actors of color. But if you have a sharp eye, you can catch them sprinkled in: Kenny Chin as a Korean Grocer; Charles Mums Grant as a Broadway Man on Street; Rakesh Shah as a Liquor Store Owner. You get the idea …
Meantime, this is the coolest reaction I’ve seen to an Oscar snub:
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2015/01/15/lego-movie-lego-oscar/

Ups:
– Marion Cotillard
– Whiplash in BP
– Steve Carell
– Nightcrawler in Best Original Screenplay
– Inherent Vice in Best Adapted Screenplay
– Ida in Best Cinematography
– Kaguya in Best Animated Film
– The Grand Budapest Hotel in Best Score

Downs
– All the snubs for Selma. AMPAS, are you serious?
– WHERE. IS. JAKE.
– Morten Tyldum? Congrats Harvey
– Not even a nomination for Flynn’s script, that is beyond ludicrous
– No Force Majeure in Foreign Film category
– Robert Duvall?????????
– No Birdman for editing
– Interstellar for Best Sound Editing?

A long set of ups and downs then. I find some major nominations truly baffling (American Sniper’s screenplay in particular) but they clearly loved the film. I’m afraid The Imitation Game has just started its rise: that Tyldum nomination is SCARY.

“American Sniper + Whiplash = 11 Academy Award Nominations
Selma + Gone Girl = 3 Academy Award Nominations”

I can’t say for American Sniper but Whiplash deserves every one of those nominations. That said Gone Girl and Selma were definitely snubbed. Selma was in some very tight races. The fact that Gyllenhaal was left off just shows the uphill climb Oyelowo had all along. Original Screenplay was never a guarantee in the heaviest category of the year. Carmen Ejogo, while good, wasn’t in Selma enough for a nomination, other actresses were snubbed and more deserving. That leaves best director. As much as I love Miller, DuVernay should have gotten in. I haven’t seen Imitation Game so I can’t say for Tyldum either. When I actually think about it, Selma really didn’t have much of a chance to lead the race. Maybe if more screeners were sent out and the AFI screening was complete…I don’t know. I know we’ll be hearing enough about the Academy being sexist and racist, I’m just looking at how little of a chance it really stood. Selma sort of reminds me of Tree of Life. It was 2nd to none in a few categories but it just wasn’t amazing enough to crack everything else, like the supporting actor categories, visual effects, art direction and original screenplay were all good but they were probably juuuuust on the cusp of nominations. I see Selma like that. It was a shoo-in for a few but just on the outside looking in everywhere else.

If you don’t know about “The Tale of The Princess Kaguya,” this is how it looks. Get ready for how far Studio Ghibli has reached:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKbXE-UhW1I&sns=em