The race is on! The Oscar nominations have been announced, so we now know the people and movies that will be vying for a win when the gongs are handed out February 22nd at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
As expected it’s a relatively open field, with no films looking like it’s going to sweep the board, but quite a few now teed up to go for Oscar glory. As expected there was a good showing for both Birdman and Boyhood. However there are others who’ve done well too, including The Imitation Game, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Theory Of Everything and American Sniper.
All of those movie showed up in the Best Picture race, which also includes Selma and Whiplash. Likewise they dominated the Best Director race, with only Theory Of Everything’s James Marsh and Oscar fave Clint Eastwood (American Sniper) missing out on nominations.
In the Best Actor race there were no surprises – indeed it was exactly as most predicted – with Steve Carell (Foxcatcher), Bradley Cooper (American Sniper), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), Michael Keaton (Birdman) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything). It’s a slightly more unpredictable race in the Best Actress race, with Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night), Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Julianne Moore (Still Alice), Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl), and Reese Witherspoon (Wild).
It’s a rather mixed picture for LGBT movies, as while The Imitation Game’s eight nominations is undoubtedly good, that’s pretty much it, especially amongst the major categories. There had previously been high hopes for some gay-themed movies in both the Best Documentary and Best Foreign Language Film categories, but in the end none of them made the cut. And with Imitation Game not expected to win any major awards, it could be a bit of a gay drought. Well, sort of, as with Neil Patrick Harris presenting, we won’t be completely forgotten.
It’s a particular shame that Pride got nothing, as with the right marketing the movie should have had a good showing amongst the nominations, as it’s undoubtedly one of the best movies released in the past 12 months. Unfortunately it got absolutely nothing.
But then, it wasn’t the only way the Academy showed they were morons this morning, as they missed the awesome Lego Movie off the Best Animated Movie list, while including the far inferior (but still decent) Big Hero Six. If that wasn’t evidence they’re not very good at this nominating business, I don’t know what is.
You can take a look at the full list of nominees below: [Read more…]
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