Here is the complete list of all nominations for this years Academy Awards ceremony. Did you favorite film make the list? Did the academy get it right, or did some fantastic films fall through the cracks? Let us know in the comments below!
Best Picture
“American Sniper”
“Birdman”
“Boyhood”
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”
“The Imitation Game”
“Selma”
“The Theory of Everything”
“Whiplash”
Our reaction: There is a lot to like with the list above. The Academy has the option of picking 10 movies for this category, but decided to keep it at 8 this year. We don’t know what that has to say about the quality of films released this year, but it’s a strong showing nonetheless.
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”
Our reaction: Out of this entire bunch, Steve Carell’s performance in Foxcatcher was the most drastic. Coming from a heavy comedy background, the actor showed amazing depth and range in pulling of a performance that would leave other actors struggling to undertake.
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”
Our reaction: This one is up in the air as far as we’re concerned. Sure, there are a lot of great performances here, but none really stand out as utterly amazing. We really like Julianna Moore in “Still Alice,” but Reese Witherspoon showed a lot of talent with her performance in, “Wild.”
Actor in a Supporting Role
Robert Duvall, “The Judge”
Ethan Hawke, “Boyhood”
Edward Norton, “Birdman”
Mark Ruffalo, “Foxcatcher”
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”
Our reaction: This list mirrors the Golden Globe awards to the letter, but you never really know what way the Oscar coin will fall. J.K. Simmons is by far the standout in the category and as a drummer myself, really want to see him take home some gold.
Actress in a Supporting Role
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”
Laura Dern, “Wild”
Emma Stone, “Birdman”
Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game”
Meryl Streep, “Into the Woods”
Our reaction: Emma Stone made a big leap this year, leaving behind the campy Spider-Man films and showing that she has a much wider range with her performance in Birdman. That being said, it’s hard to derail the momentum that Boyhood has been gaining, so in that respect we see Patricia Arquette as the favorite. Also, Meryl Streep is an american treasure, but she doesn’t need the gold.
Directing
Alejandro González Iñárritu, “Birdman”
Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher”
Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Morten Tyldum, “The Imitation Game”
Our reaction: It’s strange not to see a directing nomination when your film gets a Best Picture nomination, but for whatever reason that seems to be the case with Selma being absent from this list. Regardless, we see the Oscar fight for this category going between Birdman and Boyhood, with Boyhood our slight favorite.
Animated Feature Film
“Big Hero 6”
“The Boxtrolls”
“How to Train Your Dragon 2”
“Song of the Sea”
“The Tale of the Princess Kaguya”
Our reaction: Seriously, what the hell. Where in the love of all that is holy is The Lego Movie, and why is it not on this list. Sure, there are some solid films here, but you can’t honestly tell us the sequel to How To Train Your Dragon (a good, fun film in its own right) is leaps and bounds better than the Lego Movie.
Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki, “Birdman”
Robert D. Yeoman, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lynzewski, “Ida”
Dick Pope, “Mr. Turner”
Roger Deakins, “Unbroken”
Our reaction: We here at GAMbIT aren’t against using jokes of the lowest common denominator, so our hopes lie with the amazingly named, Dick Pope to run away with the award. Come on, Academy let’s make this happen.
Costume Design
Milena Canonero, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Mark Bridges, “Inherent Vice”
Colleen Atwood, “Into the Woods”
Anna B. Sheppard, “Maleficent”
Jacqueline Durran, “Mr. Turner”
Our reaction: Between Maleficent and Into The Woods this will be a fun category to watch. Our love of The Grand Budapest Hotel also says that it could snag this one, but what do we know, we’re just a bunch of punk 20 something year olds on the internet.
Documentary Feature
“Citizenfour”
“Last Days in Vietnam”
“Virunga”
“The Salt of the Earth”
“Finding Vivian Maier”
Our reaction: The documentary, Citizenfour on the infamous hacker, Edward Snowden not only needs this award, it deserves it outright, even among a field of great films of this caliber.
Documentary Short Subject
“Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1”
“Joanna”
“Our Curse”
“The Reaper”
“White Earth”
Our reaction: We didn’t manage to catch of of these shorts this year and that makes us sad. Needless to say now that these nominations are our we will be tracking these down for viewing.
Film Editing
Joel Cox and Gary Roach, “American Sniper”
Sandra Adair, “Boyhood”
Barney Pilling, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
William Goldenberg, “The Imitation Game”
Tom Cross, “Whiplash”
Our reaction: It’s safe to say that the 12 year production that is Boyhood without a doubt leads this category.
Foreign Language Film
“Ida”
“Leviathan”
“Tangerines”
“Wild Tales”
“Timbuktu”
Our reaction: Leviathan won the Golden Globe in this category so we will bow to the better wisdom of The Hollywood Foreign Press, you know, because foreign is in their name.
Makeup and Hairstyling
Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard, “Foxcatcher”
Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White, “Guardians of the Galaxy”
Our reaction: While we’d love to see Guardians get some love, this one looks to being going the way of Foxcatcher and the work done to really transform Steve Carell.
Music – Original Score
Alexandre Desplat, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Alexandre Desplat, “The Imitation Game”
Hans Zimmer, “Interstellar”
Gary Yershon, “Mr Turner”
Jóhann Jóhannsson, “The Theory of Everything”
Our reaction: Desplat has two nominations in this category and because of that he is poised to snag gold, if only from a numbers perspective.
Music – Original Song
“Everything Is Awesome” by Shawn Patterson, “The LEGO Movie”
“Glory” by Common and John Legend, “Selma”
“Grateful” by Diane Warren, “Beyond the Lights”
“I’m Not Gonna Miss You” by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond, “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me”
“Lost Stars” by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois, “Begin Again”
Our reaction: The Lego Movie finally gets some love from the academy, but seeing Selma pick up its only other nomination in this category is baffling.
Production Design
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Production design: Adam Stockhausen, Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
“The Imitation Game,” Production design: Maria Djurkovic, Set Decoration: Tatiana Macdonald
“Interstellar,” Production design: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Gary Fettis
“Into the Woods,” Production design: Dennis Gassner, Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
“Mr. Turner,” Production design: Suzie Davies, Set Decoration: Charlotte Watts
Our reaction: It’s anyones game in the production design category, and we would be happy to see any one of this teams take home the gold.
Short Film – Animated
“The Bigger Picture,” Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees
“The Dam Keeper,” Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi
“Feast,” Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed
“Me and My Moulton,” Torill Kove
“A Single Life,” Joris Oprins
Our reaction: The Dam Keeper, besides having a name that makes five year old chuckle, was a delight, but not having seen this entire list means it’s anyones game.
Short Film – Live Action
“Aya,” Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis
“Boogaloo and Graham,” Michael Lennox and Ronan Blaney
“Butter lamp,” Hu Wei and Julien Féret
“Parvaneh,” Talkhon Hamzavi and Stefan Eichenberger
“The Phone Call,” Mat Kirkby and James Lucas
Our reaction: Didn’t catch any of these films, but on name alone we’d love to see Butter lamp win!
Sound Editing
“American Sniper,” Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
“Birdman,” Martín Hernández and Aaron Glascock
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” Brent Burge and Jason Canovas
“Interstellar,” Richard King
“Unbroken,” Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro
Our reaction: Well hello there Hobbit, it’s nice to see you finally make the list. What’s that? I can’t hear you over the volume. Can someone please tell Interstellar to durn down the volume a bit. Thanks.
Sound Mixing
“American Sniper,” John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin
“Birdman,” Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga
“Interstellar,” Garry A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten
“Unbroken,” Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and David Lee
”Whiplash,” Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley
Our reaction: Whiplash, end of story.
Visual Effects
“Captain America: Winter Soldier,” Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist
“Guardians of the Galaxy,” Stephanie Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould
“Interstellar,” Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher
“X-Men: Days of Future Past,” Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Waldbauer
Our reactions: Look, guys! I found all the superhero and blockbuster actions films. They were all hiding here just showing off all the pretty CGI. Guardians nabs this one in a crowded field, but be sure that all future DVD/BluRay releases on these will say Academy Award Nominated!
Writing – Adapted Screenplay
Jason Hall, “American Sniper”
Graham Moore, “The Imitation Game”
Paul Thomas Anderson, “Inherent Vice”
Anthony McCarten, “The Theory of Everything”
Damien Chazelle, “Whiplash”
Our reaction: This is going to be a battle between geniuses with The Imitation game and The Theory of Everything.
Writing – Original Screenplay
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo, “Birdman”
Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, “Foxcatcher”
Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Dan Gilroy, “Nightcrawler”
Our reaction: “Boyhood takes this one in out opinion, but the marvelous Birdman could pull off a win here as well.
Well, that’s it. What do you think of the nomination? Leave your comments below and let us know what you liked and what got overlooked this year.
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