Last Thursday morning, Hollywood’s finest rose early to turn on the TV, prepared to either pop open a bottle of Moet or weep in their overpriced mansion. Why? Nominations for the 2015 Academy Awards, an actor’s equivalent to the Super Bowl, were finally announced.
The Oscars will not actually be held until Feb. 22, but the early announcements almost always spark controversy over the most surprising snubs and different predictions, and this year is no exception.
The Academy opted for only eight nominees in the best picture category (contrary to past years of nine or 10), snubbing audience favorites like “Gone Girl” and “Interstellar.” The list includes “Birdman” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which lead with nine nominations each, along with four biopics: “Selma,” “The Imitation Game,” “The Theory of Everything,” and “American Sniper.” The nominees rounded off with “Whiplash” and the 12-year-long production, “Boyhood.”
“‘Gone Girl’ was just amazing. I would rather see that nominated for best picture or best director,” said Texas Tech’s pop culture expert and associate librarian, Rob Weiner.
Michael Keaton in “Birdman.” Photo from official Oscars website.
Weiner said the mystery thriller was one of the biggest snubs this year, but he was not at all displeased with the best picture nominees.
He called frontrunners “Birdman” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” two excellent films — both strange and quirky, yet really well done.
“‘Birdman’ was brilliant. That’s the one that I really hope wins,” he said.
Weiner said he would like to see Wes Anderson win best director for “The Grand Budapest Hotel” but suspects Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” might have both categories locked down.
“In a way, “Boyhood” seems like an obvious choice just because so much work went into that movie, and you get to see this amazing progression of people over a 12-year period,” he said. “You grow up with them as you’re watching it on the screen.”
Other best directing nominees include Alejandro G. Iñárritu for “Birdman,” Bennett Miller for “Foxcatcher,” and Morten Tyldum for “The Imitation Game.” Missing from the category is the director of “Selma,” Ava DuVernay, which Weiner said was another really surprising snub, but it also was not the last.
“I’ll tell you who was really, really snubbed — Jake Gyllenhaal for ‘Nightcrawler.’ Oh my gosh, what a movie!” Weiner said.
Even though the Academy did not think Gyllenhaal made the cut, Weiner said every last one of the best leading actor nominees are great choices; Steve Carrell (“Foxcatcher”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Imitation Game”), Michael Keaton (“Birdman”), Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”), and Bradley Cooper (“American Sniper”) make up the list.
Bradley Cooper in “American Sniper.” Photo from official Oscars website.
Weiner called Redmayne and Keaton the underdogs of the group but said he is still pushing for Keaton’s phenomenal “Birdman” performance to win the golden statue. He also gave props to Cooper, claiming the actor has come a long way in the past few years.
“He has proven that he’s not just the guy from ‘The Hangover,'” he said, “and let’s face it: every movie he has been nominated for has been really good — ‘American Sniper’ included.”
His predictions for supporting role nominees are either Emma Stone (“Birdman”) or Keira Knightly (“The Imitation Game”) for the actress category and Mark Ruffalo (“Foxcatcher”) or J.K Simmons (“Whiplash”) for the actors.
Best actress nominees include Marion Cotillard (“Two Days, One Night”), Reese Witherspoon (“Wild”), Felicity Jones (“The Theory of Everything”), Julianne Moore (“Still Alice”), and Rosamund Pike (“Gone Girl”) — who, without hesitation, Weiner said he is predicting to win.
“Rosamund Pike is completely evil and sociopathic in the movie,” he said. “She does a terrific job.”
A snub Weiner found particularly surprising was missing from the animation category — another beloved blockbuster success.
Rosamund Pike in “Gone Girl.” Photo from official Oscars website.
“‘The Lego Movie’ wasn’t nominated?! That movie was amazing,” he said.
Weiner said the Academy oftentimes fails to recognize these big blockbuster films — as well as lesser known, independent movies like “Dancing with Reality” and “Zero Theorem,” which are two of Weiner’s favorite 2014 films that he believes were snubbed big time. He even suggested it may be time for these kinds of movies to have separate categories at the award show.
“Most of the population goes to see these big blockbusters. I think the general public would take the Oscars a little more seriously if they acknowledged the fact that people do like their popcorn movies,” he said. “Just because it’s a blockbuster does not mean it’s a piece of garbage, and just because it’s an arty kind of off-the-radar film does not mean that it’s terrible either.”
About Nicole Crites
