It’s that time of year again! The time between the day the nominees are announced and the Oscar show airs is usually a mad race to watch as many as nominated films as possible. Since I do this every year, I often end up seeing films I may not have opted to watch otherwise. I also have a pretty good record on predicting who will win (I got 21 out of 24 last year). As of today, I have watched (or attempted to watch) all Best Picture nominees except Selma; the two I started watching but couldn’t get through were Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel. I appreciated Boyhood and the concept of the 12 year time period, but don’t see it winning Best Picture. I do see it winning for Best Director (keeping at it for that long and keeping the cast aligned with the vision) and Film Editing (imagine working with film spanning 12 years and getting it down to a couple of hours – that’s a feat).
Eddie Redmayne was fantastic in Theory of Everything. J.K. Simmons was fantastic in Whiplash. Although Train Your Dragon 2 is a sequel, it was a really good movie, so I’m taking a risk. I’ll admit to doing some research for the Short film, Documentary and Foreign film categories.
For Visual Effects I was torn between Interstellar and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – I finally went with Apes for all the CGI but wouldn’t be surprised if Interstellar won. Sound Editing – war movies usually win this one. Sound Mixing – if you’ve seen Whiplash, you’ll know why I chose it.
For Adapted screenplay, I was torn between The Theory of Everything and Imitation Game and chose the latter because the film was good enough to warrant a win somewhere. For Original screenplay, The Grand Budapest Hotel has had a lot of hype and it was pretty quirky and different.
There were some great performances this year and I have some personal favourites (Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything – Amazing). Below is the list of nominees with my predictions in bold:
Best Picture
- “American Sniper”
- “Birdman”
- “Boyhood”
- “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
- “The Imitation Game”
- “Selma”
- “The Theory of Everything”
- “Whiplash”
Best Actor
- Steve Carell, “Foxcatcher”
- Bradley Cooper, “American Sniper”
- Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game”
- Michael Keaton, “Birdman”
- Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”
Best Actress
- Marion Cotillard, “Two Days, One Night”
- Felicity Jones, “The Theory of Everything”
- Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”
- Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”
- Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”
Best Supporting Actor
- Robert Duvall, “The Judge”
- Ethan Hawke, “Boyhood”
- Edward Norton, “Birdman”
- Mark Ruffalo, “Foxcatcher”
- J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”
Best Supporting Actress
- Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”
- Laura Dern, “Wild”
- Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game”
- Emma Stone, “Birdman”
- Meryl Streep, “Into the Woods”
Animated Feature Film
- “Big Hero 6”
- “The Boxtrolls”
- “How to Train Your Dragon 2”
- “Song of the Sea”
- “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya”
Cinematography
- “Birdman”
- “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
- “Ida”
- “Mr. Turner”
- “Unbroken”
Costume Design
- “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
- “Inherent Vice”
- “Into the Woods”
- “Maleficent”
- “Mr. Turner”
Directing
- Alejandro González Iñárritu, “Birdman”
- Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
- Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher”
- Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
- Morten Tyldum, “The Imitation Game”
Documentary Feature
- “Citizenfour”
- “Finding Vivian Maier”
- “Last Days in Vietnam”
- “The Salt of the Earth”
- “Virunga”
Documentary Short Subject
- “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1”
- “Joanna”
- “Our Curse”
- “The Reaper (La Parka)”
- “White Earth”
Film Editing
- “American Sniper”
- “Boyhood”
- “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
- “The Imitation Game”
- “Whiplash”
Foreign Language Film
- “Ida,” Poland
- “Leviathan,” Russia
- “Tangerines,” Estonia
- “Timbuktu,” Mauritania
- “Wild Tales,” Argentina
Makeup and Hairstyling
- “Foxcatcher”
- “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
- “Guardians of the Galaxy”
Original Score
- “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
- “The Imitation Game”
- “Interstellar”
- “Mr. Turner”
- “The Theory of Everything”
Original Song
- “Everything Is Awesome,” “The Lego Movie”
- “Glory,” “Selma”
- “Grateful, “Beyond the Lights”
- “I”m Not Gonna Miss You,” “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me”
- “Lost Stars,” “Begin Again”
Production Design
- “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
- “The Imitation Game”
- “Interstellar”
- “Into the Woods”
- “Mr. Turner”
Animated Short Film
- “The Bigger Picture”
- “The Dam Keeper”
- “Feast”
- “Me and My Moulton”
- “A Single Life”
Live Action Short Film
- “Aya”
- “Boogaloo and Graham”
- “Butter Lamp”
- “Parvaneh”
- “The Phone Call”
Sound Editing
- “American Sniper”
- “Birdman”
- “The Hobbitt: The Battle of the Five Armies”
- “Interstellar”
- “Unbroken”
Sound Mixing
- “American Sniper”
- “Birdman”
- “Interstellar”
- “Unbroken”
- “Whiplash”
Visual Effects
- “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
- “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
- “Guardians of the Galaxy”
- “Interstellar”
- “X-Men: Days of Future Past”
Adapted Screenplay
- “American Sniper”
- “The Imitation Game”
- “Inherent Vice”
- “The Theory of Everything”
- “Whiplash”
Original Screenplay
- “Birdman”
- “Boyhood”
- “Foxcatcher”
- “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
- “Nightcrawler”
The Oscars air next Sunday February 22nd at 7pm ET.
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