It is time again to go down the road to the Oscars. The nominees for the 87th annual Academy Awards were announced this morning and, for the first time, all the categories were part of the live announcement. While there were no huge surprises in this year’s nominees, there were some very notable omissions, particularly for a film that was briefly thought to be a major part of this year’s race. Now, it is time for my usual random thoughts on the nominees.
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After three years in a row of having nine nominees, this year’s Best Picture line-up is made out of eight films, five of which I have seen. This is the only major nomination for Selma, which was snubbed in most of the other categories. I still have to see American Sniper, The Imitation Game, and The Theory of Everything, which I expect to do in the coming weeks.
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American Sniper, which opens in Toronto this weekend, had a surprisingly strong showing with six nominations total, which is the same number of nominations received by Boyhood. However, the leaders are Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel with nine nominations each.
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The only surprise in Best Actor is the inclusion of Bradley Cooper and the omission of David Oyelowo
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Marion Cotillard stands out in the Best Actress nominees
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The LEGO Movie was a well-loved film, but not loved enough to get a nomination for Best Animated Film. Though I do like that Studio Ghibli’s The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is included.
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Foxcatcher is the only film among the Best Director nominees to not also have a Best Picture nomination
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Very surprised that The Overnighters and Life Itself was left out of the Best Documentary nominees. This is probably Citizenfour‘s award to win.
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Since Mommy was already off the shortlist, I’m not surprised that it didn’t get a Best Foreign Film nominations, which will likely go to Leviathan.
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Very happy to see “Everything is Awesome” from The Lego Movie get a Best Song nomination. The category also has Selma‘s only other nomination for the song “Glory” (which I expect will win).
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It’s nice to see that Nightcrawler got a screenplay nomination
Well, that wraps up my random thoughts on the nominees. The Oscars will be presented on February 22.
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