Oscar Nominations

The Oscar Nominations were announced this morning. I rarely see movies but did have strong opinions about the few that I've seen - namely that The Lego Movie was seriously snubbed for Best Animated Feature. I'm shocked by that.

Pretty much the only other one I've seen is Into the Woods. I'd have loved for it to get a Best Picture nom but can't compare it to the others. I am happy to see Meryl Streep get a nod, as well as the production team. I thought Emily Blunt had a strong case too but no luck.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/01/15/2015-oscar-nominations-complete-coverage/




TarheelsInNj said:

I thought Emily Blunt had a strong case too but no luck.

Emily Blunt was fantastic!


Actress in a Supporting Role
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”
Laura Dern, “Wild”
Emma Stone, “Birdman”
Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game”
Meryl Streep, “Into the Woods”

I have only seen 3 of these films, but there is no comparison between Patricia Arquertte and Meryl Streep. Meryl Streep HANDS DOWN!

The Lego movie was robbed!

ffof said:

between Patricia Arquertte and Meryl Streep. Meryl Streep HANDS DOWN!


Both were outstanding for their roles in their films. Meryl's showy performance, wrenching every ounce of emotion out of every word of every song in a very showy movie. And Patricia's naturalistic performance, uncannily never looking like she's acting and making her and her family's journey believeable, in a very naturalistic movie. I've always loved Patricia Arquette, especially in "Flirting with Disaster", plus I find her very hot.

Julianne Moore was phenomenal in Still Alice. I am not always a huge Bradley Cooper fan but he was amazing in American Sniper. I hope they both win. My other favorite this year was Whiplash.

Sadly, I haven't seen this season. With two kids and no sitter, just wasn't in the cards, I guess. Hopefully I can squeeze in Birdman and American Sniper before the awards.

Glad to see some sanity prevailing and Boyhood does not lead in nominations, thought it appears to have 6 too many.

Thrilled that Whiplash was nominated. There may have been better technical movies this year, but nothing gripped me like this one.

The overall number of nominations doesn't mean much, since it's so dependent on lesser and technical categories. But Boyhood got:

Best Picture
Best Director
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actress
Best Supporting Actor

along with Editing.

I'd say that's pretty darn good.

Like I said - 6 too many.
Best Screenplay?

drummerboy said:

Like I said - 6 too many.
Best Screenplay?


How many times are you going to pose this argument. We get it!

Me, I've got some movies to see. I've seen "Boyhood" and "The Imitation Game" and not a lot else.

Food for thought:

Every single acting nominee is white. Every single directing nominee is a man. Oscar voters are 93% white, 76% male with average age of 63.

Last year, women comprised 17% of individuals working as directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, and cinematographers on the top 250 (domestic) grossing films. This figure represents an increase of one percentage point from 2013 and is even with women's representation in 1998.

Women accounted for 7% of directors, up one percentage point from 2013 but down 2 percentage points from 9% in 1998.

Women comprised a meager 1% of composers in 2014.

Saw Imitation Game (very good).

We didn't like The Grand Budapest Hotel as much as Moonrise Kingdom. I'm surprised that it got so many nominations.

How was Birdman snubbed for best editing? Some decisions can be debatable, but others, like this one, are just egregious. The editing was so good in Birdman that I guess the voters didn't even realize it. At least it was nominated for cinematography.

Actually the Birdman nominations of best director and cinematography are the well-deserved ones. Editing not as important in this instance. See the entire article: "Alejandro G. Inarritu's Birdman pulls off one of the great cinematic magic tricks of all time. The entire 119-minute movie — about a fading movie actor, played by Michael Keaton, trying to jump-start his career by appearing on the Broadway stage — looks as if it were shot in one extended take. Of course, that would have been impossible. However, Inarritu, determined to maintain the illusion behind the $18 million film, has instructed his editors not to discuss how long each individual take was and how many cuts, in some cases disguised by ingenious visual effects, were stitched together to make it appear seamless."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/oscars-birdman-cinematographer-reveals-secrets-760590


Don't see how you can discount the editing effort in such a visual tour de force.

Not discounting just pointing out this article which seems to imply it was a directorial decision and a cinematographer decision and less about editing. I don't claim to be an expert, just providing a possible explanation with these quotes.

If the long takes are meticulously planned out by the Director and the Cinematographer, one would guess the editor just needs to splice them together.

Glad "Lost Stars" is nominated for best song, making up for the Globes oversight, IMHO.

drummerboy said:

Don't see how you can discount the editing effort in such a visual tour de force.

The head of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said, and I quote, "The gimmick of filming it over one long take was nothing more than a gimmick, and didn't really add anything."

DaveSchmidt said:

drummerboy said:

Don't see how you can discount the editing effort in such a visual tour de force.

The head of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said, and I quote, "The gimmick of filming it over one long take was nothing more than a gimmick, and didn't really add anything."
Maybe Boyhood is up for Editing because it took filming over 12 long years instead of one long take.


Writers, feh-- who needs 'em. We got editors!

I'm surprised they only announced eight Best Picture nominations instead of ten. If any category should go up in number it should be Best Actor and Actress. I am definitely surprised David Oyelowo didn't get a nomination for Selma, nor did the director Ava DuVernay. Also surprised Jake Gyllenhaal didn't get a mention for Nightcrawler.
Shame about Emily Blunt! She was absolutely magical. She has terrific comedic timing and I immensly enjoyed her in Into the Woods.
I found it pretty cool that Emma Stone got a nomination! I remember when Superbad came out thinking that she definitely had presence and how I'd like to see her do more. An Oscar nom. AND on Broadway right now! She must be on cloud 9! Very thrilling seeing someone my age doing it well and being sincerely awesome and down to earth. I still don't get the whole Jennifer Lawrence thing...so Stone is my Lawrence I guess!

Not a huge Cooper fan, but I must admit he was solid in American Sniper - wow.
Still have a LOT of catching up to do!
(And as always, so happy to see Benedict Cumberbatch nominated! He is one fine actor. I'd watch him do anything)

DaveSchmidt said:

drummerboy said:

Don't see how you can discount the editing effort in such a visual tour de force.

The head of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said, and I quote, "The gimmick of filming it over one long take was nothing more than a gimmick, and didn't really add anything."


hmmm, wonder what he thought about the gimmick of filming over 12 years. ;-)

eta: ok, ok. ya got me. You can't expect me to remember every word of every post I make, but it did sound kind of familiar.

and yeah, Jake Gyllenhaal definitely deserved a nod because he perfectly developed one of the creepiest characters I've seen. But the creepy factor is probably what did him in for the nomination.

drummerboy said:

eta: ok, ok. ya got me.

:-D

A friend of mine is a film editor in Hollywood, and I owe him a letter. If he has any thoughts on the matter, I'll share them.

will be interested to hear that.

American Sniper that is all.

DaveSchmidt said:

drummerboy said:

eta: ok, ok. ya got me.
:-D

A friend of mine is a film editor in Hollywood, and I owe him a letter. If he has any thoughts on the matter, I'll share them.

I finally heard from my film-editing friend, but his desire to catch me up on all of his goings-on since I wrote him a year ago blunted his attention to my question about why "Birdman" was not nominated for the editing Oscar. He did not discuss it in detail: 

"I liked both those films, maybe BOYHOOD a little better, maybe because I found its technical challenge to be a little more genuine to the story over BIRDMAN's (partly because I've already seen the one-take thing done by Hitchcock and to a lesser extent by dePalma and Scorcese)."


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