Oscar nominees announced

[Vandal]

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

BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya


BEST FOREIGN FILM

Ida, Poland

Leviathan, Russia

Tangerines, Estonia

Timbuktu, Mauritania

Wild Tales, Argentina

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Birdman, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., Armando Bo

Boyhood, Richard Linklater

Foxcatcher, E. Max Frye, Dan Futterman

The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness

Nightcrawler, Dan Gilroy

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

American Sniper, Jason Hall

The Imitation Game, Graham Moore

Inherent Vice, Paul Thomas Anderson

The Theory of Everything, Anthony McCarten

Whiplash, Damien Chazelle


BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The imitation Game

Interstellar

Mr. Turner

The Theory of Everything

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Everything is Awesome, from The Lego Movie

Glory, from Selma

Grateful, from Beyond the Lights

I'm Not Gonna Miss You, from Glen Campbell...I'll Be Me

Lost Stars, from Begin Again

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Birdman

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Ida

Mr. Turner

Unbroken

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Inherent Vice

Into the Woods

Maleficent

Mr. Turner

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

CitizenFour

Finding Vivian Maier

Last Days in Vietnam

The Salt of the Earth

Virunga

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

Joanna

Our Curse

The Reaper (La Parka)

White Earth

BEST FILM EDITING

American Sniper

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Whiplash

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Foxcatcher

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Interstellar

Into the Woods

Mr. Turner

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

The Bigger Picture

The Dam Keeper

Feast

Me and My Moulton

A Single Life

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM

Aya

Boogaloo and Graham

Butter Lamp (La Lampe au Beurre de Yak)

Parvaneh

The Phone Call

BEST SOUND EDITING

American Sniper

Birdman

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Interstellar

Unbroken

BEST SOUND MIXING

American Sniper

Birdman

Interstellar

Unbroken

Whiplash

BEST 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

[mellytu74]

Disappointed there is no Ralph Fiennes for Grand Budapest Hotel.

And where is the Lego movie amongst the animated movies?

[mellytu74]

AND the Roger Ebert documentary?

[Bob78164]

This was supposed to be the year Jennifer Aniston got a nomination. --Bob

[Jeemie]

This was supposed to be the year Jennifer Aniston got a nomination. --Bob

Is Cake eligible this year or next?

Since it was released in a limited fashion in December but is going widespread this month.

I don't know the rules anymore.

I find it funny that Hawke and Arquette got nominated for Boyhood but not Ellar Coltrane for Best Actor?

[Catfish]

This was supposed to be the year Jennifer Aniston got a nomination. --Bob

Is Cake eligible this year or next?

The stories I've read put her in the snubberoo category, so I guess it was eligible this year.

[BackInTex]

Wow. I've actually seen a couple of them...

The Imitation Game
Unbroken
Interstellar

CA: Winter Soldier I saw most of is on our couch but fell asleep and missed all the important stuff, or so my son tells me.

American Sniper is on the agenda for this weekend. It has not been broadly shown here until this weekend.

[Bob78164]

This was supposed to be the year Jennifer Aniston got a nomination. --Bob

Is Cake eligible this year or next?

Since it was released in a limited fashion in December but is going widespread this month.

I don't know the rules anymore.

I find it funny that Hawke and Arquette got nominated for Boyhood but not Ellar Coltrane for Best Actor?

Yes. As long as it was shown for a week in Los Angeles County. --Bob

[Ritterskoop]

Since Ethan Hawke was submitted as supporting, Coltrane might have had to be submitted as lead, and lead actor is always one of the toughest categories in the Oscars.

We finally just watched the Golden Globes tonight and I was surprised and pleased to see a best pic nomination for Pride, a film about the 1984 miners' strikes in Wales. An lesbian and gay group in London raised money to support them because they understood what it felt like to be resisted by the police. I watched it because Bill Nighy is in it, and he was in just enough to validate that decision, but not a lot of scenes. So I don't recommend it for just everyone, but folks with an interest in LGBT issues or the strike might appreciate it. They movie-ized several things but nothing I found troubling.

[silvercamaro]

We finally just watched the Golden Globes tonight and I was surprised and pleased to see a best pic nomination for Pride, a film about the 1984 miners' strikes in Wales. An lesbian and gay group in London raised money to support them because they understood what it felt like to be resisted by the police.

Or as I would call it, the back story for Billy Elliot.



(BTW, I'm back in ballet class again.)

[Ritterskoop]

(BTW, I'm back in ballet class again.)

That is excellent news!

I think of you every time I read or see anything dance-related. I got to work on a story about Patricia McBride, who lives in Charlotte and was honored by the Kennedy Center in December.

[BackInTex]

We watched Boyhood last night. Interesting and entertaining, and certainly unique in that it kept the same actors in the roles over 12 years and you see actual physical changes, not just makeup, special effects, and separate actors as the young, older, and oldest. But Best Picture? No.

Being from Texas we enjoyed the location shots in and around Houston and recognized much of the landscape around Alpine and Big Bend as we've all been there recently. My kids and wife commented a lot about the things they did in the movie were many of the same things we did (in and around Houston) during those years.

I found it interesting to see the technology changes and then thinking that at the time they filmed it WAS the actual technology of the time and not some period scene where writers and others had to worry about continuity or factual mistakes.

Tonight.....American Sniper

[ghostjmf]

In interviews, the principals have commented stuff like "it was great to see that such-&-such game console again" & so forth. Its nostalgic to them too. Also, Patricia Arquette on Fresh Air on NPR said she'd never seen the scenes she's not in until the movie finally came out. I believe she could have chosen to see all the rushes as they were filmed, but didn't. So she now feels her on-screen ex "did a great job of parenting" when he had the kids for the weekends, but as she was filming, her character was very angry at & resentful of him. She said if she'd seen his scenes with the kids it could have influenced how she played her character. Of course, you can say that as an actress she'd have to compensate for that.


Ethan Hawke did see the rushes as the thing was filmed. But he's a friend of the director, & holds, in the same interview, that a lot of it is from Linklater's life even though Linklater claims it isn't.

[BackInTex]

American Sniper was awesome. Beats out Boyhood and The Imitation game hands down.

Best Actor is a toss-up between Bradley Cooper and Benedict Cumberbatch, though. Though I'll give Cooper the nod since Cumberbatch's performance reminded me too much of Jim Parson's Sheldon Cooper. To someone not having seen The Big Bang Theory there was probably less comedy, but I saw comedy where none was called for just because of the similarities.

By Oscar time I may see Birdman and one of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Whiplash, and The Theory of Everything. Selma holds little interest for me at this time, but I may get to it.

[MarleysGh0st]

Best Actor is a toss-up between Bradley Cooper and Benedict Cumberbatch, though. Though I'll give Cooper the nod since Cumberbatch's performance reminded me too much of Jim Parson's Sheldon Cooper. To someone not having seen The Big Bang Theory there was probably less comedy, but I saw comedy where none was called for just because of the similarities.

I went to see The Imitation Game yesterday. There was a lot of humor in Cumberbatch's character, but I saw it as coming from a genuine social cluelessness, which is far different than the overly uber-nerd glibness that the characters on The Big Bang Theory display.

I saw Grand Budapest Hotel on a DVD I borrowed from the library, which makes this seem like a rather "aged" film for this year's awards, compared to some of the other nominees which have only reached theaters in the last couple of weeks.

[silverscreenselect]

American Sniper was awesome. Beats out Boyhood and The Imitation game hands down.

American Sniper took in $90 million this weekend, by far the biggest opening weekend ever for a January film (and more than double what was expected). The strategy of keeping in virtually completely under wraps until now to build critical buzz and Oscar recognition worked (it was playing on only four screens in NY and LA before this weekend).

Oscar voting is going on now (one of my author friends is a member of the Academy and got to nominate screenwriter and director), and this opening box office could influence some people. I don't think Sniper has a chance for Best Picture, but with a very tight race among the various Best Actor candidates, Bradley Cooper could be a factor there.

We'll be seeing Sniper tomorrow. We had to juggle five movies and a play over a four day weekend.

[silverscreenselect]

We finally saw American Sniper today. Bradley Cooper certainly deserves a Best Actor nomination. And Clint Eastwood deserves a Best Director nomination. Having seen both Taken 3 and Blackhat in the last week, both of which had terribly staged action scenes, Eastwood's scenes are amazing. They are clear (except in one case in which there's a sandstorm), easy to follow, suspenseful. and give a good feel for what that type of combat must have been like.

And I have to say that based on the comments from both the left and the right on this movie, I was somewhat fearful that I'd be seeing some type of mindless gung ho John Wayne piece. It's not. It's a very well thought out movie that is really more anti-war than pro-war. There's no question that some of the Iraqis (especially one guy who enjoyed using a drill on his victims) are supremely evil, but there were also women and children shooting at our troops as well, and the pressure that built up on Chris Kyle took its toll, as Cooper showed. The sad point is that no matter what we did, we weren't viewed by a lot of people as the good guys coming to the rescue. One scene is especially telling. Cooper winds up shoots a civilian who double crosses his squad and tries to lead them into an ambush, only to have a flash mob show up within a couple of minutes, carrying the dead guy's body and shouting obscenities at the soldiers.

The only real problem I had with the film was its resolution. Kyle's problems understandably built up over a period of years, but in the movie he's able to put it all behind him in two brief scenes of helping out disabled vets (there's a good bit of evidence that the real life Kyle never really put his mental demons behind him). It's the equivalent of showing a hard core alcoholic getting rehabilitated after attending a single AA meeting.

This hasn't been a great year for movies, and I haven't seen one that I couldn't see some problems with, unlike in most past years. That said, I'd rank this somewhere around fifth on my list of the year. I don't think it's as good as Imitation Game (which I'd vote for if I had an Oscar vote), Boyhood, or Selma, but it's certainly better than Birdman, some critics' darling, which struck me as more an elaborate exercise by the director in being clever than anything else.