Oscars 2015: Best Picture Nominees Film Review(s)

                                                           

       

This year’s Oscar nominations, released on January 15^th, have been met with an overwhelming amount of criticism for multiple snubs and a lack of diversity within the nominees.

Potential big winners this year include Richard Linklater’s Birdman and Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel that have both been given nine nominations.

However, top performances by Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler) and Jennifer Aniston (Cake) have all been snubbed by the Academy, despite being shortlisted for numerous other award associations. The films themselves are also up for Academy Awards in other fields. 

The well-received Lego Movie has no nomination for Best Animated Feature. However, it was nominated for Best Original Song for ‘Everything is Awesome’.

Interstellar and Gone Girl were left out major categories, aside from Rosamund Pike’s Best Actress nod.

It is a shame that Matthew McConaughey who has recently emerged from a period of McConissance following his Academy Award-winning role in Byers Dallas Club at the 2014 Oscars hasn’t been recognized by any major Awards ceremonies for his performance in Interstellar. Similar with Christopher Nolan’s latest film, there are no major nominations for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Both films display such incredible achievements in direction and in terms of their sheer scale and skilled craftsmanship. It is disappointing neither has been at least nominated for Best Film. All hope is not lost however, as Interstellar has been nominated for both Best Visual Effects and Best Original Score (for Hans Zimmer) and continues to be a strong contender in those categories.

A number of other notable performances seem to have gone unnoticed this awards season. Scarlett Johansson’s performance in Under the Skin and Jack O’Connell in Unbroken are just a few examples of sound work that have been rebuffed by the Academy.

On another note, the predominant white male attention has also been cause for criticism among the movie-going public.  All twenty nominees in acting categories are white and there are no female nominees for achievement in directing, cinematography or screenplay. There has been an intense reaction to the lack of diversity on social media sites, the hashtag #oscarssowhite being used intently across the Twitter-sphere.

The Martin Luther King biopic Selma is at the forefront of films being snubbed by the Academy. The film itself has been nominated for Best Picture but in terms of individual achievement, the performance of actor David Oyelowo and work of director Ava DuVernay has been completely ignored.

On an equally worrying note, a Los Angeles Times study found that the Academy rates are even less diverse than the movie-watching public with 94% being Caucasian and 71% male.

Strong contenders for awards include Eddie Redmayne for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Redmayne previously won the Golden Globe Award earlier this year for one of the best performances by a young actor since Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook.

Boyhood also has promise being nominated for Best Film, Director and Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette. The film itself has been declared a landmark by many critics and praised for the brave and unique style of film making that follows the life of one family shot over the period of 12 years.

The 87^th Academy Awards hosted by Neil Patrick Stewart will take place on Sunday, February 22^nd at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.

The Academy has certainly made the white decision this year. The right one however…that’s debatable.