2015 Oscar Nominations: Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel both Score High with 9 Nominations Each

By Christopher Barr │POSTED ON JANUARY 15, 2015

What happened with The Lego Movie for the love of god?  The 87th Academy Awards, with only white actor nominations, ignoring female writers and filmmakers, have been revealed with a number of expected nominees, some snubs, some surprises and a lack of diversity.  Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel lead the race with 9 nominations, followed by The Imitation Game with eight, and American Sniper and Boyhood with both six.

In terms of surprises, the biggest has to be Marion Cotillard for best actress and the much welcomed Laura Dern for best supporting actress for Wild.  The biggest shocker was that the quite original The Lego Movie wasn't nominated for best animation feature, a category it deserved to win let alone get a nomination.  This omission is truly baffling to the point of conspiracy, who had it out bad for this wonderfully fresh and fun animated film?  David Oyelowo's work in Selma as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the best performances all year and was deserving of a nomination.  Gone Girl pretty well got shut out, especially in the directing and adapted screenplay categories, Gillian Flynn was considered a lock for adapting her own novel, it was nice to see Inherent Vice get Paul Thomas Anderson a nomination for adapted screenplay.  Jennifer Aniston was expected to get recognized for her work in Cake but was left out.  This I must say I'm not that surprised about simply because the best actress category is way too crowded as it is with talent.

I was a bit surprised that American Sniper, which seemed out the blue, got six nods and Nightcrawler got pretty well left out.  I was surprised that Bennett Miller was nominated for best director for Foxcatcher, a film not nominated for Best Picture and Ava DuVernay wasn't nominated for directing Selma.  I was hoping that Rene Russo was going to make the cut in the best supporting actress category for her wonderful work in Nightcrawler.  It was nice to see the director and writer of Nightcrawler, Dan Gilroy get a nomination for original screenplay but Jake Gyllenhaal not getting nominated is a bit surprising, seeings his performance could be easily listed as one of the great performances of the decade so far.  I'm glad that CITIZENFOUR got its much deserved nomination but what happened to the wonderful doc on the fascinating life of the late great film critic Roger Ebert, Life Itself?  

The Oscars will be telecast live on ABC, Sunday February 22nd.   

BEST PICTURE

American Sniper

Birdman  Should Win

Boyhood  Will Win

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

BEST DIRECTOR

Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Birdman  Should Win - Will Win

Richard Linklater – Boyhood

Bennett Miller – Foxcatcher

Morten Tyldum – The Imitation Game

BEST ACTOR

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher

Bradley Cooper – American Sniper

Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game

Michael Keaton – Birdman  Should Win

Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything  Will Win

BEST ACTRESS

Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night

Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything

Julianne Moore – Still Alice  Will Win

Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl  Could Win

Reese Witherspoon – Wild

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Robert Duvall – The Judge

Ethan Hawke – Boyhood

Edward Norton – Birdman

Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher

J.K. Simmons – Whiplash  Should Win - Will Win

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood  Will Win

Laura Dern – Wild

Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game

Emma Stone – Birdman

Meryl Streep – Into the Woods

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

American Sniper – Jason Hall

The Imitation Game – Graham Moore  Could Win

Whiplash – Damien Chazelle

Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson  Should Win

The Theory of Everything – Anthony McCarten

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Birdman – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo  Should Win - Will Win

Boyhood – Richard Linklater

Foxcatcher – E. Max Frye, Dan Futterman

The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness

Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Ida (Poland)

Leviathan (Russia)  Will Win

Tangerines (Estonia)

Timbuktu (Mauritania)

Wild Tales (Argentina)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

CITIZENFOUR  Should Win - Will Win

Finding Vivian Maier

Last Days in Vietnam

The Salt of the Earth

Virunga

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Big Hero 6

The Boxtrolls

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Song of the Sea

The Tale of Princess Kaguya

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Grand Budapest Hotel  Should Win

The Imitation Game

Interstellar

Into the Woods

Mr. Turner

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Birdman – Emmanuel Lubezki  Should Win - Will Win

The Grand Budapest Hotel – Robert D. Yeoman

Ida – Ryszard Lenczweski, Lukasz Zal

Mr. Turner – Dick Pope

Unbroken – Roger Deakins

BEST FILM EDITING

American Sniper

Boyhood  Will Win

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Whiplash

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Foxcatcher

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Guardians of the Galaxy  Could Win

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

The Grand Budapest Hotel  Should Win

Inherent Vice

Into the Woods

Maleficent

Mr. Turner

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

The Grand Budapest Hotel – Alexandre Desplat

The Imitation Game – Alexandre Desplat

Interstellar – Hans Zimmer  Could Win

Mr. Turner - Gary Yershon

The Theory of Everything – Johann Johannsson

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Begin Again – “Lost Stars”  Will Win

Beyond the Lights – “Grateful”

Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me – “I’m Not Gonna Miss You”

The LEGO Movie – “Everything Is Awesome”  Could Win

Glory – “Selma”

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Guardians of the Galaxy

Interstellar  Should Win - Will Win

X-Men: Days of Future Past

BEST SOUND EDITING

American Sniper

Birdman

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Interstellar  Should Win - Will Win

Unbroken

BEST SOUND MIXING

American Sniper

Birdman

Interstellar  Should Win - Will Win

Unbroken

Whiplash

BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

The Bigger Picture

The Damn Keeper

Feast

Me and My Moulton

Single Life

BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE-ACTION)

Aya

Boogalo and Graham

Butter Lamp

Parvaneh

The Phone Call

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

Joanna

Our Curse

The Reaper

White Earth