Thursday, January 16, 2014

2014 Oscar Nominations

It always amazes me that with all the movies I see in a year, very few of them end up nominated for anything important.

Case in point, I have seen only 4 of the 9 Best Picture nominees for 2014 - American Hustle, Gravity, Her, and The Wolf of Wall Street. I was not even aware of three of the movies (Dallas Buyers Club, Nebraska, Philomena), missed one (12 Years a Slave), and decided not to see the other (Captain Phillips).

I have seen only two of the five performances nominated for Best Actor - Christian Bale in American Hustle and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street - and two of the five for Best Actress - Amy Adams in American Hustle and Sandra Bullock in Gravity.

I saw two of five for Supporting Actor, and only one of five for Supporting Actress.

Amazing. I will see if I can do better in the coming year.

I am confused by the presence of The Wind Rises on the Animated Feature Film nomination list. If it ever played in 2013 I'm not aware of it. IMDB lists it with a US release date of February 21.

Based on only the information I have right now, here is a list of the films or actors I think will win each category, followed by the one I would like to win, if different.

Best Picture
12 Years a Slave (Gravity)

Actor in a Leading Role
Matthew McConaughey (Joaquin Phoenix, who was not even nominated)

Actress in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett (Sandra Bullock)

Actor in a Supporting Role
Bradley Cooper (Bradley Cooper)

Actress in a Supporting Role
Jennifer Lawrence (Jennifer Lawrence)

Animated Feature Film
Frozen (Normally I would vote for any Miyazaki film, but I haven't seen it, and Frozen was brilliant)

Cinematography
Gravity

Costume Design
The Great Gatsby (I didn't like the movie, but it looked good)

Directing
David O. Russel for American Hustle (Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity)

Film Editing
American Hustle (Gravity)

Makeup and Hairstyling
Dallas Buyers Club (The Hobbit, which was not nominated)

Music - Original Score
Gravity

Music - Original Song
"Let it Go" from Frozen ("Do You Want to Build a Snowman" from Frozen)

Production Design
Gravity

Short Film - Animated
Get a Horse! (This is the short that played before Frozen)

Sound Editing
Gravity

Sound Mixing
The Hobbit

Visual Effects
Gravity

Writing - Adapted Screenplay
The Wolf of Wall Street

Writing - Original Screenplay
American Hustle (Her)

2 comments:

  1. I was just looking over your list, mostly because I just saw Blue Jasmine over the weekend. While I have not seen Gravity yet, I would recommend watching Blue Jasmine and gauging Cate Blanchett's performance; you may change your mind.

    I am not a fan of Woody Allen movies and this certainly has some of the Woody Allen features. Despite those things, this movie is amazing. Excellently acted and an engaging story, although it is compared quite a bit with A Streetcar Named Desire and for good reason; there's a lot of similarity. However, Cate Blanchett is absolutely amazing in this movie. It's easily one of her best performances that I've ever seen; her character is just captivating when on the screen, and not for Blanchett's usual regalness and poise but rather how much she her character is just falling apart.

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  2. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll see if I can get to it.

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