Oscar Nominations – A Competitive Year.

 The Academy Awards: Oscar is coming, Oscar is coming.

Oscars2014EllenThe Oscar Nominations are in and that’s it:  Nominations are done, let the awards pour in.  Of course the Golden Globes fete was a fun night. The 150 or so members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association had their glossy show and some craziness went on.  But from now going forward the voting members & numbers increase all the way up to the Academy Awards and laws of peer review rule.

There were great films and performances from both majors and independents and good offerings from the commercial and conventional as well as from the edge of the envelope. This year it was definitely steak and sizzle, not pastrami and mayo.Cate Blanchett - NYT

Certain categories seem locks, i.e. Best Actress and, perhaps, Best Supporting Actor. The Screen Actors Guild awards will ratify that this Saturday. The PGA, DGA and WGA awards within the next two weeks will show us if Gravity can hold on, if The Wolf can gain some ground and if Captain Phillips has definitely been outranked. Still surprises and upsets do lie in wait, because all in all it was a very good year for movies.

Nominees

The Best Picture Academy Award nominations list, ranked by Point Score:

12 YEARS A SLAVE AMERICAN HUSTLE NEBRASKA
GRAVITY THE WOLF OF WALL STREET HER
Dallas Buyers Club2 Philomena3
 CAPTAIN PHILLPS  DALLAS BUYERS CLUB  PHILOMENA

Notable is that the five maker category combination lead actor, director, writing, cinematography and editing is absent from all best picture contenders.  American Hustle does have a lead with four out of the five and nominations for all acting categories (David O. Russell did it again – last year he got all acting categories with Silver Linings Playbook, a rare feat indeed), but the absence of Cinematography could be a problem for its chances.

Gravity, is a one actor film in essence, yet… It does have four out of the five maker categories and its technical nominations put it in strong contention for the big one. While its screenplay nom is absent, its writing is nominated for a BAFTA and has buzz in the writing community.

Just the fact that 12 Years a Slave got nine nominations and two other films got ten hurt its momentum. Again, it does not help that it is missing cinematography from the mix.

As for the rest, in order of probability of golden love from the academy: Nebraska is missing Editing (it is too short? It is a short script); The Wolf of Wall Street lacks Cinematography and Editing (despite the fact that it was trimmed down from an original FOUR hours! Guess three hours was still too much); Dallas Buyers Club did not get Director or Cinematography; Captain Phillips missed the boat on Lead Actor, Director and Cinematography; Philomena is not nominated for Directing, Cinematography or Editing; and Her is hurt by its shut out from Lead Actor, Director, Cinematography and Editing (only got writing).

The Films by number of nominations (alphabetical):

American Hustle
10 Nominations

Gravity
10 Nominations

12 Years a Slave
9 Nominations

Captain Phillips
6 Nominations

Dallas Buyers Club
6 Nominations

Nebraska
6 Nominations

Her
5 Nominations

The Wolf of Wall Street
5 Nominations

Philomena
4 Nominations

Blue Jasmine
3 Nominations

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
3 Nominations

August: OsageCounty
2 Nominations

Despicable Me 2
2 Nominations

Frozen
2 Nominations

The Grandmaster
2 Nominations

The Great Gatsby
2 Nominations

Inside Llewyn Davis
2 Nominations

The Lone Ranger
2 Nominations

Lone Survivor
2 Nominations

For all nominations follow this link to Oscars official site.

CJ Rangel – Jan 2014

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1 comment

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