2015 Oscar nominations: Birdman and Grand Budapest Hotel out in front, Aniston, Gyllenhaal and LEGO Movie amongst major snubs

Cinema lovers, it’s that time of year again….

When it comes to the Academy Award nominations, there tends to be a variety of emotions for those rooting for their favourite films and actors to be nominated. But then there can also be occasional snubs which will no doubt hurt for weeks to come.

Today saw the Academy announce their nominees for 2014/15 with the lead being shared between the showbusiness satire BIRDMAN and the crime caper THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.

Both films received a respective nine nominations each including the all-important Best Picture spot with British biopic THE IMITATION GAME following with eight nods.

The trio are competing in an eight-film field which includes war thriller AMERICAN SNIPER, family drama (and current Oscar favourite) BOYHOOD, music-based drama WHIPLASH and real-life biopics SELMA and THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING.

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Birdman, which centres on a former superhero actor trying to rebuild his career on Broadway, received three acting mentions for recent Golden Globe winner Michael Keaton (as ego-centric star Riggan Thomson), Edward Norton (as temperamental Broadway actor Mike Shiner) and Emma Stone (as Thomson’s rehabilitated daughter Sam) as well a Best Director and Original Screenplay nod for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

Released back in the spring, The Grand Budapest Hotel, which stars Ralph Fiennes as a charming hotel concierge caught up in a caper involving a renowned painting, was recognised in various technical categories but did manage to land double nods for filmmaker Wes Anderson in both Best Director and Original Screenplay.

British biopics The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything did reasonably well with multiple nominations to their name.

The former, which depicts the true story of the unfortunate WWII mathematician Alan Turing, received a Best Director nom for Morten Tyldum while Benedict Cumberbatch (as Turing) and Keira Knightley (as Turing’s companion Joan Clarke) were mentioned in their acting categories.

The latter, which focuses on the life of renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, clinched acting nominations for Eddie Redmayne (as Hawking) and Felicity Jones (as his devoted wife Jane) and as well as a few other technical nods.

Boyhood, which centres on a family over the course of twelve years, chalked up six nominations including Best Director (Richard Linklater) and Supporting Actor/Actress for Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette (as Mason Snr. and Olivia respectively).

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In Best Actor, Cumberbatch, Keaton and Redmayne are up against Steve Carrell (as sinister manager John Du Pont in Foxcatcher) and Bradley Cooper (as real-life American assassin Chris Kyle in American Sniper).

In the Best Actress category, Felicity Jones is competing against the overdue Julianne Moore (as Alzheimer’s sufferer Alice in Still Alice), Rosamund Pike (as the mysterious Amy Dunne in Gone Girl), Reese Witherspoon (as real-life author Cheryl Strayed in Wild) and surprise nominee Marion Cotillard (as unemployed mother Sandra in the French drama Two Days, One Night).

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In Supporting Actor, Ethan Hawke and Edward Norton are nominated alongside veteran Robert Duvall (as retired judge Joseph Palmer in The Judge), Mark Ruffalo (as experienced Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz in Foxcatcher) and category favourite J.K Simmons (as bullying music conductor Terence Fletcher in Whiplash).

Patricia Arquette, Keira Knightley and Emma Stone occupy the Supporting Actress category which is rounded off by the great Meryl Streep (as the Witch in Into the Woods) and surprise nominee Laura Dern (as Cheryl Strayed’s late mother Bobbi in Wild).

The Best Director lineup sees Wes Anderson, Alejandro Gonzalez. Iñárritu, Richard Linklater and Morten Tyldum joined by Bennett Miller, whose film Foxcatcher bizarrely failed to land a Best Picture nomination.

One of the most shocking snubs of the day came in Best Animated Film as The LEGO Movie was overlooked despite its popularity with critics and audiences. It did however garner a Best Original Song nomination for the catchy “Everything is Awesome” tune.

Instead, the Best Animated lineup will be competed by Big Hero 6, The Boxtrolls, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Song of the Sea and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.

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From the major categories, there were some big-name stars who failed to make the cut with Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler) and David Oyelowo (Selma) ignored in Best Actor while Jennifer Aniston’s guilds love for Cake proved anti-climatic as she was snubbed in Best Actress. Jessica Chastain’s showy role in A Most Violent Year also missed the cut in Best Supporting Actress.

Gillian Flynn’s excellent adaptation of her Gone Girl novel was shockingly absent from the Best Adapted Screenplay category with Rosamund Pike’s Best Actress nod being its only Oscar mention.

Despite a lack of guilds love, American Sniper’s late surge proved crucial with its Best Picture and Best Actor nods while Selma’s two mentions will seem very disappointing. Other memorable films like Interstellar, Nightcrawler and Unbroken also underperformed with the Academy.

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The 2015 Oscars will be held at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday February 22nd with comedian actor Neil Patrick Harris hosting the ceremony.

The full list of nominees are below (with my early predictions in blue):

BEST PICTURE

  • American Sniper
  • Birdman
  • Boyhood
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel
  • The Imitation Game
  • Selma
  • The Theory of Everything
  • Whiplash

BEST DIRECTOR

  • Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
  • Alejandro Gonzalez. Iñárritu – Birdman
  • Richard Linklater – Boyhood
  • Bennett Miller – Foxcatcher
  • Morten Tyldum – The Imitation Game

BEST ACTOR

  • Steve Carrell – 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 ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • Birdman – Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr & Armando Bo
  • Boyhood – Richard Linklater
  • Foxcatcher – E. Max Frye & Dan Futterman
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
  • 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 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 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 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

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

  • Alexandre Desplat – The Grand Budapest Hotel
  • Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
  • Johann Johansson – The Theory of Everything
  • Gary Yershon – Mr Turner
  • Hans Zimmer – Interstellar

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

  • Begin Again – “Lost Stars”
  • Beyond the Lights – “Grateful”
  • Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me – “I’m Not Gonna Miss You”
  • The LEGO Movie – “Everything is Awesome”
  • Selma – “Glory”

BEST ANIMATED FILM

  • Big Hero 6
  • The Boxtrolls
  • How to Train Your Dragon 2
  • Song of the Sea
  • The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

  • Citizenfour
  • Finding Vivian Maier
  • Last Days in Vietnam
  • The Salt of the Earth
  • Virunga

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

  • Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
  • Joanna
  • Our Curse
  • The Reaper (La Parka)
  • White Earth

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

  • Ida (Poland)
  • Leviathan (Russia)
  • Tangerines (Estonia)
  • Timbuktu (Mauritania)
  • Wild Tales (Argentina)

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

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