2015 Oscars: Snubs and Surprises!

So if anyone's read about the Oscars, there's some really good movies that got nominated. There's also some really horrible snubs, and some surprises. Some I'm okay with and some...not so much.

Here are some notable snubs and surprises, with a full list of the major categories at the end.


SNUB: The LEGO Movie for Best Animated Feature

This is just absolutely ridiculous. I have NO idea where this snub came from. The LEGO Movie without a doubt was one of the best movies of the year, and one of the most popular ones too. So what do they gain by not nominating it? All they're doing is ALIENATING their core audience. This is the snub I'm most angry about because it's crazy. It doesn't make any sense. There's so much heart and substance in this movie. It's just a shame they didn't see it.

SURPRISE: Laura Dern for Best Supporting Actress

What a nice surprise! I didn't think she'd make the cut, but Laura Dern was nominated for her turn as the deceased mother in Wild. If you've seen the movie, there's no way you can argue that she isn't spectacular in the movie. I just thought she'd be overlooked. This is really the only love for Wild besides Reese Witherspoon who got an expected nomination in the Lead category, but it's deserved.

SNUB: Gone Girl for....anything

Upon its release, Gone Girl was a frontrunner. It has everything working for it (I gave it a 5 star review!) and was expected to score across the board. And it walked away with one nomination today, for Rosamund Pike's performance as the (SPOILER ALERT) sociopath titular "gone girl". That was a lock, but so was Best Original Score for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' eerie music, and Gillian Flynn's script adapted from her own novel. And David Fincher for Best Director, and the film itself for Best Picture. What happened?! Obviously the Academy didn't like the movie, or maybe it's just the graphic scenes...but then again, the stuff Rosamund Pike does is pretty disturbing. And she still got nominated.

SUPRISE: Marion Cotillard for Best Actress

Marion Cotillard was nominated for her performance in Two Days, One Night. You're probably asking yourself the same question I am: "What the heck is that movie?!" I've never heard of this. Never. And while Rosamund Pike, Julianne Moore, Reese Witherspoon, and Felicity Jones were all definite locks, the fifth spot was up for grabs. And they go with HER? It's a movie that's not even English, it's completely French. Many know Cotillard for her roles in Inception and The Dark Knight Rises and she's won before for the French biopic La Vie en Rose. They must really like her.

SNUB: Ava DuVernay for Best Director

As you will soon discover, Selma was basically completely shut out. Undeservedly so, I might add. It did manage a Best Picture nomination, but that's about it. Ava DuVernay does a fantastic job directing, and many thought she was a frontrunner to win. Guess not, since she's not even nominated. They had a real chance to make history here, as she'd be the first woman of color to be nominated. Actually there are very few women or really ANY people of color nominated at all. Oprah's the only one and she's over in Best Picture as a producer for Selma. I thought we were past all of this...

SURPRISE: Bradley Cooper for Best Actor

I'm already pretty stoked to see this movie, so this makes me even more excited. American Sniper did incredibly well this morning, and it's poised to open huge this weekend. Bradley Cooper's supposed to be amazing, and this is his third nomination in three years. First was his performance as a bipolar man in Silver Linings Playbook, then a manic FBI agent last year in American Hustle. He's being set up to someday take home the gold, maybe even for this movie!

SNUB: David Oyelowo for Best Actor

I don't really understand how you nominate Selma for Best Picture for its lone major nomination, and don't nominate Ava DuVernay and David Oyelowo. She's the driving force offscreen, and he's the driving force onscreen. Not recognizing either is like nominating Selma just because they feel they "have to" which I can't even believe. This was a great movie. He was great. He played Martin Luther King!! How many other times will anyone ever do that and be as good as he was? Missed opportunity

SURPRISE: The Grand Budapest Hotel gets the most nominations

The film just won Best Picture from the Golden Globes, and it's obviously going to try its hardest to win the Oscar too. With 9 nominations, it ties with Birdman for the most. For a movie, a comedy nonetheless, to get this many nominations when it was a dark horse at best a month ago is surprising to say the very least.

SNUB: Gillian Flynn for Best Adapted Screenplay

This is another shocking snub that's probably based on the dislike of the movie. Without a doubt, Gillian Flynn had one of the best scripts of the year with Gone Girl. Murder, deceit, twisted characters, exciting twists at every turn. What was there not to enjoy? She made a 3 hour movie go by fast. And she adapted her own book. Where's the love for this woman?

SURPRISE: Bennett Miller for Best Director

This might just be because he got the Cannes Film Festival Best Director. I'm not sure, but I do know that directing was a strong point in Foxcatcher. I'm not angry about this, this is a nice surprise.

SNUB: David Fincher for Best Director

If you haven't got it by now...Gone Girl was pretty unfairly shut out. And directing was incredibly strong in this movie. Fincher directs great actors. Especially when a great script makes for some really troubled characters. Frank Underwood in House of Cards, Tyler Durden in Fight Club and Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo just to name a few. Amy Dunne might be one of Fincher's greatest characters, and to not nominate him for his great camera skills and direction is a shame.

SURPRISE: Nightcrawler for Best Picture

No, I did not think Nightcrawler was a great movie. I did not enjoy it either. But it's surprisingly grown on me over time, and I feel like I need to see it again. Which is an incredibly good sign for the movie. I didn't originally think it even qualified for a Best Picture nom, but now I believe it did. Maybe it's just because the movie is too edgy that it didn't score anywhere.

SNUB: Amy Adams for Best Actress

Big Eyes suffered from a strange array of publicity. It was named an early contender for Best Picture, and Amy Adams would win for her portrayal of artist Margaret Keane. Then the movie came out, and everyone said it was bad. Then it was theatrically released and got great reviews. It was good again but not "awards worthy". And then Amy Adams won Best Actress at the Golden Globes. She still didn't get nominated, and usually that makes you a definite nominee.

SURPRISE: Whiplash love

If I were to tell you any movie that would be completely embraced by the Academy, it would not be Whiplash. The tale of an abusive music teacher and his radical ideas of fame doesn't seem like the thing the stuffy Academy would buy into. Even after seeing it, it's a great movie but is far too graphic to be a movie of that kind. And yet it was nominated for 5 awards across the board. From the group that didn't nominate Nightcrawler and Gone Girl, this is incredibly strange.

SNUB: Rene Russo for Best Supporting Actress

While she was an outlier at best, there's no denying Rene Russo finally made a comeback with Nightcrawler. Her portrayal as a desperate news member was great, and stood out in her crowd of Supporting Actress contenders. I guess the movie was not embraced.

SURPRISE: Superhero movies get on the board

 Superhero movies are notorious for getting no love from awards, or maybe just a Visual Effects nod. The Dark Knight changed all of that by getting 8 noms, and a win for Heath Ledger as the Joker, but superhero movies have always struggled here. Guardians of the Galaxy got 3 nominations, for Best Visual Effects and Makeup/Hairstyling, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier and X-Men: Days of Future Past also pulled off Visual Effects nominations. That makes half of the category superhero movies!

SNUB: Jake Gyllenhaal for Best Actor

If anything about Nightcrawler was going to be nominated it was Jake Gyllenhaal. He's incredible as this mentally disturbed crazy person becoming an LA nightcrawler. In a movie I didn't originally love, I even admitted that he was phenomenal and deserved to be a frontrunner. Again, politics played a role here I think.

FULL NOMINATIONS:

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 González Iñárritu- Birdman
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
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