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    Oscar Nominations and Snubs

    The Academy takes some punches every January as the rest of us scratch our heads over the films and performances they deem most deserving of recognition, and even more questionable, those they believe are not. 2015 is no different. The Oscar nominations reveal much deserved love for Birdman, Boyhood, and The Grand Budapest Hotel, but where is Selma?

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    Yes, Ava DuVernay’s visceral and all too relevant film on Martin Luther King’s 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery earned – and I mean earned – a best picture nomination, but where was its original screenplay? It should be sitting where Foxcatcher sits.

    Equally wrong-headed is the exclusion of the faultless DuVernay among the ranks of directors. Though The Imitation Game was a wonderful film and Morten Tyldum offered superb helmsmanship, that should have been DuVernay’s slot.

    Best Actor is usually a loaded category, and 2015 is certainly no exception. Still, Selma’s David Oyelowo and Nightcrawler’s Jake Gyllenhaal deserved spots instead of Foxcatcher’s Steve Carell and perhaps even Benedict Cumberbatch for The Imitation Game. Again, both performances were great and both films were great, but Oyelowo and Gyllenhaal really needed to be noticed, and quite honestly, Oyelowo may have deserved the win.

    Perhaps the most baffling exclusion is The LEGO Movie from the best animated film category. How is this even possible? It’s a better animated film than absolutely anything else on the list. I am thrilled at the inclusion of both The Tale of Princess Kaguya and Song of the Sea and wouldn’t remove those, but Big Hero 6 was one of the blandest and most derivative animated efforts in years and has no business in the same area code as an Oscar nomination.

    Amy Adams and Jennifer Aniston could be miffed at being left off the best actress list, but to be honest, it wasn’t an especially strong year for that category. Either could be swapped in or out for almost anyone else on the list, with the exception of Julianne Moore. While Still Alice is not the strongest performance of her career, and it not actually an exceptional film outside of her work, she’ll finally win an Oscar this year, so thank God for that. Quite honestly,I’d have given one of the nominations to Essie Davis for her superior work in The Babadook, but that’s just dreaming on my part.

    And while I’m living in fantasyland, I’d have given Tilda Swinton a nom in the best supporting actress category for her turn in Snowpiercer. I suppose it’s simply tradition to offer Meryl Streep a seat at the table every year, and she certainly was fun to watch as the witch in Into the Woods, but Swinton was more fun and more deserving.

    The major nominations are below:

    BEST PICTURE

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

    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
    • JK Simmons, Whiplash

    BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

    • Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
    • Laura Dern, Wild
    • Emma Stone, Birdman
    • Keira Knightly, The Imitation Game
    • Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

    DIRECTOR

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

    A full slate of movie reviews is available on my website www.maddwolf.com. You can also follow me on Twitter @maddwolf and like me on Facebook at facebook.com/MaddWolfColumbus.

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    Hope Madden
    Hope Maddenhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Hope Madden is a freelance contributor on Columbus Underground who covers the independent film scene, writes film reviews and previews film events.
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