(We interrupt your Missi experience this morning to bring you more awards news. Missi returns this afternoon for two final posts.)
If you missed my predictions and would like to mock them, they were here. The Critics Choice which will be broadcast live on A&E this year from the Iconic Hollywood Palladium (a new home and venue) on January 15th at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST. I shall try and attend again. If I can get a better table. What? Travel expenses must be justified!
BEST PICTURE
Birdman - leading with 13 nominations
Boyhood - 8 nominations
Gone Girl - 6 nominations
Grand Budapest Hotel - second place with 11 nominations. wow
The Imitation Game - 6 nominations
Nightcrawler - 3 nominations
Selma - 5 nominations
Theory of Everything - 5 nominations
Unbroken - 4 nominations
Whiplash - 4 nominations
I suspected (aka predicted) that we'd see Unbroken and Gone Girl resurface in the conversation here. In fact the only prediction I got wrong was I didn't foresee Nightcrawler happening, fearing that the AFI love for American Sniper was significant. I think Boyhood will probably win in the end (especially given the weird halfhearted "comedy" section of the awards pulling votes away from Birdman) but good on Birdman for that astounding level of support.
I was really hoping for one non-Oscary thing though. I thought Under the Skin might have an outside chance for a shocker (and yes I voted for it).
JAKE GETS THE JOB and more after the jump...
BEST ACTOR
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Ralph Fiennes, Grand Budapest Hotel
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton, Birdman
David Oyelowo, Selma
Eddie Redmayne, Theory of Everything
Each vote for RALPH FIENNES proves there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse known as Oscar Season
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) December 9, 2014
Exactly as I predicted but for Ralph Fiennes replacing Steve Carell. And that's trading up. No offense to Carell who is a strong actor (and possibly only beginning his stretch to dramatic greatness - he already had the comic part covered) but Fiennes in Grand Budapest Hotel is just... heaven. Elegant but zany seriocomic timelessness. A performance that it's nearly impossible to see any one else giving.
BEST ACTRESS
Jennifer Aniston, Cake
Marion Cotillard, Two Days One Night
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild
fascinating that it’s really come down to ANISTON vs COTILLARD for fifth Best Actress spot. Oscar history can argue for either one.
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) December 15, 2014
6/6 in my predictions here. So does Oscar go for the acclaimed foreign goddesses in a perceived-to-be "weak" year (again, it wasn't a weak year) which they've done in the past or go for a romantic comedy darling going serious as they'd done in the past. Which will it be? Aniston seems to have the competitive edge but on the other hand votes for Amy Adams & Hilary Swank (the outliers) seem more likely to siphon from Aniston support. So...
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, Inherent Vice
Robert Duvall, The Judge
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward Norton, Bidrman
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
I missed Brolin in my predictions even though I voted for him. LOL. It's a performance I love almost in inverse proportion to how much I dislike the film. More on his work soon when I get a second to pause and write.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - name AND film
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer
I stumbled in my predictions with both Laura Dern and Rene Russo who have both had trouble landing nominations despite high profile campaigns and a surging film, respectively. I suspected we'd see a big surprise like a Carrie Coon or something happening and we did but the BFCA gazed far back into the film year to select TILDA SWINTON!
A shoe is not a hat.
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS (Under 21) - name AND film
Ellen Coltrane -Boyhood
Ansel Elgort - Fault in Our Stars
Mackenzie Foy - Interstellar
Jaeden Lieberher - St. Vincent
Quvenzhane Wallis - Annie
Noah Wiseman - The Babadook
This category worked out EXACTLY as I was was expecting but that I stupidly forgot about little Jaeden Lieberher. Anyway, I think if studios actively campaigned for these less high profile categories we would have seen Emjay Anthony from Chef on this list. I really do.
Noah Wiseman topped my ballot and will again when we vote on winners.
Btw, I was dead serious about the Babadook kid looking like Shelley Duvall. pic.twitter.com/BHcdh6waQo
— FILMDRUNK (@Filmdrunk) December 10, 2014
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
Birdman
Boyhood
Grand Budapest Hotel
Imitation Game
Into the Woods
Selma
UGH. No Gone Girl again? How are people missing the brilliance of that ensemble? I don't get it. Otherwise this is exactly as I predicted with Into the Woods taking its place. Anyway, this is a MUCH stronger list than SAG came up with so well done BFCA.
BEST DIRECTING
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay, Selma
David Fincher, Gone Girl
Alejandro Inarritu, Birdman
Angelina Jolie, Unbroken
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
My suspicions that the BFCA would embrace Angelina Jolie despite her very rough week (broken reviews, chicken pox, those "spoiled brat / camp event" Sony e-mails and a Globe shut out. OUCH) proved true. Interesting that this is the GLOBE list exactly (plus Jolie) when at the moment it happened that Globe list seemed kind of surprising.
Aniston must have done some serious voodoo. First Unbroken gets nothing and now it's the pox.
— Margaret (@lady_sati) December 14, 2014
BEST SCREENWRITING (Original)
Birdman
Boyhood
Grand Budapest Hotel
Nightcrawler
Whiplash
I really thought there'd be six nominees and that we'd see A Most Violent Year in the mix. (sigh)
BEST SCREENWRITING (Adapted Screenplay)
Gone Girl
Imitation Game
Inherent Vice
Theory of Everything
Unbroken
Wild
You guys. I'm really kind of horrified that Unbroken got a screenplay nomination. I like the movie more than a lot of critics I think (i kind of dug its corny exceedingly derivative INSPIRATIONAL WAR MOVIE vibe for reasons of I'm not sure why) but the screenplay is... not good. I'm surprised Joel Coen & Ethan Coen are okay with their names being on it
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Birdman
Grand Budapest Hotel
Interstellar
Mr Turner
Unbroken
I predicted a Mr Turner snub here and I'm happy to be wrong about that but NOT happy at all that Ida is the one that got the boot. The nomination for Grand Budapest Hotel also surprsies me a little. But anyway: the BFCA really needs to firm up their rules so the categories don't vacillate so much in terms of number of nominees. It's so distracting / sloppy.
Final thought: Bradford Young continues to be the most exciting new cinematographer alive and he keeps not getting nominated for things year in and year out. He had two opportunities here for Selma & A Most Violent Year. A Most Violent Year's very late start seems to have really hurt it since it's not as buzzy topical as Selma (which had the exact same screener-free late start if you'll recall from those AFI premieres we covered)
BEST ART DIRECTION
Birdman
Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Snowpiercer
I voted for Snowpiercer if I recall but I did NOT expect it to show up. I also did not (in a million years) see Inherent Vice showing up in this category. Weird. Snubbed Mark Friedberg (Noah/Selma) is, I think it's official now, the least appreciated genius Production Designer in the business. Consider the movies he has designed: Far From Heaven, Synecdoche New York, Selma, The Darjeeling Ltd, The Ice Storm, The Life Aquatic, Noah... and that he has almost no major nominations in his entire career at any major film event, with his only truly celebrated work being Mildred Pierce on TV which won him the ADG and the Emmy.
Mistreated! Justice for Friedberg.
All that said, I'm surprised and happy that they passed on Maleficent and yet another Hobbit movie, which are the types of movies they tend to embrace here.
BEST EDITING
Birdman
Boyhood
Gone Girl
Interstellar
Whiplash
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Into the Woods
Maleficent
Mr Turner
BEST MAKEUP
Foxcatcher
Guardians of Galaxy
The Hobbit: Five Armies
Into the Woods
Maleficent
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Dawn of Apes
Edge of Tomorrow
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: Five Armies
Interstellar
Passing over Godzilla in visual effects? I find that embarrassing.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The LEGO Movie
Exactly as I suspected but the 'art' films this year seem to be struggling (they don't realize the important of campaigning. Song of the Sea could win prizes if people were aware of it).
BEST ACTION MOVIE
American Sniper
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Edge of Tomorrow
Fury
Guardians of the Galaxy
BEST ACTOR in an ACTION MOVIE - name AND film
Bradley Cooper - American Sniper
Tom Cruise - Edge of Tomorrow
Chris Evans - Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Brad Pitt - Fury
Chris Pratt - Guardians of the Galaxy
Same thing I just said only Andy Serkis.
Did you notice: THE BFCA GRABBED THE GLOBE-LIKE PREVIOUSLY MISSED OPPORTUNITY OF A TELEVISED LIFETIME. Nominations for Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston all for the same show!
BEST ACTRESS in an ACTION MOVIE - name AND film
Emily Blunt, Edge of Tomorrow
Scarlett Johansson, Lucy
Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games Parts Too Many
Zoe Saldana, Guardians of the Galaxy
Shailene Woodley, Divergent
BEST COMEDY
22 Jump Street
Birdman
Grand Budapest Hotel
St Vincent
Top Five
No Neighbors? whataaaa
BEST ACTOR in a COMEDY
Jon Favreau - Chef
Ralph Fiennes - Grand Budapest Hotel
Michael Keaton - Birdman
Bill Murray - St Vincent
Chris Rock - Top Five
Channing Tatum - 22 Jump Street
no. #1 on my ballot, bitches
BEST ACTRESS in a COMEDY
Rose Byrne - Neighbors
Rosario Dawson - Top Five
Melissa McCarthy - St Vincent
Jenny Slate - Obvious Child
Kristen Wiig - Skeleton Twins
BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE
The Babadook
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Interstellar
Snowpiercer
Under the Skin
Pretty amazing lineup, no?
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Force Majeure
Ida
Leviathan
Two Days One Night
Wild Tales
This is exactly the lineup I predicted though I thought Mommy was also going to make it for a 6th nominee. Disappointed in that but it doesn't open until January and all the others actually are getting proper 2014 releases (except Wild Tales) so there's that.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Citizen Four
Glenn Campbell's I'll Be Me
Jodorowsky's Dune
Last Days in Vietnam
Life Itself
The Overnighters
BEST SONG (please list the song, artist and film)
Big Eyes - Big Eyes
Glory - Selma
Lost Stars - Begin Again
Everything is Awesome - Lego Movie
Yellow Flicker Beat - Hunger Games
I'm weirded out that the Glenn Campbell documentary, which did not make the documentary finals with Oscar, is nominated for documentary but not his beautiful song "I'm Not Going to Miss You" ... seems kinda backward a bit.
BEST SCORE
Birdman (disqualified for Oscar already. boo)
Gone Girl
Imitation Game
Interstellar
Theory of Everything
YOUR THOUGHTS?