The Grammy Awards were announced today with Kendrick Lamar (11 nominations), Taylor Swift and The Weeknd (7 nominations each) leading the nominee pack. But here at The Film Experience we're only really concerned with the visual categories.
I'm not including Grammy's Spoken Word category as I am sometimes prone to do because there aren't actors involved this year beyond Amy Poehler who is nominated for the audiobook of her "Yes Please" memoir. But don't get too excited about her nomination. The brilliant Poehler seems to be a statue repellent; she's not anywhere close to an EGOT since she's never even won a damn Emmy despite years of TV brilliance.
Here are the nominees in the film/tv related categories...
Best Music Video
- LSD - ASAP Rocky
- I Feel Love (Every Million Miles) - The Dead Weather
- Alright - Kendrick Lamar
- Bad Blood - Taylor Swift feat. Kendrick Lamar
- Freedom - Pharrell Williams
We've already written about Taylor Swift's celebrity laced Bad Blood video but what do you think of these others?
Best Music Film
- Amy
- Mr Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown
- Sonic Highways
- The Wall
- What Happened Miss Simone?
Will Amy continue to be a steamroller for awards hardware?
Best Song Written for Visual Media
(the closest thing they have to Oscar's Best Original Song)
- Earned it (Fifty Shades of Grey)
- Glory (Selma)
- Love Me Like You Do (Fifty Shades of Grey)
- See You Again (Furious 7)
- Til It Happens to You (The Hunting Ground)
Last year's Oscar winner is there (the moving "Glory") but will these four others be nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars? Lady Gaga (with Diane Warren, 7 Oscar nominations) seems the most likely candidate for a nomination for her lamenting ballad from the documentary finalist The Hunting Ground
Best Song Written for Visual Media
(the closest thing they have to Oscar's Best Original Song)
- Earned it (Fifty Shades of Grey)
- Glory (Selma)
- Love Me Like You Do (Fifty Shades of Grey)
- See You Again (Furious 7)
- Til It Happens to You (The Hunting Ground)
Last year's Oscar winner is there (the moving "Glory") but will these four others be nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars? Lady Gaga (with Diane Warren, 7 Oscar nominations) seems the most likely candidate for a nomination for her lamenting ballad from the documentary finalist The Hunting Ground
Best Score Soundtrack
- Birdman - Antonio Sanchez, composer
- The Imitation Game - Alexandre Desplat, composer
- Interstellar - Hans Zimmer, composer
- The Theory of Everything - Jóhan Jóhannsson, composer
- Whiplash - Justin Hurwitz, composer
All of these were Oscar nominees last year but for Birdman's drum score which they deemed ineligible for reasons that are still a bit puzzling (as many rulings by the music branch have been since time immemorial)
Best Compilation Soundtrack
- Empire: Season 1
- Fifty Shades of Grey
- Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me
- Pitch Perfect 2
- Selma
"Empire" deserves this!
Best Musical Theater Album
Okay this one is not a film category but shut up - we love musical theater. And one of these was originally a Best Picture winner so...
- An American in Paris
- Fun Home
- Hamilton
- The King and I
- Something Rotten!
Hamilton probably can't lose any prize its up for this year so it was a blessing that Fun Home competed for Tonys in a separate year because Fun Home is also a modern classic.
P.S. The Grammy's Spoken Word category contains actors but not so much this year other than Amy Poehler who is nominated for an album called "Yes Please". But don't get excited -- she's not anywhere close to an EGOT since she's never even won a damn Emmy despite years of TV brilliance.