Early this morning, the Oscar nominations were announced by Thor and there were some nice things, some less nice things and some unforgivable things (Lana Del Rey snubbed!). Nine films are up for Best Picture: American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Philomena, 12 Years a Slave and The Wolf of Wall Street. It would’ve been really easy to just throw Inside Llewyn Davis in there and cap it at an even ten, but the Academy decided to honour the film thematically, instead.
Philomena was a bit of a surprise in the Best Picture category, and Dallas Buyers Club was represented far more than I expected with nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Best Original Screenplay. American Hustle and Gravity lead the nominees with 10 each, with 12 Years a Slave trailing one behind. David O. Russell managed yet another nomination for Best Director, which I will choose to pretend didn’t happen and Spike Jonze’s name was actually announced. Yay Spike!
American Hustle also got nominations in all four acting categories, in a Russell Repeat of last year with Silver Linings Playbook. This means Christian Bale was nominated for Best Actor, shutting out fantastic performances like Joaquin Phoenix in Her and Oscar Isaac in Inside Llewyn Davis (and, as has been shouted on my Twitter feed as one of the more shocking snubs, Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips).
Other notable snubs in my mind include The Grandmaster for Foreign Language Film (although it picked up two other nominations), James Gandolfini in Enough Said for Best Supporting Actor, any of the original songs in Inside Llewyn Davis for Best Original Song, Robert Redford in All is Lost for Best Actor, and Julie Delpy in Before Midnight and Brie Larson in Short Term 12 for Best Actress. The most egregious snub for me is James Franco in Spring Breakers for Best Supporting Actor. His campaign had picked up real steam in the last couple of months, but it was always a role that was going to be ignored by the Academy.
Overall, it’s a pretty predictable list of nominees with Oscar-baiting movies like August: Osage County and Dallas Buyers Club getting lots of attention and some of the more triumphant performances and work done in film reserved for your own personal lists. Another year, another list of nominees for us to complain and pretend to not care about.
The full list:
Best Picture
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
The Wolf Of Wall Street
Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf Of Wall Street
Best Actor
Christian Bale, American Hustle
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf Of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County
Best Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years A Slave
Jonah Hill, The Wolf Of Wall Street
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Supporting Actress
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years A Slave
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska
Best Original Screenplay
Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine
Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack, Dallas Buyers Club
Spike Jonze, Her
Bob Nelson, Nebraska
Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell, American Hustle
Best Adapted Screenplay
Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, Philomena
Richard Linklater, July Delpy, and Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight
Billy Ray, Captain Phillips
John Ridley, 12 Years A Slave
Terence Winter, The Wolf Of Wall Street
Best Animated Feature
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine
Frozen
The Wind Rises
Best Cinematography
Roger A. Deakins, Prisoners
Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis
Philippe Le Sourd, The Grandmaster
Emmanuel Lubezki, Gravity
Phedon Papamichael, Nebraska
Best Costume Design
William Chang Suk Ping, The Grandmaster
Catherine Martin, The Great Gatsby
Patricia Norris, 12 Years A Slave
Michael O’Connor, The Invisible Woman
Michael Wilkinson, American Hustle
Best Documentary Feature
20 Feet From Stardom
The Act Of Killing
Cutie And The Boxer
Dirty Wars
The Square
Best Documentary Short
CaveDigger
Facing Fear
Karama Has No Walls
The Lady In Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Prison Terminal: The Last Days Of Private Jack Hall
Best Film Editing
Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, and Alan Baumgarten, American Hustle
Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger, Gravity
John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa, Dallas Buyers Club
Christopher Rouse, Captain Phillips
Joe Walker, 12 Years A Slave
Best Foreign Language Film
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium)
The Great Beauty (Italy)
The Hunt (Denmark)
The Missing Picture (Cambodia)
Omar (Palestine)
Best Makeup And Hairstyling
Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews, Dallas Buyers Club
Stephen Prouty, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny, The Lone Ranger
Best Original Score
William Butler and Owen Pallett, Her
Alexandre Desplat, Philomena
Thomas Newman, Saving Mr. Banks
Steven Price, Gravity
John Williams, The Book Thief
Best Original Song
“Alone Yet Not Alone,” Alone Yet Not Alone (music by Bruce Broughton; lyric by Dennis Spiegel)
“Happy,” Despicable Me 2 (music and lyric by Pharrell Williams)
“Let It Go,” Frozen (music and lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez)
“The Moon Song,” Her (music by Karen O; lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze)
“Ordinary Love,” Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom (music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen; lyric by Paul Hewson)
Best Production Design
K.K. Barrett and Gene Serdena, Her
Judy Becker and Heather Loeffler, American Hustle
Catherine Martin and Beverley Dunn, The Great Gatsby
Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, and Joanne Woollard, Gravity
Adam Stockhausen and Alice Baker, 12 Years A Slave
Best Animated Short
“Feral”
“Get A Horse!”
“Mr. Hublot”
“Possessions”
“Room On The Broom”
Best Live Action Short
“Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)”
“Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything)”
“Helium”
“Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)”
“The Voorman Problem”
Best Sound Editing
Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns, All Is Lost
Brent Burge, The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
Glenn Freemantle, Gravity
Wylie Stateman, Lone Survivor
Oliver Tarney, Captain Phillips
Best Sound Mixing
Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, and Chris Munro, Captain Phillips
Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick, and Tony Johnson, The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
Andy Koyama, Beau Borders, and David Brownlow, Lone Survivor
Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, and Chris Munro, Gravity
Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, and Peter F. Kurland, Inside Llewyn Davis
Best Visual Effects
Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams, and John Frazier, The Lone Ranger
Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann, and Burt Dalton, Star Trek Into Darkness
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, and Eric Reynolds, The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash, and Dan Sudick, Iron Man 3
Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, and Neil Corbould, Gravity
Source: AV Club