Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last 24 hours, you probably heard that the nominations for the 87th Academy Awards were announced yesterday.
Last year I watched all nine Best Picture nominees and had so much fun doing so, I decided to do it again. This year I’m also going to try to watch as many films from the other categories (particularly animated and documentary features) as I can as well.
This year I’ve also been trying to pay more attention to the film industry in the months leading up to the nominations being announced, and I have to say I wasn’t surprised by any of the Best Picture nominees, with the possible exception of Whiplash, which I only heard of for the first time when J.K. Simmons won the Golden Globe Sunday night. I even managed to see The Imitation Game and The Grand Budapest Hotel already, though I’m going to have to watch the latter again, as I was only half awake while I was watching it (it was during the middle of the night on a transatlantic flight).
There were a few I was surprised didn’t make the cut, particularly Foxcatcher, which managed to receive nominations for Supporting Actor, Lead Actor and Director, but didn’t get an actual Best Picture nomination. Part of me suspects that the Academy just couldn’t live with nominating a Channing Tatum film for an Oscar (and if so, I can’t say I blame them). Despite my general lack of interest in anything Tatum stars in, I do plan to see Foxcatcher, since it is up for the other three major awards.
I know there was a lot of outcry yesterday about the Academy not nominating The Lego Movie for Best Animated Feature. I have to be honest and say I don’t have a lot of opinion either way about that one in particular. I actually fell asleep in the middle of the movie. It was cute and fun, but I just didn’t love it as much as the rest of the world seems to. Maybe I missed something?
I would love to give you my early predictions, but I don’t feel qualified to speak on which will win since I’ve only seen two films so far. From what I’ve heard – and it’s success so far this award season – I think Boyhood stands a fairly good chance at taking home the Oscar, but I’ll be able to give a more definite opinion once I’ve seen everything else.
So watch this space over the coming months as I review all the Best Picture nominees and as many other nominated films as I can.
Not Another Dumb Blonde 