Behind the Backlash of the 2015 Oscar Nominees
By now you may already know all the nominees for the 87th Academy Awards, set to take place on February 22nd. The full list is reproduced below for your convenience. (Source: Oscars.com, obviously, and Entertainment Weekly.)
Best Picture
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5CjKEFb-sM
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash
Best Director
Alexandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game
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
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Laura Dern, Wild
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman
Robert Yeoman, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski, Ida
Dick Pope, Mr. Turner
Roger Deakins, Unbroken
Best Foreign Language Film
Ida, Poland
Leviathan, Russia
Tangerines, Estonia
Timbuktu, Mauritania
Wild Tales, Argentina
Best Adapted Screenplay
American Sniper, Jason Hall
The Imitation Game, Graham Moore
Inherent Vice, Paul Thomas Anderson
The Theory of Everything, Anthony McCarten
Whiplash, Damien Chazelle
Best Original Screenplay
Birdman, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo
Boyhood, Richard Linklater
Foxcatcher, E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman
The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness
Nightcrawler, Dan Gilroy
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard, Foxcatcher
Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White, Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Original Score
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Mr. Turner
The Theory of Everything
Best Original Song
“Everything Is Awesome” from The Lego Movie; Music and Lyric by Shawn Patterson
“Glory” from Selma; Music and Lyric by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn
“Grateful” from Beyond the Lights; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
“I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me; Music and Lyric by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond
“Lost Stars” from Begin Again; Music and Lyric by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois
Best Animated Feature
Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Best Documentary—Short
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Joanna
Our Curse
The Reaper
White Earth
Best Film Editing
Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach, American Sniper
Sandra Adair, Boyhood
Barney Pilling, The Grand Budapest Hotel
William Goldenberg, The Imitation Game
Tom Cross, Whiplash
Best Production Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel, Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
The Imitation Game, Production Design: Maria Djurkovic; Set Decoration: Tatiana Macdonald
Interstellar, Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Gary Fettis
Into the Woods, Production Design: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Mr. Turner, Production Design: Suzie Davies; Set Decoration: Charlotte Watts
Best Animated Short
The Bigger Picture
The Dam Keeper
Feast
Me and My Moulton
A Single Life
Best Live Action Short
Aya
Boogaloo and Graham
Butter Lamp
Parvaneh
The Phone Call
Best Sound Editing
American Sniper, Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Birdman, Martín Hernández and Aaron Glascock
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Brent Burge and Jason Canovas
Interstellar, Richard King
Unbroken, Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro
Best Sound Mixing
American Sniper, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin
Birdman, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga
Interstellar, Gary A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten
Unbroken, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and David Lee
Whiplash, Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley
Best Visual Effects
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist
Guardians of the Galaxy, Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould
Interstellar, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher
X-Men: Days of Future Past, Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Waldbauer
Best Documentary — Feature
Citizenfour
Finding Vivien Maier
Last Days of Vietnam
The Salt of the Earth
Virunga
Best Costume Design
Milena Canonero, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Mark Bridges, Inherent Vice
Colleen Atwood, Into the Woods
Anna B. Sheppard and Jane Clive, Maleficent
Jacqueline Durran, Mr. Turner
As internet humor have seeped into mainstream ideology, there has been an increased awareness over the near-parodical “Oscar-bait” sub-genre. You’ll never find a permanent Oscar genre in the racks of Best Buy — maybe older winners on discount on a display during the season — but you’ll recognize the cues of “Oscar-bait” well enough. You might remember this from a few years ago.
But several times in the last decade the Academy Awards have once or twice awarded truly outstanding feature films that not only buck this trend but also give hope that the popular image of the Academy — stuffy, old farts mentally stuck in a generation long past gone — are just an incorrect notion.
This year is not one of those years.
I will not speak so much on the quality of the films chosen for the “big” categories, like Best Picture; whether it’s because I haven’t seen them or elaborating for or against would be exhausting and longer than anyone would care to read (it depends on what film we’re talking about here). But as someone who hopes to be involved in the industry one day, this year’s list is extremely discouraging.
I have not seen The Theory of Everything, so I cannot judge Eddie Redmayne’s performance critically. I’m sure the effort and work to become Stephen Hawking was a harrowing, challenging experience for the young actor and he executed it in picturesque fashion. His work may or may not deserve some recognition, sure. But as pointed out by critics like Vince Macini of UPROXX, his mere selection can draw blood from the most fervent of anti-Academy critics.
A handsome British heartthrob playing a tousle-haired, permanently smiling physicist with crooked glasses and a degenerative disease isn’t a performance that should be nominated for an Oscar, it’s a performance that should be nominated at a parody of the Oscars. Playing a nuanced character with depth and complexity seems a lot more impressive to me than smiling a lot and looking placid while feigning a disability. Aside from that, the filmmakers are trolling you. This film has been discussed as an Oscars vehicle since the first moment it was announced. It’s a film so blatantly pandering the producers knew all they had to do was get through it with a straight face and it would automatically rain laurels. It’s sort of like the awards movie equivalent of calling in sick and your excuse is a giant carbuncle on your sphincter, something so embarrassing no one will question it.
Along with Eddie Redmayne’s nomination, you may have noticed the movie Selma is hardly on this list. For Best Picture and Best Song (uh, OK) it remains in the race, but it has no stake in any of the awards that celebrate the individual effort where a lone figure is front and center for the world. Best Director for Ava DuVernay? Best Actor for David Oyelowo as a compelling Martin Luther King Jr.? Best Actress for Carmen Ejogo? Nope.
Our own MCDave had this to say in his review of Selma.
Some naysayers will declare DuVernay’s assumed Oscar nomination for Best Director as nothing more than a flashy headline, as she’d be the first female of color to ever be nominated. Yet, truth be told, she does a remarkable job and would be worthy of any such recognition.
Unfortunately we will never even see that headline. Ava DuVernay’s snub for Best Director is one of the strongest central points of contention this year against the Academy, and the Academy’s blunder is doing nothing to encourage new perspectives beyond the default settings.
DuVernay as a black woman — two characteristics that immediately separate DuVernay not just physically but in perspective and world view from the rest of the nominees — just her selection would have been a step forward for what feels like leaps backwards in social politics from the past year. Decades upon decades of misunderstandings and ill-communications between racial and gender divides came to a head in 2014, whether it was #GamerGate or Ferguson, and the awards celebrating the art from the Year of Turmoil has been spit in the wound. We’re parents in Toys ‘R Us and our children have piled on one too many toys in the shopping cart.
When I mean decades, I really do mean decades. The Huffington Post has pointed out that the 2015 Oscars is the whitest crop since 1998.
This is especially troubling when you consider that last year’s Oscars was a banner year, with a Best Supporting Actress award for Lupita Nyong’o and Steve McQueen taking home the Best Picture title as producer for “12 Years a Slave.” “Selma” is nominated in that category this year, so we may have a victory for Ava DuVernay’s film, but that nod — and another “Selma” nomination for Best Original Song — hardly counts as redemption here. As Chris Rock can tell you, there are still far too few people of color in the industry, but at least one non-white person* has been nominated each year in the four acting categories since the last whitest Oscars ever nearly two decades ago. Here’s the whole list:
I joked on Facebook after the nominees were announced that one of the most popular and critically-acclaimed movies of the year that featured an ethnically diverse cast was Disney’s Big Hero 6, which was nominated “only” for Best Animated Film. That’s not to knock animation, it’s just telling that among the only films of the year where people of all backgrounds came together as one unit to receive the richest prize in the game was a cartoon. Kinda shitty that a great movie like Guardians of the Galaxy could not be in the running, isn’t it?
Side note: I’m still trying to process that Big Hero 6, a totally random 5-issue Marvel series I bought on a whim a few years ago while in high school, is now in the running for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. Fucking mind-blowing.
#OscarNoms No female directors, screenwriters, or cinematographers. No actors of color. #diversity
— David Daniel (@CNNLADavid) January 15, 2015
Trending now is #OscarsSoWhite, a scathing response to the upsetting nominations. Like most sarcastic hashtags, many of the tweets are downright hilarious, further proof that the laughter sometimes is the best medicine. But wouldn’t it be nice to never have to be sick?
#OscarsSoWhite They're giving out pumpkin spice lattes instead of statues this year.
— Frances Locke (@lockedesign) January 15, 2015
There is no remedy or magic serum. It is a terrible problem, which is bound to happen when the voting board is obscenely narrowed to one particular taste. But why do the Academy have such a limited palette? Consider who their voters are.
From The LA Times:
Even with the 432 new voting members, the overall academy is still 93% white, a decrease of less than 1% from what The Times found in a 2012 membership study, and 76% male, also a less than 1% decrease from what The Times found two years ago.
If you have gotten to this point and you still ask yourself “Why is this such a bad thing?” the first thing I want you to do is seriously ask that question to yourself again. The second thing I want you to consider is that art is human expression, and yes even commercial films are art, and if the human expression is expressed by only one kind of human, is it really the complete experience?
Let me clarify that even the most popcorniest of movies are still art. The kid watching Batman undergoes an audio-visual experience and by doing so may learn a thing or two about the world, or increases his visual literacy, a woefully underrated subject that is barely taught in academia. But when the stories that compel him or her are influenced and formed by the elite few, the coming generations do not expand their perspectives or their worlds are co-opted and their living is not validated because they feel alone and isolated. They feel no one can relate to them. I know this, because when I was young and until I saw movies with other Asians in low to middle class households, I didn’t think I actually existed. This divide, in my humble opinion, is killing us; we lack empathy for others because we simply don’t see them enough, be it on the street or the screen.
With all my heart I want to believe that the Oscars are nothing but utter bullshit, they are pure posturing and if anything poisons the industry with Thunderdome-esque blood feuds, pressure, and decadent glamour. Yet, they cannnot be outright ignored. The theoretical kid I made up isn’t probably going to watch Foxcatcher or The Imitation Game, but kids grow up sometime.
The Oscars, in some monstrous way, still matter. Consider, again, Vince Mancini of UPROXX.
Maybe not to you, maybe not to me, maybe not to NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long, but in terms of which movies actually get made, awards matter because they matter to actors. Who are rivaled only by sparrows and military junta in their love of shiny medals. And because awards matter to actors, awards affect actors’ choice of projects. Which affects which movies get made, which affects which movies we see. Put simply, a lot of bad movies wouldn’t get made if A-list and up-and-coming actors weren’t jumping aboard solely for the chance to win awards. To say nothing of the more interesting scripts and novel approaches to material that get shoehorned into predictable awards vehicles in the hopes of pleasing predictable awards voters.
Typing with fury on my keyboard is therapeutic but it will do nothing to sway any of the Oscar voters who, in the incredibly slim chance are reading this at 2 AM. So, onwards to February 22.
