Boyhood Vs. Birdman For All The Oscars
Two career-defining films will battle it out for the top spot in what figures to be a truly entertaining ceremony (seriously) hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.
The Oscar nominations are in, and, for the first time in forever, two legitimately good original films will duke it out in almost every category. Boyhood and Birdman, two films helmed by Hollywood outsiders, each featuring superb direction and acting, will by vying for Best Picture and Best Director, while their respective actors will duke it out in almost every category. Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson’s inter-war fable, also received a bevy of nominations, entering the affair as a hand-crafted dark horse for Best Director and even Best Picture. Notable snubs include Selma’s Avu DuVernay for Best Director, and The Lego Movie for Best Animated Feature (which is dumb).
The sentimental favorite for Best Actor would be Michael Keaton, whose turn in Birdman marked the resurgence of an actor who is pretty much universally adored (as evidenced in this now-classic Onion article). Competing against Keaton are several actors who will almost certainly be given nominations in the future, including Steve Carrell, Bradley Cooper, and Benedict Cumberbatch.
For Best Actress, the field is more open. With no leads from either Boyhood or Birdman contending, the field pits former winners Marion Cotillard and Reese Witherspoon against repeat nominee Julianne Moore and rising British beauty Felicity Jones. Expect Moore to take home the prize, less for her performance this year than a lifetime of excellent work.
For the Best Supporting Actress and Actor categories, Meryl Streep receives her insane 19th Academy Award nomination, but look to Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke to take home the awards as prizes for their decade-spanning work in Boyhood, a testament to their own longevity as actors, their fearlessness in aging on-screen in an age-obsessed Hollywood, and the fact that neither has won an Academy Award before.
This brings us to the showdown of the night, with the Best Director category most likely signaling who will also take home the Best Picture category, as each film represents an almost total vision by their respective auteurs. Linklater is one of the pioneers of the DIY independent film movement, and Boyhood, which took him over a decade to make, is his crowning achievement. This doesn’t mean that Linklater has never given in to the whims of Hollywood (see Bad News Bears), but he’s always done so with an eye for financing his independent films, and has always been eager to try something brilliant and audacious that could fail spectacularly. That Boyhood, a film that had never been attempted before (which is rare in the pantheon of Academy Award-nominated films) succeeded, is proof of Linklater’s brilliance, his guile, and just how much he actually has opened the door for mainstream American cinema to take a risk (between Transformers productions, of course). Iñárritu’s Birdman is brilliant and one of the best films to come around in a long while. But it won’t win. The Oscars will be Linklater’s night, as Hollywood turns its eyes to Austin in tribute to one of the most transformative American filmmakers working today.
The full list of nominees are below:
Best Picture
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
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
Photos by Everett Collection
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