86th Academy Awards: Here are the 2014 Oscar Nominees – Any Thoughts?
Finally in. The much awaited Oscar Nominations! Take a look at the list below and let me know what you think. Do you agree with the Academy? Did they leave out anything you absolutely wanted to see on this list? Is it better or worse than other years or about on par? Just let me know what your thoughts are, I am very curious. The official Oscar Ceremony will take place March 2nd, 2014 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. Ellen DeGeneres will be hosting the show, so it should be good.
Since I’ve not yet seen many of these I will dedicate a more in depth reflection on the noms, once I do. I’ll just say that overall I’m fairly pleased with this year’s nominations. Of course there are the usual WTFs and way overrated and pandering films that are so annoying (and are also probably going to win more than one statue). Not too much Weinstein influence this year aside from a couple obvious films, but I don’t want to get too negative so I’ll just focus on what I love about this list.
I am very happy to see Italy nominated again after 9 years of absence in the Foreign Film category for The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza). Also as a Spike Jonze fan, it’s so cool that he got so much love this year for Her and even a nomination of Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. Truly amazing. Of course Blue Jasmine was another favorite of mine this past year, Before Midnight and I did love Philippe Le Sourd‘s fantastic cinematography on The Grandmaster, as well as Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave.
BEST PICTURE
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
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)
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Amy Adams (American Hustle)
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Judi Dench (Philomena)
Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
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)
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)
Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)
Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
June Squibb (Nebraska)
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine
Frozen
The Wind Rises
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Philippe Le Sourd (The Grandmaster)
Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity)
Bruno Delbonnel (Inside Llewyn Davis)
Phedon Papamichael (Nebraska)
Roger A. Deakins (Prisoners)
COSTUME DESIGN
Michael Wilkinson (American Hustle)
William Chang Suk Ping (The Grandmaster)
Catherine Martin (The Great Gatsby)
Michael O’Connor (The Invisible Woman)
Patricia Norris (12 Years a Slave)
DIRECTING
David O. Russell (American Hustle)
Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)
Alexander Payne (Nebraska)
Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen)
Cutie and the Boxer (Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher)
Dirty Wars (Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill)
The Square (Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer)
20 Feet from Stardom (Nominees to be determined)
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
CaveDigger (Jeffrey Karoff)
Facing Fear (Jason Cohen)
Karama Has No Walls (Sara Ishaq)
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas)
Reed Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall (Edgar Barens)
FILM EDITING
American Hustle (Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten)
Captain Phillips (Christopher Rouse)
Dallas Buyers Club (John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger)
12 Years a Slave (Joe Walker)
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium)
The Great Beauty (Italy)
The Hunt (Denmark)
The Missing Picture (Cambodia)
Omar (Palestine)
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Dallas Buyers Club (Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews)
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (Stephen Prouty)
The Lone Ranger (Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny)
ORIGINAL SCORE
The Book Thief (John Williams)
Gravity (Steven Price)
Her (William Butler and Owen Pallett)
Philomena (Alexandre Desplat)
Saving Mr. Banks (Thomas Newman)
ORIGINAL SONG
“Alone Yet Not Alone” from ALONE YET NOT ALONE Music by Bruce Broughton; Lyric by Dennis Spiegel
“Happy” from DESPICABLE ME 2 Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams
“Let it Go” from FROZEN Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
“The Moon Song” from HER Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze
“Ordinary Love” from MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson
PRODUCTION DESIGN
American Hustle Judy Becker (Production Design); Heather Loeffler (Set Decoration)
Gravity Andy Nicholson (Production Design); Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard (Set Decoration)
The Great Gatsby Catherine Martin (Production Design); Beverley Dunn (Set Decoration)
Her K.K. Barrett (Production Design); Gene Serdena (Set Decoration)
12 Years a Slave Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Alice Baker (Set Decoration)
SHORT FILM
Animated (Feral Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden)
Get a Horse! (Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim)
Mr. Hublot (Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares)
Possessions (Shuhei Morita)
Room on the Broom (Max Lang and Jan Lachauer)
SHORT FILM
Live Action Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me) (Esteban Crespo)
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything) (Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras)
Helium (Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson)
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?) (Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari)
The Voorman Problem (Mark Gill and Baldwin Li)
SOUND EDITING
All Is Lost (Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns)
Captain Phillips (Oliver Tarney Gravity Glenn Freemantle)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Brent Burge)
Lone Survivor (Wylie Stateman)
SOUND MIXING
Captain Phillips (Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro)
Gravity (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland)
Lone Survivor (Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow)
VISUAL EFFECTS
Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds)
Iron Man 3 (Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick)
The Lone Ranger (Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier)
Star Trek Into Darkness (Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton)
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Before Midnight (Written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke)
Captain Phillips (Screenplay by Billy Ray)
Philomena (Screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope)
12 Years a Slave (Screenplay by John Ridley)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Screenplay by Terence Winter)
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
American Hustle (Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell)
Blue Jasmine (Written by Woody Allen)
Dallas Buyers Club (Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack)
Her (Written by Spike Jonze)
Nebraska (Written by Bob Nelson)
black is white 
I’m quite surprised that American Hustle is leading the way with nominations, I thought it was good but not great. Other than that, not too many surprises though.
Agreed, and it’s still less than what Silver Linings Playbook got last year believe it or not.. I was a bit surprised they left out something like The Butler (not I’m complaining). I also thought Blue is the Warmest Color was a lock for foreign film and that maybe Inside Llewyn Davis would get more noms.
Other than that, of course the Weinsteins smartly pushed for The Grandmaster in categories other than best foreign film. ‘Bad Grandpa’ was surprising. Though I haven’t seen it.. So I guess the makeup must have been pretty spectacular 🙂
Haha I did laugh when I saw Bad Grandpa in there!
How the heckerson did Tom Hanks not get a nom for Captain Phillips? Also, I refuse to believe that Blue Is the Warmest Colour didn’t get a nom for the foreign language category. I just can’t.
Good call, those are some major snubs. Thank God we also have festivals to tell us about films like ‘Blue’!
Additionally, I can’t believe Blue Jasmine wasn’t nominated for best picture! I saw it last night and loved it.
Oh man, absolutely. I’ll have to dedicate a whole post to the major snubs, because the more I think of it the less happy I am about those nominations..
honestly I feel like 2013 was a weaker year for films than most… I know it won’t win Best Picture, but I think Dallas Buyers Club had the least “mistakes,” if that makes sense.
I kind of agree, but maybe there’s a bunch of 2013 films that haven’t gotten distribution yet (trying to be optimistic).
Makes sense 🙂 So that’s your favorite out of the Best Picture nominees?
Well, honestly I haven’t even seen half of the best picture nominees. Of those I have seen (American Hustle, Dallas Buyers Club, and 12 Years a Slave), I liked Dallas Buyers Club probably the best.
I’ve heard mixed things about Captain Phillips, Gravity, and the Wolf of Wall Street. I have a feeling I will really like Her, but wouldn’t be able to stand Philomena or Nebraska. I still have til March 2 to watch these movies and revise my opinions, though!
Ah, I see. Yeah, I haven’t seen all of them either, but at the same time I really couldn’t care less about some of those. So this year I decided that I’m just going to watch the ones I think I might actually like..