2015 Oscar Nominations: Thoughts/Analysis

Best picture

The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Bridge of Spies
Spotlight
The Big Short
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road

As much as I want to get annoyed at Carol being snubbed for Best Picture...I really can't because of the strength of the field as a whole. The Martian and Brooklyn are in my top 5 for the year, I loved Mad Max (pleasantly surprised by the nomination), Bridge of Spies and Room, and just re-visiting The Revenant really has strengthened my feelings towards the film a great deal. Still haven't seen Spotlight or The Big Short but will hopefully do so soon. Can only hope they won't annoy me too much about, yes, I have to bring it up again, Carol being snubbed, I mean unlikely that they'll impress me more than that fantastic masterpiece but oh well. Anyway I digress, because if we're going into snubs The Hateful Eight, The Force Awakens, Creed, The End of the Tour, etc. would all be basis for complaints too so I guess I should just be happy, for example, that Brooklyn got in despite relative lack of hype beforehand.

Should win: Either The Martian or Brooklyn. Highly unlikely, yes, but one can dream. Out of the more feasible choices, though, I would not mind a Mad Max upset at all.

Will win: Spotlight. With Carol out of the picture I think it's right back in the game again, with a vengeance. Although the 12 nominations for The Revenant lead me to believe it's pretty game for a win too.

 

Best director

Adam McKay, The Big Short
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, The Revenant
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Lenny Abrahamson, Room

Can't say I see anything too amazing about the direction in The Big Short based on the trailers but I'll reserve judgement. Loved Miller's work and Inarritu and Abrahamson did some stellar directorial input into their respective works, and any of the three would be very deserving winners. Surprised to see Todd Hayne's beautiful work in Carol and Steven Speilberg's brilliant direction in Bridge of Spies get snubbed but I can deal with them...well not really, because I thought they did excellent work, but I'm more annoyed that Ridley Scott didn't get in. It might be his last chance to get a nom and his work on The Martian would've been a very worthy win.

Should win: Miller. Miller. Miller.

Will win: I'm thinking McCarthy. I would've bet on a split for Inarritu winning Best Director if he hadn't just won last year.

Best actress

Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Having seen all these performances apart from Lawrence I have to say, a job well done but I don't know...it's solid enough, but I don't think to the extent that it reflects just how great the Lead Actress field was this year. Carey Mulligan and Emily Blunt both delivered brilliant work this year that was never really in the running but, nevertheless, should've been considered, and there's a certain someone in the wrong category who should've been on here, and should've won.

Should win: Ronan or Blanchett, I loved them both just about equally. Maybe Ronan more so, because Blanchett already has two Oscars.

Will win: Larson without question, and I have no qualms whatsoever.

Best actor

Matt Damon, The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo

It's a shame some performances with strong momentum earlier on in the year like Johnny Depp in Black Mass got snubbed in the end and I still stand by Fassbender being nominated for the wrong film completely. However, without having seen Redmayne I do think this is a fairly acceptable lineup, mostly due to my #2 Male Leading performance of the year Damon getting in, which I was worried he might not get due to the subtleties and comedic nature of his performance.

Should win: Damon. No question about it, he holds together and makes such a compelling treat, out of one of the most lead actor-reliant blockbusters this year.

Will win: DiCaprio (and after re-watching The Revenant I don't think I'll have as much of a problem with that as before).

 Best supporting actress

Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Two strong cases of category fraud here by Vikander nad Mara. With regards to Mara...I don't even care any more. On one hand I'd love my favourite female performance of the last 2 decades or so to get the win. On the other hand, her winning would deprive a proper character actress/supporting player, and very deserving nominee, Leigh, for a win.

Should win: UGH I DON'T KNOW. Mara I guess just because I love her performance so much, but it's so category fraud it hurts and I might just go for Leigh.

Will win: Mara.

Best supporting actor

Christian Bale, The Big Short
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed

TOM HARDY IS AN OSCAR NOMINEE. Now we've got that out of the way, and his well-deserved nomination to boot, what about the rest? Well Stallone's my #2 of the year now (behind Del Toro) and I loved Rylance too. Haven't seen Ruffalo or Bale, the ensemble players, so am curious to see how they pan out.Very surprised, and quite disappointed, to see that Elba was snubbed for his magnetic turn as a village guerrilla leader in Beasts of No Nation.

Should win: Any of Hardy, Rylance and Stallone winning will be met with rapturous response from me.

Best original screenplay

Bridge of Spies - Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Ex Machina - Alex Garland
Inside Out - Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley. Original story by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen
Spotlight - Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer
Straight Outta Compton - Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff. Original story by S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff

Ex Machina being nominated here was such a pleasant surprise. I'd feared it'd all go under the radar but it seems like Hollywood's taken account of Garland's wonderfully intelligent script. Am perfectly fine/haven't seen the others, but I must say...QUENTIN TARANTINO? It's such a weird snub seeing as he'd just won the Golden Globes.

Should win: Ex Machina.

Will win: Spotlight (again, I need to watch it).

Best original score

Bridge of Spies - Thomas Newman
Carol - Carter Burwell
The Hateful Eight - Ennio Morricone
Sicario - Jóhann Jóhannsson
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - John Williams

This is probably the one category I am 100% happy with, as I loved the score for all five of these films, as well as just loving the films themselves. In fact, for my own personal Oscars, this would probably be the exact same lineup I'd put out.

Should win: Would love for any of them to win, and at least one of them will, so all's good.

Will win: The Hateful Eight.

Best adapted screenplay

The Big Short - Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
The Martian - Drew Goddard
Room - Emma Donoghue
Brooklyn - Nick Hornby
Carol - Phyllis Nagy

Nothing too surprising here. Glad to see the excellent script for The Martian being nominated here, it alongside everything else being quite high quality, high number of nominations sort of fare.

Should win: Brooklyn.

Will win: Brooklyn.

Best production design

Bridge of Spies - Adam Stockhausen, Rena DeAngelo and Bernard Henrich
The Danish Girl - Eve Stewart and Michael Standish
Mad Max: Fury Road - Colin Gibson and Lisa Thompson
The Martian - Arthur Max and Celia Bobak
The Revenant - Jack Fisk and Hamish Purdy

Again, no problems at all with this here except, again, would've liked to see Carol here. But leave me alone with my subjective meanderings.

Should win: Mad Max: Fury Road.

Will win: Mad Max: Fury Road.

Best costume design

Carol - Sandy Powell
Cinderella - Sandy Powell
The Danish Girl - Paco Delgado
Mad Max: Fury Road - Jenny Beavan
The Revenant - Jacqueline West

Should win: Carol.

Will win: Carol of course, to make up for ALL THE SNUBS.

Best original song

Earned It, Fifty Shades of Grey
Manta Ray, Racing Extinction
Simple Song #3, Youth
Til It Happens To You, The Hunting Ground
Writing’s on the Wall, Spectre

Note: was kind of disappointed to see Love & Mercy snubbed here, as well as See You Again. On the other hand, definitely know what I'm rooting for now...

Should win: Writing's on the Wall.

Will win: Writing's on the Wall.

Best animated film

Anomalisa
Boy and the World
Inside Out
Shaun the Sheep the Movie
When Marnie Was There

Best documentary

Amy
Cartel Land
The Look of Silence
What Happened, Miss Simone?
Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom

Best cinematography

Carol - Ed Lachman
The Hateful Eight - Robert Richardson
Mad Max: Fury Road - John Seale
The Revenant - Emmanuel Lubezki
Sicario - Roger Deakins

All five nominees were very deserving, and enjoyably so in very different ways, from the languidly elegant tones of Lachman's work for Carol to the ramped up  tension of The Hateful Eight and Sicario generated by the camerawork, to the sheer exhilaration of Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant.

Should win: Carol

Will win: The Revenant

Best animated short

Bear Story
Prologue
Sanjay’s Super Team
We Can’t Leave Without Cosmos
World of Tomorrow

Best make-up and hair

Mad Max: Fury Road - Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damien Martin
The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared - Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
The Revenant - Sian Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini

Kind of surprised Black Mass didn't quite make the cut. I think though the make-up and hair in The Revenant was very effective in uglifying the characters, I really would not hesistate a second in giving Mad Max the win.

Best visual effects

Ex Machina - Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara BennettMad Max: Fury Road - Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams
The Martian - Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence and Steven Warner
The Revenant - Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould

All deserving, no qualms.

Should win: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Will win: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best sound editing

Mad Max: Fury Road - Mark Mangini and David White
The Martian - Oliver Tarney
The Revenant - Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender
Sicario - Alan Robert Murray
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Matthew Wood and David Acord

All the technical love for Sicario is making me a very happy bunny indeed. Anyway, once again the Oscars did good here as I thought all nominees made great use of the auditory medium to generate such particular atmospheres to their respective stories.

Should win: Sicario

Will win: The Martian

Best short film

Ave Maria
Day One
Everything Will Be Okay
Shok
Stutterer

Best sound mixing

Bridge of Spies - Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin
Mad Max: Fury Road - Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
The Martian - Paul Massey, Mark Taylor and Mac Ruth
The Revenant - Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson

Should win: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Will win: The Revenant

Best short documentary

Body Team 12
Chau, beyond the Lines
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Last Day of Freedom

Best editing

The Big Short - Hank Corwin
Mad Max: Fury Road - Margeret Sixel
The Revenant - Stephen Mirrione
Spotlight - Tom McArdle
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey

Happy here, nothing to complain about.

Should win: Mad Max: Fury Road.

Will win: Mad Max/The Revenant

Best foreign language film

Embrace of the Serpent
Mustang
Son of Saul
Theeb
A War