It is that time of year again when the nominees for the Academy Awards have been made. Once again I have seen none of the pictures nominated for Best Picture. Why would I be surprsed? It was no different last year either.
Brenna says, “But you have seen every movie ever made.” Well, I do enjoy watching films but I miss a lot of them.
Last year I decided after the nominees were announced to see all the movies nominated for Best Picture for the Academy Awards to see how I felt about them. Since the Oscars are to be given out on March 2nd that only gives me about five weeks to see all nine films. That may seem like plenty of time as it averages two films per week but I got stuff to do. Since time is limited I limit my viewing to just the Best Picture category. Sadly this means I may miss some nominees for big Academy Awards such as Joaquin Phoenix for Best Actor in The Master where he played Freddie Quell. Since often there are a slew of nominees for various categories that overlap into Best Picture I am pretty safe in getting a good idea of what is going on. (Sorry Joaquin. Love ya but I did miss that film.)
Last year after seeing all nine Academy Awards Best Picture nominees I was amazed how some films get nominated. I do remember living in Los Angeles and seeing all the campaigning to get films voted for. It seems pretty political to me. For instance, how does a piece of crap like Beasts of the Southern Wild or Silver Lining Playbook get nominated for Best Picture? Did the Academy run out of good films so they had to fill out the line up? And how in the world did Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook beat out Emmanuelle Riva in Amour? Really? I would demand a recount.
Here is the list from last year with the winners at the top of the list-
| Best Film | Best Actor | Best Actress |
|---|---|---|
| Argo | Daniel Day Lewis | Jennifer Lawrence |
| Amour | Bradley Cooper | Jessica Chastain |
| Beasts of the Southern Wild | Hugh Jackman | Emmanuelle Riva |
| Django Unchained | Joaquin Phoenix | Quvenzhane Wallis |
| Les Misérables | Denzel Washington | Naomi Watts |
| Life of Pi | ||
| Lincoln | ||
| Silver Lining Playbook | ||
| Zero Dark Thirty |
This year we have the following for
Academy Awards Best Picture
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
I saw The Wolf of Wall Street yesterday and was planning on seeing 12 Years a Slave today though we shall see if I can get that in. I thought The Wolf… was pretty good actually. At three hours it was a tad long and there were scenes that sort of dagged on and could have been shortened. Should it win for Best Picture? Too early to tell yet but I am hoping there is something else on the list that is better. If that was the best I will surely be disappointed in the selection.
If you get a chance to see the special effects for the movie do so. Wow! That team did some awesome work. I really thought the characters were walking on a pier in Italy! Good stuff.
Best 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)
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Amy Adams (American Hustle)
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Judi Dench (Philomena)
Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
Last years list of Best Picture nominees were pretty strong with the exception of Beasts of the Southern Wild and Silver Linings Playbook.
Who do you think will take home the Oscar this year? Leave your predictions in the comments below and we’ll see you on March 2nd.