Obligatory Reactions Part I

by Ken B.

Ahahahahaha…

Well, the Oscar nominations were announced, so let’s take the time to go down the list and see how my predictions fared. The nominations presentation is the only part of the season I really care about – I struggled to stay awake watching the ceremony last year, and seriously considered shutting it off and reading the list in the morning on at least one occasion.

A boldfaced nominee indicates that I predicted it. I’ve only seen the ones I reviewed. I’ll repeat my mantra I use throughout Oscar season: you don’t need to see these movies to know the voting trends.

BEST PICTURE

RESULT: 7/9

THOUGHTS: Surprised by no Inside Llewyn Davis or Saving Mr. Banks. I didn’t expect Philomena to be nominated. It was good, but I liked Saving Mr. Banks better.

BEST DIRECTOR

  • Alfonso Cuarón – Gravity
  • Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave
  • Alexander Payne – Nebraska
  • David O. Russell – American Hustle
  • Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street

RESULT: 4/5

BEST ACTOR

  • 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

RESULT: 4/5

BEST ACTRESS

RESULT: 4/5

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • 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

RESULT: 3/5

THOUGHTS: Tom Hanks snubbed twice…

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine
  • Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle
  • Luptia Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave
  • Julia Roberts – August: Osage County
  • June Squibb – Nebraska

RESULT: 3/5

THOUGHTS: No nomination for Oprah, huh?

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • American Hustle
  • Blue Jasmine
  • Dallas Buyers Club
  • Her
  • Nebraska

RESULT: 4/5

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

RESULT: 5/5

THOUGHTS: 😀

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

  • The Croods
  • Despicable Me 2
  • Ernest & Celestine
  • Frozen
  • The Wind Rises

RESULT: 4/5

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

  • The Broken Circle Breakdown
  • The Missing Picture
  • The Hunt
  • The Great Beauty
  • Omar

RESULT: 3/5

BEST DOCUMENTARY

  • The Act of Killing
  • Cutie and the Boxer
  • Dirty Wars
  • The Square
  • 20 Feet from Stardom

RESULT: 3/5

THOUGHTS: Wasn’t Blackfish supposed in here at one point?

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • The Grandmaster
  • Gravity
  • Inside Llewyn Davis
  • Nebraska
  • Prisoners

RESULT: 2/5

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

  • 12 Years a Slave
  • American Hustle
  • The Grandmaster
  • The Great Beauty
  • The Invisible Woman

RESULT: 2/5

BEST EDITING

RESULT: 3/5

BEST SCORE

RESULT: 3/5

THOUGHTS: I’m glad the score for Philomena was nominated, ‘twas a good one.

BEST SONG

  • “Alone, Yet Not Alone” – Alone Yet Not Alone
  • “Happy” – Despicable Me 2
  • “Let it Go” – Frozen
  • “The Moon Song” – Her
  • “Ordinary Love” – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

RESULT: 2/5
EDIT (Jan. 29, 8:51PM): “Alone Yet Not Alone” has been rescinded as a nominee. For original scoring purposes, I keep the original record here.

FINAL RESULT: 56/84 (67%)

It beats my 61% from last year, but my total for all 24 categories on goldderby.com is 60%, down from 63% last year.