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ANNOUNCEMENT: the 2016 Oscar nominations! (and some thoughts)

David J. Fowlie

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This morning at 5:30am (pacific), the Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts announced their Oscar nominations, presenting accolades and visions of gold statuettes to certain individuals and films from 2015. The announcements were streamed online on both YouTube and Entertainment Weekly, as well as oscar.org and they were also broadcast on television on ABC. Who in the world was up at the crack of dawn to read off the nominees? Directors Guillermo del Toro and Ang Lee announced the first round of nominees, which included categories for: animated feature film, cinematography, costume design, documentary feature, documentary short subject, makeup and hairstyling, original song, animated short film, live action short film, sound editing, and sound mixing.

Then the second round was announced by actor John Krasinski (whose presence promotes Michael Bay’s “Benghazi” movie) and Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs (you may remember her “Dick Poop” mishap from last year? well, she did again by botching the pronunciation of last year’s Oscar winner, director  Alejandro G. Iñárritu – it’s  ih-nyar-ee-too). They named the nominees for: actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, directing, film editing, foreign language film, original score, best picture, production design, visual effects, adapted screenplay, and original screenplay.

And the nominees are….  

 

BEST PICTURE

  BEST DIRECTOR

  BEST ACTRESS

  BEST ACTOR

  BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

    BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

    BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

  BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

  BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

  BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

    BEST FILM EDITING

  BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

BEST SOUND EDITING

BEST SOUND MIXING

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FEATURE

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

 

 

Just like every year, some will be disappointed while others will be elated with these nominees. I’m pretty content with them, knowing how Oscar voters typically vote – how would they not nominate Bryan Cranston as Trumbo, a controversial Hollywood writer? That’s kind of a no-brainer. Here are my other thoughts on any surprises and snubs….

I was quite surprised to not see Sorkin or Tarantino (“The Hateful Eight”) – especially Sorkin, whose screenplay was the star of Danny Boyle’s “Steve Jobs”. Overall though, I’m really pleased with the nominees in the Best Original Screenplay category – especially with the love for both “Ex Machina” and “Inside Out”.

I was fine seeing “Carol” and its director Todd Haynes left out of their respective Best Picture and Best Director categories, since it made room for “Room” director Lenny Abrahamson to secure a nomination for the first time, I suppose. At the same time, it looks like Abrahamson took Sir Ridley Scott’s slot and even though I liked “The Martian”, I’m fine with that – “Room” could use more exposure. My enthusiasm for “Carol” has waned since my viewing back in November, but I still respect it on many levels.

It’s already being said this morning that we once again have on our hands a list of ‘white-washed’ Oscar nominees – at least, in the acting categories – with a disregard of votes for any minority actors. It’s typical of the Academy and my only bit of consolation in this are would be to say that the Oscars aren’t the end-all and rarely do voters have an idea of what else is out there beyond what’s being buzzed about. So, studios that have excellent work from non-white actors to promote should do so with more urgency.

“The Revenant” leads with 12 nominations, followed by “Mad Max: Fury Road” with 10 nominations.

Actor/comedian Chris Rock, who hasn’t hosted since “Million Dollar Baby” won in 2005, will be hosting once again this year . The 88th Oscars will be presented on Feb. 28th, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, airing live on ABC beginning at 7 pm (eastern).    

 

 

 

 

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