No Best Animated Feature nomination for The LEGO Movie?! And only two nominations for Selma?!
1. Only two nominations for Selma?!
While it's true that Selma earned a Best Picture nomination, with only one other nod to its name — Best Original Song, for "Glory" — this film has the strange distinction of being regarded by the Academy as one of the best films of the year in sum, but not in any of its parts.
And this is fucking depressing. Yes, there has been a great deal of press about Selma's perceived slights against historical accuracy, specifically the legacy of President Lyndon B. Johnson (played in the film by Tom Wilkinson). Yes, Paramount Pictures has been criticized for not sending out DVD screeners of the film to all the members of the various Hollywood guilds, as has become the custom for most movies vying for major Oscar hardware. And yes, the film's limited Christmas theatrical release meant that the movie had precious little time to gain a toehold in an awards season where two of the biggest nominees this year (Boyhood and The Grand Budapest Hotel) were released before September.
But come on. Historically based movies have been fudging with history for dramatic effect in ways small and large since movies have existed, and many have still gone on to win Best Picture, including 12 Years a Slave , Argo , The King's Speech , A Beautiful Mind , Gladiator , Titanic , Braveheart , Schindler's List … You get my point. Acting like this movie's perceived historical inaccuracies are somehow a disqualifying moral lapse is itself oddly ignorant of filmmaking history.
And while Paramount should have been more aggressive about putting this movie in front of busy members of the film industry, Selma had been playing in theaters in New York and L.A. for two weeks before nominations were due. This is one of the most acclaimed, relevant, and discussed movies of the year. Absent widespread studio screeners, the onus here should be at least as much on individual Academy members to see the damn film any way they can.
Certainly, one should allow for the fact that some Academy members may just have not cared for Selma enough to vote for it. But the absence of Ava DuVernay's incisive and visually stunning work from the Best Director category and David Oyelowo's commanding and soulful performance from the Best Actor category — not to mention the film's absence in categories like Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Costume Design — feels like more than a matter of individual taste and a botched awards season campaign. And they promise to cast a disquieting shadow over this year's Oscars.
Paramount Pictures
2. No Best Animated Feature nomination for The LEGO Movie?!
Everything is not awesome. I don't even know what to say here. The LEGO Movie was one of the very best animated films of the year. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. Even its style of animation was unique and captivating. Maybe the film’s brief live-action coda was deemed by some voters to be disqualifying? If so, that is insane!
Warner Bros.
3. No Best Actress nomination for Jennifer Aniston in Cake?
My colleague — and friend! — Kate Aurthur and I are convinced that this movie doesn't exist and was concocted as an awards-season lure to make us all pod people. Others who claim to have seen it tell me the movie is real and its star Jennifer Aniston is quite good in it as a woman suffering from chronic pain, but they are probably pod people. Regardless, SAG, Golden Globes, and Critics Choice nominations were apparently not enough to propel Aniston to the Oscars, and instead Marion Cotillard was nominated for her acclaimed performance in Two Days, One Night as a factory worker fighting to keep her job. I am 99% certain Cotillard isn't a pod person.
Cinelou Releasing
No comments:
Post a Comment