2015 Oscar Nominations Announced

The Academy Award nominations for 2015 have been announced. There is much crossover from the Oscar nominations and winners of the recent Golden Globes 2015 awards. “Birdman” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” each lead the pack, with nine nominations each. “The Imitation Game” received eight nods, while “Boyhood” and “American Sniper” are each in line for six Oscars nominations.

image from 4-designer.com
image from 4-designer.co

So far there seems to be no runaway winner, no dominant film with a huge number of nominations as when “Titanic” and “All About Eve” each earned 14 nominations in their respective years. “Titanic” won 11 and “Eve” won six. Since the Awards began, six films have gotten 13 nominations each, including “Gone With the Wind,” “Forrest Gump,” “Mary Poppins” and “From Here to Eternity.” Fifteen films have each snagged a dozen nominations each, and 23 films were each bestowed with eleven nominations.

Before this year’s pack of nominations, there were 30 movies that each received nine nominations. The only film that won all nine of its nominations was “The Last Emperor” in 1987.

The nominees for best picture this year are: “American Sniper,” “Birdman”, “Boyhood,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Imitation Game,” “Selma,” “The Theory of Everything,” “Whiplash.” This is a mix of drama and comedy, historical movies and contemporary stories. “Boyhood” won Best Film at the Golden Globes this year.

The nominees for directing are for the films “Birdman,” “Boyhood,” “Foxcatcher,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” and “The Imitation Game.” Perhaps “Foxcatcher” will be seen as the outlier because it didn’t get a Best Picture nomination.

The nominees for best Foreign Language Film are? Poland’s “Ida,” Russia’s “Leviathan,” Estonia’s “Tangerines,” Mauritania’s “Timbuktu” and Argentina’s “Wild Tales.” History is being made with this list because this is the first time that either Estonia or Mauritania has earned this kind of nomination.

Beyond the major acting categories of Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, there are several technical categories and others devoted to writing, songs, music, make up and hairstyling, and so on. Perhaps one of the most poignant nominations is for the song “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” by Glen Campbell, from the film “Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me.” This documentary follows longtime singer-songwriter Campbell in performance and in interview, dealing with his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

I would like to see “Boyhood” win for Best Picture. I enjoyed it immensely and think it is an unusual film, covering the life of a boy in real time. We shall see. Tune in on Sunday, February 22nd, 2015 to the annual show.

 

Ellen Levitt is the author of The Lost Synagogues of Brooklyn (2009), The Lost Synagogues of the Bronx and Queens (2011) and The Lost Synagogues of Manhattan (2013), all published by Avotaynu. She is a lifelong New Yorker, a veteran public school teacher, writer and photographer. Bird lover as well.