It’s Oscar season! Nominations came out 2 weeks earlier than the normal timeline, preventing the Golden Globe winners from getting a potential bounce towards a nomination. The upside to this is that the Globe winners will now get a bump towards winning, not just a nomination, however, with the Oscar ceremony still six and a half weeks away there is plenty of time to forget about Sunday’s Globes. The nominations have never been universally accepted and this year was no different. There were also some pleasant surprises that came from this morning’s announcement but since we have the next 45 days are going to be widely focusing on these I figure I will use today’s entry simply to make my gripes about how I feel some things should have gone so we can then forget about them and move on to those still in contention for Oscar glory.
The biggest snub this year is not a single name but instead an entire category: Best Director. Katherine Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), Ben Affleck (Argo), Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained), PT Anderson (The Master), and Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Rises). Looking at that list I would say that 2013 would be the strongest selection of directors we have had in years. Not a single one of those names will be announced as the winner of an Oscar in 2013. None of them were nominated. The only choice from the Academy’s list that I fully agree with is Ang Lee (Life of Pi). Out of five nominees the Academy got four wrong. I can even accept Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild) because his work was phenomenal and the movie deserves some glory, but I don’t know how he skipped over all five names from my list. In a strong year for directing the statue has practically been handed to Steven Spielberg (Lincoln) for allowing Daniel Day-Lewis to act as president. It’s something that truly baffles me.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Bernie, and Magic Mike all were getting a late push for some nominations and yet were shut out completely. While Bernie (Screenplay) and Magic Mike (Supporting Actor Matthew McConaughey) were pushing for one spot, it was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel that had an outside shot for a Best Picture nomination and legitimate hope with Best Supporting Actress for Maggie Smith, and Screenplay and walked away with nothing. While I personally don’t mind these films getting ignored, it was surprising none the least to not see them have their names called at all.
Moonrise Kingdom gets nominate for Best Original Screenplay, and nothing else. When I first saw the film and was hailing it my favorite (for about 2 hours) of 2012 I also claimed that if the list was still a guaranteed 10 nominations I would guarantee it’s place in the field, but with a fluctuating total I didn’t see it happening. I managed to truly foresee the future as nine Best Picture nominees were announced (a surprise in itself) and it is widely believed that Moonrise Kingdom was the next film in line if it would have been 10. Sad to see such a great film get such little recognition.
Speaking of screenplays, the two I was pulling for the most both got left out leaving them completely ignored by the Academy. Looper was in contention for original screenplay while The Perks of Being a Wallflower was hoping to claim one of the adapted screenplay nominations. It looked like they both had a decent chance late in the game, but ultimately they were left off. While not completely surprising for a movie involving time travel and a movie about high school, it would have been icing on the cake.
As you have probably heard by now, Seth MacFarlane is hosting the show on February 24th. This is clearly done to try and attract a larger and younger audience trying to tap into the success of Ted (which did get a nomination for original song). Unfortunately, they still don’t get what drives viewers: The nominated movies. Nobody is going to tune in to see if The Avengers is going to win for their special effects, and while I don’t think the film was near Best Picture worthy, Skyfall was. There was even talk that it had a shot to break into the mold, which would be a first for a Bond film. Ultimately, this was not to be. Skyfall did receive five nominations but none in the major categories and none that will get Bond fans to tune in.
The Dark Knight Rises was never a legitimate Best Picture threat. It was never going to get Christopher Nolan nominated as director. However, considering the reason there is no longer a rigid five Best Picture nominees is the perceived snub of The Dark Knight there was hope that there would be some nominations to acknowledge the trilogy as a whole. Sadly this didn’t happen. Wally Pfister didn’t get looked at for cinematography, Jonathan Nolan didn’t get recognized for his screenplay, and the effects were apparently not Oscar-worthy. The Dark Knight Rises received a total of zero nominations.
Leonardo DiCaprio. I could go off on a giant tangent here, and I will, but not today. Expect a much more in depth look at this blasphemous snub tomorrow.
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