I just read in the New York Times that there is a sub-profession of Hollywood journalists known as "Oscarologists" who predict the nominees a year in advance! It is all based on studio and publicist 'buzz,' so it is just another form of Hollywood navel-gazing, but there are worse jobs in the world.
I don't know how they fared this year, as I can count at least one snub is almost* all the categories for this year's awards.
*excluding Supporting Actor, Costumes, Make-Up, Art Direction (now called "Production Design") and the two Sound categories.
Let me start with the most-egregious omission: BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS. I have no problem with the Academy recognizing the exemplary work done by the great Laura Dern in WILD. She is fully deserving of a nomination, Keira Knightley and perennial nominee Meryl Streep, on the other hand .... are two joke nominees that come courtesy of, respectively, the Harvey Weinstein nomination machine and of the "Meryl can do no wrong" mindset that grips Hollywood every awards season.
They have robbed a spot for these three deserving nominees:
- JESSICA CHASTAIN in "A Most Violent Year"
- NAOMI WATTS in either "Birdman" or "St. Vincent"
- RENE RUSSO in "Nightcrawler"
Other snubs are listed below:
BEST PICTURE - "Foxcatcher" and "Gone Girl"
ACTOR - Jake Gyllenhall "Nightcrawler" and David Oyelowo "Selma"
ACTRESS - Amy Adams "Big Eyes"
DIRECTOR - Ava duVernay "Selma" and "James Marsh "The Theory of Everything"
FOREIGN FILM - the excellent "Force Majeure (Turist)" from SWEDEN
Original SCREENPLAY - J.C. Chandor, "A Most Violent Year"
Adapted SCREENPLAY - Gillian Flynn "Gone Girl" and Nick Hornby "Wild"
CINEMATOGRAPHY - "Interstellar"
FILM EDITING - "Birdman" and "Interstellar"
ORIGINAL SCORE - Antonio Sanchez "Birdman"** (a travesty, especially since Hans Zimmer got a free pass for his bombastic (loud!) and failed attempt to approximate Kubrick's 2001 soundscape for "Interstellar." He gets my John Williams "oh-no-he-didn't" (get another undeserved nomination) prize.
Original SONG - Lorde!
ANIMATION - The LEGO Movie
DOCUMENTARY - "Life Itself" -- about Roger Ebert; far and away, the best doc of the year!
VISUAL EFFECTS - "The Hobbit"
There you have it. Boyhood and Birdman had better sweep this year, to make it up to me!!
**An earlier post mis-identified the composer as Alex Sanchez. Also, I have since learned that hte Academy deemed his score INELIGIBLE, for having too much 'previously-recorded material.' Whatev!
