Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
The rest.
Hey, I've seen all nine movies! How about that.
Not a lot of huge surprises here. I made some crazy longshot predictions on Twitter last night; the only one that came true was Amy Adams for Lead Actress, and even that wasn't so crazy. It's still too soon to say for certain, but American Hustle's position for Best Picture is stronger than ever now. Four-for-four in the acting categories, plus Picture, Director, Editing and a screenplay nod, for the second David O. Russell film in a row is a remarkable accomplishment (got to be a first).
12 Years, which everyone thought was a lock to win back in September, has some serious competition now. I'd be quite happy to see it win, but who knows? It's a really close race. I'll say this much, though: if 12 Years wins, I suspect it may signal a sea change in the Academy's thinking, in that a high-minded, artistic movie with something to say from a little-known black director can beat a more entertaining, feel-good kind of movie, especially after three straight years of crowd-pleaser movies winning Best Picture. (Not that crowd-pleasers are inherently inferior.)
Yay for Sally Hawkins getting in, and this nod doesn't feel like a make-up for missing out for Happy-Go-Lucky, because she does deserve this one. Also yay for newcomers Barkhad Abdi and Lupita Nyong'o making the cut.... and that's all I have to say about the nominees right now. Yes, there are movies and people I wish could have gotten in, but that's true every year. Very little feels certain in this year's race, which means it'll be a race worth paying attention to.
Thoughts?
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Previously:
2010 nominees
2011 nominees
2012 nominees
I don't understand what happened to Fruitvale Station. One of the year's best, and the Academy has recognized independent films like this in the past.
ReplyDeleteIt came out in the summer, for one thing. For another, it was one of several Weinstein movies jockeying for position in a really competitive year. The Weinsteins didn't have that one thoroughbred they could ride all the way to the winner's circle, like The Artist.
ReplyDeleteToo bad for Fruitvale. I agree, it was a powerful movie.
It was on my ten best list: http://eventized.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-ten-best-new-films-i-saw-in-2013.html
ReplyDeleteAnd it'll probably be on mine as well.
ReplyDelete