When you're dealing with something as subjective as award nominations, it's impossible to please everyone. That is never more the case than with the Academy Award nominations.
The 2015 Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and for the most part, the people and films you expected to nab some noms did. Birdman received nine nominations, including Best Picture. Eddie Redmayne is nominated for Best Actor for his performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Richard Linklater earned a nod for his 12-years-in-the-making masterpiece Boyhood.
However, it seemed like there were quite a few nominees that were inexplicably left out of the running and others that somehow got nominations. These are the nine biggest snubs and surprises from the 2015 Oscar nominations that shocked me more than Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announcing a nom for "Dick Poop."
1. Marion Cotillard's Nomination For Best Actress
I don't think Marion Cotillard was on many people's radar as this year's awards season started heating up, except for maybe some critics organizations in various cities across the country. Still, she snuck right in there to snag an Oscar nom for Best Actress for her performance in the Belgian film Two Days, One Night. Cotillard already won an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as Edith Piaf in 2007's La Vie En Rose, so she's no less a contender for this year's prize.
2. American Sniper Slayed The Competition
American Sniper was one of the most-nominated films this year with six in total, including Best Picture and Bradley Cooper for Best Actor. I was shocked by this. This film and its lead actor have not garnered the same universal acclaim as most of the other films nominated. Cooper's nomination is especially a surprise. However, the Oscars love them some Clint Eastwood and biopics did rule the nominations this year, so American Sniper fits right into that trend.
3. Selma Was Majorly Snubbed
I think this is going to be the biggest headline out of the Oscar nominations this year. Selma received outstanding reviews across the board, better than some of the other films nominated this year, and yet it was overlooked in two major categories: Best Director for Ava DuVernay and Best Actor for David Oyelowo's performance as Martin Luther King, Jr. At least it got some Oscar love in the Best Picture and Best Original Song categories.
4. No Best Actor Nomination For Jake Gyllenhaal
Leading up to the announcement today, there was a lot of talk of Jake Gyllenhaal scoring a nomination for his performance in Nightcrawler. But as was the case with Selma's Oyelowo, it looks like Cooper edged him out of a nomination as well. Better start campaigning for that Tony nomination, Gyllenhaal.
5. Foxcatcher Got A Lot Of Nominations... Except For Best Picture
This was weird. Foxcatcher earned nods in a bunch of major categories (Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay), but it somehow didn't receive any recognition for Best Picture. With eight out of 10 possible films nominated, there was definitely room for one more. I have no idea why this happened.
6. Emma Stone Landed A Nom For Best Supporting Actress
I love Emma Stone, and I think she was brilliant in Birdman. When she was on screen, we didn't see the whole quirky "Emma Stone" persona but a troubled young woman with daddy issues. Even though I think the nomination is well deserved, for some reason, I didn't think the Academy would actually recognize her performance. This nomination makes me very happy.
7. Gillian Flynn Was Gone From The Best Adapted Screenplay Category
This one I'm kind of angry about. I thought Gillian Flynn did an impeccable job of adapting her hit novel Gone Girl for the David Fincher film released last year. She successfully translated a complicated story whose power was very much in its literary presentation and turned it into a provocative and suspenseful film, even if you already knew the whole story.
8. The LEGO Movie Was Blocked
The LEGO Movie was not nominated for Best Animated Feature. I repeat, The LEGO Movie was not nominated for Best Animated Feature. Twitter was unhappy about it. I'm unhappy about it. There is no justice in the world.
9. The Overall Lack Of Diversity
Last week's Golden Globes ceremony was such a great night for women that it was kind of sobering to see the Oscar nominations not let us continue to ride this high. No women were nominated in traditionally male-heavy categories, such as Best Director and Best Screenplay, even though there were formidable nominees like the aformentioned DuVernay for Selma and Gillian Flynn for Gone Girl. Racial diversity was also lacking among the nominees, especially in a year that has a movie like Selma. However, this really isn't that surprising. It's more just sad.
