Based on other awards nominations and awards already given there are certain nominations that are expected to be given and although I haven’t seen many of the nominated movies, I did have a few personal opinions on what should have been nominated.
This year there was a new voting system which meant that the best picture nominees could have been anywhere from 5-10 with an eventual outcome of nine nominees. As it turns out the exact same nine as were nominated for the Critic’s choice award best picture, except they had ten nominees. The tenth film was Drive which I have seen and really feel it should have been included in the Oscars list.
To me this was the first glaring omission, commonly known as an Oscar snub. In terms of the films that were nominated they were all rather predictable except maybe the Tree of Life, but I haven’t seen it so can’t really make any judgement yet. The only ones I have seen are The Help and Midnight In Paris and I felt there nominations were very deserved.
For the acting awards the biggest shock may be that of Melissa McCarthy’s best Supporting actress nomination for Bridesmaids as comedies are not usually considered by the academy. Saying that I am not altogether sure it was deserved. I loved the movie but of all the comedic acting I’ve seen I really don’t think this would have been my choice. Carey Mulligan for Shame or Shailene Woodley for The Descendents were expected to be nominated and maybe one of them would have been a better choice.
There is much talk of Leonardo Dicaprio for J.Edgar, Michael Fassbender for Shame and Ryan Gosling for Drive/ Ides of March all being snubbed for the inclusion of Demian Bicher for A Better Life and Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Although I haven’t seen any of the movies I am so excited about Gary Oldman’s nomination as I really think this has been a long time coming. To me the biggest disappointment is the notable absence of Peter Serkis. Although his face is not always captured he is one of the best motion capture actors and this medium is being used increasingly in film making. It is much more than simply lending your voice to animation but the body and face’s entire movement, making it possible to give the character so much more emotion. It may be that Rise of the Planet of the Apes was not the right vehicle for the nomination but hopefully in the coming year he will finally get nominated for Gollum who will be re-appearing in the two new Hobbit films.
The Directors and screenplay awards I don’t feel I have a good enough knowledge to have to much of an opinion on the matter. Again, in terms of the buzz around the nominees, Terence Malick for The Tree of Life was a bit unexpected. Personally I would have loved to see Woody Allen get the director nomination for Midnight in Paris but I am very happy with one for best original screenplay.
The speciality films are quite an interesting topic with regards to the nominations that were announced. In terms of animated features there was the biggest surprise in the lack of a nomination for The Adventures of Tintin. This adds further fuel to the fire as to what motion capture films should be classified as.
When it comes to movie soundtracks I’ve always felt that the decision to only award original music was very short sighted as many movies are improved in the way they put together and use unoriginal music. Some of my favourite soundtracks are from Garden State and Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet.
This year my favourite soundtrack was Drive. Here it got it’s one and only Oscar nomination for Best Achievement in Sound Editing. Although doubtful that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross would win again, I was very surprised to see that they were not nominated for best original Score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
My Final Problem that I have with the nominations is that of Best Original Song. Two Nominations, really? Out of all the original songs to choose form they could only find two? Very disappointed and I really think the Academy needs to up there game here.
Overall, despite the supposed shocks and snubs I think the winners will be fairly predictable. I will however hold out on my predictions until close to the awards.
No comments:
Post a Comment