Oscar nominations: What we learned

The nominations for the 86th Annual Academy Awards were announced this morning, and it was the usual mix of surprises, snubs and things expected. Several categories had an overabundance of potential nominees, so there were bound to be a few films shut out despite recent momentum for some of those films. The category that actually wound up surprising us the most was one that left out two seemingly-surefire titles. While nothing this year seems to have created the firestorm that erupted upon Ben Affleck's not being nominated for Best Director last year, that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot we learned about the Academy's thinking when it comes to the films, performances and overall work of 2013. Let's take a closer look.

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If any category needed up to 10 nominees...

It wound up discovered when the "Oscar season" started that the category of Best Lead Actor was going to be the toughest race this year. There were two names that were no-brainers, Chiwetel Ejiofor for his work in 12 Years a Slave and Bruce Dern's turn in Nebraska. They've been nominated everywhere thus far. The other three slots had at least six, and perhaps seven or eight, contenders. As it turns out, those who were favored amongst them were not named today. There were raves for Forest Whitaker's titular role in The Butler, and a late surge as the Oscar balloting closed from the Screen Actors Guild nominating both he and the overall ensemble for their top prizes. Plus, he's a former Oscar winner himself, so that always improves the odds. There were raves for Tom Hanks in not one, but two films. Captain Phillips was called his most award-magnetic role in many years, and then portraying Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks? The Academy loves actors playing names from their history, and Walt is one of the biggest from yesteryear. Surely one of these roles was going to be feted and Tom would have a shot at his third win in this category. Let's not forget Robert Redford, who despite having received an award for Best Director (1981's Ordinary People), he's not only never won an Oscar for acting, he's only gotten ONE acting nomination in his career. All is Lost was considered a tour-de-force of emotional storytelling, with minimal dialogue as one man fought the elements. Any of these three would have heard not a single objection if they were to be nominated, but those names were left off the list today. Who did make the cut? Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club (for which he just won a Golden Globe), Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street (for which HE just won a Golden Globe) and the one that was least expected, Christian Bale for American Hustle. This was the toughest race going in just to pick the five finalists. It's no less tough now.

Sea World is no doubt breathing a sigh of relief

The most renowned, controversial and connecting-with-America documentary of 2013, without question, was Blackfish. From its first day of release, the story of orca whales being kept in captivity has struck a nerve with many who feel places like Sea World in Orlando, Florida are keeping these animals and causing them harm. The film centers on a particular killer whale in Orlando who killed a handler several years ago, and the apparent belief from Sea World that it was not the animal's fault, but the handler's. The debate continues to this day, and so do the legal proceedings. The film doesn't just focus on Sea World either, as there are other water parks around the world who do the same thing, but Sea World has been taking a TON of heat as a result of this documentary. Many musical acts have actually cancelled their planned concerts at the park. CNN, who co-produced Blackfish, aired the documentary a few months back and scored one of their highest ratings of all time. While the documentary did make the shortlist, it was left off this morning's list in favor of much lesser-feted titles Cutie and the Boxer, Dirty Wars and The Square.

But it wasn't just Blackfish that was a surprising omission this morning in the Best Documentary Feature category. Another favorite from 2013 is Stories We Tell. Canadian actress and director Sarah Polley interviews many members of her family and circle of friends to unravel the mystery behind an issue that exists within the family's history. The film wound up on many year-end Top 10 lists and had already won several awards up to this point. This morning's nominations were announced (as they usually are) in alphabetical order, and with one slot left to go, I expected to hear this title. I did not. To my delight, what I heard instead was 20 Feet From Stardom, a fun and fascinating documentary focusing on the unsung heroes of the music industry, backup singers. Some are names one would recognize, but most are names one wouldn't, and even if one knows the names, we never knew what they looked like. It was entertaining and incredibly interesting to see the mammoth resumès that the likes of Darlene Love (who's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) and Lisa Fischer (who has a Grammy award) have built. I can't see why anyone would not enjoy this film.

Too little, too late

Several films opened on Christmas Day to a lot of fanfare. Lone Survivor opened on Christmas Day to little, and in very limited release. Since then, it has expanded onto many more screens and has been flooded with positive reviews from critics and moviegoers, opening at #1 last weekend with a much bigger box office haul than was expected. Many friends of mine have taken to Facebook after having seen the film and all of them have lauded the film, with one male basically saying that if you weren't in tears from the closing credits, you had no soul. I'm not sure if opening a week or two earlier and being available to more sets of eyes would have made a difference, but I think the possibility was there. Lone Survivor did score nominations for Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing, but I think it could have gotten more if the timing was right.

The below photo just makes me happy in general

Why? It means the AMPAS actually went over a year without tinkering with the nominating process for the Best Original Song category. Five nominees with a nice mix of familiar and unfamiliar songs and artists. I'd like to thank the Academy. So I will. Thank you, Academy.

Best Live Action Short, AKA Best Foreign Language Short Film

An anomaly of sorts this year as four of the five nominees for the Best Live Action Short category are foreign language short films, three with titles that required subtitling so we'd all know what to call them. Nominees are Spanish short film Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me), French short film Avant Que de Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything), Danish short film Helium, Finnish short film Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?) and British short film The Voorman Problem, which has Martin Freeman in it because right now, Martin Freeman is in everything. I think he actually was my server at Golden Corral a few days ago. Apparently, America has some catching up to do in the short film department.

John Williams could play "Chopsticks" for two hours and get nominated

See, now I just know the AMPAS automatically has his name written down. I think the paperwork is actually Xeroxed with John's name and four blanks. The sole nomination for the film The Book Thief went to John for the score. Speaking of SSDD...

Meryl Streep could read the phone book for two hours and get nominated

I love Meryl, really, I do. But come on, Academy, just because she makes a movie every year doesn't mean you have to automatically nominate her for it. August: Osage County, despite tepid reviews and some pretty unspectacular box office, still scored nominations for Meryl as well as Julia Roberts. The performances are quite good, I'm sure (I'll see the film soon, but I haven't yet), but Emma Thompson probably got robbed this morning of that fifth Best Lead Actress spot. I mean, even the photo of Streep above, take a look at that. It's like she's saying, "Yeah, that's right, bitch. Nominated. Again. Fuckin-A."

What?! No Ben Affleck?!

OK, OK, I know...Ben wasn't actually in the discussion this year. Truth be told, while the Best Director category isn't nearly as jaw-dropping as last year, there still is one surprise. Martin Scorsese snuck in there and grabbed the Paul Greengrass spot. The Wolf of Wall Street has been an extremely polarizing film, with many loving it, but many EXTREMELY turned off by the three hours of excessive sex and violence and language (506 uses of the word "fuck" is an all-time record for a movie). In fact, someone with a lot of free time on their hands measured and determined the film would be 4:29 shorter if every "fuck" was taken out of the script. That's probably still too long, but whatever.

What's actually a lot of fun here is the nominations for two guys who I've gone on record before and said they will win Oscars at some point for Best Director, because they've been nominated before and they're just damn good. Alexander Payne, twice-nominated for Best Director in the past and winning screenplay awards for those same films, is nominated for Nebraska, an excellent film that sold me when I first learned of it simply because Payne's name was on it. David O. Russell, twice-nominated for Best Director in the past and the man I thought would win last year, is nominated for American Hustle. Russell may be THE hottest director in Hollywood right now, with his last three films all garnering many major nominations and quite a number of wins for his actors and actresses. Melissa Leo. Christian Bale. Jennifer Lawrence. Amy Adams. Bradley Cooper. Robert DeNiro. Jacki Weaver. The first three names have won. Several of those names have multiple nominations from multiple Russell films. This year marks the second straight year that every acting category includes at least one name from the same Russell film. Need I say more?

The missing picture

No, I don't mean the actual film entitled The Missing Picture that received a nod for Best Foreign Language Film. I'm talking about The Grandmaster, which seemed a lock for a nomination in that same category but didn't get one, despite getting nominated in the categories of Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design. A strange omission.

Acting without acting

One of the questions leading into this awards season was centered around Scarlett Johansson. In Her, Scarlett is a prominent player, but we never actually see her. She's the voice of Joaquin Phoenix's smartphone that is the "Her" the film refers to. There was a groundswell of support for her to get nominated for the emotional voice-only performance, but there was just as much resistance from those who felt since she never actually appeared on screen, there should not be any nomination. Some guilds, such as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, agreed with the latter and disqualified Scar-Jo from contention. Other guilds disagreed and have honored the performance. The Academy never really ruled on it one way or another, so there existed the possibility this morning that she could have been among the nominees, but it didn't happen. I'm an old-school purist, so I agree that she should not have been nominated or even considered. The same debate happened back in 1992 with the animated Disney film Aladdin where there were many who felt Robin Williams should have been nominated for his role as the genie. I found that completely ridiculous then, and I still do now. Acting has a broad definition, but as far as movies and the Oscars go, I feel acting means you actually need to be seen. Just my two cents.

OK, smart guy, so how do you explain Jonah Hill?

Truthfully? I can't. He's now a two-time nominee for Best Supporting Actor (Moneyball, 2011), and in both instances it came out of left field. I'm not deriding his work, he's a more-than-capable actor who can handle every role he's ever given, but it goes without saying that his nomination this morning for The Wolf of Wall Street garnered the most surprise of the day. Hey, he was on-screen, though, so yeah, he's eligible.

Sometimes, the prefix "Oscar-nominated" can be painful to say...

...and such is the case this year with two of three nominated films for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. In addition to Dallas Buyers Club we get to actually talk about Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa and The Lone Ranger during the Oscar ceremony. The latter film also got a nod for Best Visual Effects, so that one gets double the recognition! What fun.

The Biggest Loser

This one can probably be taken to a vote, but of all the snubbed performances and films, what would you consider the biggest? Fruitvale Station? The Butler? Inside Llewyn Davis? (That one got two nods but no majors.) I'd have to say the "honor" goes to Saving Mr. Banks, a heavily-pushed-for-Oscars film that seemed to be a crowd-pleaser at film festivals in late 2013. Not only did the film itself not get nods for Best Picture, Director or Screenplay, it didn't even get any acting nominations for Tom Hanks or Emma Thompson, and Emma's omission was especially surprising.

Alright, alright, stop rubbing it in, Meryl. We know.

No, outside of Thomas Newman getting a Best Original Score nomination, Saving Mr. Banks apparently needed more saving. The ingredients seemed to all be in place for this film to get some Oscar love, but as we've seen before and saw with this film today, nothing is ever a sure thing with the Oscars.

The Biggest Winner?

That's still to be determined. American Hustle and Gravity both scored 10 nominations. Last year, Lincoln had 12. It won just 2. True Grit had 10 nominations a few years back and went home empty-handed. Anything is possible. What is already true is that these nine films that have been nominated for Best Picture are all films that have resonated with audiences in one way or another. Buckle up. This will be a thrill ride!

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