At 5:30 this morning (PST), the MPAA president (Cheryl Boone Isaacs) and a hot babe (Chris Hemsworth) announced the Oscar nominees. We won’t learn the winners until Sunday, March 2, so until then, we get to postulate, speculate, educate, get into heated arguments, and wonder what the heck Ernest & Celestine is. This is the best time for the movie industry as they are gearing up for what is often called Hollywood’s Prom Night, but it’s the worst time of the year for film critics, as we can only openly and constantly bemoan what was passed up.
The most obvious omission for most critics is Blue is the Warmest Color, the three-hour French lesbian love story that made numerous top-ten lists. It was omitted through some sort of arcane Academy rule for eligibility. Another obvious snub was The Coen Bros. Inside Llewyn Davis, which was only nominated for cinematography and sound design; I guess most critics were not as enamored of the film as I was. Also missing are warm crowd-pleasers Lee Daniels’ The Butler and Saving Mr. Banks. The latter is no loss in my eye; I kind of hated Saving Mr. Banks.
But, seeing as 2013 was such a strong year for film, a lot of what you’ll see below is predictable, and I can’t say I’m too upset by the inclusion of anything. Although I’ll say I was surprised to see Philomena in so many categories. And how refreshing to have five visual effects nominees; previous years have only offered up three.
Photo by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
Overall, Best Picture projected frontrunners American Hustle and Gravity led all nominations with 10 each, with 12 Years a Slave tallying nine.
Here then, are the nominees. Start your arguments accordingly.
Best Picture
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
Actor in a Leading Role
Christian Bale
in American Hustle
Bruce Dern
in Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio
in The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor
in 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey
in Dallas Buyers Club
Actress in a Leading Role
Amy Adams
in American Hustle
Cate Blanchett
in Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock
in Gravity
Judi Dench
in Philomena
Meryl Streep
in August: Osage County
Actor in A Supporting Role
Barkhad Abdi
in Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper
in American Hustle
Michael Fassbender
in 12 Years a Slave
Jonah Hill
in The Wolf of Wall Street
Jared Leto
in Dallas Buyers Club
Actress in a Supporting Role
Sally Hawkins
in Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence
in American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o
in 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts
in August: Osage County
June Squibb
in Nebraska
Best Animated Feature
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine
Frozen
The Wind Rises
Best Cinematography
The Grandmaster
Philippe Le Sourd
Gravity
Emmanuel Lubezki
Inside Llewyn Davis
Bruno Delbonnel
Nebraska
Phedon Papamichael
Prisoners
Roger A. Deakins
Best Costume Design
American Hustle
Michael Wilkinson
The Grandmaster
William Chang Suk Ping
The Great Gatsby
Catherine Martin
The Invisible Woman
Michael O’Connor
12 Years a Slave
Patricia Norris
Best Director
David O. Russell
for American Hustle
Alfonso Cuarón
for Gravity
Alexander Payne
for Nebraska
Steve McQueen
for 12 Years a Slave
Martin Scorsese
for The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Documentary Feature
The Act of Killing
Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
Cutie and the Boxer
Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher
Dirty Wars
Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill
The Square
Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer
20 Feet from Stardom
Nominees to be determined
Best Documentary Short
CaveDigger
Jeffrey Karoff
Facing Fear
Jason Cohen
Karama Has No Walls
Sara Ishaq
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall
Edgar Barens
Best Editing
Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten
for American Hustle
Christopher Rouse
for Captain Phillips
John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
for Dallas Buyers Club
Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
for Gravity
Joe Walker
for 12 Years a Slave
Best Foreign Language Feature
The Broken Circle Breakdown
from Belgium
The Great Beauty
from Italy
The Hunt
from Denmark
The Missing Picture
from Cambodia
Omar
from Palestine
Best Makeup and Hair
Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews
for Dallas Buyers Club
Stephen Prouty
for Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny
for The Lone Ranger
Best Original Score
John Williams
for The Book Thief
Steven Price
for Gravity
William Butler and Owen Pallett
for Her
Alexandre Desplat
for Philomena
Thomas Newman
for Saving Mr. Banks
Best Original Song
“Alone Yet Not Alone” from Alone Yet Not Alone
Music by Bruce Broughton; Lyrics by Dennis Spiegel
“Happy” from Despicable Me 2
Music and Lyrics by Pharrell Williams
“Let it Go” from Frozen
Music and Lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
“The Moon Song” from Her
Music by Karen O; Lyrics by Karen O and Spike Jonze
“Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson
Best Production Design
American Hustle
Judy Becker (Production Design); Heather Loeffler (Set Decoration)
Gravity
Andy Nicholson (Production Design); Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard (Set Decoration)
The Great Gatsby
Catherine Martin (Production Design); Beverley Dunn (Set Decoration)
Her
K.K. Barrett (Production Design); Gene Serdena (Set Decoration)
12 Years a Slave
Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Alice Baker (Set Decoration)
Best Animated Short
Feral
by: Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden
Get a Horse!
by: Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim
Mr. Hublot
by: Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares
Possessions
by: Shuhei Morita
Room on the Broom
by: Max Lang and Jan Lachauer
Best Live Action Short
Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)
by: Esteban Crespo
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything)
by: Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras
Helium
by: Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)
by: Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari
The Voorman Problem
by: Mark Gill and Baldwin Li
Best Sound Editing
All Is Lost
Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
Captain Phillips
Oliver Tarney
Gravity
Glenn Freemantle
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Brent Burge
Lone Survivor
Wylie Stateman
Best Sound Mixing
Captain Phillips
Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
Gravity
Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
Inside Llewyn Davis
Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Lone Survivor
Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow
Best Visual Effects
Gravity
Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
Iron Man Three
Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
The Lone Ranger
Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
Star Trek Into Darkness
Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton
Best Adapted Screenplay
Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
for Before Midnight
Billy Ray
for Captain Phillips
Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
for Philomena
John Ridley
for 12 Years a Slave
Terence Winter
for The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Original Screenplay
Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
for American Hustle
Woody Allen
for Blue Jasmine
Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
for Dallas Buyers Club
Spike Jonze
for Her
Bob Nelson
for Nebraska
Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, Free Film School and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
