Put on your best dress, get your ballots ready at home and prepare to stifle a yawn: there isn’t much suspense to be had from this year’s Academy Awards, airing March 2 and hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. What fun is an Oscar show if there’s no suspense, no heated arguments, no throwing popcorn at the TV? The only gasps this year were heard when Tom and Oprah’s names weren’t called on nomination day. Let’s hope Bradley Cooper shows up in full American Hustle perm to liven things up…
Here are your nominees, and who was passed over this year.
Best Picture
Best Picture is often a foregone conclusion by this point, but this is the only category remotely up for grabs, between 12 Years A Slave and American Hustle. 12 Years should take it. Snubbed was Rush, the enjoyable Formula One flick from Ron Howard. And while critics loved the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, Academy voters weren’t impressed. Who else is nominated: Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Captain Phillips, Philomena, Nebraska, Her, The Wolf Of Wall Street.
Best Director
People want to recognize director Alfonso Cuaron for his Gravity feat, but don’t love the film enough to give it Best Picture. It’s a sure thing that he’ll win. Also nominated: Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave), Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street), David O. Russell (American Hustle), Alexander Payne (Nebraska). Snubbed: Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips).
Best Actor
We love it when actors transform themselves for a role, that’s half the battle right there. Matthew McConaughey had two great roles this year (Mud and Dallas Buyers Club) and he’s a cinch this year. I’d like to see Chiwetel Ejiofor win, if only because presenters have been practising his name for weeks! Other nominees: Bruce Dern (Nebraska), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street), Christian Bale (American Hustle). Inexplicably shut out was Robert Redford, for his riveting solo voyage in All Is Lost. Also absent: Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station) and Tom Hanks, despite his best work in years (Captain Phillips).
Best Actress
Sandra Bullock may have had a shot, had she not so recently won an Oscar for The Blind Side. But Cate Blanchett is unbeatable, even by Meryl Streep, a nominee 18 times over. Also up: Amy Adams (American Hustle), Judi Dench (Philomena). Snubbed: Oprah Winfrey, along with everyone else in The Butler.
Best Supporting Actor
No suspense here either: Jared Leto all the way, for his poignant performance in Dallas Buyers Club, though I would’ve voted for Fassbender’s unforgettably psychotic performance in 12 Years A Slave. Fellow nominees are Bradley Cooper (American Hustle), Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) and first-time actor Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips).
Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Lawrence and Lupita Nyong’o duke it out for the trophy, in two vastly different roles. Lawrence delivered a potent mix of brassy, jiggly and vulnerable, while Nyong’o was all raw emotional power. No chance: June Squibb (Nebraska), Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine) and Julia Roberts (August: Osage County). Scarlett Johansson’s voicework in Her was the subject of much debate before nomination time, but wasn’t nominated in the end.
Best Animated Film
Disney’s Frozen will beat out the Miyazaki film that few people saw (The Wind Rises) and those cute minions in Despicable Me 2. Also nominated were The Croods and Ernest and Celestine. I just sat through a school talent show where five different kids sang terrible versions of “Let It Go”; count on the song from Frozen to win, too, after Idina Menzel sings it live during the telecast.
Best Documentary
The Act of Killing challenges Indonesian death squad leaders to recreate some of their crimes, with memorably chilling results. It will win over the lively love story Cutie and the Boxer, about the 40-year marriage between “boxing” artist Ushio Shinohara and Noriko Shinohara. Dirty Wars explores the U.S. government’s covert wars; The Square chronicles the toppling of Egyptian president Mubarak; 20 Feet From Stardom is the must-see story of music’s unsung heroines: the back-up singers.
