Voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences on Thursday announced the 87th Oscar nominations, revealing ‘Birdman’ and ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ standing on the top with nine, followed by ‘The Imitation Game’ with eight and ‘American Sniper’ and ‘Boyhood’ with five each.
According to Variety, the director race has been one of the 2015 Oscar’s most competitive contests. The nominees include: Wes Anderson for ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, Richard Linklater for ‘Boyhood’, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for ‘Birdman’, Bennett Miller for ‘Foxcatcher’ and Morten Tyldum for ‘The Imitation Game’.
The best-actor category held the most suspense, with a dozen viable candidates. Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Keaton and Eddie Redmayne were considered the only sure things, and all landed bids. Bradley Cooper returned to the Oscars for the third year in a row for his work in ‘American Sniper’. Finally, Steve Carell landed on the fifth spot.
For the actress race, Felicity Jones for ‘The Theory of Everything’, Julianne Moore for ‘Still Alice’, Rosamund Pike for ‘Gone Girl’ and Reese Witherspoon for ‘Wild’ were considered locks. Marion Cotillard for ‘Two Days, One Night’ filled the fifth slot.
The supporting actor category is the only one that has remained consistent throughout the award season; all five nominees landed Golden Globe noms. They are Robert Duvall for ‘The Judge’, Ethan Hawke for ‘Boyhood’, Edward Norton for ‘Birdman’, Mark Ruffalo for ‘Foxcatcher’ and J.K. Simmons for ‘Whiplash’.
In supporting actress, four women were considered locks: Patricia Arquette for ‘Boyhood’, Keira Knightly for ‘The Imitation Game’, Emma Stone for ‘Birdman’ and Meryl Streep for ‘Into the Woods’. Laura Dern surprised everyone for the fifth spot.
A record 83 foreign language films were submitted and the final nominations are ‘Ida’ from Poland, ‘Leviathan’ from Russia, ‘Tangeries’ from Estonia, ‘Timbuktu’ from Mauritania and ‘Wild Tales’ from Argentina.
‘Interstellar’ walked away with five nominations for sound mixing, sound editing, production design, original score and visual effects. ‘Unbroken’ landed three, for cinematography, sound editing and sound mixing. ‘Mr. Turner’ landed bids for costume design, production design and original score.
Awards will be presented February 22 at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland.
