86th Academy Awards Winners

Will comment in a separate post about the ceremony plus whatever else. But regarding the winners NONE of the awards upset me more than the documentary that won as doc is truly badly done, so bad that the okay story was lost to me and had to stop watching as style was not pleasant to watch for me at all. Most upsetting are those that compare 20 feet from stardom with Searching for Sugar Man; only those that do not understand about moving images could compare one with the other as they are two very different documentaries. Searching for Sugar Man has an engaging story, outstanding editing, puzzling cinematography and a director with a fantastic eye and storytelling style. None of those key ingredients was in the documentary that won this year. Sigh. Know that because controversies probably many voters did not watch The Act of Killing but all of us that saw the extraordinary documentary know that by far was the best of the nominated pack and deserved the honor.

Knew that Gravity was going to get the tech awards plus one top award (director) so did not surprised me that was the quantity winner of the night and the moment Lupita Nyong'o won Supporting Role I knew that 12 Years a Slave was going to win Screenplay and Best Picture.

Had no idea that Happy by Pharrell Williams was so GOOD as when watching movie did not notice song that much BUT everything changed for me after watching Williams' performance, song still is in my head -in a positive way and yes already bought song!!! Maybe if Academy voters saw Williams performing the song outside the movie, then maybe he would have won the Oscar, as his song truly deserves the honor. Sigh.

In general, after all the fuzz, winners were the front runners and of course my predictions accuracy this year is terrible (!!!) as trying to guess what voters could do forgot a bit about what I liked. Most true is for the two short film categories, live and animated, where the ones that really touched me won but I predicted what i thought could please American audiences. I was wrong. Second, never imagined that American Hustle was going to get 0 Oscars, I gave the movie at least 1 and was wrong as movie won nothing.

Winners are in *BLUE. If you wish to see winners at official site go here.

1/16/14
Today actor Chris Hemsworth and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced the 2014 Oscar Nominations and there are more surprises than what I expected or could imagine after the regular process when Academy members from each of the branches vote to determine the nominees in their respective categories – actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc. In the Animated Feature Film and Foreign Language Film categories, nominees are selected by a vote of multi-branch screening committees. All voting members are eligible to select the Best Picture nominees.

Now active members of the Academy are eligible to vote for the winners in ALL categories and hopefully maybe this year Academy members will watch movies before voting as official screenings of all motion pictures with one or more nominations will begin on Saturday, January 25; not being sarcastic just sharing with you some public info that crowded the waves a few weeks back when an unnamed Academy member gave an interview to tell the "truth" about Oscar voting.

As we know the awards show was moved to Sunday, March 2 thanks to the Winter Olympics (grr) and -now I am being sarcastic- show will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide. See first paragraph after list to find why I'm sarcastic.

American Hustle and Gravity lead with 10 nominations each followed close by 12 Years a Slave with nine and yes, the HUGE surprise for me was Nebraska having so many nods as got six, the same as Dallas Buyers Club and Captain Phillips.

There are nine (9) films nominated for Best Picture and maybe later we will find why there weren't ten, which is the maximum as there are several critic acclaimed movies that could have made the list like Inside Llewyn Davis, Saving Mr. Banks, All Is Lost -a bit tiresome but very tense movie- and we can forget August: Osage County and/or Blue Jasmine.

Great positive surprise is to have France/Belgium Ernest & Celestine and Japan The Wind Rises in the Animated category and Wong Kar Wai opus The Grandmasters getting two tech categories nominations.

Huge negative surprise is Emma Thompson not being nominated even do I'm glad Amy Adams was, but Adam's performance is NOT as good as Thompson and that slot belonged to her. Also, what is Christian Bale getting a nod for Actor? His performance is inferior to Joaquin Phoenix in Her, Robert Redford in All is Lost and even Oscar Isaac in Inside Llewyn Davis (very unpleasant character but his performance is ok). Then in Actor supporting role can't understand why Jonah Hill got a nomination that slot was for highly superior performance by Daniel Bruhl in Rush or even James Gandolfini in romcom Enough Said. But perhaps the greatest negative surprise is excellent Stories We Tell not having a nomination in documentary category.

Anyway, check at post bottom some fun stat/facts about these nominations.

Best Picture
*12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Animated Feature Film
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine
*Frozen
The Wind Rises

Foreign Language
The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen, Belgium
Jagten (The Hunt), Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark
*La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty), Paolo Sorrentino, Italy
L'image manquante (The Missing Picture), Rithy Panh, Cambodia
Omar, Hany Abu-Assad Palestine

Directing
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

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

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

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

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

Cinematography
Roger A. Deakins for Prisoners
Bruno Delbonnel for Inside Llewyn Davis
Philippe Le Sourd for The Grandmaster
*Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity
Phedon Papamichael for Nebraska

Original Screenplay
Woody Allen for Blue Jasmine
Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack for Dallas Buyers Club
*Spike Jonze for Her
Bob Nelson for Nebraska
Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell for American Hustle

Adapted Screenplay
Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope for Philomena
Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke for Before Midnight
Billy Ray for Captain Phillips
*John Ridley for 12 Years a Slave
Terence Winter for The Wolf of Wall Street

Film Editing
Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten for American Hustle
*Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger for Gravity
John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa for Dallas Buyers Club
Christopher Rouse for Captain Phillips
Joe Walker for 12 Years a Slave

Production Design
K.K. Barrett and Gene Serdena for Her
Judy Becker and Heather Loeffler for American Hustle
*Catherine Martin and Beverley Dunn for The Great Gatsby
Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard for Gravity
Adam Stockhausen and Alice Baker for 12 Years a Slave

Visual Effects
Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier for The Lone Ranger
Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton for Star Trek Into Darkness
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick for Iron Man 3
*Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould for Gravity

Sound Editing
Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns for All Is Lost
Brent Burge for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
*Glenn Freemantle for Gravity
Wylie Stateman for Lone Survivor
Oliver Tarney for Captain Phillips

Sound Mixing
Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro for Captain Phillips
*Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro for Gravity
Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland for Inside Llewyn Davis
Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow for Lone Survivor

Costume Design
William Chang Suk Ping for The Grandmaster
*Catherine Martin for The Great Gatsby
Patricia Norris for 12 Years a Slave
Michael O’Connor for The Invisible Woman
Michael Wilkinson for American Hustle

Makeup and Hairstyling
Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny for The Lone Ranger
*Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews for Dallas Buyers Club
Stephen Prouty for Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

Music - 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

Music - Original Song
Alone Yet Not Alone from Alone Yet Not Alone, Music by Bruce Broughton and Lyric by Dennis Spiegel
Happy from Despicable Me 2, Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams
*Let It Go from Frozen, Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
The Moon Song from Her, Music by Karen O and Lyric 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 and Lyric by Paul Hewson

Documentary
The Act of Killing
Cutie and the Boxer
Dirty Wars
The Square
*20 Feet from Stardom

Short Films

Live Action
Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me), Esteban Crespo, Spain
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything), Xavier Legrand, France
*Helium, Anders Walter, Denmark
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?), Selma Vilhunen, Finland
The Voorman Problem, Mark Gill, UK

Animated
Feral, Daniel Sousa, USA
Get a Horse!, Lauren MacMullan, USA
*Mr. Hublot, Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares, France and Luxembourg
Room on the Broom, Max Lang and Jan Lachauer, UK
Tsukumo (Possessions), Shuhei Morita, Japan

Documentary
Cavedigger, Jeffrey Karoff, USA
Facing Fear, Jason Cohen, USA
Karama Has No Walls, Sara Ishaq, United Arab Emirates, UK and Yemen
*The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life, Malcolm Clarke, Canada, USA and UK
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall, Edgar Barens, USA

To check info for each film go here but be aware that videos at this site will NOT WORK outside USA, which is a TRUE SHAME as for the first time in a clear way the Academy is NOT sharing with the World. See the problem is that the Academy is referring every video to the US Network, ABC, which obviously DOES NOT allow IP's outside USA to view videos. Hope the Academy and/or ABC consider the money they make selling show rights and OPEN the videos for those world inhabitants that are interested in watching.

Scorecard - Motion Picture Nominations Feature Films With Two or More Nominations
10- American Hustle, Sony Pictures Releasing
10 -Gravity, Warner Bros.
9 -12 Years a Slave, Fox Searchlight
6 - Captain Phillips, Sony Pictures Releasing
6 - Dallas Buyers Club, Focus Features
6 - Nebraska, Paramount
5 - Her, Warner Bros.
5 - The Wolf of Wall Street, Paramount
4 -Philomena, The Weinstein Company
3 - Blue Jasmine, Sony Pictures Classics
3 - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Warner Bros.
2 - August: Osage County” The Weinstein Company
2 - Despicable Me 2, Universal
2 - Frozen, Walt Disney
2 - The Grandmaster, The Weinstein Company
2 - The Great Gatsby, Warner Bros.
2 - Inside Llewyn Davis, CBS Films
2 -The Lone Ranger, Walt Disney
2 -Lone Survivor, Universal

Fun Stats and Facts

• Last year, Silver Linings Playbook became the first film to receive nominations for Best Picture, Directing, Writing and all four acting categories since Reds (1981). American Hustle repeats that feat this year.
• Jennifer Lawrence is again the youngest performer nominee and is her first nod for supporting role.
• Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams and Bradley Cooper are the only three acting nominees this year who were also nominated last year; all were nominated in different categories to this year.
• Meryl Streep extends her lead as the most nominated performer with her 18th nomination.
• Woody Allen extends his record for most nominations by a screenwriter to 16.
• John Williams scores his 49th nomination and 44th in original score to become category's record holder; he becomes the first living person with more nods and the second after Walt Disney (59).
• Of the 10 films nominated for a PGA Award, two were nominated and got no Oscar nod (Blue Jasmine and Saving Mr. Banks) and one PGA did not nominate and got an Oscar nod (Philomena).

If you wish to read more facts go here and here.

The Nominations video