It’ll be a fight to the finish.
Boyhood, Birdman, and The Imitation Game all came out of this morning’s Oscar nominations looking strong, in an echo of last year’s three-movie race to best picture. All three of these best picture nominees saw their directors, screenplays, and two of their actors nominated for top prizes.
The other five best picture nominees included American Sniper, whose star Bradley Cooper landing a best actor nomination was one of the morning’s biggest surprises, and Selma, whose missing out on nominations for director Ava DuVernay and star David Oyelowo was another. Also in the hunt are The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Theory of Everything, and Whiplash.
Other major surprises included Jennifer Aniston missing out on a nomination after a lengthy campaign around her film Cake (in favor of Marion Cotillard, who barely campaigned her movie Two Days, One Night, proof gladhanding isn’t everything) and Laura Dern getting nominated, in a role with relatively little screen time, for best supporting actress in Wild. The Oscars also threw several nominations at The Grand Budapest Hotel, whose best director nomination was Wes Anderson’s first outside the writing field, and surprisingly few at Gone Girl, whose screenplay was not among the nominees.
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The nominees are:
Best Picture
Best Actor
Best Actress
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Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Cinematography
Best Director
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Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Foreign Language Film
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
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Best Original Score
Best Costume Design
Best Documentary Feature
Best Documentary Short
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Best Film Editing
Best Animated Feature
Best Original Song
Best Production Design
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Best Animated Short Film
Best Live-Action Short Film
Best Sound Editing
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Best Sound Mixing
Best Visual Effects
Read next: The Sad State of the Best Actress Oscar Race
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