It happens every year, whenever the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences releases the nominees for the Academy Awards, the list immediately seems incomplete. Often times they omit the most entertaining and groundbreaking films of the year while recognizing the breathtakingly boring. Already, Twitter has been blowing up with cries of corruption, sad that once again their favorite films aren’t being recognized. To these people I say: What did you expect? Stop tweeting and start blogging. On that note, here are my 3 biggest Oscar snubs this year.
Matt Reeves – Best Director (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)
There’s no doubt in my mind that Matt Reeves will in fact win an Oscar for directing one day. You can see his potential growing in every film he makes. He’s a director that continues to be very ambitious with his crew. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was no doubt a great film (it did get nominated for visual effects), but one of the most interesting things about Matt Reeves is that he had to direct humans… pretending to be apes…. who are evolving into humans… Pretty tough, especially because they have to do this using motion capture suits. Usually motion capture is done on a closed sound stage, but for this film, Matt Reeves stuck his motion capture team right in the middle of his beautifully built sets, and still captured every emotion perfectly. And the battle scenes? Some of the best action of 2014.
Hoyte Van Hoytema – Cinematography (Interstellar)
Maybe its because Gravity (another space flick) won the cinematography Oscar last year, but Hoyte Van Hoytema deserves some recognition for Interstellar. When you watch the scenes that take place on Earth, you get the classic, bleek, high-contrast Christopher Nolan look that we all love. However, the space scenes take on a whole new beauty of their own. Taking the audience on a psychedelic space adventure that raises the bar on gorgeous scenery while paying homage to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. It should also be noted that Interstellar was done with mostly practical effects. Christopher Nolan said in an interview “there’s probably more digital effects in this year’s Sundance films”.
The Lego Movie – Best Animated Feature Film
I’ll admit that the two snubs I mentioned above could be written off as my own personal taste, however this snub seems to have the whole world up in arms. The Lego Movie was a masterpiece as far as animated features go, beautifully blending stop-motion animation with finely tuned digital effects. Even more than the look, the story and writing in this film is brilliant. The Academy did recognize The Lego Movie for their theme song “Everything is Awesome” which is a little ironic because the song itself is somewhat an ode to unoriginality. It should also be mentioned that The Lego Movie has a higher Rotten Tomatoes approval rating than most of the Best Animated Feature nominees. It also has a higher approval rating than 6 of 8 Best Picture nominees. Oh well… at least Lego Movie director Phil Lord had a great tweet about the Oscar snub:
It’s okay. Made my own! pic.twitter.com/kgyu1GRHGR
— philip lord (@philiplord) January 15, 2015
What movies or filmmakers do you think should have been nominated for an Oscar?
