# 2014-15 Oscar nominations **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 15, 2015, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890 "2015-01-15T14:18:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/61 "2015-01-17T01:54:09Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Simmons will win because he deserves to win. > > Bet a lot of money on Stone or Knightley. Then come back and tell us how much you lost. He may deserve to win, but that’s not really why he will. He has by far the biggest role of his competition (virtually a co-lead), and his part allows him to swing for the bleachers. My vote would go to Hawke. Similarly, while I think Arquette is great and deserves to win (she’s also get my vote), having a virtual lead role as well certainly doesn’t hurt. More screen time doesn’t always guarantee a victory, but it definitely puts the thumb on the scale to your advantage. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/62 "2015-01-17T03:55:17Z")
Birdman Alejandro González Iñárritu Reese Witherspoon Michael Keaton Patricia Arquette J.K. Simmons ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/63 "2015-01-17T04:42:03Z")
Today’s San Jose Mercury News was wild. The front page article was entitled : “The Award for Best Caucasian goes to. . .” and it was entirely about the “snub” of “Selma”. Went on for many paragraphs, implying racism in Hollywood. On a back page was a side article listing the actual nominees. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/64 "2015-01-17T04:52:15Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Today’s San Jose Mercury News was wild. The front page article was entitled : “The Award for Best Caucasian goes to. . .” and it was entirely about the “snub” of “Selma”. Went on for many paragraphs, implying racism in Hollywood. On a back page was a side article listing the actual nominees. It would have been funny if Tom Wilkinson was nominated for best supporting actor. I haven’t seen it yet, but who got snubbed? The director? David Oyelowo? I heard Carmen Ejogo was really good as Coretta Scott King. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/65 "2015-01-17T07:23:31Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Little Nemo, Arquette’s won just about every award so far, with three biggies still to come. If Knightley won the Screen Actors Guild I’d say there’s a race, but Arquette will win that one too. If Arquette wins the BAFTA (the British Oscars) it really is all over for Knightley, because a lot of the Brits are Academy members too. She might not win the Independent Spirit Award, but she’s not up against Knightley either (Spirits are for American movies). Okay, you’ve convinced me. I’ll switch my pick to Arquette. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/66 "2015-01-17T13:44:52Z")
In the face of the backlash, do you figure Iñárritu becomes a more likely winner for to play _look-a-noncaucasian-can-so-totally-still-win-one-of-the-major-awards-see?_ ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/67 "2015-01-17T13:47:00Z")
Naw, I don’t think anybody will care. If it will sway voters, it will sway them to vote for Selma in the two categories in which it is nominated. Since 2005, 3 movies featuring minorities/minority issues have won B. Picture, 2 African-Americans have won B. Actor, 4 African-Americans have won B. Supporting Actress, and 1 African-American has won B. Supporting Actor. As far as _recent_ nominations and wins, charges of racism are not really well-founded. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/68 "2015-01-17T13:58:24Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > 4 African-Americans have won B. Supporting Actress I doubt Lupita Nyong’o identifies herself as African-American. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/69 "2015-01-17T14:21:55Z")
:o Got me on that, but the overall point remains the same. That’s what I get by doing my research via Google pictures. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/70 "2015-01-18T14:28:25Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Naw, I don’t think anybody will care. If it will sway voters, it will sway them to vote for Selma in the two categories in which it is nominated. Why? If SELMA wins Best Picture, then they _have_ to know we’re all in for another round of _It Was The Best Damn Picture, But The Actor And Director Didn’t Even Get Nominated_. And we’ll hear that, almost routinely, whenever the win for SELMA gets mentioned in years to come; it’ll be as if there’s an asterisk for the rest of that sentence. But if, say, BIRDMAN wins Best Picture, based on a consensus that Iñárritu was just a little better at directing than any of the whites or blacks who took a shot at it this year, then that point kinda sorts gets muted instead of getting resurrected. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/71 "2015-01-18T16:05:18Z")
_The Lego Movie_ was somewhat cute at best. I didn’t think it deserved a nomination, nor does the wife. We watched _The Tale of Princess Kiguya_ a few days ago. Good but a little too long. Not as good as some others that have come out of that studio. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/72 "2015-01-18T16:15:45Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Why? If SELMA wins Best Picture, then they _have_ to know we’re all in for another round of _It Was The Best Damn Picture, But The Actor And Director Didn’t Even Get Nominated_. And we’ll hear that, almost routinely, whenever the win for SELMA gets mentioned in years to come; it’ll be as if there’s an asterisk for the rest of that sentence. > > But if, say, BIRDMAN wins Best Picture, based on a consensus that Iñárritu was just a little better at directing than any of the whites or blacks who took a shot at it this year, then that point kinda sorts gets muted instead of getting resurrected. You’re reading more into my remark than I put in there. All I’m saying is that if you are going to make a protest vote, you’ll more likely make a vote for Selma than vote for another film. And given the larger number of nominees, a voting block for B. Picture can have a larger chance of affecting the outcome than a voting block for a category with only 5 nominees. ---
**Author:** ![drwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8797f3/32.png) [@drwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drwo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/73 "2015-01-18T23:14:51Z")
Someone on this thread opined that Hollywood was simple patting itself on the back with the Academy Awards. Actually, it is shooting itself in the foot - again. The television audience is made up of people who go to movies, right? Combined, these movies earned $185,000,000 at the box office in 2014: The Imitation Game, Birdman, Selma, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel-- all nominated for best picture. Not nominated: Gone Girl, Interstellar, Unbroken: Total box office in 2014: $$460,000,000 - Let’s take this one step more: Is there one person on the list of those nominated pictures that anyone is going to stay up until the wee hours rooting for? Patricia Arquette may deserve the Oscar - but since hardly anyone except the Academy voters saw Boyhood, who cares? Nobody, that’s who. Who cares what Angelina WOULD HAVE WORN? Everyone on the planet. Shallow? Absolutely. Isn’t this what Hollywood is all about? Get real. These are MOVIES. The Academy needs to get its collective head out of its self important ass and start thinking about who brings home the bacon. If nobody else will call them out, I’ll bet their advertisers will after what is sure to be the absolute snore of the awards season. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/74 "2015-01-18T23:27:21Z")
> [@drwo](#): > > Someone on this thread opined that Hollywood was simple patting itself on the back with the Academy Awards. Actually, it is shooting itself in the foot - again. > > The television audience is made up of people who go to movies, right? Combined, these movies earned $185,000,000 at the box office in 2014: The Imitation Game, Birdman, Selma, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel-- all nominated for best picture. > > Not nominated: Gone Girl, Interstellar, Unbroken: Total box office in 2014: $$460,000,000 - Let’s take this one step more: Is there one person on the list of those nominated pictures that anyone is going to stay up until the wee hours rooting for? Patricia Arquette may deserve the Oscar - but since hardly anyone except the Academy voters saw Boyhood, who cares? Nobody, that’s who. Who cares what Angelina WOULD HAVE WORN? Everyone on the planet. > > Shallow? Absolutely. Isn’t this what Hollywood is all about? Get real. These are MOVIES. The Academy needs to get its collective head out of its self important ass and start thinking about who brings home the bacon. If nobody else will call them out, I’ll bet their advertisers will after what is sure to be the absolute snore of the awards season. And Transformers: Age of Extinction made $245M all by itself! Michael Fucking Bay should be getting that Lifetime Achievement award, just on the strength of that one film! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/75 "2015-01-19T00:28:03Z")
Somebody brings this up every year, and the answer is always the same. The Oscars are not about popularity. If you want to know what the most popular films are, just look at the list of the box-office winners for last year: > **[Domestic Box Office For 2014 - Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/2014/)** The Oscars are also not about the critical favorites, which you can use this list to discover: > **[Best of 2014: Film Critic Top Ten Lists](https://www.metacritic.com/feature/film-critic-top-10-lists-best-movies-of-2014)** > > Over the next month, we'll be collecting year-end top ten lists from dozens of movie critics and publications. Browse the individual lists and view our composite rankings inside. They are always somewhere between these two extremes. They are always very middle-brow. Not low-brow like the box-office winners. Not high-brow like the critical favorites. So box-office winners like _Guardians of the Galaxy_, _The LEGO Movie_, _Transformers: Age of Extinction_, _The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies_, _Maleficent_, or _Big Hero 6_ might get some nominations for the various technical awards or for the animation award (which the Academy thinks of as just kid’s stuff) but seldom anything else. It’s not some of the critical favorites either. It’s not things like _Under the Skin_, _Ida_, _Only Lovers Left Alive_, _Force Majeure_, _Mr. Turner_, _Two Days, One Night_, _Goodbye to Language_, or _The Immigrant_. Those might get foreign language film nominations (which the Academy thinks of as a consolation prize to throw at the rest of the world), but otherwise they are considered too foreign, too weird, or too boring. The Academy wants films that are in English, set in the U.S., with stars recognizable to them, with directors recognizable to them, not about arty things, without kinky sex, and about subjects that are familiar to them like American wars within memory or American political struggles within memory. They are O.K. with films that make offhand reference to things that audiences might understand like the stars of superhero films getting replaced or famous scientists who’ve appeared on _Star Trek_. This is an unusual year in that the top three critical favorites are also on the Best Picture ballot. They have just enough audience-friendly elements that they can satisfy both critics and most American audiences. They have no explosions or ear-piercingly loud music and have little special effects, so the Academy can convince themselves that they aren’t nominating low-brow films. And the Oscars are going to stay middle-brow, so don’t expect them to be otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/76 "2015-01-19T01:10:59Z")
The funny/ironic thing is, the reason the B. Picture nominations was increased from 5 to 5+ is so more popular films could compete, largely based on the “controversy” that The Dark Knight wasn’t nominated for B. Picture at all. What has happened, however, is that more smaller films have been nominated and the big middle-brow productions like Gone Girl, Interstellar, etc have been increasingly ignored. Over the past ten years, the B. Picture winner has been among their years’s top-20 grossing films only 3 times (The Departed (15), Slumdog Millionaire (16), and The Kings Speech (18)), where in the preceding 10 years the B. Picture winners were _all_ among the top-20 grossing films of their respective year, with three winners being the biggest film of the year (Forrest Gump, Titanic, LOTR: ROTK). From 1980-2013, 42% of winners were among the top-10 films of their respective years… but none since 2004. Regardless, I disagree with drwo… the Oscars don’t exist to give awards to make the audience happy. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/77 "2015-01-19T01:26:22Z")
I have created this year’s Straight Dope Oscar Pool for those who are interested. [The thread is here, but you can also just go to:](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18063079#post18063079) > **[Fun Free Office Pools - College Football Office Pool - NFL Football Office...](https://www.funofficepools.com/)** > > Fun Office Pools hosts FREE office pools for college football, reality tv, NFL football, the oscars and other events. Featuring office pools for Fox American Idol, CBS Survivor, ABC Dancing with the Stars, CBS The Amazing Race, NFL football, NCAA... Name of the Pool: Cecil Oscar Pick’em 2015 password: cecil ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/78 "2015-01-19T02:48:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Best Song > “Everything is Awesome” from “The LEGO Movie” (written by Shawn Patterson) So reminiscent of “Hooray for Everything” by _The Young Caucasians_. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/79 "2015-01-19T03:33:19Z")
> [@Eddie\_F](#): > > _How to Train Your Dragon 2_ was better. Gosh, I thought it was boring as hell. “The Lego Movie” is a terrible oversight. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890/80 "2015-01-19T06:46:23Z")
“The Academy” is made up of 6000+ individuals who vote alone in their offices, or dens, or at their kitchen tables. It is easy to just say “The Academy” (I do it myself sometimes) but it’s not a monolithic entity with a hive mind. They’re people from all kinds of backgrounds and occupations, from all over the world, and they vote privately. NOBODY votes based on box office or potential TV viewership, that would be stupid. They vote for what they like and what they think should be nominated. It’s possible a lot of them didn’t even vote in the nominating process, but will vote on the final ballot. A lot of movies I loved or liked a lot were nominated in various categories, so it won’t be a snooze fest to me. It’s true, a lot of films/people I loved were not nominated, or under-nominated, but that happens every year. I deal, and root for the ones I do like. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2014-15-oscar-nominations/709890.md?page=5)