The Oscars (and other awards)

Dracula
PG Cooper

Screen Actors Guild Nominations

Best Actor
1. Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
2. Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
3. Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
4. Michael Keaton, Birdman
5. Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Actress
1. Jennifer Aniston, Cake
2. Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
3. Julianne Moore, Still Alice
4. Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
5. Reese Witherspoon, wild

Best Supporting Actor
1. Robert Duvall, The Judge
2. Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
3. Edward Norton, Birdman
4. Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
5. J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress
1. Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
2. Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
3. Emma Stone, Birdman
4. Meryl Streep, Into the Wild
5. Naomi Watts, St. Vincent

Best Cast
1. Birdman
2. Boyhood
3. The Granc Budapest Hotel
4. The Imitation Game
5. The Theory of Everything

I'm not worried about The Theory of Everything or The Imitation Game or whatever other bullshit Oscar-bait movie that comes along the way. This race is between Birdman, Boyhood and Foxcatcher as a distant third. The only movies that could possibly shake things up are American Sniper, which is Clint Eastwood's unreleased war movie that's getting loads of industry buzz, and MAYBE Selma. 

Havent seen Whiplash, hasn't been released near me, but glad JK Simmons is getting attention.

The ONLY surprise is Wes Anderson for Best Director. I can almost guarantee it won't happen at the Oscars. But it definitely helps the movie in the long run. 

CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS

BEST PICTURE
Birdman
Boyhood
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Nightcrawler
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Unbroken
Whiplash

BEST DIRECTOR
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay – Selma
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Alejandro G. Inarritu – Birdman
Angelina Jolie – Unbroken
Richard Linklater – Boyhood

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Force Majeure
Ida
Leviathan
Two Days, One Night
Wild Tales

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Lego Movie

BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE
The Babadook
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Interstellar
Snowpiercer
Under the Skin

BEST ACTION MOVIE
American Sniper
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Edge of Tomorrow
Fury
Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST COMEDY
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
St. Vincent
Top Five
22 Jump Street

BEST ACTOR
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton – Birdman
David Oyelowo – Selma
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

BEST ACTRESS
Jennifer Aniston – Cake
Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin – Inherent Vice
Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Emma Stone – Birdman
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods
Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Ellar Coltrane – Boyhood
Ansel Elgort – The Fault in Our Stars
Mackenzie Foy – Interstellar
Jaeden Lieberher – St. Vincent
Tony Revolori – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Quvenzhane Wallis – Annie
Noah Wiseman – The Babadook

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Into the Woods
Selma

BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Bradley Cooper – American Sniper
Tom Cruise – Edge of Tomorrow
Chris Evans – Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Brad Pitt – Fury
Chris Pratt – Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Emily Blunt – Edge of Tomorrow
Scarlett Johansson – Lucy
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Zoe Saldana – Guardians of the Galaxy
Shailene Woodley – Divergent

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Jon Favreau – Chef
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Bill Murray – St. Vincent
Chris Rock – Top Five
Channing Tatum – 22 Jump Street

BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Rose Byrne – Neighbors
Rosario Dawson – Top Five
Melissa McCarthy – St. Vincent
Jenny Slate – Obvious Child
Kristen Wiig – The Skeleton Twins

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Birdman – Alejandro G. Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., Armando Bo
Boyhood – Richard Linklater
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness
Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy
Whiplash – Damien Chazelle

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
The Imitation Game – Graham Moore
Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
The Theory of Everything – Anthony McCarten
Unbroken – Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese, William Nicholson
Wild – Nick Hornby

BEST CINEMATOGRAPY
Birdman – Emmanuel Lubezki
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Robert Yeoman
Interstellar – Hoyte Van Hoytema
Mr. Turner – Dick Pope
Unbroken – Roger Deakins

BEST ART DIRECTION
Birdman – Kevin Thompson/Production Designer, George DeTitta Jr./Set Decorator
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Adam Stockhausen/Production Designer, Anna Pinnock/Set Decorator
Inherent Vice – David Crank/Production Designer, Amy Wells/Set Decorator
Interstellar – Nathan Crowley/Production Designer, Gary Fettis/Set Decorator
Into the Woods – Dennis Gassner/Production Designer, Anna Pinnock/Set Decorator
Snowpiercer – Ondrej Nekvasil/Production Designer, Beatrice Brentnerova/Set Decorator

BEST EDITING
Birdman – Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione
Boyhood – Sandra Adair
Gone Girl – Kirk Baxter
Interstellar – Lee Smith
Whiplash – Tom Cross

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Milena Canonero
Inherent Vice – Mark Bridges
Into the Woods – Colleen Atwood
Maleficent – Anna B. Sheppard
Mr. Turner – Jacqueline Durran

BEST HAIR & MAKEUP
Foxcatcher
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Into the Woods
Maleficent

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Edge of Tomorrow
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar

BEST SONG
Big Eyes – Lana Del Rey – Big Eyes
Everything Is Awesome – Jo Li and the Lonely Island – The Lego Movie
Glory – Common/John Legend – Selma
Lost Stars – Keira Knightley – Begin Again
Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

BEST SCORE
Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Gone Girl
Antonio Sanchez – Birdman
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Citizenfour
Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me
Jodorowsky’s Dune
Last Days in Vietnam
Life Itself
The Overnighters

They HAVE been pissed ever since awards season began. 

Things have been quiet for Clint Eastwood's American Sniper. Mostly because critics like iverdawg haven't had nice things to say about it. But that ends now.

Ben Affleck, Josh Brolin, and Leonardo DiCaprio are campaigning for Bradley Cooper to get an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Cooper, unless I'm mistaken, is currently on Broadway. He's starring in The Elephant Man. So he's out of the loop this Oscar season.

Dracula
PG Cooper

deadline.com/2014/12/oscar-voting-controversy-selma-1201337948

Another Oscar season. Another controversy over accuracy. And all this happening conveniently as Academy Award nominating balloting starts today.

From Hurricane and A Beautiful Mind to Zero Dark Thirty and The Butler, and countless other movies based on actual events and people, they are often plagued with attacks on their credibility. But it should be remembered these movies are not documentaries. Dramatic license is often taken. Sometimes the controversies that rise up can be chalked up to suspicions of dirty campaign tricks as in the case of eventual Best Picture winner, A Beautiful Mind. Sometimes though it can be at the hands of politicians as in the case of Zero Dark Thirty when powerful Senators took issue with aspects of the movie. Now it’s Selma’s turn on the hot seat, a sure-fire Oscar contender set around the 1964 Martin Luther King Jr. led march from Selma to Montgomery. The Paramount film, which opened a limited run Christmas Day to very decent box office returns and goes wide on January 9th, is being attacked for its portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson’s role in those events, suggesting the film asserts he was more of an obstructionist than anything else.

First Mark Updegrove, director of the LBJ Library, took issue last week with Selma’s account of those historical days 50 years ago in a Politico piece. “Why does the film’s mis-characterization matter? Because at a time when racial tension is once again high, from Ferguson to Brooklyn, it does no good to bastardize one of the most hallowed chapters in the Civil Rights Movement by suggesting that the President himself stood in the way of progress,” he wrote. And, it was noted, that in April the LBJ library commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act with a summit that brought out four of five living Presidents including Barack Obama who lavishly praised Johnson’s efforts to push the act through Congress and promote greater racial equality.

Now in an Op Ed in the Washington Post, Joseph A Califano Jr., President Johnson’s top assistant for domestic affairs from 1965 through 1969, has also come out swinging. “Contrary to the portrait painted by Selma, Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. were partners in this effort. Johnson was enthusiastic about voting rights and the President urged King to find a place like Selma and lead a major demonstration. That’s three strikes for Selma. The movie should be ruled out this Christmas and during the ensuing awards season,” he wrote. Ouch. Califano has specifically infused himself and this issue into the Oscar race so attention must be paid.

Califano accuses the film, currently nominated for several Golden Globe and Critics Choice Movie Awards, of: "taking dramatic, trumped-up license with a true story that didn't need any embellishment to work as a big-screen historical drama. As a result, the film falsely portrays President Lyndon B. Johnson as being at odds with Martin Luther King Jr. and even using the FBI to discredit him”. In the op-ed titled “The Movie ‘Selma’ Has A Glaring Flaw”, Califano seeks to set the record, as he recalls it, straight. He even offers up taped phone conversations between LBJ and King to support his stance. He points to a media strategy LBJ devised by telling King to find the worst possible place, in terms of voting rights, and “get it on radio, get it on television, get it in the pulpits, get it in the meetings, get it everyplace you can”. King found Selma where just 335 of about 10,000 registered voters were black – despite a population that was 60% African-American according to Califano’s account. He says Johnson thought the public pressure generated by a march from Selma to Montgomery, AL, could help the cause, hoping there would be no violence. Of course there was, but Califano says when the march resumed a third time (two days after Johnson’s joint congressional address proposing his Voting Rights Act) Johnson made sure the demonstrators would be protected.

Apparently, in the eyes of those protecting the LBJ legacy, the film does not go far enough in portraying what they see as President Johnson’s enormous influence in securing voting rights equality. They may be right, but the movie, directed by Ava DuVernay, the first African-American woman to win a Best Director nomination from the Golden Globes, is of course much more intent on telling this from the point of view of Martin Luther King Jr. and those who marched, something we don’t see often in major studio movies. It is, in fact, the first time Dr. King has ever been the subject of a lead role in a theatrical film. It is not intended to be the LBJ story. I am actually surprised these critics aren't also gobsmacked by the fact that DuVernay actually hired a British actor, Tom Wilkinson, to play the Texas-born President.

At any rate, not content to sit by and be attacked without responding (as was the case with Sony’s initial non-response to the assault on Zero Dark Thirty costing it serious loss of momentum in the Oscar race) DuVernay is fighting back on Twitter. “The notion that Selma was LBJ’s idea is jaw dropping and offensive to SNCC, SCLC and black citizens who made it so,” she tweeted. She then offered links showing that “LBJ’s stall on voting in favor of War on Poverty isn't fantasy made up for a film”. Another tweet: “Bottom line is folks should interrogate history. Don’t take my word for it or LBJ’s rep’s word for it. Let it come alive for yourself #Selma.”

When contacted for comment, a Paramount spokesperson referred to those tweets as well as several articles offering different opinions than those of Califano and Updegrove, including one from Bill Moyers who served as LBJ’s press secretary in the mid- 60’s. But hey, it just wouldn't be the Oscars without a little controversy, would it?

The Imitation Game isn't in "the game" just yet. We'll see what happens in January and if there will be a backlash against it.

I haven't seen all of those, but "Gone Girl" had some typically Fincher-esque brilliant editing, I wouldn't be surprised if it nabbed that category at the Oscars. Then again, "Birdman" had editing that was more impressive, though that may be because it was a series of extremely fluid tracking shots. I agree that "Guardians of the Galaxy" could nab some technical awards, but I think "Interstellar" deserves it more.

Oh yeah, this year is absolutely "Boyhood" vs. "Birdman", there have been some very good movies this year but those are the only two that are great. They're sitting on a tier high above the rest without a doubt.