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 Joining the two Fox Searchlight releases in the best picture
race is "Boyhood," whose director, Richard Linklater, pushed
cinematic boundaries by making it over 12 years with the same
actors.
"Boyhood" received six nominations overall and comes to the race
as a frontrunner after winning the Golden Globe for best drama
last weekend.
"It's harder and harder to get any film made, and all of these
movies are really original and difficult," said Tim Gray, awards
editor for entertainment industry publication Variety. "On the
scale of difficulty, all of these are off the chart."
British World War Two biopic "The Imitation Game" garnered eight
nominations, including best picture and best actor for Benedict
Cumberbatch. "American Sniper," an Iraq war film by director
Clint Eastwood, also earned six nominations, notably best
picture and a surprising best actor nomination for Bradley
Cooper as the sharpshooting hero.
Other best picture nominees were "Selma," a slice of Martin
Luther King Jr.'s civil rights work, and "The Theory of
Everything," a portrait of the marriage of physicist Stephen
Hawking. Sundance festival winner "Whiplash" rounded out the
field of eight competing for the top Oscar, a number that
surprised some awards watchers since the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences can nominate up to 10.
If it was a good year for offbeat films, it was not so favorable
for diversity, after inroads last year. Most notably, "12 Years
a Slave" made history as the first film by a black director to
win as best picture.
This year, in the 87th Academy Awards slate, there were no
actors of color in the four acting races, and no women managed
to crack the best director category.
"Selma" in particular seemed to stumble badly, picking up just
two nominations, best picture and best song, despite speculation
that it would fare well and that Ava DuVernay had a shot at
becoming the first black woman to be nominated for best
director.
"We can blame Hollywood for a lack of diversity, which we're
seeing across Oscars today," said Tom O'Neil, founder of awards
tracker Gold Derby. "It is the whitest Oscars in recent times in
acting categories, and there is no gender diversity in
directors."
'A LOT OF COURAGE'
The best picture race promises to be competitive, with no clear
favorite five weeks before the Feb. 22 awards ceremony in Los
Angeles. But the Academy branches that nominate contenders seem
to have gravitated to films that challenged the creative status
quo.
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Both "Birdman" from Mexican director Alejandro G. Inarritu and Wes
Anderson's quirky "The Grand Budapest Hotel" offer innovative visual
spectacles and original characters. They go head-to-head in four
races - picture, director, cinematography and original screenplay.
"Birdman" features Michael Keaton, a best actor nominee, as a
washed-up former superhero actor battling to make a comeback by
putting on his own Broadway play, his angst captured in what looks
like one long shot in the cramped confines of the theater.
"I am very happy for the whole Birdman flock because it took a lot
of courage to make this film out of conventions," said Inarritu.
"The Grand Budapest Hotel" was an early favorite last year with
critics, with its whimsical story of a hotel concierge caught up in
a murder plot. It won nominations for its colorful production
design, costumes and makeup, among others.
If there was a latecomer to the race, it would be "American Sniper."
The real-life story of the most deadly sniper in American military
history is also roaring to life at the box office, but Eastwood, 84,
failed to make the cut for best director.
Some of the other notable surprises were the nomination of
Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard as a beleaguered
worker in "Two Days, One Night" and the exclusion of Jennifer
Aniston, who gave a critically acclaimed performance in "Cake."
The animation category may have served up the biggest snub of the
day with the omission of "The LEGO Movie," which is based on the toy
building blocks loved by critics, children and their parents.
Julianne Moore is considered the favorite to win the best actress
Oscar for her portrayal as a woman with early-onset Alzheimer's.
Fellow Golden Globe winner, Eddie Redmayne, is a strong contender
for best actor for his role as physicist Stephen Hawking in "The
Theory of Everything."
Meryl Streep extended her Academy lead as the most nominated
performer of all time with her 19th nod, this time for her
supporting role in the musical "Into the Woods."
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy and Mary Milliken; Editing by Lisa Von
Ahn)
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