The Australian-made The Lego Movie wasn’t – that’s right, wasn’t – nominated for an Oscar, despite being the year’s biggest film, and a red-hot favourite.
More seriously – much more seriously, actually – the Academy also decided to overlook the performance of every single African American working in Hollywood.
The Huffington Post was appalled, describing these awards as ‘the whitest Oscars’ for a generation.
There are four main acting categories – Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting actress – and ‘at least one non-white person has been nominated each year since at least 1998,’ the Post said.
This year, however, there are none.
Time magazine also made an issue of it, headlining its story: “Almost all the Oscars Nominees are White” and Twitter was soon on board, with #Oscarssowhite soon trending.
It wasn’t like the Academy had no performances to choose from: David Oyelowo gave a stunning performance as Martin Luther King Jnr in the civil rights movie, Selma, which is up for Best Picture.
Ironically, it is Martin Luther King jnr Day – a national public holiday – on Monday.
Oprah Winfrey starred in and produced the film Selma.
Oprah Winfrey starred in and produced the film Selma.
Oprah Winfrey starred in and produced the film Selma.
Women were also – and as usual – woefully under-represented, with no female screenwriters and no female directors nominated (a total of 14 screenwriters and directors were nominated for Oscars, but all are men.)
Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike starred in the 2014 film Gone Girl, screenplay written by Gillian Flynn. Gillian Flynn, who wrote the biggest book of the year – Gone Girl – and the screenplay on which the mega-hit film is based , was ignored in the screenwriting category.
Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike starred in the 2014 film Gone Girl
Selma’s Ava DuVernay – who is both African American and a woman – also missed out for Best Director. Had she made the cut, she would have been the first black woman ever nominated in that category, but no.
It’s also the first time in anyone’s memory that no Australian was nominated for any of the big awards.
The New York Times was stunned by the omission of The Lego Movie, saying “this snub was perhaps the most surprising.”
Lego Movie was the highest grossing film of 2014 but even that wasn’t enough for a nomination.
People magazine agreed, saying: “The Lego Movie was one of 2014’s biggest commercial hits, got rave reviews and scored a Golden Globe nomination, but it was shut out for Best Animated Feature Film at the Oscars.”
A number of Tweets appeared, showed little Lego men, crying their eyes out.
The director, Phil Lord, was able to have a bit of a joke about it, posting a photo of an Oscar made entirely from yellow Lego bricks, with the tag: “It’s okay – I made my own!”
The film’s original song, Everything is Awesome, did get a nod.
The film was part-financed by James Packer’s RatPac, and it took almost half-a-billion dollars at the box office.
There was a time when Australians dominated the Oscars; in fact, they had started joking about it in Hollywood.
One Australian, Tim Crosbie, was nominated for his work X-Men: Days of Future Past.
It’s his first nomination.
Of course, all these decisions may have been made “on merit” as Tony Abbott might say but they nonetheless created a storm of protest, especially as the LA Times recently revealed that 94 per cent of the Academy’s membership is white, and more than 70 per cent are male.
Also snubbed was Angelina Jolie, and her film, Unbroken, which was largely made in Australia.
Jolie has had a shocker of a year, having been described in leaked Sony emails as a minimally talented spoiled brat. The film was nominated only for sound mixing, and sound editing.
Jennifer Aniston didn’t get nominated for Cake, either, which is distressing, because she thought this might be the role to help her bury forever her other roles, as Rachel from Friends, and the perpetual Woman Wronged (Jolie is said to have stolen her husband, Brad Pitt.)
The Academy adored Boyhood, a literal coming-of-age film made over 12 years, with the actors ageing naturally as they went.
It contains a strong performance by 46-year-old Patricia Arquette, who was nominated for Best Actress. She will come up against the favourite, Julianne Moore, for Still Alice.
Meryl Streep cemented her reputation as the pre-eminent actor of her generation, with her 19th nomination for her performance as an evil witch in Into The Woods (her closest rival, Katharine Hepburn, received 12.)
The Academy Awards will be presented on 22 February at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
And the 2015 Oscar nominees are…
Best Picture
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash
Best director
Richard Linklater for Boyhood
Alejandro G. Iñárritu for Birdman
Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel
Bennett Miller for Foxcatcher
Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game
(Clint Eastwood, who directed American Sniper (which is up for Best Film) didn’t get a nod.)
Actor in a Leading Role
Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
Actress in a Leading Role
Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild
Actor in a Supporting Role
Robert Duvall, The Judge
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward Norton, Birdman
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Actress in a Supporting Role
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Laura Dern, Wild
Emma Stone, Birdman
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Animated Feature Film
Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman
Robert D. Yeoman, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lynzewski, Ida
Dick Pope, Mr. Turner
Roger Deakins, Unbroken
Costume Design
Milena Canonero, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Mark Bridges, Inherent Vice
Colleen Atwood, Into the Woods
Anna B. Sheppard, Maleficent
Jacqueline Durran, Mr. Turner
Documentary Feature
Citizenfour
Last Days in Vietnam
Virunga
The Salt of the Earth
Finding Vivian Maier
Documentary Short Subject
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Joanna
Our Curse
The Reaper
White Earth
Film Editing
Joel Cox and Gary Roach, American Sniper
Sandra Adair, Boyhood
Barney Pilling, The Grand Budapest Hotel
William Goldenberg, The Imitation Game
Tom Cross, Whiplash
Foreign Language Film
Ida
Leviathan
Tangerines
Wild Tales
Timbuktu
Makeup and Hairstyling
Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard, Foxcatcher
Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White, Guardians of the Galaxy
Music – Original Score
Alexandre Desplat, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alexandre Desplat, The Imitation Game
Hans Zimmer, Interstellar
Gary Yershon, Mr Turner
Jóhann Jóhannsson, The Theory of Everything
Music – Original Song
Everything Is Awesome by Shawn Patterson, The LEGO Movie
Glory by Common and John Legend, Selma
Grateful by Diane Warren, Beyond the Lights
I’m Not Gonna Miss You by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me
Lost Stars by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois, Begin Again
Production Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel, Production design: Adam Stockhausen, Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
The Imitation Game, Production design: Maria Djurkovic, Set Decoration: Tatiana Macdonald
Interstellar, Production design: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Gary Fettis
Into the Woods, Production design: Dennis Gassner, Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Mr. Turner, Production design: Suzie Davies, Set Decoration: Charlotte Watts
Short Film – Animated
The Bigger Picture, Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees
The Dam Keeper, Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi
Feast, Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed
Me and My Moulton, Torill Kove
A Single Life, Joris Oprins
Short Film – Live Action
Aya, Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis
Boogaloo and Graham, Michael Lennox and Ronan Blaney
Butter lamp, Hu Wei and Julien Féret
Parvaneh, Talkhon Hamzavi and Stefan Eichenberger
The Phone Call, Mat Kirkby and James Lucas.
Sound Editing
American Sniper, Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Birdman, Martín Hernández and Aaron Glascock
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Brent Burge and Jason Canovas
Interstellar, Richard King
Unbroken, Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro
Sound Mixing
American Sniper, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin
Birdman, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga
Interstellar, Garry A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten
Unbroken, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and David Lee
Whiplash, Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley
Visual Effects
Captain America: Winter Soldier, Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist
Guardians of the Galaxy, Stephanie Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould
Interstellar, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher
X-Men: Days of Future Past, Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Waldbauer
Writing – Adapted Screenplay
Jason Hall, American Sniper
Graham Moore, The Imitation Game
Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice
Anthony McCarten, The Theory of Everything
Damien Chazelle, Whiplash
Writing – Original Screenplay
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo, Birdman
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler
