Through Her Lens: 2014 (The 87th Oscars)

A series by Juan Carlos Ojano. Introduction / Explanation

The 87th Oscars was the season that #OscarsSoWhite was born. When all 20 acting nominees were all white,  lawyer April Reign took to Twitter to express her disappointment about the nominations. Exacerbating the issue that season was the presence/non-presence of the historical drama Selma. Despite a Best Picture nomination, the film missed nominations in all but one other category, with the most visible snubs being in Best Director (Ava DuVernay) and Best Actor (David Oyelowo). The tweets and hashtag prompted a snowballing industry-wide discussion on the lack of representation and racism at the Academy Awards and in Hollywood in general.

The lack of Oscar nomination for DuVernay, despite critical acclaim and Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice nominations, continue the then-long streak of female directors missing out in the Best Director category. Out of the 320 films included in the Reminder List of Eligible Films in 2014 (87th Academy Awards), only 40 (12.5%) were directed/co-directed by women...

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DGA Nominees: Anderson, Branagh, Campion, Spielberg, Villeneuve

by Nathaniel R

And now the 'super thursday' of Guild Awards comes to an end with the Directors Guild of America nominations. The Directors Guild has historically been the best 'predictor' as to the Best Picture lineup though that distinction ceased being really important in 2009 when Oscar expanded its Best Picture lineup. Since then we've only seen one DGA Feature Film nominee that didnt show up in Oscar's Best Picture list (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) though we've several several DGA nominees who didn't show up in the parallel Oscar list for Best Director. Make sense? Okay, let's discuss their nominees...

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Punditry Madness! Team Experience joins in...

So dear readers, I've been having meetings with the team and they all wanted to join in on the Oscar prediction fun. So before the traditional charts on the Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, and Best International Feature Film pages you can see what each participating team member is predicting. It's fascinating to note the variety of opinions despite the fact that we're now late in the season. 

BEST PICTURE / BEST DIRECTOR
Though Power of the Dog is leading with 11/13 #1 placements (and all #1 placements in Best Director), there are still Belfast holdouts. Ben & Chris think Branagh's personal passion project still has some Oscar oomph in it...

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Link Manuel Miranda

• Cartoon Brew details on Aardman Animation sequels to their most iconic properties, Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit
• AV Club 20 major stars that broke out at Sundance over the years from Parker Posey through Peter Dinklage and on to Jennifer Lawrence (and many more)
• Hollywood Reporter quotes from the Best Director roundtable
• In Session Film yours truly guest starred on their podcast to talk SAG nods / BAFTA longlist

More after the jump including Meat Loaf's passing, Nightmare Alley's streaming release, Anna Kendrick's boyfriend, and Lin-Manuel Miranda's EGOT dreams...

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Which movies will squeeze into the last two slots of the Best Picture lineup?

by Nathaniel R

Time for Oscar chart updates. And, the way we see it there are two relatively "open" slots in Best Picture with five films either showing some form of strength at the moment or feeling like they might happen. But which will prevail?

PICTURE
If we were still in a sliding scale Best Picture situation as we were at this time last year we'd only be predicting 8 films for the top honor, and in this order: All locked up -- The Power of the Dog, West Side Story, Belfast, King Richard, Dune, Don't Look Up; The Probablies - CODA and Licorice Pizza. But the Academy has ruled that we're back to a full top ten list like we had (briefly) in 2009 and 2010. So there are two spots open...

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