I only watched Grand Budapest Hotel and The Hobbit (though the latter only has a nomination in the sound category).
That being said, it would be great if CitizenFour won the documentary award, but I highly doubt it, since it would be basically saying that Snowden is right (he is, but most of America's politicians don't think so).
The nominations are fairly interesting.
edited 15th Jan '15 10:33:09 AM by Quag15
If the Academy keeps up the trend from last year - and the nominations seem to indicate they will - I'd be highly surprised if Selma didn't win the vote for Best Picture.
Can't believe Selma got shut out in the acting categories like that.
I really wish now The LEGO Movie had been released later in the year. It did NOT deserve to get shut out of the animation category this year. Heck, it deserved to be there more than all the others.
Why are Selma and American Sniper being nominated if they're just now being released/released last week or so?
The minimum for an Academy nomination is 2 weeks.
I really hope American Sniper doesn't win.
In terms of best picture, my bet is on either Birdman or Boyhood winning.
They both had very limited releases in December.
edit
The big question is whether or not they're going to do a split on Best Director/Best Picture again. Richard Linklater most definitely will win the Best Director nod, if only because of how ambitious the project was. Boyhood is probably the front runner for Best Picture too. The fact that Selma effectively was shutout every other major category leads me to believe the Best Picture nod was more of a token gesture. My predictions are:
- Best Picture: Boyhood
- Best Director: Richard Linklater
- Best Actor: Michael Keaton
- Best Actress: Julianne Moore
- Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons
- Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette
- Best Animated Feature: How to Train Your Dragon 2
edited 15th Jan '15 12:09:43 PM by Lionheart0
Yeah Selma absolutely seems like a token gesture. I absolutely loved it and would love if it did win but the fact that it got nominated for nothing else (how do you get best film without any acting, writing, or directorial nods?!) says to me someone quickly said "Oh shit almost every nominee is white as fuck let's throw a nod to Selma so people don't think we're racist."
edited 15th Jan '15 11:58:25 AM by comicwriter
The snubbing of The LEGO Movie has the most outrage - just do a Google News search for "The LEGO Movie".
But even worse? Life Itself not getting a nomination. This is the Academy Awards saying one final FUCK YOU to Roger Ebert.
They gave Siskel a thumbs up when he died. Guess that's all we can hope for.
Honestly, I think the Lego Movie got screwed by a technicality. One of the requirements for the category is for 3/4ths of the film to be entirely animated. Considering how much of the Third Act is live action, that may be the reason behind the Academy shutting it out.
The movie is roughly 80 minutes animated, 10 minutes live-action, not counting the credits. Checked it meself. That's well below one quarter. Avatar had way more animation and that was in the live-action category.
edited 15th Jan '15 6:06:05 PM by Tuckerscreator
Seeing Birdman get all those nominations makes me wonder if part of the reason the Academy loves it so much is because it is essentially a huge Take That! to comic book movies. 
edited 15th Jan '15 6:28:22 PM by LDragon2
The LEGO Movie was eligible.
In other news, Critics Choice gave The LEGO Movie
their Best Animated nod.
And The Boxtrolls wasn't very good. At all.
- * *
I didn't really like Birdman. It was pretentious beyond belief. THAT the Academy loves.
edited 15th Jan '15 6:41:09 PM by AnotherGuy
James Gunn, director of last year’s highest-grossing movie, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” took to Facebook Thursday to vent his frustration over slights by Oscar voters of “The LEGO Movie” and “Foxcatcher.” Calling the animated movie “one of the best films of the year,” Gunn said, “‘The LEGO Movie’ was flat out snubbed.” “LEGO” failed to receive a nomination for Best Animated Film, prompting a clever response from its director, Phil Lord.
Taking a shot at the age of the average Academy voter, Gunn mused, “Perhaps the Tinkertoy Movie or the Erector Set Film would have fared better.”
"He concluded by conceding that Oscars voters are merely human, and “should have the right to not vote for whomever they want … besides ‘The LEGO Movie.’ I mean, that’s just fu*king ridiculous.”"
The only film up for Best Picture I've seen is Birdman which I liked.
It being a movie about the show business is also a major plus. The Academy is a sucker for those types of movies.
I didn't like Birdman at all.
I can get that, it's a very weird movie.
No, just a very pretentious film.
Ugh..the Oscars..
I only watch it for best animated feature and some of the dresses. Last year's host was painful.
Sucks that the Lego Movie wasn't nominated. Thought the "intelligent" Academy would like it. Guess I'll root for Big Hero 6 and American Sniper. The latter because I like Clint Eastwood.
edited 18th Jan '15 1:25:49 PM by Teddy
Supports cartoons being cartoony!
Host: Neil Patrick Harris
The nominated:
edited 16th Jan '15 11:29:16 AM by LordofLore