{"id":12418,"date":"2014-01-16T12:09:55","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T20:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=12418"},"modified":"2014-01-16T12:09:55","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T20:09:55","slug":"oscar-nominations-my-own-two-bits-and-a-complete-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/01\/oscar-nominations-my-own-two-bits-and-a-complete-list.html","title":{"rendered":"Oscar nominations — my own two bits, and a complete list"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>It is extremely rare for a film to win Best Picture without also being nominated for its director, its film editing<\/a>, and its screenplay. So it looks like this year\u2019s top Oscar will go to either the frivolous but entertaining American Hustle<\/i>, which scored 10 nominations altogether, or the serious and historically significant<\/a> 12 Years a Slave<\/i>, which scored nine.<\/p>\n

Between American Hustle<\/i> and last year\u2019s The Silver Linings Playbook<\/i>, director David O. Russell has pulled off the neat trick of getting nominations in all four acting categories for two years in a row. This had happened only 13 times prior to Russell\u2019s films, and while no film has ever won<\/i> all four acting categories, all but two of the 14 films so nominated in the past have won at least one<\/i> of the acting awards (the sole exceptions being 1936\u2019s My Man Godfrey<\/i> and 1950\u2019s Sunset Boulevard<\/i>).<\/p>\n

Gravity<\/a><\/i> is also up there with 10 nominations, including nods for directing and editing \u2014 but it has no screenplay nomination, so that pretty much seals the film\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, here are a few points that jumped out at me; I may notice other oddities and curiosities later, especially as I read the comments of other Oscar watchers:<\/p>\n

First, an independent Christian film I had never heard of before, called Alone Yet Not Alone<\/a><\/i>, was nominated for its title song \u2014 which is apparently sung in the film by Joni Eareckson Tada. (If the name rings a bell, it might be because she\u2019s the quadriplegic whose life story was turned into a Billy Graham movie \u2014 one of his best, actually<\/a> \u2014 back in 1979.) Strictly speaking, this might not be the first time an independent Christian film has been nominated for an Oscar \u2014 the 1953 film Martin Luther<\/a><\/i>, which was nominated for cinematography and art direction, comes to mind \u2014 but still, as far as recent evangelical efforts go, it feels like some sort of precedent has been set here. Incidentally, does this mean Joni will get to sing at the Oscar ceremony?<\/p>\n

Second, three of the year\u2019s top-grossing computer-animated films (The Croods<\/i>, Despicable Me 2<\/i>, Frozen<\/i>) were nominated for Best Animated Feature, but the year\u2019s one Pixar film (Monsters University<\/i>) was snubbed in favour of a couple of hand-drawn foreign films (Ernest & Celestine<\/i>, The Wind Rises<\/i>). Pixar\u2019s The Blue Umbrella<\/i> was also shut out of the Best Animated Short category, but we\u2019ve known that ever since the shortlist for that category<\/a> was released back in November.<\/p>\n

Third, it\u2019s striking to see that Wong Kar-wai\u2019s The Grandmaster<\/i> was shut out of the Best Foreign Language Film category, when it\u2019s the only non-English live-action non-documentary feature-length film that was<\/i> nominated in any of the other<\/i> categories (namely cinematography and costume design).<\/p>\n

Fourth, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug<\/a><\/i> ties last year\u2019s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey<\/i> for least nominations of any Peter Jackson film set in Middle-Earth. An Unexpected Journey<\/i> ended up losing in all three categories, so it\u2019s not impossible that The Desolation of Smaug<\/i> could too. It\u2019s quite the comedown from a decade ago, when all three Lord of the Rings<\/a><\/i> films were nominated for Best Picture (as well as dozens of other awards), and the third film actually won.<\/p>\n

Here are the feature films that have been nominated for Oscars, from those with the most nods to those with only one. The titles of those I have seen are in bold:<\/p>\n

10 nominations:<\/b><\/p>\n