“American Hustle” and “Gravity” led nominations for the 86th Academy Awards with 10 each, followed by nine for “12 Years a Slave.” The trio will compete for best picture in a category that this year has nine entrants, also including “Captain Phillips,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Her,” “Nebraska,” “Philomena,” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Oscar voters always provide a few surprises, but this year they outdid themselves. In a strong year, a lot of good work went unrecognized, including Paul Greengrass, Tom Hanks, Robert Redford and Emma Thompson, while critical favs “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “Saving Mr. Banks” and “Lone Survivor” got less-than-hoped-for attention.
OSCARS: Biggest Snubs and Surprises
Sally Hawkins, Christian Bale and Amy Adams were not shoo-ins, so their inclusion is a mild surprise. Bale and Adams, along with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, mean that a David O. Russell film has been repped in all four acting categories for the second consecutive year. Russell was also a repeat double nominee, as writer-director. Only six other filmmakers have had back-to-back double bids in those races.
Alfonso Cuaron (“Gravity”) is a triple nominee, in the film, directing and editing races. That’s also true for Spike Jonze, in the film, writer and song categories. Double nominees include producer-writer Steve Coogan, producer Megan Ellison, producer-director Steve McQueen, designer Catherine Martin and sound mixer Chris Munro.
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Of the nine best-pic contenders, four are repped in the adapted-screenplay race, and four in the original-screenplay category. (“Gravity” did not get a script nom.) All five directors have their films in the top race. Eight of the nine films also got acting bids; the only exception was “Her.”
Variety first reported last July that the awards race would include a heavy dose of reality-based projects. Five of the nine pics are fact-based (“Captain,” “Dallas,” “Philomena,” “12 Years,” “Wolf”), while a sixth is inspired by real events (“American Hustle”).
The best-picture list contains eight contenders for the Producers Guild of America. The PGA nominated 10 films, including “Blue Jasmine” and “Saving Mr. Banks”; Oscar’s nine also includes “Philomena.” And three of the five SAG Ensemble nominations showed up today: “12 Years,” “Hustle” and “Dallas.” SAG-AFTRA voters also included ““August: Osage County” (which scored two noms, but not best pic) and “The Butler.” Both guilds will present the winners this weekend.
Four of the Directors Guild’s five contenders were recognized by Oscar: Cuaron, McQueen, Russell and Scorsese. Oscar also nominated Alexander Payne, while the DGA had tapped Greengrass. Since 1970, Oscar’s five helming nominees have been identical with the DGA only five times (1977, 1981, 1998, 2005, 2009).
All of the nine best-pic contenders opened in the fourth-quarter, ranging from the Oct. 3 bow of “Gravity” to the Dec. 25 launch of “Wolf.”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and PricewaterhouseCoopers follow a complicated weighted system for best picture, which allows for five-to-10 contenders. For the past two years, there were also nine. (James Schamus explains the system in a separate story.)
Many of this year’s top nominees are themed to the economy (“American Hustle,” “Blue Jasmine,” “The Wolf of Wall Street”), health care (“Dallas Buyers Club”), terrorism (“Captain Phillips”), survival (“12 Years,” “Gravity,”) and technology (“Her” and “Gravity”).
And then there are the classic American themes of family: “August: Osage County,” “Nebraska,” “Philomena.”
POLL: Which Movie Will Win Best Picture?
The nominees include some racial and cultural diversity, underscoring the fact that the film industry needs to reflect a wider cross-section. It’s an expanded sensibility that theater and TV have been quicker to embrace.
Historically, the Oscars nominations rarely parallel box office performance. With $670 million worldwide, “Gravity” was the only best-pic nominee in the global box office top 10.
The foreign language and animation categories failed to capture a best-picture nomination in the way that “Toy Story 3” and “Amour” did in the past few years. The year’s overcrowding meant that Pixar’s “Monsters University” was shut out of the animated-feature contest. And some of the year’s most high-profile documentaries failed to make the grade, including the excellent “The Armstrong Lie,” “Blackfish,” “Stories We Tell” and “Tim’s Vermeer.”
And the original-song omissions is a who’s who in the music world. Among the many with eligible songs who didn’t score a nom were Kings of Leon, Beyonce, Jay Z, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Taylor Swift.
The build-up to today’s nominations has been long and intense. In most years, there have been three or four shoo-ins for a best-picture nomination, plus a handful of other possibilities. This year, in addition to four that seemed like no-brainers, there were a dozen other contenders all worthy of attention. Every Oscar category was overcrowded, so the campaigning has been at a record level of activity since September.
Because it was such a good year, there were some casualties in Thursday’s noms. That includes a few longshots whose supporters had hoped in vain for awards attention, such as James Franco (“Spring Breakers”), James Gandolfini (“Enough Said”) and Scarlett Johansson (“Her”). And there were terrific films that never quite gained traction in terms of awards, including “The Place Beyond the Pines,” “Rush,” “Labor Day” and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.”
There were 289 eligible pics with a total of 6,028 Academy voters. The largest single branch is actors, with 1176 (19% of the total); the smallest being casting directors, with 54 members (less than 1%).
The nominations were announced at 5:38 a.m. at the Academy’s Beverly Hills headquarters. Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences prexy Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Chris Hemsworth made the announcement.
Balloting runs Feb. 14-25. Awards will be handed out at ceremonies at the Dolby Theatre March 2, telecast live by ABC-TV.
THE FULL LIST OF NOMINEES:
BEST PICTURE
“12 Years a Slave”
“American Hustle”
“Captain Phillips”
“Dallas Buyers Club”
“Gravity”
“Her”
“Nebraska”
“Philomena”
“The Wolf of Wall Street”
BEST DIRECTOR
David O. Russell, “American Hustle”
Alfonso Cuaron, “Gravity”
Alexander Payne, “Nebraska”
Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave”
Martin Scorsese, “The Wolf of Wall Street”
BEST ACTOR
Christian Bale, “American Hustle”
Bruce Dern, “Nebraska”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Wolf of Wall Street”
Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”
Matthew McConaughey, “Dallas Buyers Club”
BEST ACTRESS
Amy Adams, “American Hustle”
Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”
Sandra Bullock, “Gravity”
Judi Dench, “Philomena”
Meryl Streep, “August: Osage County”
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“American Hustle” – Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
“Blue Jasmine” – Written by Woody Allen
“Her” – Written by Spike Jonze
“Nebraska” – Written by Bob Nelson
“Dallas Buyers Club” – Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“Before Midnight” – Written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
“Captain Phillips” – Screenplay by Billy Ray
“Philomena” – Screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
“12 Years a Slave” – Screenplay by John Ridley
“The Wolf of Wall Street” – Screenplay by Terence Winter
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”
Jennifer Lawrence, “American Hustle”
June Squibb, “Nebraska”
Julia Roberts, “August: Osage County”
Sally Hawkins, “Blue Jasmine”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barkhad Abdi, “Captain Phillips”
Bradley Cooper, “American Hustle”
Michael Fassbender, “12 Years a Slave”
Jonah Hill, “The Wolf of Wall Street”
Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”
BEST ANIMATED FILM
“The Croods”
“Despicable Me 2”
“Ernest & Celestine”
“Frozen”
“The Wind Rises”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“The Grandmaster”
“Gravity”
“Inside Llewyn Davis”
“Nebraska”
“Prisoners”
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Michael Wilkinson, “American Hustle”
William Chang Suk Ping, “The Grandmaster”
Catherine Martin, “The Great Gatsby”
Michael O’Connor, “The Invisible Woman”
Patricia Norris, “12 Years a Slave”
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“The Act of Killing”Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
“Cutie and the Boxer” Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher
“Dirty Wars” Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill
“The Square” Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer
“20 Feet from Stardom” Nominees to be determined
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
“CaveDigger” Jeffrey Karoff
“Facing Fear” Jason Cohen
“Karama Has No Walls” Sara Ishaq
“The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed
“Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall” Edgar Barens
BEST FILM EDITING
“American Hustle” Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten
“Captain Phillips” Christopher Rouse
“Dallas Buyers Club” John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
“Gravity” Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
“12 Years a Slave” Joe Walker
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“The Broken Circle Breakdown” Belgium
“The Great Beauty” Italy
“The Hunt” Denmark
“The Missing Picture” Cambodia
“Omar” Palestine
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
“Dallas Buyers Club” Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews
“Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa” Stephen Prouty
“The Lone Ranger” Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
John Williams, “The Book Thief”
Steven Price, “Gravity”
William Butler and Owen Pallett, “Her”
Alexandre Desplat, “Philomena”
Thomas Newman, “Saving Mr. Banks”
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Alone Yet Not Alone” from “Alone Yet Not Alone”
Music by Bruce Broughton; Lyric by Dennis Spiegel
“Happy” from “Despicable Me 2”
Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams
“Let It Go” from “Frozen”
Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
“The Moon Song” from “Her”
Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze
“Ordinary Love” from “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”
Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
“American Hustle”
Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Heather Loeffler
“Gravity”
Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard
“The Great Gatsby”
Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverley Dunn
“Her”
Production Design: K.K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena
“12 Years a Slave”
Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Alice Baker
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
“Feral” Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden
“Get a Horse!” Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim
“Mr. Hublot” Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares
“Possessions” Shuhei Morita
“Room on the Broom” Max Lang and Jan Lachauer
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
“Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)” Esteban Crespo
“Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything)” Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras
“Helium” Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson
“Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)” Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari
“The Voorman Problem” Mark Gill and Baldwin Li
BEST SOUND EDITING
“All Is Lost” Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
“Captain Phillips” Oliver Tarney
“Gravity” Glenn Freemantle
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Brent Burge
“Lone Survivor” Wylie Stateman
BEST SOUND MIXING
“Captain Phillips” Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
“Gravity” Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
“Inside Llewyn Davis” Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
“Lone Survivor” Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
“Gravity” Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
“Iron Man 3” Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
“The Lone Ranger” Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
“Star Trek Into Darkness” Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton
