Academy Awards Nominations 2015 (Final Predictions)

I am back with my final predictions for this year's Oscars. The nominations will be announced on January 15 and the anticipation is at its peak. This year I am having a tough time predicting nominations in many categories. The award season has been for the most part very typical (I mean its always like that) but still, we have had some delightful surprises throughout. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" would be on the top of my surprise-list. Two months ago, I thought it will only make it to three technical categories but now, I am predicting it for the most nominations. This Wes Anderson gem has done the best with guilds and industry apart from critics. Other surprises include "Whiplash" and "Nightcrawler". While "American Sniper" has been showing its face as well, I am still not 100% sold on it. On the other hand, "Foxcatcher" have had a weird trajectory. Snubbed by critics and making it to few of the guilds but again, I have lost confidence in that film. Of course there is the Angelina Jolie directed film "Unbroken" which most of us thought was the early best picture frontrunner (such awful times those were) and now it has really bad reviews. That may still not hurt it (I am looking at you EL&IC). I may be very wrong about most of these, I usually am but hey, lets not take this too seriously. Critics can't fully paint an early picture for the Oscars and guilds can only hint at the direction this race takes but we award watchers still follow every move and analyze things a bit too much. For me, awards season is both fun and agonizing. On one hand you play it as a game having a grasp on the mind of how these things work. Then also you see some of your favorites and deserving candidates go home with nothing.

BEST PICTURE:-

1. Boyhood
2. Birdman
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. The Imitation Game
5. The Theory of Everything
6. Whiplash
7. Gone Girl
8. Selma
9. American Sniper


BEST DIRECTOR:-

1. Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
2. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman)
3. Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
4. Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game)
5. Damien Chazelle (Whiplash)

BEST LEAD ACTOR:-

1. Michael Keaton (Birdman)
2. Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
3. Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
4. Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler)
5. David Oyelowo (Selma)

BEST LEAD ACTRESS:-

1. Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
2. Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
3. Reese Witherspoon (Wild)
4. Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
5. Jennifer Aniston (Cake)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:-

1. J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
2. Edward Norton (Birdman)
3. Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
4. Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
5. Robert Duvall (The Judge)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:-

1. Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
2. Meryl Streep (Into the Woods)
3. Emma Stone (Birdman)
4. Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)
5. Rene Russo (Nightcrawler)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:-

1. Birdman (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo)
2. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness)
4. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
5. Selma (Ava DuVernay, Paul Webb)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:-

1. The Imitation Game (Graham Moore)
2. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
3. Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)
4. The Theory of Everything (Anthony McCarten)
5. Wild (Nick Hornby)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:-

1. Ida (Poland)
2. Force Majeure (Sweden)
3. Leviathan (Russia)
4. Wild Tales (Argentina)
5. Timbuktu (Mauritania)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:-

1. The Lego Movie
2. Big Hero 6
3. How to Train Your Dragon 2
4. The Boxtrolls
5. The Tale of Princess Kaguya

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:-

1. Life Itself
2. Citizenfour
3. Keep On Keepin' On
4. The Overnighters
5. Last Days in Vietnam

BEST EDITING:-

1. Birdman (Douglas Crise)
2. Boyhood (Sandra Adair)
3. Whiplash (Tom Cross)
4. The Imitation Game (William Goldenberg)
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Barney Pilling)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:-

1. Birdman (Emmanuel Lubezki)
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Robert Yeoman)
3. Unbroken (Roger Deakins)
4. Mr. Turner (Dick Pope)
5. The Theory of Everything (Benoît Delhomme)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:-

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Into the Woods
3. The Imitation Game
4. Mr. Turner
5. Birdman

BEST COSTUME DESIGN:-

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Milena Canonero)
2. Into the Woods (Colleen Atwood)
3. Mr. Turner (Jacqueline Durran)
4. The Theory of Everything (Steven Noble)
5. The Imitation Game (Sammy Sheldon)

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING:-

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Foxcatcher
3. Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:-

1. Interstellar
2. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
4. The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
5. Godzilla

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:-

1. Interstellar (Hans Zimmer)
2. The Theory of Everything (Jóhann Jóhannsson)
3. The Imitation Game (Alexandre Desplat)
4. Gone Girl (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Alexandre Desplat)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:-

1. "Glory" Selma
2. "Everything is Awesome", The Lego Movie
3. "Lost Stars", Begin Again
4. "Mercy Is", Noah
5. "I'm Not Gonna Miss You", Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me

BEST SOUND EDITING:-

1. American Sniper
2. Fury
3. Interstellar
4. Unbroken
5. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

BEST SOUND MIXING:-

1. American Sniper
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
3. Interstellar
4. Into the Woods
5. Unbroken