2015 Oscars Results and Recap

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The 87th Annual Oscars ceremony was entertaining enough, or as entertaining as a three-and-half-hour award show can be. Neil Patrick Harris was suitably comedic as the host, with some clap-worthy cracks at Hollywood, but definitely not at the level of Ricky Gervais. Harris’ opening act, which featured Anna Kendrick and Jack Black, was one of the best in recent memory. Here’s Harris talking about how he prepped for the Oscars:

As usual, the Academy made some right moves and some questionable ones, but most movie geeks know to take the choices made with a grain of salt. Time decides what performances and what films truly make an impact, not old Caucasian men. Anyways, here are my major category predictions and the actual results.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Laura Dern – Wild
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Emma Stone – Birdman
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods

Who’s going to win? Patricia Arquette
Who am I rooting for? Emma Stone
Who won? Patricia Arquette

Arquette was definitely a solid choice for this category, and she is very much deserving of this win. Arquette went up to the stage and dedicated her Oscar win to American women everywhere, calling everyone to action for equal rights for women in the United States. If nobody knows yet, the Oscar stage is a perfect place to project your cause, since millions of people tune in despite the show being about an hour and a half too long.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash

Who’s going to win? J.K. Simmons
Who am I rooting for? Ethan Hawke and Edward Norton
Who won? J.K. Simmons

Everyone and their mothers saw this one coming not one, but two miles away. Simmons deserves the gold in this category for a powerhouse performance. This was the prediction I was the most confident about, as there was no way that Simmons wasn’t winning in this category. He strutted up there and urged us to call, not text, our parents. Simmons for the double-win.

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FILM EDITING

Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach – American Sniper
Sandra Adair – Boyhood
Barney Pilling – The Grand Budapest Hotel
William Goldenberg – The Imitation Game
Tom Cross – Whiplash

Who’s going to win? Barney Pilling
Who am I rooting for? Barney Pilling
Who won? Tom Cross

When I think of Whiplash, I think of the acting over everything. The film is wonderfully edited, but I still stand by my choices. It’s definitely not a terrible decision for this category by any means, but I still prefer the editing of Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel, as they both did something unique that complemented their stories.

Birdman film review

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., and Armando Bo – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman – Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson; Story by Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Dan Gilroy – Nightcrawler

Who’s going to win? Richard Linklater
Who am I rooting for? Richard Linklater and Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., and Armando Bo
Who won? Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., and Armando Bo

I’m ecstatic that Alejandro G. Iñárritu et al. won for Birdman, even though I was suspecting Richard Linklater would win. I honestly would’ve been happy with either winning. I had a preconceived notion that the Academy would disappoint me and choose Foxcatcher or something, but I’m glad it didn’t. Can this count as a correct prediction since I was rooting for it?

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ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Jason Hall – American Sniper
Graham Moore – The Imitation Game
Paul Thomas Anderson – Inherent Vice
Anthony McCarten – The Theory of Everything
Damien Chazelle – Whiplash 

Who’s going to win? Graham Moore
Who am I rooting for? Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl (even if it’s not nominated) or Jason Hall
Who won? Graham Moore – The Imitation Game

Graham Moore, writer of the adapted screenplay for The Imitation Game, gave a sincerely inspirational speech, which was brief and to the point, about “staying weird” regardless of not fitting in. It was a great win for him, and for the film, which might have received a little more Oscar love if it weren’t for the heavy-hitters.

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DIRECTING

Alejandro G. Iñárritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Bennett Miller – Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum – The Imitation Game

Who’s going to win? Richard Linklater
Who am I rooting for? Richard Linklater and Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Who won? Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Iñárritu definitely deserved this, but so did Linklater. It’s too bad that there can’t be two winners for this one, as both equally deserved the gold here. The battle was always between Iñárritu and Linklater for this category. Linklater has been a tremendous director for years, and his time will come… hopefully.

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BEST ACTOR

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper – American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

Who’s going to win? Michael Keaton
Who am I rooting for? Michael Keaton
Who won? Eddie Redmayne

Redmayne and Keaton were going head-to-head right down to the finish line, and Redmayne got it. Again, this is the Oscars, and they have disappointed me before, so I wasn’t exactly surprised. Keaton deserved this one all the way, but just came up short in the Academy’s eyes. Redmayne is truly a great talent, and his portrayal of Stephen Hawking was fantastic, but Keaton’s performance as Riggan Thomson was amazing. Now I’m recalling all the times that the Academy got “best actor” wrong.

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BEST ACTRESS

Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild
Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night

Who’s going to win? Julianne Moore
Who am I rooting for? Rosamund Pike
Who won? Julianne Moore

There was no question that Moore had this category on lock down. She won because of her heartfelt performance, as well as the many times her amazing work was overlooked by the Academy. Pike has made her name known with her performance in Gone Girl, and she’ll be back in the hot seat, mark my words.

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BEST PICTURE

American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

Who’s going to win? Boyhood
Who am I rooting for? Boyhood and Birdman
Who won? Birdman

I’m a little surprised that Boyhood didn’t win, but Birdman winning is a thing of beauty. This film was the most entertaining, original, and intelligent movie out of the nominees. Without a doubt, it’s one of the best, if not the best, films of 2014. Birdman soars to endless heights, and it will continue to fly high in cinema history.

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Here is the full list of 2015 Oscar winners:

Achievement in costume design
WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel – Milena Canonero
Inherent Vice – Mark Bridges
Into the Woods – Colleen Atwood
Maleficent – Anna B Sheppard
Mr Turner – Jacqueline Durran

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling
WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel – Frances Hannon, Mark Coulier
Foxcatcher – Bill Corso, Dennis Liddiard
Guardians of the Galaxy – Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou, David White

Best foreign-language film
WINNER: Ida – Paweł Pawlikowski
Tangerines – Zaza Urushadze
Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev
Wild Tales – Damián Szifrón
Timbuktu – Abderrahmane Sissako

Best live-action short film
WINNER: The Phone Call – Mat Kirkby, James Lucas
Aya – Oded Binnun, Mihal Brezis
Boogaloo and Graham – Michael Lennox, Ronan Blaney
Butter Lamp – Wei Hu, Julien Féret
Parvaneh – Talkhon Hamzavi, Stefan Eichenberger

Best documentary short subject
WINNER: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 – Ellen Goosenberg Kent, Dana Perry
Joanna – Aneta Kopacz
Our Curse – Tomasz Sliwinski, Maciej Slesicki
The Reaper – Gabriel Serra
White Earth – Christian Jensen

Achievement in sound mixing
WINNER: Whiplash – Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, Thomas Curley
American Sniper – John T Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, Walt Martin
Birdman – Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Thomas Varga
Interstellar – Gary Rizzo, Gregg Landaker, Mark Weingarten
Unbroken – Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, David Lee

Achievement in sound editing
WINNER: American Sniper – Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman
Birdman – Aaron Glascock, Martín Hernández
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Brent Burge, Jason Canovas
Interstellar – Richard King
Unbroken – Becky Sullivan, Andrew DeCristofaro

Achievement in visual effects
WINNER: Interstellar – Paul J Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter, Scott R Fisher
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Dan Deleeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill, Daniel Sudick
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett, Erik Winquist
Guardians of the Galaxy – Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner, Paul Corbould
X-Men: Days of Future Past – Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie, Cameron Waldbauer

Best animated short film
WINNER: Feast – Patrick Osborne, Kristina Reed
The Bigger Picture – Daisy Jacobs, Chris Hees
The Dam Keeper – Robert Kondo, Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi
Me and My Moulton – Torill Kove
A Single Life – Joris Oprins

Best animated feature film
WINNER: Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Best production design
WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel: Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock
The Imitation Game: Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald
Interstellar: Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
Into the Woods: Dennis Gassner, Anna Pinnock
Mr Turner: Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts

Achievement in cinematography
WINNER: Birdman: Emmanuel Lubezki
The Grand Budapest Hotel: Robert D Yeoman
Ida: Lukasz Zal, Ryszard Lenczewski
Mr Turner: Dick Pope
Unbroken: Roger Deakins

Best documentary feature
WINNER: Citizenfour – Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky
Finding Vivian Maier – John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
Last Days in Vietnam – Rory Kennedy, Keven McAlester
The Salt of the Earth – Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, David Rosier
Virunga – Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara

Best original song
WINNER: Glory from Selma – Lonnie Lynn (Common), John Stephens (John Legend)
The Lego Movie – Shawn Patterson (Everything Is Awesome)
Beyond the Lights – Diane Warren (Grateful)
Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me – Glen Campbell, Julian Raymond (I’m Not Gonna Miss You)
Begin Again – Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois (Lost Stars)

Best original score
WINNER: Alexandre Desplat – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar
Jóhann Jóhannsson– The Theory of Everything
Gary Yershon – Mr Turner

I’m going to go ahead and leave you with one of Michael Keaton’s best scenes from Beetlejuice for no apparent reason. Keaton continues to be on a special list of amazing actors without Oscars, such as Gary Oldman, Sam Rockwell, Joaquin Phoenix, Edward Norton, Ed Harris, and Ralph Fiennes.

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Mike spends most his time and money on movies because of his strong belief that there's more truth in fiction. In the past, he's written for the Patch and Culture Mob news websites, particularly for the arts/entertainment and sports sections. He's also a published author, and an aspiring screenwriter. Show some love or call him out: https://twitter.com/MikeBeetang

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