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Oscar nominations for 2015 are sexist and racist

There has been outrage in the US overnight, with the Oscars being described as sexist, racist and possibly unAustralian.
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The Australian-made The Lego Movie  wasn’t – that’s right, wasn’t – nominated for an Oscar, despite being the year’s biggest film, and a red-hot favourite.

More seriously – much more seriously, actually – the Academy also decided to overlook the performance of every single African American working in Hollywood.

The Huffington Post was appalled, describing these awards as ‘the whitest Oscars’ for a generation.

There are four main acting categories – Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting actress –  and ‘at least one non-white person has been nominated each year since at least 1998,’ the Post said.

This year, however, there are none.

Time magazine also made an issue of it, headlining its story: “Almost all the Oscars Nominees are White” and Twitter was soon on board, with #Oscarssowhite soon trending.

It wasn’t like the Academy had no performances to choose from: David Oyelowo gave a stunning performance as Martin Luther King Jnr in the civil rights movie, Selma, which is up for Best Picture.

Ironically, it is Martin Luther King jnr Day – a national public holiday – on Monday.

Oprah Winfrey starred in and produced the film Selma.

Oprah Winfrey starred in and produced the film Selma.

Oprah Winfrey starred in and produced the film Selma.

Women were also – and as usual – woefully under-represented, with no female screenwriters and no female directors nominated (a total of 14 screenwriters and directors were nominated for Oscars, but all are men.)

Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike starred in the 2014 film Gone Girl, screenplay written by Gillian Flynn.  Gillian Flynn, who wrote the biggest book of the year – Gone Girl  – and the screenplay on which the mega-hit film is based , was ignored in the screenwriting category.

Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike starred in the 2014 film Gone Girl

Selma’s Ava DuVernay  – who is both African American and a woman – also missed out for Best Director. Had she made the cut, she would have been the first black woman ever nominated in that category, but no.

It’s also the first time in anyone’s memory that no Australian was nominated for any of the big awards.

The New York Times was stunned by the omission of The Lego Movie, saying “this snub was perhaps the most surprising.”

Lego Movie was the highest grossing film of 2014 but even that wasn’t enough for a nomination.

People magazine agreed, saying: “The Lego Movie was one of 2014’s biggest commercial hits, got rave reviews and scored a Golden Globe nomination, but it was shut out for Best Animated Feature Film at the Oscars.”

A number of Tweets appeared, showed little Lego men, crying their eyes out.

The director, Phil Lord, was able to have a bit of a joke about it, posting a photo of an Oscar made entirely from yellow Lego bricks, with the tag: “It’s okay – I made my own!”

The film’s original song, Everything is Awesome, did get a nod.

The film was part-financed by James Packer’s RatPac, and it took almost half-a-billion dollars at the box office.

There was a time when Australians dominated the Oscars; in fact, they had started joking about it in Hollywood.

One Australian, Tim Crosbie, was nominated for his work X-Men: Days of Future Past.

It’s his first nomination.

Of course, all these decisions may have been made “on merit” as Tony Abbott might say but they nonetheless created a storm of protest, especially as the LA Times recently revealed that 94 per cent of the Academy’s membership is white, and more than 70 per cent are male.

Also snubbed was Angelina Jolie, and her film, Unbroken, which was largely made in Australia.

Jolie has had a shocker of a year, having been described in leaked Sony emails as a minimally talented spoiled brat.  The film was nominated only for sound mixing, and sound editing.

Jennifer Aniston didn’t get nominated for Cake, either, which is distressing, because she thought this might be the role to help her bury forever her other roles, as Rachel from Friends, and the perpetual Woman Wronged (Jolie is said to have stolen her husband, Brad Pitt.)

The Academy adored Boyhood, a literal coming-of-age film made over 12 years, with the actors ageing naturally as they went.

It contains a strong performance by 46-year-old Patricia Arquette, who was nominated for Best Actress. She will come up against the favourite, Julianne Moore, for Still Alice.

Meryl Streep cemented her reputation as the pre-eminent actor of her generation, with her 19th nomination for her performance as an evil witch in Into The Woods (her closest rival, Katharine Hepburn, received 12.)

The Academy Awards will be presented on 22 February at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

And the 2015 Oscar nominees are…

Best Picture

American Sniper

Birdman

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

Best director

Richard Linklater for Boyhood

Alejandro G. Iñárritu for Birdman

Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Bennett Miller for Foxcatcher

Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game

(Clint Eastwood, who directed American Sniper (which is up for Best Film) didn’t get a nod.)

Actor in a Leading Role


Steve Carell, Foxcatcher

Bradley Cooper, American Sniper

Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game

Michael Keaton, Birdman

Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Actress in a Leading Role

Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night

Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything

Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl

Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Actor in a Supporting Role


Robert Duvall, The Judge

Ethan Hawke, Boyhood

Edward Norton, Birdman

Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher

J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Actress in a Supporting Role


Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Laura Dern, Wild

Emma Stone, Birdman

Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game

Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

Animated Feature Film


Big Hero 6

The Boxtrolls

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Song of the Sea

Cinematography


Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman

Robert D. Yeoman, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lynzewski, Ida

Dick Pope, Mr. Turner

Roger Deakins, Unbroken

Costume Design


Milena Canonero, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Mark Bridges, Inherent Vice

Colleen Atwood, Into the Woods

Anna B. Sheppard, Maleficent

Jacqueline Durran, Mr. Turner

Documentary Feature


Citizenfour

Last Days in Vietnam

Virunga

The Salt of the Earth

Finding Vivian Maier

Documentary Short Subject


Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

Joanna

Our Curse

The Reaper

White Earth

Film Editing

Joel Cox and Gary Roach, American Sniper

Sandra Adair, Boyhood

Barney Pilling, The Grand Budapest Hotel

William Goldenberg, The Imitation Game

Tom Cross, Whiplash

Foreign Language Film


Ida

Leviathan

Tangerines

Wild Tales

Timbuktu

Makeup and Hairstyling


Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard, Foxcatcher

Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White, Guardians of the Galaxy

Music – Original Score


Alexandre Desplat, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Alexandre Desplat, The Imitation Game

Hans Zimmer, Interstellar

Gary Yershon, Mr Turner

Jóhann Jóhannsson, The Theory of Everything

Music – Original Song


Everything Is Awesome by Shawn Patterson, The LEGO Movie

Glory by Common and John Legend, Selma

Grateful by Diane Warren, Beyond the Lights

I’m Not Gonna Miss You by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me

Lost Stars by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois, Begin Again

Production Design


The Grand Budapest Hotel, Production design: Adam Stockhausen, Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock

The Imitation Game, Production design: Maria Djurkovic, Set Decoration: Tatiana Macdonald

Interstellar, Production design: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Gary Fettis

Into the Woods, Production design: Dennis Gassner, Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock

Mr. Turner, Production design: Suzie Davies, Set Decoration: Charlotte Watts

Short Film – Animated


The Bigger Picture, Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees

The Dam Keeper, Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi

Feast, Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed

Me and My Moulton, Torill Kove

A Single Life, Joris Oprins

Short Film – Live Action

Aya, Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis

Boogaloo and Graham, Michael Lennox and Ronan Blaney

Butter lamp, Hu Wei and Julien Féret

Parvaneh, Talkhon Hamzavi and Stefan Eichenberger

The Phone Call, Mat Kirkby and James Lucas.

Sound Editing


American Sniper, Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman

Birdman, Martín Hernández and Aaron Glascock

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Brent Burge and Jason Canovas

Interstellar, Richard King

Unbroken, Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro

Sound Mixing


American Sniper, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin

Birdman, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga

Interstellar, Garry A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten

Unbroken, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and David Lee

Whiplash, Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley

Visual Effects


Captain America: Winter Soldier, Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist

Guardians of the Galaxy, Stephanie Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould

Interstellar, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher

X-Men: Days of Future Past, Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Waldbauer

Writing – 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

Writing – Original Screenplay


Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo, Birdman

Richard Linklater, Boyhood

E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, Foxcatcher

Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler

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