2021 Best Picture Rankings

 Now that I have seen all of the Best Picture nominees, I will rank them from least to most enjoyable.

 

10.

Nightmare Alley

9.

Belfast

8.

King Richard

7.

The Power of the Dog

6.

Don't Look Up

2014 Oscar Nominations

Best Picture

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Dallas Buyers Club

Gravity

Her

Nebraska

Philomena

12 Years a Slave

The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actor in a Leading Role

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 in a Leading Role

Amy Adams – American Hustle

Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine

Sandra Bullock – Gravity

Judi Dench – Philomena

Meryl Streep – August: Osage County

Best Actor in A Supporting Role

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 Actress in a Supporting Role

Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine

Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle

Lupita Nyong’o - 12 Years a Slave

Julia Roberts - August: Osage County

June Squibb - Nebraska

Best Animated Feature Film

The Croods – Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco and Kristine Belson

Despicable Me 2 – Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin and Chris Meledandri

Ernest & Celestine – Benjamin Renner and Didier Brunner

Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho

The Wind Rises – Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki

Best Cinematography

The Grandmaster – Philippe Le Sourd

Gravity – Emmanuel Lubezki

Inside Llewyn Davis – Bruno Delbonnel

Nebraska – Phedon Papamichael

Prisoners – Roger A. Deakins

Best Costume Design

American Hustle – Michael Wilkinson

The Grandmaster – William Chang Suk Ping

The Great Gatsby – Catherine Martin

The Invisible Woman – Michael O’Connor

12 Years a Slave – Patricia Norris

Best Directing

American Hustle – David O. Russell

Gravity – Alfonso Cuarón

Nebraska – Alexander Payne

12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen

The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese

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 Music (Original Score)

The Book Thief – John Williams

Gravity – Steven Price

Her – William Butler and Owen Pallett

Philomena – Alexandre Desplat

Saving Mr. Banks – Thomas Newman

Best Music (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 – Judy Becker (Production Design); Heather Loeffler (Set Decoration)

Gravity – Andy Nicholson (Production Design); Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard (Set Decoration)

The Great Gatsby – Catherine Martin (Production Design); Beverley Dunn (Set Decoration)

Her – K.K. Barrett (Production Design); Gene Serdena (Set Decoration)

12 Years a Slave – Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Alice Baker (Set Decoration)

Best Short Film (Animated)

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 Short Film (Live Action)

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

Best Writing (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 Writing (Original Screenplay)

American Hustle – Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell

Blue Jasmine – Written by Woody Allen

Dallas Buyers Club – Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack

Her – Written by Spike Jonze

Nebraska – Written by Bob Nelson

Are the Oscars Irrelevant?

Earlier this morning, the nominations of the 84^th Annual Academy Awards have been announced. There were some surprising nominees and others those movie predictors anticipated this whole “awards season.” I had this lingering questions, are the Oscar relevant?

When the very first Oscars were handed out in 1929, Hollywood was in a much different mindset, with the film companies dictating what the actors, directors and writers to work with them. The Hayes Code system limited the creative process for many filmmakers that lead to different ways of innovation.

Fast forward to now; Hollywood studios are more concerned about pushing a mediocre product out than slowly nurturing a movie to the best quality possible.

As you may have known, I have decided not to watch any 2011 movies in the theater, because I felt that the quality of the movie have been subpar. It has been a growing trend ever since the writers’ strike in 2007. It was a belief that quality of the movies will suffer in 2009. It turned out to be true.

It seems to me that the trend is still happening, even though the strike is long over. There are movies that have you scratching your head. Really? This awful movie is being released. The actors have to go to these talk shows and promote a movie that they know is shit. All of this occurs because; the studios want to make their money back.

Now that awards season is down to the final stretch, it seems that people don’t care about going to the movies that much. The movies that have been nominated, the average person has not seen it, let alone heard of it.

There seems to a disconnected between the American public and the Oscars. The Oscars is for film critics only and movie fanatics. The average American is not going to care about who wins Best Documentary Short Subject or Best Sound Mixing. They don’t care.

The Academy tries to be hip last year with having younger hosts with Anne Hathaway and James Franco to boost ratings. That was a colossal failure. The problem is apathy. Who wants to watch people gets awards for mediocre performances in a mediocre movie that gets a lot of hype in the swing of things.

Let me pose a couple of questions to you. What was your number movie of last year? Was it nominated for an Oscar? If it was, would watch it again?

I have seen a lot of movies in the past twenty-five years. There are movies that I have seen hundreds of times and there are some movies that I have seen only once. You know that was, awards season. The movies that were hyped up to be the best Hollywood has to offer. Those movies should be lucky that I saw it at all.

The American public is sick and tired of being duped into going movies that are supposed to be great and are not.

There needs to be a serious revamp. The Academy is broken. Now, the Academy is a joke. It’s time to start cleaning house.