Top 10 Surprises of the 2014 Academy Award Nominations

Every year when the Academy Award nominations are announced, there are some surprises in terms of who gets the nomination nod and who doesn’t. 2014 is no exception. The big reveal of nominees in January included some surprising choices, and left some predicted nominees out in the cold.

1. “Saving Mr. Banks” Shut Out

“Saving Mr. Banks” seemed like a shoo-in for several nominations. The film is the sort of Hollywood history movie that voters love. Moreover, stars Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson have had multiple dates with Oscar in the past. What happened? Most critics think that Mr. Banks was a likeable movie, but likeable isn’t enough in a year with so many exceptional and more serious films.

2. Tom Hanks Shut Out — Twice!

Tom Hanks played Walt Disney in “Saving Mr. Banks”, and the titular Captain in “Captain Phillips”, and both performances received good notices. There was plenty of Oscar talk about his role as Captain Phillips in particular.

What happened? The Best Actor category was crowded with excellent performances this year, and none of the final nominees have previously won Best Actor. Voters may have decided that Hanks should get his sixth Best Actor nomination another year.

3. Still No Oscar for Robert Redford

Robert Redford is at the age where a Best Acting nomination opens the door for an award that also recognizes a whole career. “All is Lost”, in which Redford plays a sailor trying to save his sinking ship, was well-reviewed and Redford’s infrequent acting turns offers few chances to award him.

What happened? “All is Lost” never did huge business and lost most of its screen space to the blockbuster Christmas movies soon after its release. For now Bob has to be content with his Best Director and Lifetime Achievement awards.

4. Best Animated Feature — Where is Pixar?

Pixar’s movies almost always get a Best Animated Feature nod, this year “Monster University” missed the cut, while Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, “The Wind Rises” and the Belgian-French film “Ernest & Celestine” did get nominations.

What happened? “Monsters University” was not well reviewed, and is a sequel. It’s worth noting that Pixar’s other shutout was “Cars 2”, which had the same problems. Moreover, Disney owns both “Monsters” and “Frozen”. Disney may have decided that “Frozen” had more potential to win and chose to throw their promotional weight behind it.

5. No nominations for Oprah or James Gandolfini

Early Oscar speculation mentioned Oprah Winfrey’s turn in “Lee Daniel’s The Butler” and James Gandolfini’s role in “Enough Said” as likely Best Supporting Actress/Actor nominations. Gandolfini also had the “benefit” of a potential posthumous award vote, a la Heath Ledger. What happened?

This year’s nominees came almost entirely from the end-of-year “prestige” releases. While some years see a reach back to summer or early fall movies for nominations, the combined dazzle of “Twelve Years a Slave”, “Wolf of Wall Street” and “American Hustle” left the year’s earlier films in the shadows.

6. “Inside Llewyn Davis” topped many “Best of 2013” critic lists, but missed all the top categories

Like Scorsese and Spielberg, Joel and Ethan Coen bring out a new movie for almost every Oscar season, and almost always garner nominations. The Coen brothers’ release this year was “Inside Llewyn Davis”, about a failing folk singer in the Greenwich Village coffeehouse era. Biggest shock: no Best Original Song nomination for “Please Mr. Kennedy”.

What happened? It turns out that the Academy had disqualified “Please Mr. Kennedy” as a reworking of an older song. As for the rest, some have pointed out that “Llewyn” is one of the Coens’ more idiosyncratic films, which tend to get less Oscar love than works like “True Grit” and “No Country for Old Men”. But with only nine out of a potential ten Best Picture nominees on the slate, this oversight feels like a true failure.

7. Roger Deakins is nominated for Cinematography, but not for a Coen brothers film

Roger Deakins and the Coen brothers are a formidable team. Deakins has been nominated (and won) repeatedly in the Cinematography category, and often for his work on Coen brothers films.

His name does appear in the nominations this year, but for “Prisoners”. What happened? A simple scheduling problem. Deakins was not available for the Coen brothers’ film. One of the only nominations “Inside Llewyn Davis” did receive was for cinematography, but it was Bruno Delbonnel doing the work.

8. Big love for “Nebraska”

As soon as “Nebraska” appeared, Bruce Dern was widely expected to garner a Best Actor nomination, and June Squibb had Best Supporting Actress buzz as his wife. Not only did both of these come through, “Nebraska” had enough juice to grab a directing nomination for Alexander Payne, an original screenplay nomination, and a spot on the Best Picture list. What happened?

“Nebraska” looks like this year’s “little movie that could,” the indie (or indie-style) film that gains traction by word of mouth and great reviews. Bruce Dern is a strong contender for Best Actor, but the other nominations will probably fall into the “nomination is the honor” category.

9. Quirky films in the Best Picture mix

Several big Oscar-bait movies like “Lee Daniel’s The Butler” and “Saving Mr. Banks” did not receive Best Picture nominations, but smaller oddball movies gained slots in the category.

Besides “Nebraska”, “Philomena” and “Her” also received surprise nods for Best Picture. What happened? “Philomena” has the British prestige aura, which has propelled films like “The English Patient” and “The King’s Speech” all the way to Best Picture. “Her” is more surprising, as Oscar is known to spurn science fiction themes. Perhaps “Gravity” opened the door for another sci-fi pick.

10. “American Hustle” got a lot of nominations, but none for Best Makeup and Hairstyling

“American Hustle” received plenty of nominations. But how could it have missed the nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling? Christian Bale’s combover alone deserves recognition. Add Jennifer Lawrence’s up-dos, Amy Adam’s bouncy curls and Bradley Cooper’s perm, and hair is practically another co-star in this film. What happened?

This one is truly a mystery. When the movies that DID receive Best Makeup and Hairstyling nominations include “Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa” and “The Lone Ranger”, it feels like a classic case of Oscar injustice.