Costume Designers Guild Nominations

Expect the nominees from the Period and Fantasy categories to be big players at the Academy Awards, with “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Into The Woods” being obvious frontrunners for both the CDG Awards as well as for Oscar nominations.

EXCELLENCE IN CONTEMPORARY FILM

• “Birdman” – Albert Wolsky
• “Boyhood” – Kari Perkins
• “Gone Girl” – Trish Summerville
• “Interstellar” – Mary Zophres
• “Wild” – Melissa Bruning

EXCELLENCE IN PERIOD FILM

• “The Grand Budapest Hotel” – Milena Canonero
• “The Imitation Game” – Sammy Sheldon Differ
• “Inherent Vice” – Mark Bridges
• “Selma” – Ruth E. Carter
• “The Theory of Everything” – Steven Noble

EXCELLENCE IN FANTASY FILM

• “Guardians of the Galaxy” – Alexandra Byrne
• “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” – Bob Buck, Lesley Burkes-Harding, Ann Maskrey
• “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1” – Kurt and Bart
• “Into the Woods” – Colleen Atwood
• “Maleficent” – Anna B. Sheppard, Jane Clive

Writers Guild Of America Nominations

Don’t expect “Guardians Of The Galaxy” to get a nomination for the Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars, but enjoy the honor from the Writers Guild. This should show you just how wide open the Adapted field is, with “Gone Girl” and “The Imitation Game” being the only locks in this category. Notably missing because of their ineligibility under the Guild rules are “Birdman” and “Selma” from the Original category and “The Theory Of Everything” from the Adapted category, which will all most likely show up during the Oscar nominations next week. One other potential shift in the Oscar nominees is “Whiplash” showing up under Adapted because of some confusion in regards to a short. However, it rolls, the Guilds nominees are a pretty good indicator of which way the Academy is headed.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• “Boyhood, Written by Richard Linklater; IFC Films

• “Foxcatcher, Written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman; Sony Pictures Classics

• “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Screenplay by Wes Anderson; Story by Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness; Fox Searchlight

• “Nightcrawler, Written by Dan Gilroy; Open Road Films

• “Whiplash, Written by Damien Chazelle; Sony Pictures Classics

 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• “American Sniper, Written by Jason Hall; Based on the book by Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice; Warner Bros.

• “Gone Girl,” Screenplay by Gillian Flynn; Based on her novel; 20th Century Fox

• “Guardians of the Galaxy,” Written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman; Based on the Marvel comic by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

• “The Imitation Game,” Written by Graham Moore; Based on the book Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges; The Weinstein Company

• “Wild,” Screenplay by Nick Hornby; Based on the book by Cheryl Strayed; Fox Searchlight

 

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

• “Finding Vivian Maier,” Written by John Maloof & Charlie Siskel (Sundance Selects)

• “The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz,” Written by Brian Knappenberger (FilmBuff)

• “Last Days in Vietnam,” Written by Mark Bailey & Kevin McAlester (American Experience Films)

• “Red Army,” Written by Gabe Polsky (Sony Pictures Classics)

Shortlisted: 7 Films In Contention for Best Makeup & Hairstyling Oscar

In the smallest category of the Academy Awards, with eventually only three nominees, the Best Makeup & Hairstyling Oscar is still completely up for grabs despite now only having seven films in contention. “The Amazing Spider-man 2” saw Jamie Foxx get the full blue Electro make-over. “Foxcatcher” saw Steve Carrell get the creepy John Du Pont make-over with a prosthetic nose. Several characters including Tilda Swinton were aged for their roles in “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. Zoe Saldana and Batista became entirely new species in “Guardians Of The Galaxy,” one completely green and the other blue and red. Angelina Jolie was given menacing cheekbones in “Maleficent”. The characters in “Noah” were dirtied up. And “The Theory Of Everything” cast was aged as the story progressed.

All of these feats are impressive, but with only three slots open, four of these films are not going to make it to the next round. I expect the category to be “Guardians Of The Galaxy”, “Foxcatcher”, and “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, offering one up to the superhero/fantasy films and two up to the Academy favorites which will be garnering awards in several different categories throughout the night. If anything were to be swapped, I believe the closest fourth place film is “Maleficent,” probably replacing “The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Here’s the complete shortlist:

• “The Amazing Spider-Man 2″
• “Foxcatcher”
• “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
• “Guardians of the Galaxy”
• “Maleficent”
• “Noah”
• “The Theory of Everything”

Shortlisted: 10 Best Visual Effects Features In Contention For Oscar

Looking at this list of films in contention for the Best Visual Effects nominations shows you exactly how good of a year it was in film, especially where visual effects were concerned. Consisting of three superhero films, four sequels, a reboot, a re-imagining, and one original science fiction fare, this is also a perfect dissection of where the Hollywood blockbuster is at. I question where “Snowpiercer” is on this list, but with such huge competition anyway, it does not really matter.

“Interstellar” is the obvious frontrunner of the group, with most saying it is Christopher Nolan’s award to lose this year. With its revolutionary motion capture performances, I highly expect to see “Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes” in the race too, with Andy Serkis’ performance being mulled over about possible recognition as well. History tells us that “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” and “The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies” are likely candidates to grab nominations, as two of three previous “Transformers” movies and both of the previous “The Hobbit” films have garnered those accolades. That leaves the final spot going to, in my opinion, either “Guardians Of The Galaxy,” which was highly popular this year and does exhibit some of the best visual effects of the year or “Godzilla,” which recreates the iconic behemoth monster. I would lean towards “Guardians,” however” as the rendering of Godzilla was actually panned by many critics.

Here is the fill list of films left in contention:

• “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
• “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
• “Godzilla”
• “Guardians of the Galaxy”
• “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”
• “Interstellar”
• “Maleficent”
• “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb”
• “Transformers: Age of Extinction”
• “X-Men: Days of Future Past”