Oscar Nominations 2014

The nominees for the 86th Annual Academy Awards were announced by Chris Hemsworth this morning! He revealed the actresses, actors, directors, writers and films up for nominations with Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences lives from  the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. I didn't get to watch the livestream because I was in class (which is where I'm writing this post from now...sorry Professor Haney!), but if you know me at all you know that I was glued to my Twitter feed the second I got a bit of reception. (If you know the Coliseum at USC, you know cell phone reception is limited and treasured.)

Upon checking the Oscars twitter (@TheAcademy) I found the list of nominations. (keep in mind I'm only including the categories we tend to care about most. I can bet none of you (at least most of you) have seen or heard of any of the foreign films, documentaries, etc.) I also decided not to include the nominees for Best Makeup and Hairstyling because American Hustle was not nominated, and that, my dear readers, is a travesty in and of itself.

BEST PICTURE

American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST DIRECTOR

Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST ACTOR

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

Amy Adams, American Hustle
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
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 SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska

Snagging another nomination for Best Supporting Actress, 23-year-old Jennifer Lawrence is now the youngest actress to have 3 consecutive nominations (Winter’s Bone, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle). If she wins this year for her role as Rosalyn in David O. Russell’s American Hustle, she will have the most wins to nominations ratio at 2-3. This win will be her second consecutive win, as she won last year for her role as Tiffany in David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook. KILLIN. THE. GAME. JENNYLAWR. She said in her Golden Globes press conference that she has hopes to direct one day. As a loyal fan, I must support her choices, but I'm hoping that day doesn't come too soon, or that acting is never out of the picture completely.

Leonardo Dicaprio is nominated for Best Actor for his role as Jordan Belfort in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. This is Dicaprio’s fourth nomination, but he has yet to win an Academy Award for his own merit. Like I said before, this past weekend at the Golden Globes he won Best Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for this role, which is normally an early indicator for the Oscars. Unfortunately, Dicaprio has been in this same situation before, so this could go either way for him. He is now up against Matthew McConaughey, however, who won Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama at the Globes. Stiff competition here, people! I have not seen Dallas Buyers Club, but 45lbs dropped by McConaughey is pretty impressive. Will The Academy deem it Oscar-worthy?

Meryl Streep (the original queen) now leads overall actress nominations with eighteen! She is the most nominated actress in Oscar history, as well as being one of the most praised. That being said, she also has the lowest ratio of wins at 3 wins to 17 nominations, not including today’s announcement. She's up against Amy Adams though, who won last weekend, so things could get tricky for voters here, too! But really, who doesn't love a good Meryl Streep acceptance speech? (My favorite being from the 2012 Oscars)

Barkhad Abdi is nominated for his first Oscar after completing his first movie! Playing opposite of Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips, Abdi auditioned after seeing a commercial for the casting of the role on television. Prior to landing this first acting gig, he was a limo driver! If that's not a happy story, I don't know what is.

The show will be hosted by the always charming and hilarious Ellen Degeneres who tweeted about the nominations announcement, "Woke up early to be ready for the #OscarNoms! I've got my coffee and my bagel and my -- what do you mean it was at 4 in the morning?" She has hosted before and we can only hope she will be even funnier than she was then. Will she be funnier than Tina + Amy's Golden Globes performance?

This awards season is shaping up to be the best, and most stressful, yet. How the voters choose between all these amazing films like American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, 12 Years a Slave, and so on is shocking. Who will win the coveted Academy Award and make history? We will find out on March 2^nd!

Oscars 2014 promo

Now it's time to get our mind back on track: the SAGs are this Saturday!

Get your wine ready, we know Jacqueline Bisset will.