Hi this will be the official thread for discussing the ceremony while it airs and the red carpet and also any other Oscar talk you want to talk about in the next couple of days :)

This post will be updated after I see Selma with all the nominations, information on air times and what is going on, my predictions and favourites and a rundown of each of the best picture nominees. If you have any review or comments you want to say about the best picture nominations, please send me a private message and I will include them in the posts to celebrate each of the best picture nominees :)

If you have any review or comments you want to say about the best picture nominations, please send me a private message and I will include them in the posts to celebrate each of the best picture nominees

 

Some things happening tomorrow include:

Look back at oscars 10 years ago

Look at tonight's oscars

Some polls

Red carpet/Oscar night info as it happens

And way more

 

This will be going on the whole day so please come and stay for times :)

I've booked Monday off work, so I'm going to give staying up and watching live (for the first time in my life) a real try.

 

I'm sick of slyly having to watch the highlights on YouTube in the office the next day.

Yay Joe :) This is also my first ever Oscar show I am watching live

 

I completed my challenge to watch all the best picture nominees, here are my rankings:

1] Boyhood

2] Birdman

3] Whiplash

4] Selma

5] American Sniper

6] The Imitation Game

7] The Grand Budapest Hotel

8] The Theory Of Everything

 

Will post my want winners and predictions in a bit :) Will be great to see some more too :)

 

I will start the activities in around half an hour

BEST PICTURE NOMINEE 1

AMERICAN SNIPER

http://i60.tinypic.com/qyegxd.png

 

So starting us off is the box office behemoth which is the biggest grossing film of 2014 surprisingly managing to overthrow Katniss and Groot. American Sniper is a drama about Chris Kyle who has the most ever recorded kills and was in the navy. He is played very well by Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller is also amazing. The script is very good and Clint Eastwood gives a very good direction. This deserves to be up for best picture and I hope it manages to pick up a couple of awards tonight.

Whiplash and American Sniper are the only two I haven't seen. Dunno if I'll get time to watch them either but they seemed the less hyped of the lot so I never got round to them.

 

If I were to rank the ones I have seen:

 

01. The Grand Budapest Hotel

02. Birdman

03. Boyhood

04. The Imitation Game

05. Selma

06. The Theory of Everything

 

The top 3 are all amazing and I hope they all win something at least - The Grand Budapest Hotel is probably my favourite as it just got everything right - story, cinematography, characters, humour, it had everything. Though Birdman was incredibly smart in most ways and Boyhood was technically and thematically brilliant.

 

The other three are all good too but not quite reaching the heights of the top 3 - The Imitation Game was an excellently intense discovery and great as I knew nothing about the subject of the film prior, I also wasn't informed much about what happened in Selma back then so Selma was good in a similar way. Both fantastic performances from the leads as well (and hard to watch).

 

The only reason The Theory of Everything is last as Eddie Redmayne's performance massively overshadows what is a fairly predictable story ultimately. But it was still very hard to fault as a film apart from that as it certainly had a lot of heart in it.

Edited February 22, 201510 yr by Chez Wombat

BEST PICTURE NOMINEE 2

BIRDMAN

http://i62.tinypic.com/2egeaue.png

 

Number 2 nominee we are going through is also the 2nd best nominee this year. Birdman absolutely flourishes from it's performances, direction, script and cinematography. Birdman is one of the best films of last year and is highly entertaining with a great script. The cinematography by Lubezki is absolutely amazing, he is definitely one of the best cinematographers who won the award for Gravity last year. The directing is also great and I love the one-shot take. The acting is also superb. Michael Keaton is great and Emma Stone, Edward Norton and Naomi Watts bring great supporting performances. Birdman is amazing and it should pick up some big awards tonight including one for Michael Keaton possibly.

BEST PICTURE NOMINEE 3

BOYHOOD

http://i59.tinypic.com/rh5xt3.jpg

 

So the favourite to win best picture and birdman looking like it's only challenger, Boyhood is our next film under the spotlight. And boyhood deserves to win best picture as it is the best of the nominees and one of the best films of last year. Everything about it is absolutely perfect, the script is nice and the direction is very good. However Boyhood elevates into a classic due to 3 things- acting, story and something I have now forgotten. The acting is absolutely stunning. Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater are both superb in their roles and Ethan Hawke was absolutely fantastic. Patricia Arquette was also amazing though I preferred the other 3. The story is compelling and the unique idea of it being filmed over 12 years is so amazing. Another thing great about Boyhood is that it flows so well and you can tell years have gone passed due to hair change and also great entertainment references such as the dark knight/tropic thunder/pineapple express film mentions and the ICONIC telephone video. The Oops I Did It Again scene near the start is absolutely fabulous and this is 2 and 3/4 hours of absolute joy. I hope this wins best picture and it will definitely win a lot tonight, include a lock for best supporting actress.

The spotlights will continue later, hope you find them interesting :)

My ranking of the Best Picture category, may do some of the others later

 

1 Boyhood

2 The Imitation Game

3 Birdman

4 Whiplash

5 The Theory of Everything

6 The Grand Budapest Hotel

7 Selma

8 American Sniper

 

Really hope Boyhood takes home the big prize, I feel like it's pretty tight between that and Birdman going into the ceremony. But I feel myself rooting for Birdman in a way too, I'd be happy for it to win even though I liked it rather than loved it. It did surpass my expectations though and the performances from Emma Stone and Edward Norton were top notch.

 

Birdman and Whiplash are the pretty interchangeable ones for me. American Sniper was by far and away the worst, would rather have Gone Girl in the category or even Foxcatcher (which would still be in my bottom two but it would've made the category a bit more stronger :lol:).

Wild deserved to be nominated for best picture along with gone girl over Budapest hotel and theory of everything

Omg how could I forget about Wild! :lol: If it was nominated it would be ranked second and putting up a bit of a fight with Boyhood.

Wild would be top for me, and probably top for me for 2014 as well :wub:

Such an amazing superb movie, still hope Reese can win best actress even though its a pipe dream :( She gives one of the best performances ever in my view

3 HOURS TO GO TILL RED CARPET :o

I will try and get the best picture summaries done from about 10pm but if anyone else wants to do a few, it is fine by me :)

 

Who else is planning to watch the oscars tonight?

WANT

Best Picture: Boyhood

Best Director: Richard Linklater- Boyhood

Best Actor: Benedict Cumberbatch- The Imitation Game

Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon- Wild

Best Supporting Actor: Ethan Hawke- Boyhood

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette- Boyhood

Best Original Screenplay: Birdman

Best Adapted Screenplay: Whiplash

Best Animated Film: Big Hero 6

Best Foreign Language Film: N/A

Best Documentary, Feature: N/A

Best Documentary, Short: N/A

Best Live Action, Short: N/A

Best Animated Short: Feast

Best Original Score: Interstellar

Best Original Song: Glory, Selma [would want LS if it was the Keira version]

Best Sound Editing: Interstellar

Best Sound Mixing: Whiplash

Best Production Design: Into The Woods

Best Cinematography: Birdman

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Costume Design: Maleficent

Best Film Editing: Boyhood

Best Visual Effects: Interstellar

 

AWARD COUNT

Boyhood 5

Interstellar 3

Birdman 2

Whiplash 2

Big Hero 6 1

Feast 1

Into The Woods 1

Maleficent 1

Selma 1

The Grand Budapest Hotel 1

The Imitation Game 1

Wild 1

 

Predict coming in a minute :)

PREDICT

Best Picture: Boyhood

Best Director: Richard Linklater- Boyhood

Best Actor: Michael Keaton- Birdman

Best Actress: Julianne Moore- Still Alice

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons- Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette- Boyhood

Best Original Screenplay: Boyhood

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Theory Of Everything

Best Animated Film: How To Train Your Dragon 2

Best Foreign Language Film: Ida

Best Documentary, Feature: Citizenfour

Best Documentary, Short: Our Curse

Best Live Action, Short: Boogaloo And Graham

Best Animated Short: Feast

Best Original Score: Interstellar

Best Original Song: Everything Is Awesome, Lego Movie

Best Sound Editing: Birdman

Best Sound Mixing: Whiplash

Best Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Cinematography: Birdman

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Film Editing: Boyhood

Best Visual Effects: Guardians Of The Galaxy

 

WIN COUNT

Boyhood 5

Birdman 3

The Grand Budapest Hotel 3

The Theory Of Everything 2

Whiplash 2

Boogaloo And Graham 1

Citizenfour 1

Feast 1

Guardians Of The Galaxy 1

How To Train You Dragon 2 1

Interstellar 1

Our Curse 1

Still Alice 1

The Lego Movie 1

My girlfriend and I will be staying up to watch it!! We watched most of the movies and picked:

• Best Movie: Birdman - really well put together movie and nice twist with Michael Keaton as Birdman given his past in Batman
• Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne - playing Stephen Hopkins both pre and post illness was amazing, really well done and realistic... this one for me is pretty clear cut
• Best Actress: Julianne Moore - really enjoyed the movie and it has to be the worst event to be an academic who loses their memory. She portrayed the struggle amazingly well and I was really involved in the struggle!
• Actor in a supporting role: J.K. Simmons - Emotional and intense, really gripping and funny at times really how over the top the character was.
• Actress in a supporting role: Meryl Streep - Acting, singing, carrying some of the more ropey scenes. An amazing actress who is so diverse in the roles she can pull off!

My RANK of the BP nominees

 

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Theory of Everything

Selma

The Imitation Game

Boyhood

Whiplash

Birdman

American Sniper

 

1-5 were all great, Whiplash was very good and I'd happily never watch the last 2 again.

The only categories I have any doubt over who will win (of which I care about, so all the actings ones, direction, the two BP categories and song) are:

 

Actor: I THINK Keaton, but hope Redmayne

Film: I THINK Boyhood, but Birdman has been building up some serious momentum of late

Director: THINK Linklater, but Birdman man could easily sneak this too. If Boyhood misses best pic then Linklater will definitely get this.

Animated: SHOULD be Big Hero 6 of the nominees but I fear it will be Dragon, totally undeservedly.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is next to watch on my skybox... I assume you recommend then John?

Oh 100%. Well, if you're a fan of Wes Anderson anyway, it managed to convert my sisters who HATED Moonrise Kingdom so it might do the trick for non fans too, but for fans it's almost perfect. Plus Ralph Fiennes.