Thursday was a great day for The Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman, an okay day for Selma, American Sniper and Foxcatcher and a frustrating one for Jennifer Aniston, Jack Gyllenhaal and The Lego Movie.
But like it has so many times before, the 87th Academy Award nominations proved to be semi-predictable, with just enough underdog inclusion to stir the pot and generate some passionate buzz.
Fox Searchlight's The Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman led the way with nine nominations apiece, with the Weinstein Company's The Imitation Game following close behind with eight. All three films landed nominations it the highly coveted Best Picture category, joined by Warner Bros' American Sniper, IFC's Boyhood, Focus Features' The Theory of Everything, Paramount's Selma and Sony Pictures Classics' Whiplash. Only eight films will compete in the category this year, where a possible ten nominees can be named.
Selma, the film that many expected to have a greater impact on the nominations than it did, had been left off of numerous awards lists before this morning; however, it finally received the coveted Best Picture nomination. But director Ava DuVernay and lead actor David Oyelowo were left on the outside looking in for their respective categories. Among the films that swooped in to steal some of its glory was American Sniper. The film landed six total nominations, adding Best Actor for Bradley Cooper and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jason Hall to its Best Picture mention.
Director Clint Eastwood missed out on a fifth nomination in the category, opening the door for others, including Alejandro G. Inarritu for Birdman, Bennett Miller for Foxcatcher, Wes Anderson for Budapest, Morten Tyldum for Imitation Game and Sunday's Golden Globe winner Richard Linklater for his 12-year passion project Boyhood.
Joining Cooper in the Best Actor category are Michael Keaton for Birdman, Eddie Redmayne for Theory of Everything, Benedict Cumberbatch for Imitation Game and Steve Carell for Foxcatcher.
On the female side, frontrunner Julianne Moore continued her dominance with a nomination this morning for Sony Pictures Classics' Still Allice. Joining her in the run for Best Actress was Felicity Jones for Theory of Everything, Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl, Reese Witherspoon for Wild and one of the bigger surprises of the morning Marion Cotillard for IFC's Two Days, One Night.
On the supporting side of the equation, both Robert Duvall and Laura Dern proved to be their categories biggest surprises, landing nominations for The Judge and Wild respectively. Duvall's nomination is his seventh, and first since 1998's A Civil Action. He has previously won in 1984 for Tender Mercies. With his nomination, Duvall becomes the oldest male acting nominee in Oscar history. (Emmanuelle Riva was 85 when she was nominated in 2013 for her work in Amour.) Duvall is joined in the category by Mark Ruffalo for Foxcatcher, Ethan Hawke for his work in Boyhood, Edward Norton for Birdman and J.K. Simmons for Whiplash.
Dern is enjoying her second nomination, this one coming 23 years after her work in Rambling Rose was recognized. Joining her is Meryl Streep for Into the Woods, Patricia Arquette for Boyhood, Emma Stonefor Birdman and Keira Knightley for Imitation Game.
Nominations for Animated Film have historically been all over the place, and that reigns true this year as well. With the noticeable (and shocking) absence of Warner Bros' The Lego Movie, the field proves to be wide open. Vying for the statue are DreamWorks Animation's How to Train a Dragon 2, GKIDS' Song of the Sea and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Focus Featurs' The Boxtrolls and Disney's Big Hero 6.
Statues for all 24 categories will be handed out at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on February 22, 2015. The ceremony will be hosted by Neil Patrick Harris and will air live on ABC.
