TNR | American Hustle and Gravity Lead Oscar Nominations After Motion Picture Of Academy Awards

[Carl]

In a rare occurrence, the Motion Picture Of Academy Awards has seemingly delivered a set of Oscar nominations that both critics and fans agree with as representing the best films of the last year. Over the years film fans have often wondered if nominees and winners are selected for political or business reasons rather than merit, but this time around most agree that this time they have got the nominations right.

With ten nominations each, American Hustle and Gravity are expected to be the big winners on the night. There are, however, films with nominations that few would disagree with if the makers and actors went up to the stage to collect the Oscar for. The film 12 Years A Slave and the controversial Martin Scorsese directed The Wolf Of Wall Street are seen by many as the best film of the last year, as celebrated as the leading nominated films have been.

Sandra Bullock is considered the clear favourite for the Best Actress Oscar, due to her outstanding, film-carrying performance in the film Gravity. A possible dark horse to watch out for, however, is Meryl Streep, who has been nominated for the 18th time in her career, this time for the film August : Osage County.

Despite the Best Actor category featuring one of the strongest fields for a long time, a clear favourite for the award is Matthew McConaughey for his performance of AIDS activist Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club. It could mean bad luck again for fellow nominee Leonardo Di Caprio, whose dynamic performance in The Wolf Of Wall Street is a somewhat distant second favourite. At least Di Caprio was nominated – perhaps the biggest controversy around the nominations was that the male acting performances were so strong there was no nomination available for Forest Whittaker for his performance in the film The Butler.

Over the last few years the Oscars has seen declining viewing figures, poorly chosen hosts and winners that left moviegoers baffled. When the ceremony happens on March 2nd, the organisers can at least be confident that controversy will be avoided in respect of the actual winners, at the least.