As Hollywood's A-list prepares for the Oscars, our film writers weigh in on who they want to see win - and which is the real best picture of 2014.
The lead-up to today’s awards has been as eventful as ever, writes Hugh Montgomery
The jockeying is nearly over for another year, as the annual awards race arrives today at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre. Will New Zealander Anthony McCarten win for his screenplay to Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything? How about Weta Digital for the visual effects in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes? Before the little gold men are handed out, there's just time to reflect on the highs and lows of the three-month campaign trail. Here are our awards season awards:
Best nominee: Patricia Arquette
Less in honour of her heart-breaking Boyhood performance than her inexhaustible charm in doing the awards rounds. She has embodied the down-to-earth spirit of Richard Linklater's film. She has used interviews to offer right-on thoughts on everything from Hollywood's treatment of older women to the speculation over Bruce Jenner's gender status. And she name-checked John Boorman's Excalibur in her Baftas speech.
What to do when you don't receive that widely expected Oscar nomination? "Yeah, it bothers me," said the Selma actor when asked about his, and director Ava DuVernay's, omissions. "It bothers me because it's the best reviewed film of the year. It's a film that doesn't direct or act itself. It bothers me because it's Dr King and I want him celebrated."
Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in <i>The Theory of Everything</i>.
The Norbit award for most damaging nominee performance: Eddie Redmayne
A prize so-named in reference to Eddie Murphy's 2007 awards run, when his Best Supporting Actor hopes for Dreamgirls were thought to have been irreparably damaged by his awful three-character acting in family comedy Norbit. This year, two leading nominees were similarly unlucky: Julianne Moore in long-on-the-shelf fantasy Seventh Son and Eddie Redmayne in the Wachowskis' Jupiter Ascending. Redmayne edges it with a performance acclaimed as "profoundly terrible".
This year's Oscar noms have been as flavoursome as wallpaper paste. Dispiriting to varying degrees were the poor showings for Selma and Gone Girl; the absence of non-white actors, and women writers and directors; and the predictable Meryl Streep nomination in the unofficial "Best Meryl Streep performance" sub-category.
Worst fall at the first hurdle:Unbroken
Thanks to its director's star power, the awards hype for Angelina Jolie's World War II epic cranked up sometime back during the Cold War. But when this long-fancied Best Picture contender was finally unveiled, it turned out to be too awards-baiting for actual awards. It received no Golden Globe and just three, technical, Oscar nods: still, it made a lot of money and Ange can console herself about her place in the ranks of actor-filmmakers by watching Ryan Gosling's Lost River.
Most unexpected surge:The Grand Budapest Hotel
To say Wes Anderson is an acquired taste is an understatement. But even those who think him a hipster-twee-preppy-manic-dream-pixie-privileged-Wasp-charlatan (delete as appropriate) would find it difficult to begrudge the gathering awards momentum of a director and film so obviously idiosyncratic. Released way back in March 2014, it's gone from peripheral contender to genuine frontrunner, with five Baftas and nine Oscar nominations to its name.
Patricia Arquette and Ellar Coltrane in a scene from <i>Boyhood</i>. Photo / AP / IFC Films
Lamest backlash:Boyhood
A critical backlash is mandatory for major contenders, but this year's attempts to knock Boyhood were especially strained, including a recent New York Times piece that accused it of copying the time-lapse format of Michael Apted's Up documentary series; this despite the fact that Linklater has acknowledged Apted as an inspiration for his work.
Worst omission: Bob Hoskins
Bad autocue reading, Stephen Hawking impressions, Cuba Gooding jnr - this year's Baftas had it all, though the greatest opprobrium was reserved for the exclusion of Hoskins from its "In Memoriam" roll call.
The E channel's infamous manicure camera, designed to reduce Hollywood's leading ladies to mere fingernails, seemed more unwelcome than ever, as stars including Julianne Moore, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon treated it with the contempt it deserved.
Most shameless campaign slogan:The Imitation Game
"Honour the Man, Honour the Film" was the campaign ads tagline chosen by Harvey Weinstein for his Alan Turing biopic: six words whose self-righteousness might have been less odious had the film itself honoured the man by not downplaying his sexuality.
Special achievement: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler
Awards hosting is the most poisonous of chalices. So, it would be remiss not to pay tribute to the comedy duo's triumphant three-year stint presenting the Golden Globes, which saw them bring just the right mix of warmth, bite and genuine funnies to the podium and so make the Globes memorable for more than its sometimes barmy nominations.
Most lasting memory: The American Sniper juggernaut
Tonight's Best Picture battle may seem to have come down to Boyhood v Birdman, but when those memories have faded, the 2015 awards race will go down as the one in which a simplistic tribute to American military accomplishment not only picked up six nominations but became one of the most commercially successful Oscar nominees of all time.
