The Film Awards Review - The Snubs

'Everything is Awkward!'

Before this year’s Oscars and even to some extent, the BAFTA nominations were even announced, the array of films was thought to be so predictable that news stories could have been drafted the week before with a quiet snooze before publishing. Typically, when it comes to the awards season however, it is usually the norm to see films that have been recently released and have earned high appraisals by numerous critics, to go head-to-head with one another whether it’s for the big accolades such as Best film, Best leading male role or for the minor prizes like Best cinematography or Best Original Screenplay. In what is being dubbed ‘the whitest year’ however, the Oscar 2015 nominations/winners saw a number of surprising snubs including the likes of David Oyelowo’s acting role and Ava DuVernay’s direction of Selma which understandably was a film that was touted to be nominated for various amount of awards due to the fact that it’s narrative focuses on an important historical black period and is clear example of it trying to emulate what 12 Years a Slave did last year when it won Best Picture. 

However, the problems with the Oscar nominations go far further than the films just being merely whitewashed. In relation to animation features for instance, The Lego Movie which in its own right was well received by reviewers and even won the BAFTA for the Best animation category, wasn't even nominated for Best animated feature at the Oscars this year. Another pressing issue to consider is that while the British stars of Eddie Redmayne who set a record of winning the Best leading actor category in the big acclaimed award ceremonies for his performance in The Theory of Everything and both Benedict Cumberbatch and Rosamund Pike, who both did really well in getting their nominations at both the Oscars and BAFTA’s for their enactments in The Imitation Game and Gone Girl, there are some pieces of filmic work that in their own right,  deserved to be at the awards this year such as Frank and Pride. Even more so with Mr.Turner in which at the time of its release back at the Cannes Film Festival last May, many media outlets, who were highly praising Tim Spall’s performance considerably after he won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, were pre-empting that he would at least be a contender for the Oscars but evidently was cast aside along with the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal with Nightcrawler and Ralph Fiennes for The Grand Budapest Hotel. The real problem and irony about how the majority of the nominations go towards the films that have been released prior to the awards ceremonies, is that it’s incredibly erroneous and hypocritical. It’s bad enough that we don’t see the films that were released over this past year get selected for the film ceremonies and instead see titles that have been released recently and get their nomination for any of the categories, but’s it’s laughable when you take BoyHood, a film that notably took 12 years to shoot and was one of the favourites to win the majority of accolades at this year’s film ceremonials, and you see that as a matter of fact, it’s a film that oh yes.. was released last summer. 

As always everyone, if you have an opinion on any film that you thought deserved a nomination at the film awards this year, you're more than welcome to comment down below. Thanks for reading and see ya later!

Alex Rabbitte