by Adonis Gonzales

For those who don’t know, the full list of Oscar nominees is out, and boy is it a strange one. There are some great movies being nominated this year, like American Sniper for ‘Best Motion Picture of the Year’ and The Imitation Game for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’.

Both of these movies deserve recognition. But upon further inspection of the list, you’ll notice a lot of great films, actors and etc; got unfairly snubbed.

2014’s The Lego Movie, directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord, was expected to be in the running for ‘Best Animated Feature Film of the Year’, for its wide all-star cast, stunning special effects and amazing original story that brought everyone’s childhood to life! Unfortunately, The Lego Movie only got one nomination, ‘Achievement In Music Written For Motion Pictures (Original Song)’ for its incredibly catchy tune, ‘Everything Is Awesome’.

Emmett and his friends weren’t the only ones feeling like “everything was not awesome” during the Oscar nomination reveals.

 The historic-drama biopic Selma, based on the Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches in 1965, led by Martin Luther King Jr., did get nominated for both ‘Best Motion Picture of the Year’ and an Original song nomination, for the amazing song ‘Glory’.

But the director, Ava DuVernay and the lead actor, David Oyelowo were snubbed in the ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Actor’ categories respectively. Now, I’ve yet to see Selma, but from what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen (trailer-wise), Oyelowo looks to do a great job as MLK Jr. and DuVernay definitely should have gotten nominated for her stunning directing expertise. So why wasn’t it nominated?

Well it may because of the historical controversy, the previous shut-outs from the Directors, Screen Actors and the Producers Guilds, if you ask some they’ll say it was because the cast is African-American and, for some reason, this still affects a great movie and causes it to not get the recognition it deserves; the reason is unclear. Regardless, I expected more appreciation for Selma and its cast&crew, especially considering that the holiday celebrating the life of the man this film is based upon is coming up!

Another surprising reveal is the lack of a ‘Best Actress’ nomination for Jennifer Aniston, something a lot of people, including myself expected her to get. Jennifer Aniston changed her entire appearance, genre expectations and my opinion on her as an actress (I always thought she was just “meh”) when she starred in Cake.The lack of an award that she so totally deserves is astonishing and makes me wonder if anyone at The Academy has seen this film yet. It’s the only possible explanation!

Guardians of the Galaxy, in my personal opinion, should have been nominated for ‘Best Picture’ or at least nail a ‘Best Actor’ award for Chris Pratt! Instead, it gets only two nominations, one for “Achievement in Visual Effects’ and for ‘Make-Up and Hairstyling’!

I mean, it didn’t even get an award for its amazing score or its even greater soundtrack!

Annoying, a bit infuriating, but not surprising, The Grand Budapest Hotel leads the Oscar noms with NINE nominations. Look, I loved Grand Budapest Hotel, the hilarious comedy about a concierge who enlist the help of his lobby boy to clear his name after he’s framed for murder is absolutely wonderful!

But this film has been dominating awards shows to the point where I’m not entirely 100% sure that it didn’t just buy out Hollywood! Eleven BAFTA nominations and four at the Golden Globes are just some of the appraise this film has gotten in the year it’s been out.

What surprised me was not the many Oscar awards this film has been nominated for, but the fact that Ralph Fiennes didn’t get a nomination for ‘Best Actor’ for his funny, quirky character. If you’re going to fatten up Grand Budapest Hotel with all these nominations Oscars, go full circle!

So this years Oscars is very strange. Some great films and great people were either left out or under-praised. Though still predictable, this years Academy Awards is the least so, compared to prior years. While I agree with some of the choices they’ve made this year, I disagree with just as much, if not more.