My 2015 Oscars Rankings and Predictions

The Oscars are on tonight, which means that movie fanatics and live-tweeters can join together to make all forms of social media unbearable.  With that being said, I will absolutely be live-tweeting and complaining about each Oscar win that I disagree with.  I'm already preparing myself for the inevitable loss in the Adapted Screenplay category for Paul Thomas Anderson.  Since the Oscars have a tendency to not be very shocking, I'm hoping there are some surprises this year.  At the very least, Neil Patrick Harris should be a good host.

In All Seriousness:

Below I will rank the films and performances in order from would like to win the most to the least, and I will put an asterisk next to the film/performance that I think will win.  And the short film categories were picked at random because I haven't seen any of them.

*= My predicted win

BEST PICTURE

1. Whiplash

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel

3. Boyhood*

4. Birdman

5. The Imitation Game

6. Selma

7. The Theory of Everything

8. American Sniper

BEST ACTOR

1. Michael Keaton (Birdman)*

2. Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

3. Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)

4. Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)

5. Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)

BEST ACTRESS

1. Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)

2. Julianne Moore (Still Alice)*

3. Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)

4. Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

5. Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1. J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)*

2. Edward Norton (Birdman)

3. Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)

4. Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)

Did not see: Robert Duvall (The Judge)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1. Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)*

2. Emma Stone (Birdman)

3. Laura Dern (Wild)

4. Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)

Did not see: Into the Woods

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Richard Linklater (Boyhood)*

2. Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

3. Alejandro G. Inarritu (Birdman)

4. Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher)

5. Morton Tyldum (The Imitation Game)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel*

2. Birdman

3. Nightcrawler

4. Boyhood

5. Foxcatcher

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY 

1. Inherent Vice

2. Whiplash*

3. The Theory of Everything

4. The Imitation Game

5. American Sniper

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

1. Ida*

Did not see:

"Leviathan," Russia

"Tangerines," Estonia

"Wild Tales," Argentina

"Timbuktu," Mauritania

BEST ANIMATED FEATURED FILM

Did not see:

"Big Hero 6"

"The Boxtrolls"

"How to Train Your Dragon 2"*

"Song of the Sea"

"The Tale of the Princess Kaguya"

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1. Birdman*

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel

3. Ida

4. Mr. Turner

Did not see: Unbroken

BEST FILM EDITING

1. Whiplash

2. Boyhood*

3. The Grand Budapest Hotel

4. American Sniper

5. The Imitation Game

BEST SOUND EDITING

Richard King, "Interstellar"

Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro, "Unbroken"

Brent Burge and Jason Canovas, "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies"

Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman, "American Sniper"*

Martin Hernandez and Aaron Glascock, "Birdman"

BEST SOUND MIXING

Gary A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten, "Interstellar"

Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley, "Whiplash"*

Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montano and Thomas Varga, "Birdman"

John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin, "American Sniper"

Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montano and David Lee, "Unbroken"

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Dennis Gassner (Production Design) and Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration), "Into the Woods"

Adam Stockhausen (Production Design) and Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration), "The Grand Budapest Hotel"*

Nathan Crowley (Production Design) and Gary Fettis (Set Decoration),"Interstellar"

Maria Djurkovic (Production Design) and Tatiana Macdonald (Set Decoration), "The Imitation Game"

Suzie Davies (Production Design) and Charlotte Watts (Set Decoration),"Mr. Turner"

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Milena Canonero, "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

Mark Bridges, "Inherent Vice"*

Colleen Atwood, "Into the Woods"

Anna B. Sheppard and Jane Clive, "Maleficient"

Jacqueline Durran, "Mr. Turner"

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1. The Theory of Everything*

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel

3. The Imitation Game

4. Interstellar

5. Mr. Turner

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

"Glory" by Common and John Legend, "Selma"*

"Lost Stars" by Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley and NickSouthwood, "Begin Again"

"Everything Is Awesome" by Shawn Patterson, "The LEGO Movie"

"I'm Not Gonna Miss You," by Glen Campbell, "Glenn Campbell: I'll Be Me"

"Grateful," "Beyond the lights"

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

"Foxcatcher"

"The Grand Budapest Hotel"

"Guardians of the Galaxy"*

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher, "Interstellar"*

Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist, "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"

Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould, "Guardians of the Galaxy"

Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick, "Captain America: Winter Soldier"

Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Waldbauer, "X-Men: Days of Future Past"

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

"Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1"

"Joanna"

"Our Curse"

"White Earth"

"The Reaper"*

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Did not see:

"Citizenfour"*

"Last Days in Vietnam"

"Virunga"

"The Salt of the Earth"

"Finding Vivian Maier"

BEST SHORT FILM, LIVE ACTION

"Boogaloo and Graham"

"Aya"

"Butterlamp"

"Parvenah"

"The Phone Call"*

BEST SHORT FILM, ANIMATED

"Feast"*

"The Bigger Picture"

"A Single Life"

"The Dam Keeper"

"Me and My Moulton"

-Ryan Moncrief