“The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Birdman” led with nine Oscar nominations each on Thursday morning, followed by eight for “The Imitation Game, ” while “American Sniper” came on strong with six (tying “Boyhood”).
SEE MORE: Awards: The Contenders
This year’s awards season has been more unpredictable than usual. Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken, ” once thought to be the frontrunner, fell off everybody’s radar quickly, and the Oscars didn’t give it any love in the main categories. The Academy also didn’t nominate Jennifer Aniston, who had picked up precursor nominations for “Cake”; Jake Gyllenhaal, who gave a career-best performance in “Nightcrawler”; Ava DuVernay, who was expected to make history as the first female African American director nominated for “Selma”; and “Life Itself, ” the tearjerker documentary about the final days of film critic Roger Ebert.
Here are the 17 biggest snubs and surprises.
SNUB: Jennifer Aniston, “Cake.”
Nobody campaigned harder than Jennifer Aniston this awards season, crisscrossing between New York and Los Angeles at Q&As in support of her drama about a woman living with chronic pain. The problem is that “Cake, ” which received mixed reviews out of Toronto and had to be self-distributed by Cinelou Films, wasn’t an Oscars movie (the Golden Globes nominated her because they love celebrities, and SAG is friendlier to TV actors who transition into film). Many Academy voters that I talked to weren’t impressed by the script, and they felt that Aniston was much better in “The Good Girl.”
SNUB: Ava DuVernay, “Selma.”
The Academy had a chance to make history by nominating an African American female director in DuVernay for making “Selma, ” the powerful drama about the 1965 civil rights marches. But instead, they once again recognized five men, which prompted immediate outrage on Twitter.
