It’s a strange year for the Academy Awards, where the divide between blockbusters and critic-friendly movies continues to grow. Of all the likely major-category nominees, only “Gone Girl” and “Into the Woods” were $100 million-level box-office hits.
The films that have dominated awards season — “Boyhood,” “Birdman,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “The Theory of Everything” — have remained unseen by the majority of moviegoers.
Still, the Oscars are as much a useful promotional exercise for little-seen films as they are a celebration of the booming blockbuster. (The actual Oscars show is February 22.)
With that in mind, here are our thoughts on who will make the final cut in the six major categories.
Best picture
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Best director
Locks: Richard Linklater pioneered a new method of feature filmmaking with “Boyhood,” and the gamble paid off. Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu brought a bravura style to “Birdman.”
Contenders: This may finally be the year that quirky formalist Anderson (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”) gets in. The film won the Golden Globe for comedy/musical, and he picked up a Directors Guild nomination — a key indicator, given that Oscar nominations are voted on by peers. Ava DuVernay has been the driving force behind “Selma” and would be the first African-American woman in this category. And Morten Tyldum directed “The Imitation Game,” the kind of upright, British-flavored movie the Academy loves … even though Tyldum is Norwegian.
Wild cards: Eastwood earned a DGA nod for “American Sniper,” and he’s beloved by peers. Two youngsters, J.C. Chandor (“A Most Violent Year”) and newcomer Damian Chazelle (“Whiplash”), could find support. And then there’s 84-year-old Jean-Luc Godard, the ornery French New Wave pioneer who’s never received a competitive Oscar nomination (he did get an honorary Oscar in 2011). His film “Goodbye to Language” was hailed at Cannes, although Godard, being Godard, might just set his Oscar nomination certificate aflame.
