That’s because while Oscars Best Picture nominees might make us want to go to the movies, what they really make us want to do is pack a bag.
From not-so-jolly-olde England to the American South to the Middle East to a fictional hotel reminiscent of an Eastern European capital, the locations of the 2015 Oscars Best Picture nominees once again span a beautiful globe.
But which one wins our award for most suitcase-worthy?
“American Sniper”
Fallujah.
Sadr City.
Ramadi.
There are pieces of Southern California thrown in and the actual filming locations in Morocco are dramatic, but director Clint Eastwood’s powerful story about U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s four tours of duty in the Iraq War mostly makes us grateful to be sitting right where we are, in a comfortable theater seat.
Get a drink at: O’Malley’s on Main in Seal Beach, California, where the bar scene in which Kyle (Bradley Cooper) meets his future wife Taya (Sienna Miller) was filmed.
O’Malley’s on Main, 140 Main St., Seal Beach, California; +1 562 430 0631
Aspirational travel rating: 0 suitcases
“Whiplash”
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In this Wes Anderson-directed flick reportedly set in the years between the world wars, the hotel is as grand as the tale that surrounds it.
The film focuses on the misadventures of a European hotel’s concierge and his lobby boy, with everything going down in the fictional European Republic of Zubrowka.
There’s a murder mystery. Outrage over an inherited Renaissance painting. Breathtaking scenery. Harrowing train journeys. Prison fights.
At the center of it all is the glorious Grand Budapest Hotel, which takes viewers back to swankier travel days and makes us want to pack our steamer trunks, head for the Alps and waltz to a Victrola in a musty ballroom.
Experience the real thing: Impossible. Sadly, there’s no actual hotel you can check into.
For wide shots of the hotel, Anderson used a three-meter-high model.
Anderson reportedly based his model on European hotels of the period, such as the pink Palace Bristol Hotel in the Czech Republic.
Palace Bristol Hotel, Sadová 19 360 01 – Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic; +420 35 334 8802
What about the interiors? Many of the film’s scenes were shot inside the historic Goerlitz Department Store, now undergoing restoration.
It’s located in the German town of Goerlitz, about three hours from Berlin.
Goerlitz Department Store, Bismarckstrasse 21, Goerlitz, Germany
Aspirational rating: 9 suitcases
