Directing

Major problems at the A Critical Life offices as my computer is down for the count and my tablet (extra fritzy now that I've upgraded to Lollipop) is incredibly painful to use for long form without the keyboard I seem to have lost. So, here I am on my limited library time trying to squeeze in some quick words. On the "bright" side, there are no less than seven films I haven't been able to get my grubby hands on, so that will save me a lot of time. I'm going to keep this mostly short because I have fifteen minutes to do two hours of work, and because these are all up for best picture where I'll talk about them more. Bear with me, I don't have time to proofread.

Directing
• Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Alejandro G. Iñárritu
• Boyhood Richard Linklater
• Foxcatcher Bennett Miller
• The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson
• The Imitation Game Morten Tyldum

Writing - Original Screenplay

Writing - Original Screenplay
• Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo
• Boyhood written by Richard Linklater
• Foxcatcher written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman
• The Grand Budapest Hotel screenplay by Wes Anderson; story by Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness
• Nightcrawler written by Dan Gilroy

Writing - Adapted Screenplay

Happy Valentine's Day. The most important part of a relationship is to hate the same things.

Writing - Adapted Screenplay
• American Sniper written by Jason Hall
• The Imitation Game written by Graham Moore
• Inherent Vice written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson
• The Theory of Everything screenplay by Anthony McCarten
• Whiplash written by Damien Chazelle

Cinematography

At the outset I said it was going to take a lot to usurp Birdman for cinematography, so let's see how the rest of the films fared.

Cinematography
• Emmanuel Lubezki for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
• Robert Yeoman for The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski for Ida
• Dick Pope for Mr. Turner
• Roger Deakins for Unbroken

Music: Original Score

It pained me to be so hard on Alexandre Desplat for last year's lackluster Philomena, so I'm truly happy to see him with two very nice soundtracks this year. Mica Levi, however, with Under the Skin had my favorite soundtrack from last year. I'm guessing the film's early appearance at the Telluride Film Festival would have precluded it from this awards season even if anyone else would have voted for it. If I can't just spend all day talking about how good it is to "eat men like air," then let's take a listen to this year's nominees.

Music: Original Score
• Alexandre Desplat for The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Alexandre Desplat for The Imitation Game
• Hans Zimmer for Interstellar
• Gary Yershon for Mr. Turner
• Jóhann Jóhannsson for The Theory of Everything

Music: Original Song

If you're hoping to see the short films, don't forget that there many theaters show them on very short runs. The Detroit Film Theater, for example, only has two showings of the documentary shorts, and the second of them is tonight.

Because films with an Original Song nomination aren't strictly the most well received films, they can be harder to get access to. As such, I wasn't able to see Beyond the Lights or Glen Campbell...I'll Be Me.

Original Song
• "Everything Is Awesome" from The LEGO Movie
  Music and Lyric by Shawn Patterson
• "Glory" from Selma
  Music and Lyric by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn
• "Grateful" from Beyond the Lights
  Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
• "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" from Glen Campbell...I'll Be Me
  Music and Lyric by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond
• "Lost Stars" from Begin Again
  Music and Lyric by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois

Production Design

Production Design*
• Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock for The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald for The Imitation Game
• Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis for Interstellar
• Dennis Gassner, Anna Pinnock for Into the Woods
• Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts for Mr. Turner