The 10 Biggest Oscar Snubs of 2014
When the Academy Awards release their annual Oscar nominations, we like to stop and take a moment to be glad for all of the movies and moviemakers that got recognized for excellence. But that moment was over pretty quickly before we couldn’t help but think, “Wait…how’d they miss that?!?” A quick poll of Paste’s editors left feeling that there were some huge oversights by the 6,000-odd Academy voters this year. Here, in our humble estimation, are the 10 biggest Oscar snubs of 2014:
10. Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Jeremy Renner
Look, we’re happy that American Hustle got so much love. And we came around on Bradley Cooper with his performance in Silver Linings Playbook. He’s good alongside Jennifer Lawrence once again in Hustle, but he’s only the second best supporting actor in the film. Jeremy Renner showed a whole different side of himself as the gregarious, corrupt mayor with a heart of gold. Kudos to David O. Russell for getting so many wonderful performances out of his actors that it was hard for the Academy to narrow them down.—Josh Jackson
9. Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Léa Seydoux in Blue Is the Warmest Color
Blue Is the Warmest Color focuses on Adèle Exarchopoulos’s main character Adèle, but this French romantic drama wouldn’t have its considerable power without superb supporting work from Léa Seydoux. As Emma, Seydoux is the embodiment of sophistication, confidence and beauty—we can understand why the younger, less sexually experienced Adèle would fall for her immediately. American audiences had previously known Seydoux from bit parts in Midnight in Paris and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, but Blue allowed her to demonstrate real range, playing Emma as not just a love interest but as an equally complicated, evolving woman who both enchants and intimidates Adèle.—Tim Grierson (review here)
8. Best Documentary: Blackfish
Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s Blackfish delivers ominous chills not because it documents orca attacks, but because it makes a clear, strong case that the attacks are of humankind’s making. It’s more Frankenstein than Jaws. Orcas are highly intelligent animals, susceptible to psychological scars, boredom, frustration and anger. The attacks didn’t spring from base animal instinct—killer whales aren’t known to attack humans in the wild—but from lives of mistreatment.—Jeremy Mathews
7. Best Documentary: Muscle Shoals
Freddy Camalier’s masterly Muscle Shoals is about the beginnings and heyday of the recording scene in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a tiny town that improbably changed the face of rock’n’roll, putting out along the way some of the greatest records in the history of American music. Many of those moments are recounted to great effect in the film; first-timer Camalier is obviously a natural storyteller. But there’s so much more to the doc—the cinematography is lush and beautiful, the editing is crisp and precise, and it’s in turns heartbreaking, inspiring, wry, thought-provoking, nostalgic, and genuinely funny. It’s simply a stunning debut film. It helps that Camalier and his producing partner Stephen Badger are after more here than just a dry lesson in musical history. They delve into the Civil Rights Movement and its effect specifically on Alabama, especially as it relates to a Muscle Shoals music scene that was, shockingly enough, lacking in any racial tension. They return again and again to the ancient Native American legend about the river that flows through the town, and the water spirit who lived there, sang songs, and protected the town. And the personal life of Fame Records founder Rick Hall, the protagonist of the film, is itself worthy of a Faulkner novel. It’s thrilling, it’s engaging, it’s fascinating, it’s stirring. It’s the best documentary of the year, whether you’re a music lover or not.—Michael Dunaway