Oscar Woes: 6 Snubs of 2014 We’ll Have to Live With

Like Monday blues, the Oscar woes are meant to never end. While we marvel at some nominations and wins every year, we also turn around wincing at a few. What breaks our heart are the long list of mis-nominations – those that are eluded the honors.

There is always much to whine with the Academy’s choices. 2014 only followed the script. Here are 2014’s movies that weren’t considered good enough to be even nominated:

The Place Beyond the Pines

Probably the biggest snub of 2013, The Place Beyond the Pines not just failed to find the takers in Academy, but the other biggies like Golden Globes and Bafta too criminally ignored this masterpiece starring immensely popular stars like Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper. Spanning two generations, it was a poignant tale that didn’t take shelter behind the contrived emotions – something which Academy doesn’t have the highest regards for. Agreed the movie fizzles out just a bit in last 20 mins, but that doesn’t take anything away from atmosphere it creates after its running time of 140 minutes.

Rush (2013)

Okay, may be, this was the de facto worst Oscar snub of 2014. What really went against it? Rush was the most exhilarating experience in a movie hall I had in a long time. Anybody in love with movies has to love this piece of cinematic rush.

Fruitvale Station

A low budget flick, Fruitvale Station has incredibly sure rhythmic charges tossed around its running time. The movie tells a tragic tale without resorting to maudlin impulses of melodrama and sentimentality. The scene between the father and his daughter right before he is setting off for that fateful party spells everything out. Did it not deserve a single nomination among so many major categories – Best Actor, Best Direction, Best Film? Made with a concealed heart, it remained concealed in the award fest.

Prisoners

Hugh Jackman seems to be in some kind of form. After a rousing performance in Les Miserables, he has come back with another masterly act in Prisoners, finding an ideal dancing partner in Jake Gyllenhaal. An atmospheric thriller that takes hold of you, not letting go till you hear those whistles coming from a pit in the climax, Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners was worthy of at least a nomination.

Joaquin Phoenix for Her

Here is one actor who’s time and again robbed off the trophy but no fuss is made out of that. There were hush tones suggesting he was a more deserving winner for his incredible performance in The Master in 2013. While they didn’t rob him off the nomination then, they made up for that this year.

Oscar Isaac for Inside Llewyn Davis

2014 Oscar Snubbed Oscar Isaac — CBS Films, StudioCanal, Anton Capital Entertainment

The performance might have looked effortless to some – for the sheer nonchalance brought to the character – but it sure was one barn-burner of an effort made by the exceptionally talented Oscar Isaac.

Short Term 12

I haven’t met a soul who isn’t taken by Short Term 12. An elegiac work of art, Short Term brings to the screen a view that’s ineffably distressing and yet never off the mark. The film is filled with haunting moments only to impress none from the Academy. No nomination for the movie, no nothing for the leading lady, Brie Larson.

For someone who exults in good cinema, watching it being utterly disregarded because Academy wants to be too predictable breaks my heart. But whine as much as I can, one will still catch me hooked to the TV when the Oscars air.

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Rohit Raina

A writer by chance and leisurely on his way to become a writer by choice, Rohit is either ranting his ire out or talking about the most irrelevant stuff around.