Welcome to Beyond The Trailer’s coverage of the 2015 Academy Awards, giving you an
in-depth look at the top categories.
And once again, the female actress categories have been hard to fill, making for some interesting
- and not so interesting choices.
This is also another category where the winner is almost guaranteed, but your favorite still
has a chance in the annual Beyond The Trailer Oscar poll!
So be sure to vote via the link in the video description.
Now let’s take a closer look at those nominees...
And this is the lock!
Like JK Simmons over in the Best Supporting Actor category, Patricia Arquette has taken
home pretty much every Best Supporting Actress award there is this year.
And also like Simmons, this is Arquette’s first Oscar nomination.
However, unlike Simmons, she’s been a household name - or at least well-known name - since
True Romance.
But wait a minute.
Co-stars Ethan Hawke and Ellar Coltrane deliver strong performances too, right?
Why, in a movie called Boyhood, is the female actress the one getting all the attention?
Interesting question indeed...
Perhaps it’s the lack of competition in this category.
Perhaps it respect for an actress willing to highlight the aging process on-screen,
something most actresses try to hide.
And perhaps the Academy just wants to do something nice for an Arquette, one of the few Hollywood
legacy families?
Hmm, odds are it’s the aging thing...
Speaking of Hollywood legacies, Laura Dern is the daughter of Bruce Dern who of course
got his own nomination last year for Nebraska.
His daughter accompanied him to most of the events on the awards campaign trail and even
to the Oscars itself - so maybe Academy voters were just used to seeing her so much that
she was a familiar name on the ballot this year!
Also, like father like daughter, this is Dern’s second nomination - her first for Rambling
Rose back in 1992.
And what’s more, like her father she isn’t going to win this time around either.
But again, when you’ve got a tough category to fill why not celebrate another Hollywood
family, plus an actress who’s been able to work both in blockbusters like Jurassic
Park and The Fault in Our Stars as well as smaller films like The Master and...Wild?
Not to mention, here we have another actress still working after over thirty years in the
game...
But while The Academy loves to celebrate long careers, they also like to anoint new stars
- as well as reward career choices in their favor.
Take Keira Knightley, who infamously turned her back on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise
- the franchise that made her a star - so that she could make prestige films.
Some said she was brave, some said she was crazy and some said the Pirates movies were
better off.
But everyone could agree that at least as first, she was not better off.
Since Pirates, her biggest hits have been Atonement for director Joe Wright and Jack
Ryan, where she wasn’t the lead.
Meanwhile The Duchess, Never Let Me Go, A Dangerous Method, Anna Karenina, Begin Again
and Laggies were all box office flops that also failed to earn her any respect as an
actress, largely due to a lot of on-screen voguing.
And since action and light comedy didn’t work out for her either, perhaps it was audiences
themselves that weren’t interested.
Yet suddenly here she is, co-starring in The Imitation Game which has done quite nicely
at the box office - and with an Oscar nomination to boot!
Like Scarlett Johansson, Knightley is another actress learning that letting your guard down
is just as important as picking the right script...
So while Andrew Garfield is still struggling to come out of the Amazing Spider-Man fiasco
alive, his co-star and real life girlfriend Emma Stone is doing just fine.
And hey, he’ll get to go to the Oscars as her date, so he’s got that goin’ for him!
Yes, Stone has definitely landed on her feet, impressive since two Amazing Spider-Man movies
required her to largely put the rest of her career on hold.
But as soon as she was done - and I do mean done - she came out with guns blazing!
She’s already done Magic in the Moonlight for Woody Allen and will also star in his
next film Irrational Man opposite Joaquin Phoenix, co-stars in Cameron Crowe’s upcoming
Aloha opposite fellow nominee Bradley Cooper, and is currently on Broadway in Cabaret.
That last one is getting rave reviews while buzz for the other three films has been...meh.
But of course then there’s Birdman, which is helping the careers of everyone involved!
Inarritu, Keaton, Norton, Stone - all nominated!
Only the first two have a shot at winning but still, with her first nomination here
The Academy is letting Stone know - and critics and audiences - that she’s back on the right
track...
Can you really have the Oscars without Meryl Streep?
Apparently not, as this is Streep’s NINETEENTH nomination - making it increasingly difficult
for anyone to ever break her record as the most nominated actor or actress in history.
But while Academy voters clearly never tire of Streep, it seems audiences do.
Many who enjoyed Into the Woods would rather have seen Emily Blunt nominated - over in
Best Actress OR here in Best Supporting Actress if there wasn’t space!
But don’t worry about Blunt, her turn in Edge of Tomorrow might prove even more valuable
when all is said and done.
(cough) CAPTAIN MARVEL!
Anyway, it’s not ridiculous to nominate Streep for playing the iconic role of the
Witch, and she did sing, do the whole special effects thing AND look marvelous - all at
the age of sixty-five.
As I’ve been saying, The Academy loves honoring long careers - just as they do honoring Streep.
Maybe they really don’t want anyone to ever break her record, and as long as they’ve
got the room in a category, why not protect it?
And those the Best Supporting Actress nominees!
Be sure to leave your thoughts down below, and also to vote in Beyond The Trailer’s
annual Oscar poll via the link in the video description!
I’m Grace Randolph, and I hope you’ll check out the rest of BTT’s Oscar coverage
- right now!