Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Melissa Leo should have won this Oscar for Prisoners . Denis Villeneuve's underrated masterpiece features strong work from both Jake Gyllenhaal and Leo, and Leo's creation of the mysterious elderly woman who *SPOILER* turns out to be the big villain all along *SPOILER* was simply outstanding. She w...

Nebraska is horrid. American Hustle is Russell's weakest Oscar-film to date. Scorsese and Cuaron are even playing field for me. Scorsese for delving so deep into his story, Cuaron for delving so deep into his visuals. But Steve McQueen delves deep into his story AND his visuals. Excellent directori...

My top 2 of the year weren't even nominated :cry:. The first I dismiss here is Roberts, I'm in the minority who thinks she is terrific in the film but this is so clearly a lead performance that this category fraud is disgusting. Jennifer Lawrence is a lot of fun in American Hustle but her portrayal ...

Judi Dench is the first one out for me. I enjoyed Philomena for what it was but found it to be nothing Oscar-worthy. Dench doesn't give bad performances but she practically sleep-walked through this one. I did like many of her scenes towards the end when she meets her son's adoptive sister and later...

Great lineup this year. It really is a strange feeling when you agree with and would have also personally nominated the majority of the Oscar lineup. First off is Bradley Cooper, the co-lead of American Hustle . I thought his performance as the FBI agent so ambitious that he gets in over his head wa...

This was a fantastic year for this category. Very good lineup, and you could make an equally good lineup from many of the snubbed contenders. I've seen every nominated film at least twice (many more than twice) so I'm basing my analysis off of both initial and repeat viewings. I thought Bruce Dern w...

I liked Silver Linings Playbook , which I found to have more to say about human relationships, love and the world we live in than most films from the past decade, Obviously you must have seen only two or three films from the past decade... Because honestly - HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS, LOVE and THE WORLD ...

Zero Dark Thirty was, for me, the most complete film of the year with a secure and confident directorial vision that was executed perfectly in every department. Bigelow, a true artist, composed every shot perfectly. We saw exactly what she wanted us to see, heard exactly what she wanted us to hear ...

*Boogie Nights
The Ice Storm
Jackie Brown
L.A. Confidential
Titanic
(alt: The Sweet Hereafter, Good Will Hunting)

*Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights
James Cameron, Titanic
Curtis Hanson, L.A. Confidential
Ang Lee, The Ice Storm
Quentin Tarantino
(alt: Atom Egoyan, Gus Van Sant)