PubTalkForum's Academy Awards Winners

[Matteo]

Unfortunately, not too many people submitted their votes in. To those that did, thank you. I wasn't going to go ahead with this (considering the lack of participation), but I still nonetheless counted the votes. Here are the results:

Best Picture: Whiplash and Birdman (tie)
Best Actor: Michael Keaton in Bidman
Best Actress: Felicity Jones in The Theory of Everything
Best Director: Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons in Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette in Boyhood
Best Screenplay (original or adapted): The Grand Budapest Hotel - Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinnes
Best Animated Feature Film: Big Hero 6
Best Cinematography: Robert Yeoman for The Grand Budapest Hotel

[Everlong]

Thanks for doing this man! Michael Keaton should have definitely won the award in real life, that was the only award I was really upset with.

[Hanley!]

Yeah, I would have liked to see Keaton win. But Redmayne's role was so Academy friendly and he did do a good job with it. So I don't think anyone's surprised that he won.

I don't agree 100% with what we picked, but I'd have no problem with any of those choices. I think they're all deserving contenders. Interesting to see how we differed from the Academy anyway.

I've yet to see Big Hero Six as it came out late over here, but it does feel like the Academy awarded Best Animated Film to the safest bet and not necessarily the best one. From what I've heard, Tale of the Princess Kaguya deserved the win, but probably none of the Academy actually watched it. So that wasn't even in the discussion coming up to the awards.

Thanks for doing this, @Matteo.

[Matteo]

Keaton deserved to win over Redmayne, I agree, but as Hanley accurately mentioned, the latter was a familiar and enticing performance that played safely into the hands of what the Academy generally seek when voting.

I was somewhat surprised that The Grand Budapest Hotel won Best Cinematography. Of course, it's a stunningly photographed work, but Birdman was the recipient of much acclaim in the photographic department. I agree with the decision nonetheless. As much as I admired the technical precision and unconventionality of Lubezki's effort on the film, I feel as if Anderson's feature was superior. In order to capture the colours as vividly and as beautifully as that film did, one must fiddle around a lot with a diverse variation of lenses, lighting techniques and film stocks (i.e., certain film captures different shades and strengths of light better than others, so there is a lot of experimentation in that aspect). So I'm happy in that regard.

[JDD]

Glad Wes Anderson got love in the director category here. Budapest was probably his finest work from a direction standpoint, although Moonrise Kingdom is still my personal favorite of his.

Ill agree with what everyone is saying about Keaton. Would have loved to see him win it. Thanks for doing this Matteo!