Top 7- Best films to be nominated at this year's Oscars

This week, I was out of ideas again. It was originally going to be a piece on why I hope Season 4 of House of Cards was the last but it just got recommissioned for a fifth so that's defunct. Instead, I wanted to make a list of my favourite films nominated for this year's Oscars. Sure, it's very similar to my Top 7 of last year but some I put there aren't nominated here and I've seen some great films since. Finally, these are films I had seen by the start of February. Any I've seen since haven't made the cut.


7. Amy: 1 nomination (Best Documentary)

I am so glad I finally get to talk about Amy, a film I only discovered recently. It is, as you may have gathered or already know, a documentary about the rise and fall of one of the most talented singers of a generation and is entirely heartbreaking. I'd always quite liked Winehouse's music and I did know about her history but seeing it all play out is the strength of this film. Personally, documentaries don't particularly interest me and if you feel the same, still see this film. It has pacing to rival most other films around, is entertaining and destroying at the same time and I feel like it deserves more than one Oscar. As far as I'm concerned, this film should be in the best picture category because that is the caliber it displays. Amy is an absolute guarantee for Best Documentary


6. The Revenant: 12 nominations (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Makeup and Hair-styling, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects)

The single most nominated film of the year is unsurprisingly not the best film of the year because it never is. I will say that the Academy could have made a hell of a lot of worse choices as The Revenant is not only a fantastic film but also quite a different one to the kind that the Academy usually like to recognise. The way I see it, this film definitely deserves it's best picture nomination and will probably get it and it also deserves huge recognition for the technical work that went into it. What no one will question is that this is Leonardo DiCaprio's best performance ever and this feels like the right time for him. Don't get me wrong, superb film and deserves every single nomination it got. I just wasn't expecting it and would have preferred other films there.

5. Creed: 1 nomination (Best Supporting Actor)

Creed may be a last minute addition to my list but don't let that diminish how fantastic a film it is. Having never seen a single Rocky film before, I expected very little. What I got was so much more than nothing. Not only does Creed manage to be one of the most exciting films of the year already, it's also a deeply moving story about wanting to move on from legacy and create your own path. This film certainly stands apart and I now appreciate what all the fuss was about for it being snubbed. Even ignoring the fact that the one nominee from here was white, the rest of the cast and the director Ryan Coogler all deserved nominations for their incredible work. See this film in cinemas while you still can, regardless of your experience of Rocky. It's the underdog that deserves to win.


4. Mad Max: Fury Road: 10 nominations (Best Picture, Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Makeup and Hair-styling, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects)

Now here's another huge surprise for nominations. Fury Road is probably one of the most nominated action films ever at the Oscars and that really speaks to the quality of it, as a film and as a technical masterpiece. It has some of the best directed action in years and was exhilarating from start to finish. Equally as impressive, if not more, was the technical side of the film and how they made the stunts. Did you know, that in that tornado scene, the cars flying into the air is not CG? That was genuinely done, out in the middle of nowhere by an 80 year old dude, most famous for directing an anti-semitic Australian guy in leather. That is respectable and it's Mad that the academy looked at that and went "Yeah, best picture". I don't care, the film deserves it.


3. Anomalisa: 1 nomination (Best Animated Film)

Hi, this is Anomalisa. You may recognise it from posts such as last weeks review and the Top 7 most anticipated of 2016. It's pretty goddamn good, even if it's still not out here. I will forever defend it's charm, it's quirkiness and it's emotional power because I adore it so, so much. The story of Michael Stone and his disillusionment with life is such a relatable and wonderful story that I will come back to it over and over and have it, if not answer my problems, then console me. My biggest pain with this film is that it's nominated for one Oscar and it won't win it because there is a better film in that category. To see David Thewlis nominated for Best Actor would have been nice but it was a long shot for a film that is so delightfully oddball.


2. Ex Machina: 2 nominations (Original Screenplay, Visual Effects)

2 nominations may not sound like a snub but that's the quality of Ex Machina. We've all seen sci-fi films and we've all seen films that look at the dangers of AI. What no one expected was such a fresh take from an old format. An exciting and ever evolving script, performed by a trio of superb actors and directed with apparent ease by a first time director all made this a surprise delight. The nomination for screenplay is deserved but as far as I'm concerned, the whole cast deserve nominations, Alex Garland deserves a nomination for Best Director and the whole film should be a Best Picture nomination easily. Overlooked by the academy and many others, this is worth a watch, just don't expect it to be a totally comfortable experience.


1. Inside Out: 2 nominations (Best Animated Film and Best Original Screenplay)

A film so good that I would rank it among my favourite films of all time already, Inside Out is probably Pixar's best ever film and I don't say that lightly. It's a story about emotions inside a little girl's head and their day to day lives and being about emotions, it's a highly emotional film. I mean no exaggeration when I say that I laughed, I felt warm inside and I cried. To clarify, I cried both times I saw the film, it is that effective. I didn't expect it to get many nominations, what with it being animated, but I genuinely expected it to get a Best Picture nomination. Inside Out is all about emotions and all about evoking them and it does that perfectly. It's one of last year's best films and also one of my favourites. If you haven't seen it, you must get on it immediately.