We are going to do something a bit fun today, and will be doing so off-and-on for the coming weeks. I started doing this blog daily about nine years ago, and five years into that time frame I started doing a full-fledged "If I Chose the Nominees" situation for the Oscars in all categories. Since 2016 we've done this every year, including 2019, which we've been profiling this week and the past few weeks on the blog for the Oscars, but I thought as a companion to our Oscar Viewing Project that we'd do a compendium of all of the years we've profiled, and as an epilogue each time we do a year in the project, I'd put forward this list. After all, if the Oscar Viewing Project is a list of all of the winners, it might be fun to at least attempt to (as I'm going) include a list of whom I'd nominate as well.
We're going to backtrack through only the years we've already done for the project, and we aren't going to do any of the years we've already profiled, so we'll start this "catch-up" with 2015. If you'll recall, we finished this up two years ago, and if you want to see all of the past contests as Oscar presented them, click on that link & you'll have several hours of reading to do. But today, we'll just do those traditional Oscar categories, and we'll only focus on whom I would've nominated (and the Gold/Silver/Bronze in each category). Let's begin!
(Note: I'll be going back this weekend to edit past ballots so they're uniform, but we'll go ten-wide for the Best Picture only, and we'll do that in every year even the five-wide contests as I like clean lines...I'll also go back to edit a Gold/Silver/Bronze mentality as I think it's more fun to try & rank the Top 3, and not just pick a winner. And like the OVP, I'll try to make this as much "about the year" as possible so as to not have "consolation" awards in the mix.)
45 Years
Brooklyn
Carol
Clouds of Sils Maria
Ex Machina
I'll See You in My Dreams
Mad Max: Fury Road
Room
Spy
Testament of Youth
Gold: I am such a sucker for a old-timey romantic triangle, and Brooklyn gives us the rare one that genuinely could go in either direction.
Silver: It is a tight race with Carol, which is a brilliantly-crafted movie, and the best that Todd Haynes has ever created.
Bronze: I have seen Spy more times than I can count, and cannot recall a time that I have laughed more in a movie theater.
Olivier Assayas, Clouds of Sils Maria
John Crowley, Brooklyn
Paul Feig, Spy
Andrew Haigh, 45 Years
Todd Haynes, Carol
Gold: Haynes takes the trophy for bringing a director's insight into not just a May/December romance, but a romance with an enormous amount of pressure...Carol & Therese need to decide on forever & what that entails.
Silver: Crowley's camera never lingers, always moving forward as we find a woman who is torn between her old life & the promise of a new one.
Bronze: Assayas has a difficult task before him, crafting a complicated story-within-a-story for Clouds of Sils Maria but he sets both of the movie's plots to work with thrilling, honest originality.
Juliette Binoche, Clouds of Sils Maria
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Melissa McCarthy, Spy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Gold: Rampling gives the performance of a lifetime as a woman who understands that much of her existence was predicated on a lie that she didn't know that she was being told (more than she ever could have dreamt).
Silver: Blanchett would've won in almost any other year, and certainly deserves such praise as a woman realizing love (true love) for the first time in middle age.
Bronze: Few child actors are able to move so effortlessly to the big screen without any growing pains. That Saoirse Ronan does it without recalling any bit of the child star we knew her as in Atonement is a testament to what a brilliant star she was about to become.
Michael Caine, Youth
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Tom Hardy, Legend
Michael B. Jordan, Creed
Jacob Tremlbay, Room
Gold: Fassbender has spent much of the past decade being so good it's easy to take him for granted in this role, but he fully inhabits the genius (and sociopath) of Steve Jobs.
Silver: Michael Caine is also an actor who is so consistent it's easy to dismiss him when he's hitting a triple, but his work here (looking at how we must move forward if we are to move at all) resonates years after viewing. He knows exactly how to cash in on not only life experience, but the audience's years of movie memories
Bronze: Child actors are oftentimes the product of their directors, not their own work, so it can be a challenge in grading their performances, but that doesn't mean that Tremblay's acting here doesn't live up to the hype.
Rose Byrne, Spy
Miranda Hart, Spy
Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria
Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
Gold: Vikander has become a point of derision in the years since, as she has not lived up to the promise of such a quick Oscar, but her work as Ava is still brilliant.
Silver: I think I'll go with Stewart next, who shed every corner of her "Twilight/can't act" persona here, going toe-to-toe with Juliette Binoche & finding dimensions in a seemingly commonplace assistant.
Bronze: Kate Winslet is a chameleon of an actress, someone who folds into every role, and while never disappearing, brings both herself & that character to light. This is more evident than ever with her going against type in Steve Jobs.
Emory Cohen, Brooklyn
Sam Elliott, Grandma
Oscar Isaac, Ex Machina
Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Jason Statham, Spy
Gold: Sly Stallone is not a great actor, but he is able to harness a memory with his beautiful, nostalgic work in Creed, and thus shows why he's been a star for nearly fifty years.
Silver: Oscar Isaac kicked off a run of career-topping performances as a megalomaniac intent on destruction, even if it comes at his own peril.
Bronze: I don't entirely know if it's fair to include Jason Statham here, but few actors have more gamely skewered their own personas for the fun of audiences everywhere, and every time I watch this I'm struck by how perfect his comic timing is.
Clouds of Sils Maria
Ex Machina
I'll See You in My Dreams
Spotlight
Spy
Gold: It's obviously a writer's movie, one that moves with a lot of twisty turns & operates on several different levels, but that doesn't mean that Clouds of Sils Maria doesn't deserve the "W" in this bunch.
Silver: Spy is the most quotable movie of 2015, an uproarious laugh riot that is not only helped by ace comedians, but terrific writing.
Bronze: The inventive, machiavellian genius of Ex Machina is a total win-it gives us not only the expected but the unexpected answers.
45 Years
Brooklyn
Carol
Room
Testament of Youth
Gold: I mean, how do you argue with the crisp dialogue of Carol, Phyllis Nagy totally going for broke with brilliance in every scene?
Silver: Again, Brooklyn (this was a tight race in virtually every matchup when I did this in 2015) cannot be denied, as Nick Hornby's work just barely misses against Nagy.
Bronze: I think I'm going to lean toward Room, a difficult story to adapt and one that requires a lot of character work between Ma & Jack, but Emma Donoghue nails it.
Inside Out
The Peanuts Movie
Shaun the Sheep Movie
Gold: I only believe in three-wide in this category (there's too few contenders to give it five), and while I'm not as beholden to Pixar as the Academy is, I'm not denying Inside Out is the obvious favorite here.
Silver: I'm leaning toward the sweetness of The Peanuts Movie, even if nostalgia is helping the cause there a little bit (I love the Charlie Brown holiday specials so much). Still, it's the rare movie that modernizes its characters without ever losing the original charm that made it iconic.
Bronze: Wordless but filled with lovely site gags, Shaun the Sheep is a sweet, adorable little movie that shows why Aardman has stayed at the top of its game.
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
Sicario
Son of Saul
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Gold: It's rare that you leave a film saying "that had great sound design," but when you do, you make a mental note of it, and man did Son of Saul do something special with its immersive aural work.
Silver: I'd go with the more traditional Mad Max here, with thundering vehicles & specific villain music hallmarking an entirely new chapter in this dystopian franchise.
Bronze: While the scripts & acting vary in quality from film-to-film, there's no denying that Star Wars continually amazes in its tech department, and does an ace job (while using John Williams appropriately).
Creed
Ex Machina
Inside Out
Mad Max: Fury Road
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Gold: Is there any way to deny the gadgetry & next-level robots of Ex Machina? Well, there is because Oscar did, but I have more foresight than that.
Silver: Star Wars has a tricky business in modernizing an old franchise while staying true to the sound effects that made it classic-The Force Awakens does that well.
Bronze: The "brain station" gizmos of Inside Out give us an insight into Riley's imagination, and show that even if Oscar doesn't notice anymore, Pixar still has it when it comes to Sound Editing.
Brooklyn
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Room
Testament of Youth
Gold: 2015 is probably the best year for cinema of the 2010's, and it's easily the best for screen music (all five of these are home runs). This is why I can say with confidence that even though Ennio Morricone's win that year at the Oscars read as an "old age" award...it was actually cause it was just that good.
Silver: I'm going to go with Brooklyn here, which has a melodic, almost lyrical tone to its score, and works just as well as standalone music.
Bronze: Perhaps Carol? The music gives us some of the desperation of the film, and Burwell knows how to mix elements of traditional romance & noir into his work.
"Cold One," Ricki and the Flash
"Crazy Youngsters," Pitch Perfect 2
"I'll See You in My Dreams," I'll See You in My Dreams
"Manta Ray," Racing Extinction
"Who Can You Trust," Spy
Gold: This is a big step-up from the Oscar lineup, and still I feel like it's not a great sampling (the one disappointment in the 2015 categories). Still, Spy goes straight Bond with its nomination, and grammar aside is the best song here.
Silver: The sweet, near the end movements of "I'll See You in My Dreams" in the confines of the movie don't diminish that the song is also quite catchy.
Bronze: It's not remotely vital to the plot, and honestly the movie it surrounds is pretty bad, but..."Crazy Youngsters" is a bop that I cannot get enough of.
Carol
Crimson Peak
The Danish Girl
The Martian
Room
Gold: Sometimes you give this prize based on a cascade of strong work, and sometimes you give it based on one set-piece. The latter is the case for 2015, which gives us iconography in all four corners in Room.
Silver: The Martian has the difficult task of making a realistic space station on Mars (and one that can feel like home for two hours)-it does that perfectly...another in a long line of recent A+'s for space decorating.
Bronze: The Martian might play with literal space, but if you're going to talk about how an empty chamber can add depth to the screen, few movies did more with high-ceiling rooms than The Danish Girl.
Carol
Creed
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Sicario
Gold: Carol gives us a dreamlike world, finding touches of Douglas Sirk but remaining original. The outdoors shots (particularly at twilight) are frame-worthy (seriously-someone buy me Rooney Mara under a lamppost for my wall).
Silver: John Seale was pulled out of retirement to make Mad Max, and this was the correct decision-no DP alive can make a desert have the kind of fire & personality he brings to the colorful showmanship of Fury Road.
Bronze: The crazy amount of natural light that Emmanuel Lubezki brings to The Revenant is bonkers, as he transports back 300 years with his steady, unflinching camerawork.
Brooklyn
Carol
Cinderella
The Danish Girl
The Man from UNCLE
Gold: The year of Sandy Powell vs. Sandy Powell produced no wins for her with Oscar, but I am less-inclined to resist, and her gorgeous pastels (and tight trousers) in Cinderella takes the cake.
Silver: I'm also giving Powell runner-up, as she gives us both realism & character-driven personality in the costumes of Carol.
Bronze: A tight race between the remaining (such a fun year for costumes), but I'll go with the mod hipness of UNCLE, as they find good looks for both the women (our love affair with Elizabeth Debicki began here) as well as the men (has Henry Cavill ever looked more ridiculously "Henry Cavill?").
Embrace of the Serpent
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Room
Gold: One of the weirdest movies I've seen in recent years, Embrace of the Serpent has to find a way to visually impart a story while not always focusing on the story...that doesn't make sense, but when you see it you'll understand how careful the editing on this movie needed to be.
Silver: I'm going to go with Mad Max, which makes action films feel new again with its roaring, unceasing march to the inevitable showdown.
Bronze: I still don't get how The Martian missed with Oscar, as it is so clever with its light comedy & mix of dire space urgency, but I'm not making that mistake here.
Carol
Crimson Peak
Legend
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Man from UNCLE
Gold: I mean, yes it's got "more" makeup than any of the other films, but this is the case where more & best can be pretty much synonymous. Mad Max: Fury Road is an all-timer for this category.
Silver: I'll probably go with Carol, as while the makeup is ordinary, the hairstyling is period-perfect & made to match each of the character's personalities.
Bronze: Legend does a better job than I've seen in a while of taking an actor playing dual roles, in this case twins, and making them look both similar & yet totally recognizable as each other.
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Tomorrowland
Gold: I know it was done on a budget, but Ex Machina is proof that you just need artistry in your visual effects & the rest will come together perfectly.
Silver: I'm a sucker for a throwback practical effect, and Mad Max: Fury Road finds a way to make the audience feel the heat of its explosions & oil rampages.
Bronze: It's impossible to deny Star Wars (particularly that giant chase scene near the film's opening), and it doesn't rest on its laurels, adding lovely touches like Kylo Ren's handled lightsaber.
There we have it-I'm definitely going to keep doing this as I had a blast (we'll catch up on all of the years that we've already done & then have it be part of our OVP wrap-ups as we do ballots), so I hope you like this...if you have some favorites from 2015, share below!
Also in 2015: Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Documentary Short, Live Action Short, Animated Short, Previously in 2015
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