As with every year of the Oscars, it was the movies that were “snubbed” that were talked about more than the films that actually got nominated. In the case of this year, it was The LEGO Movie that received the most attention when it wasn’t nominated for Best Animated Movie.
Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn took to Facebook to write an open letter to The Academy, and did not hold back his thoughts.
“The LEGO Movie was flat out snubbed,” he wrote. “It was one of the best films of the year, not to mention one of the best animated films. It deserved to be nominated for Best Animated Film. Considering the average Academy voter is 63, perhaps the Tinkertoy Movie or the Erector Set Film would have fared better. Honestly, I don’t think there can be any reason it wasn’t nominated other than Academy members assumed it was a silly movie (like I did when I first heard of the movie, before seeing it) and didn’t watch the screener.”
Gunn also added that Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal and Damien Chazelle were snubbed, calling Chazalle’s Whiplash, “one of the greatest film accomplishments of 2014”. He also added that it didn’t make sense for Foxcatcher not to be nominated for Best Film, considering it was in many of the other categories including Best Director, “It really bothers me when awards for Best Director and Best Film go to different movies,” he wrote.
Guardians of the Galaxy was nominated for Visual Effects as well as Make-up and Hair Stylings, but Gunn felt that it should have received more, particularly in the special effects, costume and sound effects. “All three of these departments created looks and sounds from nothing, from cultures that hadn’t pre-existed, and created something beautiful that has already shifted the aesthetic paradigm of Hollywood films,” Gunn added. ” I suppose they’ll just have to be happy having made a film seen by more people than have seen all…of the Best Film nominees combined.”
“The Academy has a long tradition of bad choices,” he concludes “After all, in 1941 How Green Was My Valley beat Citizen Kane for Best Picture. That said, some of the fury that’s directed at the Academy because of various nominations is outrageous. I saw a lot of nearly violent anger this morning on Twitter. There may be good reasons to turn over cars in the street, but that Jennifer Aniston wasn’t nominated for Cake isn’t one of them. In the end, the Academy is just a bunch of people, like you or me, doing what they think is best. And they should have the right to not vote for whomever they want… besides The LEGO Movie. I mean, that’s just fucking ridiculous.”
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL18yMRIfoszH_jfuJoo8HCG1-lGjvfH2F
Originally published January 16, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
