The Oscar Nominations 2014 Are Here

American Hustle vs. 12 Years A Slave vs. Gravity

Oscar statues

by Helen O'Hara |
Published on

The nominations for the 86th Academy Awards have been announced, and leading the pack are **American Hustle **and 12 Years A Slave, with seven and six nominations respectively in the major categories. Overall, American Hustle and Gravity both had ten nominations in total (most of Gravity's are in the technical categories), while **12 Years A Slave **is close behind with nine.

Click here to jump down the full list of nominations.

Nebraska and **Captain Phillips **follow with six nods, with The Wolf Of Wall Street, Her and Dallas Buyers Club each on five. Philomena had four, while Blue Jasmine and The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug each picked up three (the latter all technical).

The Best Picture nominees are American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Philomena, 12 Years A Slave and The Wolf Of Wall Street. The big story there is probably the scant love for **Inside Llewyn Davis **(perhaps it's thematic, given that his whole life seems to be about rejection), which was roundly snubbed, while early contenders like Rush, Fruitvale Station and **Saving Mr. Banks **also missed out on a place.

Director nominees were, unsurprisingly, taken from among the ranks of the Best Picture nominees: David O. Russell for American Hustle, Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity, Alexander Payne for Nebraska, Steve McQueen for 12 Years A Slave and Martin Scorsese for The Wolf Of Wall Street. Generally speaking, Best Picture winners also have a nominee in this category, so this suggests that these are the five frontrunners there. Looking at the Best Editing nominees, traditionally a very strong indication of who's in the running for Best Picture, suggests that Gravity, American Hustle and 12 Years A Slave are - as common sense already suggests - the frontrunners, as they're the only three with nods in all those frequently linked categories.

Best Actor nominees are Christian Bale for American Hustle, Bruce Dern for Nebraska, Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf Of Wall Street, Chiwetel Ejiofor for **12 Years A Slave **and Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club. There's only one former winner there - Christian Bale took Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter, which suggests that he should only ever work with David O. Russell if he wants awards. This list is bad news for, among others, Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips, Oscar Isaac for Inside Llewyn Davis and Robert Redford for All Is Lost, but it's hard to argue much with the strength of the nominees.

Best Actress nods went to Amy Adams for American Hustle, Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, Sandra Bullock for Gravity, Judi Dench for **Philomena **and, as is traditional, Meryl Streep, this time for August: Osage County. All of those nominees are previous winners apart from Amy Adams, who's a four-time nominee in the Supporting category. Could this be her year? We suspect not, given Blanchett's current frontrunner status, but you never know. The biggest omission is undoubtedly Emma Thompson, who was wonderful in Saving Mr. Banks.

Best Supporting Actor nominees are Barkhad Abdi, Bradley Cooper, Michael Fassbender, Jonah Hill and Jared Leto. What does this tell us? Well, **American Hustle **has nods in all the major categories and all the acting categories, which bodes well for its chances. Also, isn't it great to see a complete newcomer, the star of The Hangover, a mutant, a guy best known (still) for comedy and the former Jordan Catalano all competing for Best Supporting Actor?

Best Supporting Acturess nominess are Sally Hawkins, Jennifer Lawrence, Lupita Nyong'o, Julia Roberts and June Squibb. That's another eccentric selection, mixing two former Best Actress winners with a first-time film star, a seasoned veteran and a beloved scene-stealer.

Adapted Screenplay nods went to Before Midnight, Captain Phillips, Philomena, 12 Years A Slave and The Wolf Of Wall Street. If you're wondering how Before Midnight counts as an adaptation, it is of course based on the trio's previously existing characters. Original Screenplay lines up American Hustle, Blue Jasmine, Dallas Buyers Club, **Her **and Nebraska - another strong line-up.

This year's Animated Film nominees are The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Ernest & Celestin****e, **Frozen **and The Wind Rises. From the number of nominees, you'll immediately notice that there were more than 15 eligible films this year (otherwise there would only be three nominees) and you're probably glad to see Miyazaki get some Academy love. Notable by its absence is **Monsters **University, with Pixar missing out on its semi-traditional spot.

Foreign Language nominees were The Broken Circle Breakdown, The Great Beauty, The Hunt, The MIssing Picture and Omar. Cannes favourite Blue Is The Warmest Colour apparently didn't qualify this year, hence (we suspect) its omission.

The Act Of Killing, Cutie And The Boxer, Dirty Wars, The Square and 20 Feet From Stardom were the nominees for Documentary Feature. **Killing **and **The Square **have undoubtedly had the most attention among that lot - but will it translate into a win?

Best Original Song nominees came from Alone Yet Not Alone, Despicable Me 2, **Frozen **(of course), **Her **and Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom. We think Frozen's Let It Go is probably the frontrunner there, but if there are enough U2 fans among the Academy voters (possible) we might see an upset.

In the technical categories, there were a few surprises. Thelma Schoonmaker missed out on an Editing nod for Wolf Of Wall Street; American Hustle's astonishing hair efforts were blanked in the Make-Up & Hairstyling cateory; Barry Ackroyd was unlucky to miss out on a Cinematography nod for Captain Phillips, as were Anthony Dod Mantle for Rush and Sean Bobbitt. In Visual Effects, we were vaguely surprised to note that the Academy nominated five films even though it would surely take some sort of Roland Emmerich-style cataclysm to stop that award at least going to Gravity.

This year's Oscars will take place on March 2 at the Dolby Theatre, and **Empire **will be covering them every step of the way. The full nominations are below.

OSCAR NOMINATIONS 2014

FILM

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Gravity

Dallas Buyers Club

Her

Nebraska

Philomena

The Wolf Of Wall Street

DIRECTOR

Steve McQueen - 12 Years A Slave

David O. Russell - American Hustle

Alfonso Cuarón - Gravity

Alexander Payne - Nebraska

Martin Scorsese - The Wolf Of Wall Street

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell - American Hustle

Woody Allen - Blue Jasmine

Bob Nelson - Nebraska

Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack - Dallas Buyers Club

Spike Jonze - Her

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

John Ridley - 12 Years A Slave

Billy Ray - Captain Phillips

Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope - Philomena

Terence Winter - The Wolf Of Wall Street

Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater - Before Midnight

ACTOR

Bruce Dern - Nebraska

Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave

Christian Bale - American Hustle

Leonardo DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street

Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club

ACTRESS

Amy Adams - American Hustle

Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine

Meryl Streep - August: Osage County

Judi Dench - Philomena

Sandra Bullock - Gravity

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips

Bradley Cooper - American Hustle

Michael Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave

Jonah Hill - The Wolf Of Wall Street

Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle

Julia Roberts - August: Osage County

Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave

Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine

June Squibb - Nebraska

ANIMATED FILM

The Croods

Despicable Me 2

Ernest & Celestine

Frozen

The Wind Rises

ORIGINAL SCORE

Philomena - Alexandre Desplat

The Book Thief - John Williams

Gravity - Steven Price

Saving Mr. Banks - Thomas Newman

Her - William Butler, Owen Pallett

**ORIGINAL SONG

**'Alone Yet Not Alone' - Alone Yet Not Alone

'Happy' - Despicable Me 2

'Let It Go' - Frozen

'The Moon Song' - Her

'Ordinary Love' - Mandela: The Long Walk To Freedom

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Grandmaster - Philippe Le Sourd

Gravity - Emmanuel Lubezki

Inside Llewyn Davis - Bruno Delbonnel

Nebraska - Phedon Papamichael

Prisoners - Roger Deakins

EDITING

American Hustle - Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, Alan Baumgarten

12 Years A Slave - Joe Walker

Captain Phillips - Christopher Rouse

Dallas Buyers Club - John Mac McMurphy, Martin Pensa

Gravity - Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger

PRODUCTION DESIGN

12 Years A Slave - Adam Stockhausen, Alice Baker

American Hustle - Judy Becker, Heather Loeffler

Her - K.K. Barrett, Gene Serdena

Gravity - Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, Joanne Woodlard

The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn

COSTUME DESIGN

American Hustle - Michael Wilkinson

The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin

The Invisible Woman - Michael O’Connor

The Grandmaster - William Chang Suk Ping

12 Years A Slave - Patricia Norris

MAKE-UP & HAIRSTYLING

Dallas Buyers Club - Adruitha Lee, Robin Mathews

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa - Stephen Prouty

The Lone Ranger - Joel Harlow, Gloria Pasqua-Casny

SOUND EDITING

All Is Lost - Richard Hymns, Steve Boeddeker

Captain Phillips - Oliver Tarney

Gravity - Glenn Freemantle

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Brent Burge

Lone Survivor - Wylie Stateman

SOUND MIXING

Captain Phillips - Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro

Gravity - Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri, Chris Munro

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick, Tony Johnson

Inside Llewyn Davis - Skip Lievsay, Greg orloff, Peter F. Kurland

Lone Survivor - Andy Koyama, Beau Borders, David Brownlow

VISUAL EFFECTS

Gravity - Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug - Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds

Iron Man 3 - Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick

Star Trek Into Darkness - Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton, Patrick Tubach, Roger Guyett

The Lone Ranger - Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams, John Frazier

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Broken Circle Breakdown - Belgium

The Great Beauty - Italy

The Hunt - Denmark

The Missing Picture - Cambodia

Omar - *Palestine

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Feral

Get A Horse!

Mr. Hublot

Possessions

Room On The Broom

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

The Act Of Killing

Cutie And The Boxer

Dirty Wars

The Square

20 Feet From Stardom

**DOCUMENTARY SHORT

**Cavedigger

Facing Fear

Karama Has No Walls

The Lady In Number 6: Music Saved My Life

Prison Terminal: The Last Days Of Private Jack Hall***


LIVE ACTION SHORT

Aquel No Era Yo

Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything)

Helium

Pitaako Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have To Take Care Of Everything?)

The Voorman Problem

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