This Year's Oscar Nominations Caused Quite the Backlash

It's going to be a battle of bird and Budapest this year at the Academy Awards; the nominations for 2015 have been unveiled this morning. However, the nominations have been met with fierce criticism for a lack of diversity.

The big guns at the front of the game: Richard Linklater's Boyhood nabbed six noms as did Clint Eastwood's American Sniper, but right out in front Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman each clocked up nine nominations each.

Everyone's talking about the snub to Selma; the Martin Luther King Jr.-focused film missed out on nominations for lead actor David Oyelowo and director Ava DuVernay. Bradley Cooper's nomination for Best Actor in Clint Eastwood's American Sniper was another surprise, a nomination omitted from the Golden Globes.

There's a few more Easter eggs in there; Jennifer Anniston missed out on a Best Actress nomination for Cake, the spot instead going to Two Days, One Night's Marion Cotillard. Guardians of the Galaxy is nominated for Best Makeup Design (#iamgroot). Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (one of 2014's most talked-about films that was tipped to possibly miss out) nabbed five nominations including Best Original Score. And Studio Ghibli's The Tale of Princess Kaguya nabbed a Best Animation nom, despite terrible box office figures and the closure of Ghibli's feature film department. And The Lonely Island's Andy Samberg was nominated for Best Original Song for The Lego Movie's Everything is Awesome'. So there's that.

There's significant debate over the diversity of the Oscar nominations this year, observations that the Academy have been taking great pains to change over the years. It's been brought up by social media that all 20 of the nominated actors are white, leading to the trending Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. The Selma snubs have been constantly referenced. The dominance of white Academy voters was also pinpointed by this infographic; 94 percent of voters are white and 77 percent of these are male — black and latino voters made up just 2 percent each. Needless to say, debates are swirling webwide.

All will be analysed, prodded, celebrated and scorned on February 22.

AND THE NOMINEES ARE:

Best Picture

• American Sniper
• Birdman
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Selma
• The Theory of Everything
• Whiplash

Best Actor

• Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
• Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
• Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
• Michael Keaton, Birdman
• Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Actress

• Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
• Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
• Julianne Moore, Still Alice
• Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
• Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best Supporting Actor

• Robert Duvall, The Judge
• Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
• Edward Norton, Birdman
• Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
• J. K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress

• Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
• Laura Dern, Wild
• Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
• Emma Stone, Birdman
• Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

Best Cinematography

• Birdman
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Ida
• Mr. Turner
• Unbroken

Best Director

• Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman
• Richard Linklater, Boyhood
• Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
• Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

Best Original Screenplay

• Boyhood
• Birdman
• Foxcatcher
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Nightcrawler

Best Adapted Screenplay

• American Sniper
• The Imitation Game
• Inherent Vice
• The Theory of Everything
• Whiplash

Best Foreign Language Film

• Ida, Poland
• Leviathan, Russia
• Tangerines, Estonia
• Timbuktu, Mauritania
• Wild Tales, Argentina

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Foxcatcher
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Original Score

• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Interstellar
• Mr. Turner
• The Theory of Everything

Best Costume Design

• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Inherent Vice
• Into the Woods
• Maleficent
• Mr. Turner

Best Documentary Feature

• Citizenfour
• Finding Vivian Maier
• Last Days in Vietnam
• Salt of the Earth
• Virunga

Best Documentary Short

• Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
• Joanna
• Our Curse
• The Reaper
• White Earth

Best Film Editing

• American Sniper
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Whiplash

Best Animated Feature

• Big Hero 6
• The Boxtrolls
• How to Train Your Dragon 2
• Song of the Sea
• The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Original Song

• “Lost Stars,” Begin Again
• “Grateful,” Beyond the Lights
• “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me
• “Everything is Awesome,” The Lego Movie
• “Glory,” Selma

Best Production Design

• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Interstellar
• Into the Woods
• Mr. Turner

Best Animated Short Film

• The Bigger Picture
• The Dam Keeper
• Feast
• Me and My Moulton
• A Single Life

Best Live-Action Short Film

• Aya
• Boogaloo and Graham
• Butter Lamp
• Paraveneh
• The Phone Call

Best Sound Editing

• American Sniper
• Birdman
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
• Interstellar
• Unbroken

Best Sound Mixing

• American Sniper
• Birdman
• Interstellar
• Unbroken
• Whiplash

Best Visual Effects

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Interstellar
• X-Men: Days of Future Past