by
Sara Michelle Fetters
The 87th annual Academy Awards will be handed out this Sunday evening, and if all goes as expected then director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Broadway comedy-drama hybrid
Birdman will likely walk away with the majority of the awards. Based on recent victories with the Producers Guild (PGA), the Directors Guild (DGA) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), it’s hard to imagine a scenario where it doesn’t emerge victorious, at least as far as Best Picture is concerned, the other seven nominees more or less along for the ride and little else.
Or are they? There are some interesting and intriguing wrinkles which could throw the evening into chaos. Richard Linklater’s 12-years-in-the-making
Boyhood has won the majority of the awards up to this point, dominating with critics groups, taking home the BAFTA [British Academy of Film and Television Arts] and coming out on top as far the Golden Globes were concerned. Then there is Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper. With over $300-million in ticket sales it’s easily the box office titan as far as this awards season is concerned. While Hollywood likes to talk about how money isn’t the end all-be all that kind of cash can lead voters to take a second look at the picture, and if that’s the case the chances for it to pull an upset aren’t as extreme as some might think.
As for the remainder of the nominees, T
he Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Whiplash and Selma, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where any of them could sneak their way to victory. But with the Academy’s preferential voting system, anything, I guess, is possible, and if Birdman and Boyhood split votes down the middle, and any one of those titles is listed third on a majority of ballots, then be prepared for a shock. If this scenario were to come comes to pass, what then? My money would be on quiet, lonely two-nomination Selma, because imagining a typical Academy member ballot where it was listed any lower than third is incredibly difficult to do.
