OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING

Sandra Adair for Boyhood

James Herbert and Laura Jennings for Edge of Tomorrow

Barney Pilling for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Paul Watts for Under the Skin

Martin Pensa and John MacMcMurphy for Wild

AND THE WINNER IS:

SANDRA ADAIR FOR BOYHOOD

This is the first win and nomination for Sandra Adair.

A film that tracks a boy from the age of 6 till he turns 18 while also following the lives of those that surround him Boyhood while telling the story of 12 years never feels like a slog with this being one of the year’s most interestingly fast paced films. Adair has been editing Richard Linklater films for about a decade now since 2004’s Before Sunset and with Boyhood she is able to create one of his career best features and because of the 12 year story being so hard to make as exciting from year to year the work done by Adair only makes it even more impressive then it would be even if the film was not filmed over the 12 years. The choice never to time stamp what happens in the film was ingenious as scenes are allowed to flow into one another which adds to how Adair’s work and how it is the year’s best editing.

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY

Emmanuel Lubezki for Birdman

Darius Khondji for The Immigrant

Bradford Young for A Most Violent Year

Autumn Duraid for Palo Alto

Daniel Landin for Under the Skin

AND THE WINNER IS:

DARIUS KHONDJI FOR THE IMMIGRANT

This is the first win and nomination for Darius Khondji.

Darius Khondji is in the end my winning pick for the year’s best cinematography for his work on James Gray’s The Immigrant. This film is yet again another gem of the year overshadowed by Weinstein who basically let this film fade away as he focused on making films more sentimental be more worldly seen. Khondji does great work capturing what Ellis Island looks like in early scenes and seeing New York in past times was surprising because while many films have been set around this time Gray’s film just gets it more then any other film has. The greatest shot of the film and also of the year is the final one where split screen we see Phoenix’s character kicking around and Cotillard’s character with her sister escaping the island, just some beautiful cinematography and composition.

OUTSTANDING FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Patricia Arquette as Olivia Evans in “BOYHOOD”

Jessica Chastain as Anna Morales in “A MOST VIOLENT YEAR”

Carrie Coon as Margo “Go” Dunne in “GONE GIRL”

Elisabeth Moss as Ashley Kane in “LISTEN UP PHILIP”

Tilda Swinton as Mason in “SNOWPIERCER”

AND THE WINNER IS:

PATRICIA ARQUETTE AS OLIVIA EVANS IN “BOYHOOD”

This is the first win and second nomination for Patricia Arquette. She was previously nominated alongside the cast of Flirting with Disaster (1996).

Patricia Arquette has been consistently working on both television and films for so long with standouts in True Romance (1993), Flirting with Disaster (1996) and Medium (2005-2011) but with Boyhood she gives probably her career defining performance for me. As Olivia Evans mother to Mason Jr. in Boyhood Arquette brilliantly tracks the journey of a single mother struggling through horrible marriages up till the point of success as a teacher still with regrets of losing her child to the future now. Arquette simply plays this role able to make even the most quietest of moments stand out in this film of greatly natural moments of life. Her standout moment for me his her characters final scene where we see the complete arc of Olivia finally hit her and you see her true sadness with Arquette able to beliveably make this final moment memorable.

OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING

Alan Robert Murray & Bub Asman for American Sniper

Erik Aadahl, Jason W. Jennings, Ai-Ling Lee, John Marquis, Greg ten Bosch & Ethan Van der Ryn for Godzilla

Randy Thom, Michael Silvers, Mac Smith & Jeremy Bowker for How to Train Your Dragon 2

Tae-young Choi for Snowpiercer

Steve Browell, Johnnie Burn & Ed Downham for Under the Skin

AND THE WINNER IS:

RANDY THOM, MICHAEL SILVERS, MAC SMITH & JEREMY BOWKER FOR HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2

These are the first wins and nominations for Mac Smith & Jeremy Bowker. This is the third win and seventh nomination for Randy Thom. He previously won for sound mixing Cast Away (2000) & editing The Incredibles (2004) and was nominated for sound editing & mixing Contact (1997), mixing The Incredibles (2004), editing How to Train Your Dragon (2010). This is the second win and fifth nomination for Michael Silvers previously winning for The Incredibles. He was also nominated for Toy Story 2 (1999), Finding Nemo (2003) & Up (2009).

The sequel was bigger and in some ways better then the original film and with a much bigger budget the production values where overall increased. Featuring an animated cast of many dragons from the loveable Toothless to the gigantic Alpha dragons with each standout dragon heard in the film having their own unique and beautiful sound to listen to as they fight each other and breath fire throughout the entire film. Overall this is an impressive use of sound editing and with this type of sound for an animated film shows that there is no excuse for bad sound editing in animated films overall.

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING

John Casali, Michael Keller & Mike Prestwood Smith for Into the Woods

Junior Cyrus Baron, James Bolt, Andy Koyama, Matteo Marciano, Danny Michael & Martyn Zub for John Wick

Robert Hein, Drew Kunin,Jonathan David Midgley, Karym Ronda & Dominick ‘The Dominator’ Tavella for Only Lovers Left Alive

Anna Behlmer, Mark Holding, Tae-young Choi & Terry Porter Snowpiercer

Nigel Albermaniche, Johnnie Burn, Steve Single & Ashley Smith for Under the Skin

AND THE WINNER IS:

NIGEL ALBERMANICHE, JOHNNIE BURN, STEVE SINGLE & ASHLEY SMITH FOR UNDER THE SKIN

These are the first wins and nominations for Nigel Albermaniche, Johnnie Burn, Steve Single & Ashley Smith.

The sound is quite important to the film and the mix of the actual film on top with the electrifying score together makes the great atmosphere as thrilling as it is. One sequence in particular that is a great example of impressive sound mixing is the final chase through the woods where the mix of Mica Levi’s score and sounds of The Girl moving fast through the trees caught on fire all together is some great sound mixing and is one of the many examples of how Under the Skin is the best choice for the year’s best sound mixing.

OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Force Majeure (Directed by Ruben Östlund)

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour)

Mommy (Directed by Xavier Dolan)

Two Days, One Night (Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne)

We Are the Best! (Directed by Lukas Moodysson)

AND THE WINNER IS:

TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (DIRECTED BY JEAN-PIERRE DARDENNE & LUC DARDENNE)

This is the first win and third nomination for a film directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne in this category.

Directors Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne with Two Days, One Night have created my favourite film of their entire filmography which is saying a lot since the pair have been some of Belgium cinema’s brightest talents and while many of their films have under seen their talent always has been praised by the likes of myself. This film is probably their biggest in terms of scale featuring the star power of Marion Cotillard as apposed to mostly unknown actors and with this star and story being told of an emotionally distraught women facing a firing is such a great feature that it cannot without being said. The film is basically conversation after conversation but everyone being completely different and unique is quite impactive and creates this great feature by the Dardenne brothers who make yet another great feature winning my foreign film award this year.

OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY

Citizenfour (Directed by Laura Poitras)

Elaine Strich Just Shoot Me! (Directed by Chiemi Karasawa)

Jodorowsky’s Dune (Directed by Frank Pavich)

Life Itself (Directed by Steve James)

National Gallery (Directed by Frederick Wiseman)

AND THE WINNER IS:

LIFE ITSELF (DIRECTED BY STEVE JAMES)

This is the first win and nomination for Steve James.

Life Itself unsurprisingly was my favourite documentary of the year 2014. Steve James who previously made the great Hoop Dreams and with Life Itself he was able to give a great portrayal of the man Roger Ebert and not the legend that many of us film fans build him up to be. Giving us all his greatness and faults over his life we see that Ebert really is worth the praise he receives for changing the history of film criticism. James is able to also give us a great look of how Chaz Ebert is the great women behind a great man and the film greatly shows their’s is a love story for the ages. Everything about this documentary is brilliant and I feel watching it over and over again will only make me love the man of Roger Ebert more and more if that is even possible.