GUARDIANS OF THE Galaxy may have been one of the highest-grossing films of 2014, but it received just one Oscar nomination yesterday.
Now, its director James Gunn has taken to Facebook to bemoan the film’s lack of recognition and share some of his thoughts on some of yesterday’s more egregious snubs.
And it turns out that he’s as perplexed about them as everyone else.
Gunn has expressed his disappointment at the Academy’s decision to not recognise the talents of the costume, sound and production design department on Guardians of the Galaxy.
I think our Guardians costume designer, Alexandra Byrne, our Production Designer, Charles Wood, and our Sound team from Skywalker Sound were snubbed as badly as anyone. 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.
He ended that comment with this sly burn at the expense of some of this year’s Oscar contenders.
I suppose they’ll just have to be happy having made a film seen by more people than have seen all seven of the Best Film nominees combined.
Take that, Foxcatcher!
The director also had a number of other thoughts to share on the nominations.
On The Lego Movie being left out:
The LEGO Movie was flat out snubbed. 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.
On some of the egregious acting snubs:
Jake Gyllenhaal deserved to be nominated for Nightcrawler. God, he was good in that film. Ditto for Amy Adams in Big Eyes.
On Foxcatcher not earning a Best Picture nod:
Foxcatcher was nominated for Best Director and not for Best Film. I don’t get it. What other department, exactly, was holding Foxcatcher back from being nominated for Best Film? The Director has creative control of a film – although there are some great films made without great directors, it is impossible to distinguish that without being on the inside. It really bothers me when awards for Best Director and Best Film go to different movies.
However, he ended his note by putting things into perspective and reminding everyone that an awards ceremony isn’t worth your anger.
The Academy has a long tradition of bad choices. 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.
Hear, hear.
Now for a completely gratuitous Groot GIF.
