Who I Would've Nominated - 2015 Edition

We're finally here! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences begins its final round of Oscars voting today, and for the second straight year on this day, I present my own set of nominees for the categories in which I saw 3 or more movies. This year, that means no nominees in the Foreign Language category for me(only got to see one), in addition to the 3 Short Film categories: Best Live Action, Animated, and Documentary Short Film. But enough about the movies I didn't see, let's talk about the 20 other categories for which I do have nominees. One of those categories of course, is Best Picture, but you won't see that one here because I'll be revealing it next sunday in my 3rd annual 10 Best Movies of the Year list(2013 & 2014 if you're curious). But just like in my 2014 Nominees list, you can get a pretty good idea of which movies are in my Top 10 from the ones that make the most appearances in the remaining 19 categories.

In the end, I nominated 33 movies at least once out of a total of 86 movies I saw from 2015. 12 movies received just one nomination, including the first 2015 movie I saw about 11 months ago now, Cinderella. On the contrary, 12 movies received 5 or more nominations, including the last movie to enter the nominees list which I saw just 2 weeks ago, The Revenant. My nominations for those 2 movies match perfectly with the Academy's, but there are many discrepancies between my list and theirs, starting with 7 other nominations for The Revenant that didn't make my list, most notably my snub of Leonardo DiCaprio in the Best Actor category. One of the male actors replacing Leo on my list was the biggest(pun intended) acting snub of the year for me, Jacob Tremblay from Room.

Another notable difference between my list and the Academy's is my total omission of one of their Best Picture nominees, The Big Short. The closest it got in any category for me was Best Adapted Screenplay, but 3 of my favorite movies of 2015 that the Academy totally ignored - The End of the Tour, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and Anomalisa(only nominated for Best Animated Feature) - replaced it there. Four other movies that received at least one Oscar nomination were totally absent from my list: two I didn't see, Joy and Trumbo, and two I did see but ended up outside the Top 5 in every category, Steve Jobs and Straight Outta Compton.

Now, before you start thinking that I'm even more racist than the Academy, let me quickly give my take on the #Oscarssowhite controversy. This is not an Academy problem, it's a film industry problem. I'm happy to see the Academy continuing to add more diversity to their membership, but until quality roles for minorities don't match or even come remotely close to those available for white actors, this problem will continue, and many great actors like Viola Davis, Kerry Washington, Taraji P. Henson, Don Cheadle, Idris Elba and others will have to keep settling for Emmy nominations in the future.

Going back to Straight Outta Compton, Jason Mitchell's performance as Eazy E was very close for me in the Best Supporting Actor category, but this year that category turned out to be the toughest of the acting categories and he just missed along with other minorities and some white actors. The older, white, male members of the Academy will say race is not a factor, and, as I just explained, I partially agree. Blacks weren't the only ones snubbed, they'll say. but where those old white men, and some old white women(looking at you Charlotte Rampling) are way out of touch is that they fail to mention that for every 20 or 30 chances a white actor had of getting nominated, black actors had just 1 or 2 chances, hispanics and asians less so.

All of that being said, 2 of the actors who also replaced Leonardo DiCaprio on my Best Lead Actor list are African-Americans: Michael B. Jordan and Samuel L. Jackson, and one of the actors on my Best Supporting Actor list is Hispanic: Oscar Isaac. That's still just 3 minorities out of 20 total acting nominations, or 15%. And if I add my nominees from last year, which only included one minority in the group(David Oyelowo) it adds up to 4 out of 40 for a whopping total of 10%. Talk about a discrepancy!

Enough of that topic, right? On sunday I'll post my 3rd annual 8 Top 8 Lists where I get to go into a little more detail about the moments, quotes, performances, and other fun lists about what I loved from the movies of 2015. For now, let's get going with the nominees, first the Academy's and then my own so you can see where I differed the most from them.

And the nominees are ...

And now my nominees ...

Best Actor in a Leading Role

5. Samuel L. Jackson - The Hateful Eight

4. Matt Damon - The Martian

3. Michael B. Jordan - Creed

2. Colin Farrell - The Lobster

1. Jacob Tremblay - Room

Best Actress in a Leading Role

5. Rooney Mara - Carol

4. Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn

3. Juliette Binoche - Clouds of Sils Maria

2. Brie Larson - Room

1. Charlotte Rampling - 45 Years

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

5. Sylvester Stallone - Creed

4. Oscar Isaac - Ex Machina

3. Tom Hardy - The Revenant

2. David Morse - Concussion

1. Jason Segel - The End of the Tour

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

5. Jennifer Jason Leigh - Anomalisa

4. Phyllis Smith - Inside Out

3. Kristen Stewart - Clouds of Sils Maria

2. Alicia Vikander - Ex Machina

1. Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight

Best Achievement in Directing

5. Ryan Coogler - Creed

4. Ridley Scott - The Martian

3. George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road

2. Yorgos Lanthimos - The Lobster

1. Lenny Abrahamson - Room

Best Original Screenplay

5. Spotlight - Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy

4. Clouds of Sils Maria - Olivier Assayas

3. Ex Machina - Alex Garland

2. Inside Out - Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve & Josh Cooley

1. The Lobster - Yorgos Lanthimos

Best Adapted Screenplay

5. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - Jesse Andrews

4. The End of the Tour - Donald Margulies

3. The Martian - Drew Goddard

2. Room - Emma Donoghue

1. Anomalisa - Charlie Kaufman

Best Achievement in Cinematography

5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Dan Mindel

4. The Hateful Eight - Robert Richardson

3. Sicario - Roger Deakins

2. Mad Max: Fury Road - John Seale

1. The Revenant - Emmanuel Lubezki

Best Achievement in Film Editing

5. Clouds of Sils Maria - Marion Monnier

4. The Martian - Pietro Scalia

3. Creed - Claudia Costello & Michael P. Shiwver

2. Spotlight - Tom McArdle

1. Mad Max: Fury Road - Margaret Sixel

Best Achievement in Production Design

5. The Lobster - Jacqueline Abrahams

4. Bridge of Spies - Rena DeAngelo & Adam Stockhausen

3. Room - Ethan Tobman

2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Rick Carter & Darren Gilford

1. Ex Machina - Mark Digby

Best Achievement in Costume Design

5. The Revenant - Jacqueline West

4. Carol - Sandy Powell

3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Michael Kaplan

2. Brooklyn - Odile Dicks-Mireaux

1. Cinderella - Sandy Powell

Best Achievement in Makeup & Hairstyling

5. The Danish Girl

4. The Hateful Eight

3. Concussion

2. The Revenant

1. Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

5. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

4. The Walk

3. The Martian

2. Mad Max: Fury Road

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Original Score

5. The Danish Girl - Alexandre Desplat

4. The Hateful Eight - Ennio Morricone

3. Bridge of Spies - Thomas Newman

2. The Martian - Harry Gregson-Williams

1. Inside Out - Michael Giacchino

Best Original Song

5. "Dreamsong" - The Diary of a Teenage Girl

4. "Feels Like Summer" - Shaun the Sheep Movie

3. "None of Them Are You" - Anomalisa

2. "Til it Happens to You" - The Hunting Ground

1. "Fighting Stronger" - Creed

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

5. Creed

4. The Martian

3. Inside Out

2. Mad Max: Fury Road

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

4. The Hateful Eight

3. Mad Max: Fury Road

2. The Revenant

1. Anomalisa

Best Documentary Feature

5. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

4. The Hunting Ground

3. Amy

2. Best of Enemies

1. Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

Best Animated Feature Film

4. The Good Dinosaur

3. Shaun the Sheep Movie

2. Inside Out

1. Anomalisa

31 Best Horror Movies

I'm a big horror movie fan. When I was growing up, my brothers and I would watch every scary movie we could find. Every trip to Blockbuster was a chance to discover a new horror franchise. We watched every Friday the 13th movie, every Child's Play movie, every Leprechaun movie(yes, even the ones in the hood and in space) and many others. For some reason, our parents never objected to this, so I became a horror movie fan at a very young age. As I grew up, my horror movie tastes evolved. Scream came out in 1996 when I had just turned 10 and changed everything. Now, instead of watching spooky monster movies, we would watch every teen horror movie that came out in the following years: I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, The Faculty, etc. These movies were must-watch events at our house. Then 2 big event horror movies came out in 1999: The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense. To this day, the most scared I've ever been in a movie theater was watching The Sixth Sense.

These two movies were game changers. They kickstarted the new century of smart, cutting edge horror movies, and they forced me to seek out the true horror classics just as I was becoming mature enough to understand them. I had previously tried to watch The Silence of the Lambs when I was 10, and boy, was that a mistake. The psychological horror in that movie totally creeped me out and I wouldn't revisit it until I was in high school. But there were two classics that I did see at the right maturity level that totally blew me away: Psycho and The Exorcist(both at the top of my list). These are deep, complex movies that really get to the core of what scares you. Other classics followed after that: The Shining, Rosemary's Baby, Jaws, Alien. All these movies are character driven, emotionally challenging films made by the great directors of the 60s/70s era: Alfred Hitchcock(nearing the end of his long career), William Friedkin, Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski, Steven Spielberg, and Ridley Scott. Whenever someone tells you that the horror genre is just a bunch of the same silly scary movies, you can mention these names, and others like them.

The obvious reason that many people react negatively to horror movies is that they don't like to feel scared. But that's what I love the most about the genre. Fear is one of those core human emotions too(as witnessed this summer in Pixar's Inside Out<out on Blu-Ray/DVD on tuesday>) and the reason people are so afraid to face their fears(really the simplest way to say it) is because of what they may find out about themselves. Fear brings out your most primal instincts, it makes you think about what you would be capable of doing in an every man(or woman) for themselves scenario. Who would you betray? Who would you kill? These questions terrify us, but the answers we give define who we are. I guess that's why the psychological horror genre is my favorite. Monsters and ghosts and demons can be very scary too(as seen on my list), but nothing scares me more than a movie that dives deep into a person's mind. And the less explanation into why the characters act how they act the better. The fun part is figuring it out by myself. That makes every viewing experience different, depending on what point of my life I'm at. Any recent experiences can help me relate to a character or view that character from a different perspective.

The 31 movies I chose present many different viewing experiences. There is a lot of psychological horror, but there are also some of the classic monster, ghost, and of course, creepy kid movies you'd expect from the genre. You'll find the classic titles everyone knows, and a couple of more obscure titles that are equally worthy of your time. Some of those lesser known movies on the list I watched for the first time in the past month just so I wouldn't leave any movie out solely because I hadn't seen it yet. So trust me, if they're on the list it's because they scared me, and you should try to find and see them however you can. There are movies from as recently as 2014 all the way back to the silent era. There are almost 100 years of horror movie history to be discovered. This list should be a great start for anyone who, like me, likes to experience fear at the movies. There are tons of other great horror movies out there, but for now, my list of the 31 Best Horror Movies will do. Let's begin with one of those 80s classics that started me on the path of horror movie fandom ...

31) Friday the 13th (1980) (dir. Sean S. Cunningham)

Known for: "Ki ki ki, ma ma ma". Jason's mother, Mrs. Voorhees, committing the murders(remember that just in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation to the one faced by Drew Barrymore in the opening scene of Scream). Kevin Bacon getting killed. Mrs. Voorhees hearing her son's voice in a sort of reverse Psycho scenario

Scariest Moment: The final surprise in the lake(ripped off from Carrie, but whatever)

30) What Lies Beneath (2000) (dir. Robert Zemeckis)

Known for: Zemeckis's visual style, as in the shot of an unconscious Michelle Pfeiffer from beneath the floor(Aside: with all the talk of Back to the Future in the past month, plus the premiere of The Walk at the same time, I realized that no one mentions this horror gem when talking about Zemeckis's excellent filmography. They should). Seeing dead people. Harrison Ford as the bad guy. Screenplay written by The Avengers's own Agent Coulson, Clark Gregg

Scariest moment: The bathtub scene. There's a reason why it's the movie's poster.

29) The Innocents (1961) (dir. Jack Clayton)

Known for: Seeing dead people again. Creepy kids. Excellent black & white cinematography. Sexual tension between Deborah Kerr's governess and the boy, Miles. The scary music that starts the film.

Scariest Moment: Final scene with the face of the dead servant, Quint, appearing outside the window.

28) Misery (1990) (dir. Rob Reiner)

Known for: Stephen King adaptation. Kathy Bates's Oscar winning performance. Ruining celebrities's trust in their fans forever.

Scariest moment: The sledgehammer scene. Ouch.

27) Eyes Without a Face (1960) (dir. Georges Franju)

Known for: The scary opening scene with a body being dumped into the river at night. The blank mask worn by the professor's daughter. The final murder

Scariest moment: The face removal scene.

26) The Descent (2005) (dir. Neil Marshall)

Known for: Claustrophobia. The opening car crash. Being the worst ad for cave exploring ever. 

Scariest Moment: When the first creature appears inside the cave.

25) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) (dir. Robert Wiene)

Known for: Considered the first horror movie. The german expressionistic look with the jagged angles and shadows. Cesare the somnambulist. The twist ending at the insane asylum.

Scariest Moment: The first murder in the shadows.

24) Poltergeist (1982) (dir. Tobe Hooper)

Known for: "They're heeere". Another creepy kid. The self stacking chairs. The creepy clown. The tree. The exorcist lady("This house is clean"). The cursed cast(look it up). Produced, written, and unofficially directed by Spielberg. The Oscar nominated visual effects.

Scariest Moment: Hearing Carol Anne through the TV.

23) Repulsion (1965) (dir. Roman Polanski)

Known for: The first movie from Polanski's apartment trilogy. The apartment literally cracking up. The hands coming out of the walls of the hallway. The murders at the end. Catherine Deneuve's performance.

Scariest moment: Those creepy rape nightmares/fantasies.

22) The Blair Witch Project (1999) (dir. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez)

Known for: Being a huge box office hit. Starting the found footage genre craze in the late 90s. The actors filming the movie themselves. Never showing the titular Blair Witch(still scary, though). 

Scariest moment: The ending scene with one of the guys mysteriously standing in the corner of the house.

21) Scream (1996) (dir. Wes Craven)

Known for: Reinventing the slasher genre for 90s audiences. The main characters referencing past horror movies, including some by the film's director, Wes Craven. The ending at Stu's house.

Scariest moment: The opening scene with Drew Barrymore, one of the scariest in horror movie history.

20) The Sixth Sense (1999) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

Known for: "I see dead people". Haley Joel Osment's Oscar nominated performance. Cole's unique relationship with his doctor, played by Bruce Willis. One of the few horror movies nominated for Best Picture, and Shyamalan nominated for Best Director(sounds impossible now, right?). The twist everyone already knows.

Scariest moment: The opening scene.

19) Hour of the Wolf (1968) (dir. Ingmar Bergman)

Known for: The weird guests at the mansion. People walking up walls. The creepy necrophilia scene at the end. Ingmar Bergman's only horror movie.

Scariest moment: Killing the boy at the beach.

18) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) (dir. Don Siegel)

Known for: 1950s paranoia. Lifeless bodies suddenly appearing all over the place. The pods. The glass half full/half empty ending. Being remade countless times, including in the 70s and in the 90s with a high school setting and an evil Jon Stewart(The Faculty).

Scariest moment: When the main characters realize their friends have turned into aliens.

17) Suspiria (1977) (dir. Dario Argento)

Known for: The witches running the ballet academy. The loud and disturbing score. The unique visual style. The dog attack. Killing the directress at the end.

Scariest moment: The first death scene, one of the best ever.

16) Don't Look Now (1973) (dir. Nicolas Roeg)

Known for: The opening drowning scene. Spooky Venice setting. The near death experience in the church. The two sisters. The sex scene. The warnings.

Scariest moment: The little dwarf in the red coat, or, as titled in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, "Don't Look Now, Because a Creepy-Ass Dwarf is About to Kill You!".

15) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) (dir. John McNaughton)

Known for: Michael Rooker's intense, out of nowhere performance as Henry. A serial killer movie from the serial killer's perspective. Killing random people on the highway.

Scariest Moment: The home invasion scene

14) The Babadook (2014) (dir. Jennifer Kent)

Known for: Another creepy kid. A very scary children's book. Essie Davis's performance as the mother, Amelia. Killing the dog. Feeding the monster at the end.

Scariest moment: When Amelia finishes reading the re-taped book which predicts what she'll do to her family.

13) The Omen (1976) (dir. Richard Donner)

Known for: The creepiest of all creepy movie kids(I mean, he is the antichrist). Ruining the name Damien forever. The nanny's death("Damien! It's all for you"). Damien trying to kill his mother. The photographer's death. The ending, which depending on your political views could be interpreted to mean that George W. Bush is the devil. The Oscar winning original score.

Scariest moment: The nanny finishes the job and kills the mother at the hospital.

12) The Ring (2002) (dir. Gore Verbinski)

Known for: The opening scene, with the dead girl later being seen in the closet. The creepy tape. Another creepy kid. Samara being interviewed at the asylum. Brian Cox committing suicide.

Scariest moment: No doubt about it, Samara crawling out of the TV. I saw this movie for the first time alone in my house, at night, with all the lights turned off, and that made this scene one of the greatest I've ever experienced in any horror movie.

11) Peeping Tom (1960) (dir. Michael Powell)

Known for: The opening scene featuring the killer's POV shot. Killing the girl at the film studio. The voyeuristic killer, recording his murders, a topic that was way ahead of its time in 1960. The otherwise nice guy protagonist who could be Norman Bates's creepy British cousin. Was a flop when it premiered and it ruined the career of one of Britain's greatest directors, Michael Powell.

Scariest moment: The suicidal ending.

10) Halloween (1978) (dir. John Carpenter)

Known for: Michael Myers. Michael Myers hiding in the bushes. Michael Myers killing teenagers. Michael Myers disappearing at the end. The white mask. The scariest original score of any horror movie.

Scariest moment: The first person POV opening scene of young Michael killing his family.

9) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) (dir. Tobe Hooper)

Known for: Leatherface. The dinner scene. The creepiest family in film history. The chainsaw, the hook, and the sledgehammer. The hitchhiker. The escape.

Scariest moment: Leatherface's first kill. From this moment up until the very last second this movie is nonstop terror.

8) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) (dir. Jonathan Demme)

Known for: Anthony Hopkins's iconic performance as Hannibal Lecter and Jodie Foster's equally excellent performance as Clarice Starling(both won Oscars). The only horror movie to win Best Picture at the Oscars. The forgotten villain, Buffalo Bill("It puts the lotion on its skin", still creepy). Every conversation between Lecter and Clarice("I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti"). The final face-off in the dark. Lecter negotiating with the senator("Love your suit").

Scariest moment: Lecter's escape.

7) The Shining (1980) (dir. Stanley Kubrick)

Known for: "Heeere's Johnny!". "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". Jack Nicholson's full on crazy performance as Jack Torrance. The girls in the hall. The blood gushing from the elevator. The lady in room 237. The maze. Another creepy kid. The picture at the end. Stephen King adaptation(which he famously didn't like).

Scariest moment: "Redrum".

6) The Night of the Hunter (1955) (dir. Charles Laughton)

Known for: Robert Mitchum's performance as Rev. Harry Powell(nothing scarier than a phony preacher). The "love" and "hate" tattoos. The nightmarish mood as the kids escape from Rev. Powell. The wedding night scene. The only movie directed by Oscar winning actor Charles Laughton.

Scariest moment: When the kids see Rev. Powell riding on horseback on the horizon as they hide from him at night.

5) Alien (1979) (dir. Ridley Scott)

Known for: The tagline("In space, no one can hear you scream"). The alien killing off the crew one by one. Sigourney Weaver's iconic Ripley. Ash the robot. 

Scariest moment: The chestburster. Iconic.

4) Jaws (1975) (dir. Steven Spielberg)

Known for: The poster. The score. The opening scene. The mostly unseen shark. "You're gonna need a bigger boat". Quint's story about the USS Indianapolis. Blowing up the shark. Starting the summer blockbuster era in Hollywood. 

Scariest moment: The attack on the beach. Expertly filmed by Spielberg.

3) Rosemary's Baby (1968) (dir. Roman Polanski)

Known for: The iconic poster. The nosy neighbors, including an Oscar winning performance from Ruth Gordon. Mia Farrow's performance as Rosemary. John Cassavetes as the worst husband in the world. The pregnancy paranoia. Filming in the exterior of the Dakota building(where John Lennon would later be murdered). 

Scariest moment: (Tie) Rosemary getting raped by a demon in her sleep("This is no dream. This is really happening!") and The ending("What have you done to its eyes?"). 

2) The Exorcist (1973) (dir. William Friedkin)

Known for: Again, the poster. "The power of christ compels you". The ouija board. Spiderwalk down the stairs. The spinning head. Tubular bells. The foul-mouthed demon inside little Reagan("Your mother sucks cocks in hell" might be the best movie insult ever). Father Karras to the rescue. One of the few horror movies nominated for Best Picture(had 10 total nominations and 2 wins).

Scariest moment: F*ck me scene. One of the most disturbing scenes I've seen in any movie.

1) Psycho (1960) (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

Known for: Perfection. Bernard Herrmann's score. Anthony Perkins's performance as Norman Bates. Janet Leigh's main character getting killed halfway through the movie(sorry to spoil it). "We all go a little mad sometimes". "A boy's best friend is his mother". "Mrs. Bates" in the fruit cellar. The classic twist(you probably know what it is already).

Scariest moment: The shower scene, of course. To this day I get scared of what's on the other side of the curtain.