Exploring the 86th Academy Awards: Best Picture
There were nine nominees for Best Picture at the 86th Academy Awards: American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Philomena, 12 Years a Slave, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
What Won:
The victor was Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave (produced by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, McQueen, and Anthony Katagas).
What the Precursors Suggested:
The chief predictors of the Best Picture Oscar are the Producers Guild award for Theatrical Motion Picture and the British Academy Award for Best Film. 12 Years a Slave won the latter, as well as the Critics Choice Award for Best Picture and the Golden Globe for Motion Picture – Drama, and tied for the former honor with Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity (produced by Cuarón and David Heyman), which was the closest thing to a second-place spoiler this year.
In distant third place was David O. Russell’s American Hustle, which was nominated at every ceremony and won the Golden Globe for Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and the Screen Actors Guild award for Ensemble in a Motion Picture. Also popular: Paul Greengrass’s Captain Phillips, which was nominated at every ceremony. Less immediately popular: Spike Jonze’s Her, Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, and Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, each of which missed with the British Academy. The surprises in this category were Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club, which missed with the British Academy and at the Golden Globes, and Stephen Frears’s Philomena, which missed with the Producers Guild and the Critics Choice.
This was essentially a runaway sweep for 12 Years a Slave, which took every precursor and fulfilled the expectation of winning with the Academy.
In a Field of Five:
In a field of five, I believe the nominees would have been: American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Gravity, Nebraska, and 12 Years a Slave.
Other Films in Play:
The proverbial tenth slot might have been filled by John Lee Hancock’s Saving Mr. Banks, which had been nominated by the Producers Guild and at the Critics Choice. On the outside looking in: John Wells’s August: Osage County, Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight, Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, Ethan and Joel Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, and Lee Daniels’ The Butler.