4. Everything About The Grand Budapest Hotel. Seriously.
While The Grand Budapest Hotel is already the subject of conversation, where the hell did this movie come from? Wes Anderson's movies are still not mainstream blockbusters, right? So this movie came out a while ago (crushing the myth that Oscar films need to be released in the final quarter of the year, by the way), and most people liked it. It was probably one of Anderson's better films, and moderately successful at the box office. Usually, his movies end up getting nominations for screenplay and art direction and things like that, and that's pretty much all anyone was expecting from this one. But then they showed up at this Oscar nomination ceremony and obliterated everyone else. Nine nominations. NINE. Tied with Birdman for the most handed out this year. Most people were probably starting to think that The Grand Budapest Hotel might be bigger than anticipated after it won big at the Golden Globes, but this kind of success is just utterly unprecedented for Anderson. Unfortunately, it probably won't win more than one or two of those awards, but still...marvelous showing, guys.