10 Most Oscar Bait Movies From The 2015 Awards Season

7. American Sniper

What's Oscar Bait About The Idea? Even without Clint Eastwood as director (which hasn't been a sure thing in recent years), American Sniper has a lot going for it as an awards darling. It's obscenely pro-American, deals with current affairs in a decidedly conservative manner and has emergent Oscar-favourite Bradley Cooper at its centre. Was It Any Good? Sniper is certainly the weakest of the Best Picture nominees, a rather basic run down of war, presenting it as being something between hell and fun. When compared to other recent conflict movies that got Academy notice, it's a pretty unengaging watch - although elements of it cross over with The Hurt Locker or Zero Dark Thirty, it never feels as gritty or real as what Bigelow made. Was There Any Major Campaigning? Yes, and it's really worked - it's easy to forget now, but American Sniper was the big surprise of the nominations (it had been ignored at other awards). A bit of an outsider in the race to begin with, it clearly connected with Academy voters as much as it has with audiences - it gained seven nominations, which no doubt helped its box office smashing. Will It Get Anything For Its Efforts? There's an outside chance it could be a major upset on Sunday night, but its just as likely it'll go home empty handed - in each of its respective categories it's on the lower side of the scale.