15 Awesome 2014 Performances That Deserve Oscars (But Won't Get Nominated)

4. Andy Serkis - Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

Andy Serkis has consistently flirted with Oscar over the years, but due to his most acclaimed performances all being delivered through the medium of performance capture, he has proven a perennially controversial figure on the awards circuit. There have been calls in the past for Serkis to be nominated for his splendid performances as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies, as well as his work as Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and that conversation has changed little for the excellent sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Serkis again manages to out-perform the human characters with a deeply affecting, strikingly expressive performance, even if there is a huge debate surrounding how much of the final product is Serkis' work and how much of it belongs to Weta Digital, who rendered the effects portion of Caesar. Sadly, the only half-notable nomination Serkis has picked up so far is a Satellite Award nod for Best Supporting Actor, and so it seems that his incredible contributions to cinema continue to be undervalued by the stuck-in-the-past Academy. Remember when they disqualified CGI from the Visual Effects category because they considered it "cheating"?