5 Oscars 2016 Nominations They Got Right (And 5 They Got Wrong)

4. The Balance Of The Force Awakens Nominations

The Force Awakens isn't just the biggest movie of 2015, but the biggest of all-time. Ok, it looks like it won't overtake Avatar's box-office record, but when you combine its earnings with the marketing, the merchandise, the hype, and its significance because it's Episode VII, then it stops being a contest. Biggest, however, doesn't mean best. While it's a great film, it's not a perfect one, and the Oscars hasn't really tended to award Star Wars with all that much over the years. So it was interesting to see just how many nominations it would get. They couldn't shut it out completely, but by the same token it was never going to receive acting or directing nominations. In the end it received five nominations, which seems about right: Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, and Film Editing. Those first three are all fairly straightforward and deserved, but the film editing one was something of a surprise. It's one of those categories that's generally seen as a Best Picture indicator, and it's definitely the outlier amongst the give nominated there. In fairness the film does barrel along at an incredible pace, which makes it a thrilling watch. Then we've got yet another nomination for the legendary John Williams. He probably won't win, but it's deserved recognition for his great work on The Force Awakens. It perhaps isn't as obvious as some of his previous work on the saga, but once listened to in isolation and then with repeat viewings it swoops and soars along with the film, but also knows when to be restrained and offer something more subtle, but no less stunning. You could make an argument about something like Production Design but, overall, five seems spot on. Whether it'll win any is a different matter.