9. Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler) Instead Of Bradley Cooper (American Sniper) - Best Actor
There's nothing wrong with Bradley Cooper in American Sniper. In fact, as Chris Kyle, the real life sniper dubbed the "most lethal in US history", Cooper puts in one of his finest performances to date. But in another tough year for male leads vying for Academy recognition, Cooper simply wasn't one of the strongest five contenders. Early buzz and awards noms aplenty for Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year) and David Oyelowo (Selma) came to nothing when the Best Actor picks for Oscar 2015 were announced, and it seems a tad unreasonable that the pair - both of them exceptional performers doing their career-best work right now - still have zero Oscar noms to their name, while Cooper has now been nominated three years in a row. Whereas Cooper is solid in Sniper, Gyllenhaal undergoes one of the greatest, most memorable star transformations of recent times for Dan Gilroy's media satire Nightcrawler. Gyllenhaal is iconic and uncannily compelling in the film, so it's remarkable that the Academy was able to ignore him.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
