Oscars 2015: Ranking The Best Picture Nominees From Worst To Best

5. The Grand Budapest Hotel

When it comes to long beloved directors, the Academy tends to take little notice until one film gets so much hype it's impossible to ignore. Just look at how they heaped awards on the Coen brothers for No Country For Old Men, or Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire, almost as an apology for previously ignoring their work. It's a similar case with Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel. Sure, the praise is mostly deserved, but it can't help but feel a bit bandwagon jumping; if Oscar loves Anderson, where was the acknowledgement of Moonrise Kingdom or, going further back, The Royal Tenenbaums? The Grand Budapest Hotel certainly sees Anderson operating at his most Anderson-iest, the director eschewing any convention he can (everything, from genre to aspect ratio, is gloriously inconsistent) and making something overwhelmingly fun. Ah, fun. It's been a while since you graced the Best Picture nominees. The film isn't just old school in a visual and technical level, however - in the real world it found its way to box office and awards success is a decidedly un-modern way. Whereas every major release operates on the well-worn blockbuster model, where opening weekends make or break a film, Grand Budapest used old fashioned word of mouth to build hype slowly throughout the year. It's so fitting with the time period Anderson is targeting that it's hard to think he somehow didn't have it all planned from the off.