My Oscar Ballot: The Film Superlatives of 2015

BY DYLAN ANDREW

Although it's been some time since the nominations for the upcoming Academy Awards were announced, I wanted to put my two cents in regarding what I thought were some of the best individual contributions to film in 2015, from the best performances of the year to some of the best below-the-line contributions. So I present to you my personal Oscar ballot for the 2015 movie year, covering every major category (well, most of them, anyway).

BEST PICTURE (in alphabetical order)-

• "Anomalisa"
• "Creed"
• "Ex Machina"
• "Inside Out"
• "The Martian" (runner-up)
• "The Revenant"
• "Room"
• "Sicario"
• "Spotlight"
• "Steve Jobs" (winner)

Although it was a great year in film overall, narrowing down to "The Martian" and "Steve Jobs" as my top two was a relatively easy call. It was only upon re-watching both that "Steve Jobs" solidified its place as my favorite film of 2015 and my Best Picture winner here. It's a choice made easier by the fact that the film was snubbed in most major categories at the Oscars largely due to its failures at the box office, making it a film worth sticking up for as one of the best of the year. 

BEST DIRECTOR-

• Ridley Scott "The Martian"
• Alejandro G. Inarritu "The Revenant" (runner-up)
• Lenny Abrahamson "Room"
• Dennis Villeneuve "Sicario"
• Danny Boyle "Steve Jobs" (winner)

While it was easy to narrow the top two for the best direction of 2015 down to the work the great Danny Boyle did on my favorite film of the year and the stunning achievement Inarritu pulled off with "The Revenant". That being said, picking between these two vastly different but very impressive achievements was a tough call. While I don't want to simply line up behind my favorite film of the year a just hand it every award, I believe Boyle's achievement, which has been under-appreciated, deserves a spotlight here. Boyle manages to make Sorkin's mile-a-minute script work as exciting, propulsive cinema and that's no short feat.

BEST ACTOR-

• Michael B. Jordan "Creed"
• Jason Segel "The End of the Tour"
• Matt Damon "The Martian" (runner-up)
• Leonardo DiCaprio "The Revenant"
• Michael Fassbender "Steve Jobs" (winner)

Here, it's the two male leads of my two favorite films that stood out the most. It's hard to imagine another other actor carrying "The Martian" on his shoulders the way Matt Damon does, but this top spot was reserved for Fassbender the second I saw "Jobs". Sorkin has written a great role here and Fassbender just runs with it, reveling in the dialogue and never asking for the audience to like him. 

BEST ACTRESS-

• Saoirse Ronan "Brooklyn"
• Alicia Vikander "The Danish Girl"
• Brie Larson "Room" (winner)
• Daisy Ridley "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"
• Emily Blunt "Sicario" (runner-up)

After a disappointing year for female-driven films in 2014, 2015 was a great improvement in the regard and that's reflected in the Best Actress category here. Emily Blunt delivers her best work to date as the moral conscious of "Sicario", but it's Brie Larson's breakthrough performance in "Room" that takes the cake here. I've been a fan of Larson for years and seeing her reach this level of attention and acclaim for such a great performance has been a highlight of this Oscar season. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR-

• Sylvester Stallone "Creed" (runner-up)
• Oscar Isaac "Ex Machina"
• Tom Hardy "The Revenant"
• "Michael Keaton "Spotlight" (winner)
• Seth Rogen "Steve Jobs"

Always a category with choices, I easily could have made this a five way tie. What each of these actors bring to their respective films is truly indispensable. I settled then on the two veterans, both at times in their careers big movie stars who find themselves returning to the conversation in a big way. Stallone has never been better as Rocky Ballboa than he is in "Creed", and if "Birdman" was Keaton's comeback role, than his work in "Spotlight" cashes in on that career revival with the best performance of his career.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS-

• Alicia Vikander "Ex Machina" (winner)
• Jennifer Jason Leigh "The Hateful Eight" (runner-up)
• Elizabeth Banks "Love & Mercy"
• Rachel McAdams "Spotlight"
• Kate Winslet "Steve Jobs"

This category is almost always unfortunately a little thin. That being said, all of these performances are terrific. I was let down in many ways by Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight", but Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance was an enormous highlight. It was another easy call for number one, as the revelation of Vikander in "Ex Machina" was one of the big highlights of 2015.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY-

• "Creed"
• "Ex Machina" (winner)
• "Inside Out"
• "Love & Mercy"
• "Spotlight" (runner-up)

Though the selection of original screenplays this year was not nearly as strong as their adapted counterparts, these are each very deserving of recognition. "Spotlight" is a script dense with information that manages to avoid getting bogged down in all of that research. However, Alex Garland" delivered a truly original vision with his complicated, thoughtful and fascinating script for "Ex Machina". 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY-

• "Anomalisa"
• "Brooklyn"
• "The Martian" (runner-up)
• "Room"
• "Steve Jobs" (winner)

Another category that boils down to my two favorite films of the year, but both "The Martian" and "Steve Jobs" are, above all else, great films because they are written so intelligently. Drew Goddard's work in adapting a novel heavy on technical jargon and making it dramatically compelling and witty without sacrificing the science at the center is a real achievement. In many years, "The Martian" would be an easy winner here, but you consider the structural ambition, dense dialogue and brilliantly crafted character arcs of Sorkin's "Steve Jobs" script, it becomes impossible to ignore as the best script of the year.

BEST FILM EDITING-

• "The Big Short"
• "Mad Max:Fury Road" (winner)
• "The Martian"
• "Sicario" (runner-up)
• "Steve Jobs" 

A great year for film editing, as the editing choices made in each of these films is vital to the cinematic experiences of each. Joe Walker's editing of "Sicario" does so much to ratchet up the tension in key moments, but it was truly impossible to deny the achievement here of "Mad Max: Fury Road". While I didn't love the film as much as most, I was blown away by what an incredible achievement in editing it was. 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY-

• "Carol"
• "Mad Max: Fury Road"
• "The Revenant" (winner)
• "Sicario" (runner-up)
• "Steve Jobs" 

This category came down to two modern legends in the field, Roger Deakins' for his moody lensing of "Sicario" or Emmanuel Lubezki for his stunning natural light achievement with "The Revenant". As great as Deakins' work on "Sicario" is, this was one of the easiest calls of the year. Lubezki has a very good chance of winning his third consecutive Oscar for his work here and it would be very well deserved. 

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN-

• "Carol"
• "The Danish Girl"
• "Inside Out" (winner)
• "The Martian" (runner-up)
• "The Revenant" 

The role of production design in animated films is often ignored due to the computer-generated nature of the imagery. Although I appreciate the difficulty of creating physical sets from scratch, done brilliantly in my runner-up "The Martian", I can't ignore that "Inside Out" was the greatest achievement in visual design of any film this year.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN-

• "Brooklyn" (winner)
• "Cinderella"
• "Crimson Peak"
• "The Danish Girl"
• "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (runner-up)

I often try to emphasize great achievements of costume design in more contemporary films (something the Academy often fails to do), but this year was a bit slim in that regard so here instead is a collection of great period and sci-fi/fantasy costuming. None of these nominees has the immediately iconic quality of the work done in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", but I opted instead for the wonderfully colorful costumes of "Brooklyn".

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE-

• "Ex Machina"
• "Inside Out" (runner-up)
• "The Revenant" 
• "Sicario" (winner)
• "Steve Jobs" 

Another category where each of the five made a compelling case for number one, as it was a great year overall for film scores. It was also a year of eclectic film scores, reflected in the sharp contrasts in style of my top two. Though I loved the emotional delicacy of Michael Giacchino's work on "Inside Out", it was hard to go against the brooding atmosphere of Johann Johannsson's score for "Sicario".

BEST SOUND DESIGN-

• "Love and Mercy" (runner-up)
• "The Martian"
• "The Revenant" (winner)
• "Sicario"
• "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" 

One of the easier calls on the list, but not for lack of other great options. "Love and Mercy" did a brilliant job both recreating the "Pet Sounds" recording sessions and also suggesting the sonic chaos swirling inside Brian Wilson's head. In another year I would've opted for it, but rarely has a film absorbed me so much with its use of sound as "The Revenant" did.