Since it is the first quarter of the year, and the film industry is a little lacking in the movie department, it is time for the annual Academy Awards.  As we await the great films of 2015, the Oscars allow 2014’s greatest films a chance to be rewarded for their greatness, and give the people at home something to chuckle along with while the awards are given out.  Right off the bat, I have to admit that I did not watch the Oscars, and I do not enjoy the show portion of the Awards.  The jokes almost always fall flat, with hosts who are normally funny being forced to crank out dreary jokes that they are told will be well received, and the majority of the musical performances do not interest me.  I care about the movie portion of the Academy Awards, which only requires that I read about the winners later.  Here are just a few of my impressions on some of the wins and losses we saw at last week’s Academy Awards.

• Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), which is my favorite movie of 2014, took home the awards for Best Director (Alejandro González Iñárritu), Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki), Best Original Screenplay, and, the most coveted of all, Best Picture. This movie deserved every Oscar it received, and I personally believe that Michael Keaton’s performance as the main character, Riggan Thompson, should have earned him the Best Actor award.
• Eddie Redmayne took home the award for Best Actor, the only award won by the Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything. I did not see this film, but I heard that Redmayne’s performance in this movie is unbelievable, having worked directly with Stephen Hawking to form the role.  I am sure his performance is great, but I myself cannot attest to it.  The same goes for Julianne Moore in Still Alice and Patricia Arquette in Boyhood, movies I didn’t see that took home one award each.
• Whiplash, took home three Oscars, for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (J.K. Simmons). I have been dying to see this movie, and I am a huge fan of J.K. Simmons, so its multiple award wins have made me even more excited to watch it.
• Big Hero 6 snagged the award for Best Animated Feature, convincing me of how little the Academy seems to care about this category. While this movie was fun and fairly entertaining, How to Train Your Dragon 2 was one of the best movies I saw last year, and one of the better animated movies that has been released in recent years.  With that, and The Lego Movie not even receiving a nomination, I am pretty convinced that the Academy simply hands the Disney movie the award each year, with no regard for the quality of the other films that were nominated.
• The song Glory from the movie Selma won Best Original Song, getting that film its only Oscar. After having seen the movie, I can’t even remember the song, and was probably too distracted with trying to figure out why the movie was nominated for Best Picture.  A mediocre-at-best biopic, with only passable performances.
• Also taking home one Oscar was The Imitation Game, another biopic about the life of WWII Enigma Code breaking mathematician Alan Turing, which won for Best Adapted Screenplay. The movie was pretty good, with Benedict Cumberbatch turning in a good performance, but I don’t really think it deserved anymore Oscars than this one.  The movie was nowhere near as good as some other Best Picture nominees, nor were Cumberbatch or Keira Knightley’s performances.
• Wes Anderson’s newest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, took the awards for Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design. This movie was excellent, a fun and charming film with some great performances by Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, and a gigantic ensemble cast.  Definitely worth a watch.