Few names have become as recognizable in the world of arts as Hans Zimmer. The German composer presides over a career spanning four decades and a portfolio containing dozens of globally acclaimed movies, and it’s not a coincidence that most of those films actually owe a lot of that success to Zimmer, whose compositions elevate a scene — both emotionally and tonally — to heights the camera can’t quite capture. 4m68

Zimmer celebrates his 65th birthday today, so we’ve decided to pay tribute to the maestro by reviewing some of his best scores.  

10. 12 Years a Slave (2013) 3h642r

While Zimmer doesn’t limit himself to a single genre, the fact that he managed to create such a timeless soundtrack for Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave — despite the fact that his playground is mostly speculative films — is a testament to his true genius.

9. Blade Runner 2049 (2017) 2c153m

Zimmer’s collaboration with Denis Villeneuve starts with Blade Runner 2049, but it seems the acclaimed sci-fi director was so impressed by the composer’s work — and justifiably so — that he brought him back for 2021’s Dune and its sequel, Dune: Part Two.

8. Pirates of the Caribbean (2003-2007) 4o2b2t

You might be wondering why the absolutely brilliant Pirates of the Caribbean score is all the way at the bottom of this list. And going by the sheer popularity of the Pirates theme alone, I’d normally agree with that sentiment. It’s just that Zimmer’s work is so distinguished on this level that you’d be hard-pressed to find any flaws in the OSTs of these films. Still, if there was a list of the best scores in movie history, we’d definitely put Pirates of the Caribbean up among the top 10 there, as well.

7. Inception (2010) 283j43

When Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer team up for a project, you’re in for a masterpiece. There’s simply no other way around it. Inception has also been immortalized for this very reason, and the track titled “Time” is still among Zimmer’s finest works. The fact that the composer almost always includes this in his concerts’ setlist also attests to his love for Inception.

Inception incorporates many themes like love, age, and determination into its plot, but the thing that shines the most — especially as far as the score is concerned — is the world of dreams. I believe no composer has since been able to capture the utterly bizarre state of dreaming like Zimmer, and perhaps no one ever will.

6. The Lion King (1994) 5q6g8

Not to blaspheme against this cinematic classic, but I genuinely believe that The Lion King wouldn’t have become as nostalgic as it is today if it weren’t for Hans Zimmer’s score. That also makes it one of the more underrated works in his back catalogue, but can we even blame people when there’s so much to talk about when it comes to the composer?

5. Kung Fu Panda trilogy (2008-2016) 2u372f

Coming on the heels of The Lion King is another animated film that deserves a mention. The Kung Fu Panda trilogy by Dreamworks has one of the best scores in the history of the medium. Zimmer expands his use of various instruments to allude to eastern music, while also capturing the essence of martial flicks from a bygone age of cinema. Whether it’s Oogway’s infinite wisdom or Po’s impromptu moments of heroism, you can count on Zimmer’s music to come through for the film and land the scenes in a way that would’ve been otherwise impossible.

4. The Dark Knight trilogy (2005-2012) 3q754

A hero can be anyone, even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as creating one of the most epic OSTs in history, to let us know that the world of superhero cinema hasn’t ended. 

In Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, we have Zimmer in his prime, masterfully weaving together a series of leitmotifs that capture what it is to be a symbol of hope. Christian Bale’s version of the Caped Crusader is essentially defined by these memorable OSTs, and the greatest of them, “Rise,” plays during the final minutes of the third movie.

3. The Last Samurai (2003) 6b585b

One of the things I love about Hans Zimmer is the hint of familiarity permeating every score he’s ever worked on. You could be listening to Pirates of the Caribbean, and notice that a cue of its arrangement is similar to Inception, despite the fact that the two have nothing to do with each other.

The Last Samurai is the perfect example of this, because you can almost immediately single out Zimmer as its composer, but it’s still different enough that it can stand on its own two feet.

2. Gladiator (2000) 4hn65

We may never fully understand where Zimmer has taken his inspiration for the Gladiator score, but we do know that every movie or television score since then has imitated his work to some degree when it comes to capturing the essence of the Roman Empire. I still get chills whenever I watch that final scene between the usurper Commudus and Russell Crowe’s Maximus Decimus Meridius. “He was a soldier of Rome,” intones Lucilla. “Honor him.” And the music builds to an epic crescendo. That, right there, is cinematic perfection, and you can’t tell me otherwise.

1. Interstellar (2014) 4u5s53

Determining the best score Hans Zimmer has ever come up with will ultimately boil down to a matter of preference. I mean, you could name any one of his movies — there are literally dozens of them — and you’d be entitled to that opinion. You’d just be wrong.

Listen, I am ready to die on this hill. Interstellar is not just the best Hans Zimmer movie score, it’s one of the best OSTs of all time. It’s probably one of the most profound compositions in the history of music. And the greatest part? Zimmer didn’t even know he was composing for a space drama. Nolan just told him the music would need to capture the love between a father and his daughter. Zimmer, in obvious Zimmer fashion, probably said, “Say no more,” and created this timeless masterpiece.

Two-time Academy Award nominee Benedict Cumberbatch has been on our screens for just twenty years, but already has a résumé that other actors would die for, having played seminal roles in the MCU and Star Trek universes, alongside more serious work in period pieces, World War Two thrillers, and romantic dramas.

Among these lauded appearances, however, there is a wealth of less well-known but equally fascinating work. Here are ten great Benedict Cumberbatch performances that never get talked about.

10. Amazing Grace 621d5p

With some impressive early ing performances in Titanic (1997) and Black Hawk Down (2001), Ioan Gruffudd came to wider attention as Richard Reed in Fantastic Four (2005). The following year, he received his first star billing for Amazing Grace (2006), an earnest and touching portrait of William Wilberforce, the abolitionist who worked tirelessly to make the slave trade illegal in the United Kingdom, a feat he achieved in 1807. The film barely broke even at the box office, but is well worth a rewatch, if only for the panoply of Hollywood A-listers it contains. Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones, Michael Gambon, and Albert Finney – who plays a repentant former slave ship captain in one of his final film roles – all add heft, as does Cumberbatch, who, already channeling the authority figure persona that would bring him so much success in years to come, effortlessly portrays British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger.

9. Four Lions 54t29

It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance from Cumberbatch in this excellent satire from legendary British comedy writer and director Chris Morris. Famous for his work on the whip-smart send-up of 1990s news channels The Day Today, Morris’s material became edgier and edgier throughout the 1990s and 2000s. In Four Lions, he turned his hand to the story of four wannabe British Muslim suicide bombers. It hardly sounds like laugh-a-minute material, but Morris mines comedy gold, with Riz Ahmed (Rogue One) as the committed leader of his “cell”, which is comprised of his idiot cousin (Kayvan Novak); a friend who has the loopy idea of training crows to carry bombs (Adeel Akhtar); and a white British man (Nigel Lindsay) who converts to Islam and wants to create an Islamic state – in his working-class hometown in the north of England. Cumberbatch makes the briefest of appearances in the final act as Ed, a negotiator trying to talk the hapless group out of launching their attack.

8. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 6j2i32

Even grizzled movie-goers may be surprised to find the MCU was not the first mega-franchise Cumberbatch appeared in. Back in 2012, Cumberbatch channeled Andy Serkis and duly donned the motion capture suit for a brief appearance in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as Smaug. Cumberbatch also delivered the creature’s lines, though after substantial work on the sound in post-production, his voice is barely recognizable. Cumberbatch reprised the role for sequels The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2015), though the law of diminishing returns – and stretching your source materials well beyond breaking point – had by then set in.

7. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy y3s2r

Being an ensemble piece, it’s easy to forget that this Academy Award-nominated 2011 spy thriller starred Cumberbatch, who found himself reunited with Ciarán Hinds, with whom he worked with on Amazing Grace, as well as a third collaboration with Toby Jones. Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of novelist John le Carré’s masterpiece sees Smiley (Gary Oldman), a former MI6 operative, brought back into the fold to seek out a mole at the highest levels of the organization. Cumberbatch plays Peter Guillam, who Smiley recruits to help him investigate the suspects’ files. As spear-carrier to Oldman, Cumberbatch’s role is largely peripheral, though a scene where he uses a clever piece of subterfuge to smuggle top-secret files out of MI6’s headquarters will have viewers on the edge of their seats.

6. The Other Boleyn Girl 1x4y3h

Cumberbatch’s big-screen debut was in the underrated 2003 English Civil War film To Kill A King, and his work in this 2008 drama underscores how at home he is in the early modern era. Benefiting from a top-notch cast including Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Rylance, a pre-stardom Eddie Redmayne, and Eric Bana, the film tells the story of the Tudor king of England Henry VIII (Bana), and his doomed relationship with his second wife, Anne Boleyn (Portman), who was executed on Henry’s orders for a supposed affair with one of his courtiers. In the meantime, Boleyn’s sister Mary (Johansson) begins a romance with Henry while Mary’s husband William Carey – played with uprightness and likeability by Cumberbatch – is away from court. The Other Boleyn Girl, like the best-selling Phillippa Gregory novel it is based on, takes some liberties with history (the affair that forms the nucleus of the story was never proved), and the film received middling reviews, but both Portman and Johansson do excellent work.

5. The Fifth Estate 19505s

2013’s The Fifth Estate has many faults, but Cumberbatch’s brilliant work in the lead role is not among them. Cumberbatch wore a blond wig and blue lenses to play the part of Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website that exposed countless top-secret documents, including hundreds of thousands of American diplomatic cables, to public scrutiny in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Many of the film’s problems derive from problems with tone, and the uncertainty as to whether to present Assange’s story as one of high-minded reportage on morally dubious goings-on at the heart of politics, or as a private citizen meddling in affairs of government. Watch out, however, for some excellent work in ing roles by then Doctor Who Peter Capaldi, Academy Award nominee Laura Linney, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Alexander Siddig.

4. War Horse 1h3z1z

Cumberbatch’s sole collaboration with Steven Spielberg, 2011’s War Horse tells the little-known story of how horses were used on the front line during World War One. A conflict that is overwhelmingly associated with the earliest use of tanks also saw the world’s final cavalry charges, before generals realized that mounted soldiers were simply too exposed to rifle and machine gun fire for the tactic to work. Much blood was spilled in the learning of this lesson, and Spielberg throws Cumberbatch right in the middle of the action as Major Stewart, a British commanding officer whose cavalry charge into the center of a German position meets with disaster. War Horse was nominated for six Academy Awards, but lost out to the year’s big hits, Martin Scorsese’s The Artist, and adventure drama Hugo.

3. Creation 231k5f

Released to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of the discoverer of evolution, this 2009 Charles Darwin biopic bombed at the box office. But Paul Bettany – then on a career high following his appearances alongside Russell Crowe in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and opposite Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code – is perfectly cast as the daydreaming natural scientist, with his real-life partner Jennifer Connolly as Darwin’s wife. Cumberbatch dons the whiskers and greatcoat of a nineteenth-century English gentleman, and provides enthusiastic as Darwin’s best friend, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker. Also starring Toby Jones and Jeremy Northam, Creation was hobbled before it was released, struggling to find a distributor in the United States thanks to evangelical Christian objections over the propriety of its subject matter.

2. Wreckers 362e43

This 2011 low-budget drama sank without trace on release, but offers intrigue and tension in a respectable and well-directed domestic drama. Cumberbatch shines as David, whose marriage to Dawn (Claire Foy’s second film role, years before her Primetime Emmy-winning work as Queen Elizabeth in The Queen) is on the brink of failure due to their inability to conceive a child. When David’s ex-Army younger brother Nick (Shaun Evans) turns up, he begins revealing family secrets to the community that would be best left unsaid. Set against the quiet environs of the English countryside, Foy’s good, nuanced work as Dawn prefigured her later success, but Cumberbatch’s towering performance that elevates the material above the humdrum.

1. 12 Years A Slave 5r3l5j

The critical buzz for Steve McQueen’s multiple Academy Award-winning drama rightly centered around Chiwetel Ejiofor’s mesmerizing performance as Black freeman Solomon Northup, whose quiet life in antebellum America is shattered when he is abducted and taken to a slave plantation in the Deep South, and Lupita Nyong’o, who won the Oscar for Best ing Actress for her faultless work as Patsey, a cotton picker who is abused by her owner. But Cumberbatch’s contribution as William Ford, a kindly slaveowner who refuses to acknowledge the moral bankruptcy of the slavery that provides his wealth, is notable both for its believability and its centrality to the plot. Cumberbatch – who reveals a hitherto-unsuspected ability to assume an American accent – manages to project both a well-meaning personality and moral fecklessness in the role. Unable to protect Northup from the depredations of an overseer (Paul Dano) who ignores his authority, Ford’s decision to sell Northup on to sadistic fellow slaveowner Epps (played by a suitably malicious Michael Fassbender) sends Northup even further into misery.

In 1993, Jurassic Park took a Tyrannosaurus-sized chomp out of the box office, smashing records across the entire world and retaining them for all of five years before Titanic came along.

However, there was one country that beat everyone else to that historic punch in 1994: that country was New Zealand. Its tool? Once Were Warriors, Lee Tamahori’s drama film about poverty, alcoholism, and domestic violence that left me, and everyone else in my college film class visibly and, in some cases, audibly shaken.

Indeed, the tragedy of some of art’s most effective conduits is that some of them are just too difficult to stomach for repeat viewings. To honor these cinematic gut-punchers, the solemn participants of r/movies have offered to list some fantastic movies that they would not recommend in the absence of pre-established emotional stability.

An entire thread was quickly dedicated to the work of Gaspar Noé, an Argentine filmmaker whose works such as Irréversible, Climax, among others seem to have disturbed many a moviegoer with his use of camerawork, sound, and, of course, downright unsettling material.

Others cast their vote to Manchester by the Sea, a psychological drama that causes some serious damage to the film’s protagonist, with much of the collateral directed towards the audience.

One pitched Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father as the film that they love, hate, and gives the yellow light on recommending. Perhaps a documentary has the added benefit of being non-fictional, which only serves to amplify this gutting story, but there’s no holds barred around these parts.

For those of you looking for something new to watch, it would be wise to scroll through this thread to make sure you’re not getting into anything you can’t handle. Then again, we assume most of you would prefer going in blind anyway, but don’t say Reddit didn’t warn you.

A family tragedy brings this family closer together than ever and makes a big splash on audiences who just can’t get enough.

Waves is a 2019 film released to little fanfare but is enjoying a rebirth in pop culture from streaming on Netflix and YouTube after it was a box office bomb the year it came out. From A24, Waves challenges many perceptions of toxic masculinity and the pressure on young black men growing up.

A helicopter parent father’s attempts to instill confidence and success in his high school-age children backfires, and his son experiences a career-ending injury that tests the family’s resolve. Starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. (12 Years A Slave) as the high school sports prodigy Tyler, Taylor Russell (Lost in Space) as his sister Emily, and their father played by Sterling K. Brown (Black Panther), this is a movie well worth your time.

Trey Edward Shults, who previously directed the 2017 horror flick It Comes At Night, directed the movie. Waves was a hit with critics, who praised the direction and cinematography. Currently sitting on an 84% approval rating from critics and 81% audience score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Waves is an emotionally charged way to kickstart your holidays.

It has surged up the Netflix rankings in the last few weeks, currently up 105 points in the previous week as audiences take the deep dive into the movie. A good father-son dynamic is hard to get right in movies, but Waves does a fantastic job and might just cause a few sweaty eyes.

After years spent being one of the best male leads around, Michael Fassbender will finally saunter into the 2015/2016 awards season as a major contender. Up to now, the actor has wowed the critics with his typically profound character explorations and found fans with his forays into blockbuster territory – but this year, it looks promising that Fassbender might at last seal the deal with an Oscar. Most likely to bring him trophies this awards season is Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs, in which Fassbender plays the titular, revolutionary Apple founder. Still, no one should discount his next release before then from featuring at awards time either: Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth. Based on Shakespeare’s ‘Scottish play,’ Kurzel’s film reimagines the Thane of Cawdor as a damaged soldier suffering from PTSD – and some critics are even saying Fassbender gives his greatest performances to date as the battle-weary lord. It’s a bold claim, to be sure, as throughout his brief career as a leading man, Fassbender has given some of the most affecting, powerful performances in recent memory. And here are ten of his best to date.

12 Years a Slave is all the rage right now. After its very successful Oscar night, those who haven’t yet seen Steve McQueen’s latest are eager to do so. If you happen to fall into that camp, then it’s your lucky day, as we’re giving away 2 Blu-Ray copies to celebrate the film’s recent home video release. Not that you need anymore convincing as to why 12 Years a Slave is essential viewing, but our very own Matt Donato reviewed the film back in the fall and said the following:

12 Years A Slave will beat you down emotionally, scene after scene, without any mercy – but that’s just a testament to the brilliant direction, transformation-like performances, and unapologetic storytelling that elevates Steve McQueen’s movie high above the masses.

If you’d like to enter the contest, just like us on Facebook and then re-tweet our contest message by hitting the button below. A winner will be chosen on March 14th at 11:59pm EST. Good luck!

As you might imagine, Oscar season is our favorite time of the year here at We Got This Covered, and 2014 is primed to be one of the most interesting years in Academy history. Tomorrow, nine terrific films will go head-to-head for the coveted title of Best Picture, and there are still heated arguments about who is currently in the lead, between Alfonso Cuarón’s thrilling space odyssey Gravity and Steve McQueen’s devastating historical drama 12 Years a Slave. Other races are just as tough to call, with Best Actor looking like a photo finish between Matthew McConaughey, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leonardo DiCaprio. And of course, Oscar night always has surprises in store, so even the most seemingly sure calls are actually far from assured. However, guessing is half the fun, and We Got This Covered’s excellent of judges are more than happy to offer up their own personal preferences and opinions about how the 86th Academy Awards will unfold tomorrow night. In one corner, we’ve got Jeff Beck, WGTC’s main awards analyst. So far, he’s brought you solo coverage of all the major awards (Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice, PGA, DGA, SAG, WGA, BAFTA), including predictions for most of them, and now that we’ve come to the Oscars, he’s excited to have some more voices the discussion. Oscar aficionado Jordan Adler has his picks set for a telecast he believes will likely award only a few of the nine Best Picture nominees with any gold. And assistant editor Isaac Feldberg, still crushed about the exclusion of Inside Llewyn Davis and Spring Breakers, is hoping that some of the races currently set to be locks can pull out major surprises on Oscar night – after all, what’s the Academy Awards without some upsets? (Right, Crash?)

This has been one of the most exciting awards seasons of the last several years. Normally by this time, everything is pretty much wrapped up, even before the Oscars air. All the previous awards have usually pointed us directly to what will inevitably win Best Picture, leaving us with no surprise to be had on the big night. However, that’s not how things have gone this year. For once, it isn’t crystal clear what those in the industry find to be the best film of the year. We may have thought we knew earlier, but after the past couple of weeks, we’ve been presented with a number of shifts that have thrown the awards race into a tizzy. How did we get to this point? Well, let’s go back and look at how the whole thing started. It began all the way back in early December when the New York Film Critics Circle kicked off awards season by declaring David O. Russell’s American Hustle to be the best film of the year. There are many people who place a large amount of emphasis on the first awards out of the gate, so naturally there were several who thought that Hustle was now our frontrunner, but then we had the National Board of Review declaring Spike Jonze’s Her to be the year’s best film, and so began the search for consensus among the critics. It didn’t take long to find it as immediately after we had the vast majority of groups naming Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave the best film of 2013. Sure, there were a few more naming Her, some naming Gravity, and even a couple naming Inside Llewyn Davis, but it was clear that 12 Years a Slave was the absolute favorite by far. With this in mind, most people were ready to sit back and relax as McQueen’s film continued to dominate the awards season. It looked like it couldn’t be stopped, so if it wasn’t your favorite, what use was there in complaining? As the bigger awards approached, it was assumed the domination would continue, and in a sense, it did. On January 12th, it was expected that 12 Years a Slave would do pretty well at the Golden Globes, more than likely taking Best Drama, Best Actor, and Best ing Actress (it was expected to lose Screenplay to Her and Director to Gravity, both of which did indeed occur). However, what we got was some of the first evidence that the film was not as strong as we originally thought. ing Actress, which was thought would easily go to Lupita Nyong’o for her amazing performance, went to Jennifer Lawrence for her forgettable performance in American Hustle. Likewise, it was expected that Chiwetel Ejiofor would easily take Best Actor (Drama) for his incredible portrayal of Solomon Northup, but instead, the award went to Matthew McConaughey for his outstanding performance in Dallas Buyers Club. It was a bit shocking, but it’s no secret that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association likes to give their awards to big stars, so it was quite possible that we could write off these loses based on their personal preference of doing just that. However, it still left the favorite film of the year at this point with nothing but one Golden Globe. Granted, it was the big one that mattered, but if you look at Golden Globe history, you’ll find that only seven films have won just Best Drama (or Picture), with only one of those going on to win Best Picture at the Oscars (Rocky). Ironically, things were starting to look a little rocky for 12 Years. Then the big morning came. Bright and early on January 16th, we got the Oscar nominations that we had all been waiting for. Like everyone else, I was expecting 12 Years to easily take the lead with 11 nods, followed by Gravity with ten, and perhaps American Hustle with a good amount of its own. However, what we got were some unexpected results. Gravity got all ten nominations it was expected to get, but due to two unexpected snubs for 12 Years (in Original Score and Cinematography), it was left with only nine, putting it behind the leaders of the pack, Gravity and American Hustle. The snubs may have been for somewhat minor awards, but they were nominations that the film was easily expected to receive, showing us that some was waning. That very same night were the Critics’ Choice awards (presented by the Broadcast Film Critics Association), where we still expected 12 Years to clean up pretty well. It made a fair showing, taking Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best ing Actress, showing that Lawrence’s win at the Globes was more than likely because of the reason I stated earlier. However, the BFCA did agree with them on McConaughey being the Best Actor of the year, catapulting him to the top of his respective category. It’s also worth noting that Alfonso Cuaron’s masterpiece Gravity took seven awards of its own, including Best Director, an award that Cuaron had been winning the vast majority of throughout awards season. Such an award might not have seemed particularly important at this time, but as we’ll see later on, it could make all the difference.

Movies often function as mood reflector or a mood hammer. When looking for the perfect movie to watch on a given evening or at any given moment, we tend to try to assess our mood: what do we feel like? Are we happy or bummed? Once that’s determined, the impulse can be to select a title that mirrors our mood back to us, so a happy movie if we’re feeling good about life, and a sad movie if we’re feeling like an outlet for our trapped emotions. In other cases, it’ll be the opposite. We’ll feel like a cheery movie to pick us up, or a downer because we’re in a state where we can actually handle something depressing. For me, at least at the moment, I’m into movies that are sort of depressing but with a kind of personal earnestness that makes them just hopeful enough. Or maybe it’s ones with the message that life sucks but it’s not that bad, that there is plenty of stuff to be bummed about but that we’re doing our best. Then again, the natural companions for these types of films are those that point out how terrible the world can be, full of injustice, pain, despair, and perpetual imbalance. Movies like this are valuable too, and though they may be hard to watch, they’re tremendously important to ensuring a cinematic landscape that dives into every aspect of human emotion and experience. But they also provide the societal landscape, the picture of the world that informs the previous group of movies to react against, offering that universal, never-ending oscillation between optimism and pessimism that defines our very existence. Sometimes we just need to go to some dark places, and then prove to ourselves that we can emerge from the darkness and persevere. Here are 10 movies that can help with that.

Such a strange tension exists between not caring one bit about the Academy Awards and caring so deeply that you are compelled to tweet endlessly about how angry they’ve made you with their various “snubs.” For an awards show that so many insist doesn’t matter, it sure does create a lot of personal animosity. Then again, most of the outrage occurs on Twitter, which is a hyperbolic medium of expression anyhow, so any ed emotion about the nominations for the 86^th Annual Academy Awards should be received through a bit of a muted filter. Most people focus on what’s left off the ballot after the nominees are announced, and this is understandable. By and large, those included in the Oscar ceremony get some amount of a publicity push, attaining a certain credibility in the eyes of the general public. Those that are excluded aren’t exactly damned to obscurity, but it does kind of suck to see some of the best work that’s been put out in the past year in movies go unrecognized by what’s perceived as the most prestigious award ceremony in the industry. That being said, it’s still worth noting some of the pleasant inclusions in this year’s Oscar group. American Hustle’s stellar cast was recognized, even though I might have slightly preferred Jeremy Renner’s performance to Bradley Cooper’s. Her and The Wolf of Wall Street had surprisingly strong showings. The Act of Killing and 20 Feet From Stardom are deserving nominees in the documentary category. And as a populist pick, Philomena gets into the top nine Best Picture nominees, which is certainly more praiseworthy than previous such entries like The Blind Side or The Help. Overall, it’s as good a group of nominees as can be expected. Nevertheless, here are 10 surprising and/or notable names that were left out of contention for this year’s Academy Awards. Continue reading on the next page…

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave was one of the very best films of 2013, having ranked on our own best-of list in the number four spot. Not everyone was into it, though. Among the dissenting voices was film critic Armond White, and he made that voice heard last night at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards during McQueen’s acceptance speech for Best Director.

White has a long and storied history of controversial opinions on films, and has been referred to by TIME as “The World’s Most Contrarian Film Critic.” Whether he believes the things he says or is merely trolling for attention is anybody’s guess, but his behavior at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards went beyond contrarianism into the realm of just being a huge dick. Among White’s reported interjections during McQueen’s acceptance speech were “You’re an embarrassing doorman and garbage man,” “F–k you,” “Kiss my ass,” and “Pulease!”

That anyone ever took Armond White seriously enough to hire him as a film critic is pretty baffling, but hopefully this latest incident will lead to a full-scale shunning of White by the film critic community. He has made himself a nuisance by heckling people at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards in the past, so maybe this time they could just not let him back? That seems like a reasonable solution to the Armond White problem. He is a dues-paying member of the organization, though, and his review of 12 Years a Slave appeared on their website, so maybe that won’t happen.

In the aforementioned review, White states, “12 Years a Slave belongs to the torture porn genre with Hostel, The Human Centipede and the Saw franchise.” So, you know, troll status confirmed. I’m not going to link to that review, because screw that guy, but you can read a much better review of the film by our own Matt Donato here.

Plenty of groups give out awards for excellence in film and television at the end of every year, but no set of nominations is watched more carefully by Oscar predictors than the picks from the Producers Guild.  That’s because year after year their choices end up being a fairly good indicator of which films will also be granted Best Picture nominations when the Academy makes their selections. The Guild has announced their 2014 nominations today and there aren’t really any major surprises here. All the expected films are present, including 12 Years A Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Gravity, Her and The Wolf Of Wall Street. Animated films that nabbed nominations are The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Epic, Frozen and Monsters University. Included in the documentary nominations are A Place at the Table, Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story, Life According to Sam, We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks and Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington. The 2014 winners will be announced January 19th at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. That selection will be watched very carefully, especially considering the last time the Producers Guild and the Academy selected different winners was 7 years ago when the Guild went with Little Miss Sunshine over the eventual Best Picture winner The Departed.  At this year’s ceremony special honors will be presented to Barbara Broccoli & Michael G. Wilson (David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures), Robert Iger (Milestone Award), Peter Jackson & Joe Letteri (Vanguard Award), Chuck Lorre (Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television), Chris Meledandri (Visionary Award) and Fruitvale Station (Stanley Kramer Award). Tell us, what do you think of these Producers Guild nominations? Any surprises here? Check out the full list below and then share your thoughts in the comments section.

The theatrical motion picture nominees are: The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures: American Hustle (Columbia Pictures) Producers: Megan Ellison, Jon Gordon, Charles Roven, Richard Suckle Blue Jasmine (Sony Pictures Classics) Producers: Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum Captain Phillips (Columbia Pictures) Producers: Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin Dallas Buyers Club (Focus Features) Producers: Robbie Brenner, Rachel Winter Gravity (Warner Bros. Pictures) Producers: Alfonso Cuarón, David Heyman Her (Warner Bros. Pictures) Producers: Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze, Vincent Landay Nebraska (Paramount Pictures) Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa Saving Mr. Banks (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures) Producers: Ian Collie, Alison Owen, Philip Steuer 12 Years a Slave (Fox Searchlight Pictures) Producers: Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Brad Pitt & Dede Gardner Wolf of Wall Street (Paramount Pictures) Producers: Riza Aziz, Emma Koskoff, Joey McFarland The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures: The Croods (DreamWorks Animation) Producers: Kristine Belson, Jane Hartwell Despicable Me 2 (Universal Pictures) Producers: Janet Healy, Chris Meledandri Epic (Twentieth Century Fox) Producers: Jerry Davis, Lori Forte Frozen (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures) Producer: Peter Del Vecho Monsters University (Pixar Animation) Producer: Kori Rae The television nominees are: The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television: American Horror Story: Asylum (FX) Producers: Brad Buecker, Dante Di Loreto, Brad Falchuk, Alexis Martin Woodall, Ryan Murphy, Chip Vucelich Behind the Candelabra (HBO) Producers: Susan Ekins, Gregory Jacobs, Michael Polaire, Jerry Weintraub Killing Kennedy (National Geographic Channel) Producers: Mary Lisio, Larry Rapaport, Ridley Scott, Teri Weinberg, David W. Zucker Phil Spector (HBO) Producers: Michael Hausman, Barry Levinson Top of the Lake (Sundance Channel) Producers: Philippa Campbell, Jane Campion, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman The Long-Form Television category encomes both movies of the week and mini-series. In late 2013, the Producers Guild of America announced the Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture, Television Series and Non-Fiction Television Nominations; the following list includes complete producer credits. The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures: A Place At The Table (Magnolia Pictures) Producers: Julie Goldman, Ryan Harrington, Kristi Jacobson, Lori Silverbush Far Out Isn’t Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story (First Run Features) Producers: Brad Bernstein, Rick Cikowski Life According To Sam (HBO Documentary Films) Producers: Andrea Nix Fine, Sean Fine, Miriam Weintraub We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks (Focus Features) Producers: Alexis Bloom, Alex Gibney, Marc Shmuger Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? The Life And Time Of Tim Hetherington (HBO Documentary Films) Producers: James Brabazon, Nick Quested The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama: Breaking Bad (AMC) Producers: Melissa Bernstein, Sam Catlin, Bryan Cranston, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Mark Johnson, Stewart Lyons, Michelle MacLaren, George Mastras, Diane Mercer, Thomas Schnauz, Moira Walley-Beckett Downton Abbey (ITV – United Kingdom; PBS – United States) Producers: Julian Fellowes, Nigel Marchant, Gareth Neame, Liz Trubridge Game of Thrones (HBO) Producers: David Benioff, Bernadette Caulfield, Frank Doelger, D.B. Weiss, Christopher Newman, Greg Spence, Carolyn Strauss Homeland (Showtime) Producers: Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Michael Cuesta, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Michael Klick, Meredith Stiehm House of Cards (Netflix) Producers: Joshua Donen, David Fincher, Karyn McCarthy, John Melfi, Eric Roth, Kevin Spacey, Beau Willimon The Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy: 30 Rock (NBC) Producers: Jack Burditt, Robert Carlock, Luke Del Tredici , Tina Fey, Matt Hubbard , Marci Klein, Jerry Kupfer , Colleen McGuinness, Lorne Michaels, David Miner, Dylan Morgan , Jeff Richmond , Josh Siegal, Tracey Wigfield Arrested Development (Netflix) Producers: John Foy, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Mitchell Hurwitz, Dean Lorey, Troy Miller, Richard Rosenstock, Jim Vallely Big Bang Theory, The (CBS) Producers: Bill Prady, Chucke Lorre, Steve Molaro, Faye Oshima Belyeu Modern Family (ABC) Producers: Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Elaine Ko, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Jeffrey Morton, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Chris Smirnoff, Brad Walsh, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker VEEP (HBO) Producers: Simon Blackwell, Christopher Godsick, Armando Iannucci, Stephanie Laing, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Frank Rich, Tony Roche The Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television: 30 for 30 (ESPN) Producers: Bill Simmons, John Dahl, Erin Leyden, Connor Schell Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (CNN) Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Sandra Zweig Duck Dynasty (A&E Networks) Producers: Deirdre Gurney, Scott Gurney, Mike Odair, Hugh Peterson, Adam Saltzberg, Charlie Van Vleet Inside The Actors Studio (Bravo) Producers: James Lipton, Shawn Tesser, Jeff Wurtz Shark Tank (ABC) Producers: Mark Burnett, Becky Blitz, Bill Gaudsmith, Yun Lingner, Clay Newbill, Jim Roush, Laura Skowlund, Max Swedlow The Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment & Talk Television: Colbert Report, The (Comedy Central) Producers: Meredith Bennett, Stephen T. Colbert, Richard Dahm, Paul Dinello, Barry Julien, Matt Lappin, Emily Lazar, Tanya Michnevich Bracco, Tom Purcell, Jon Stewart Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC) Producers: David Craig, Ken Crosby, Doug DeLuca, Gary Greenberg, Erin Irwin, Jimmy Kimmel, Jill Leiderman, Molly McNearney, Tony Romero, Jason Shrift, Jennifer Sharron, Josh Weintraub Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC) Producers: Hillary Hunn, Lorne Michaels, Gavin Purcell, Michael Shoemaker Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) Producers: Scott Carter, Sheila Griffiths, Marc Gurvitz, Dean Johnsen, Bill Maher, Billy Martin, Matt Wood Saturday Night Live (NBC) Producers: Ken Aymong, Erin Doyle, Steve Higgins, Erik Kenward, Lorne Michaels, Lindsay Shookus The Award for Outstanding Producer of Competition Television: Amazing Race, The (CBS) Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Elise Doganieri, Jonathan Littman, Bertram van Munster, Mark Vertullo Dancing With The Stars (ABC) Producers: Ashley Edens-Shaffer, Conrad Green, Joe Sungkur Project Runway (Lifetime) Producers: Jane Cha Cutler, Desiree Gruber, Tim Gunn, Heidi Klum, Jonathan Murray, Sara Rea, Colleen Sands Top Chef (Bravo) Producers: Tom Colicchio, Daniel Cutforth, Casey Kriley, Jane Lipsitz, Erica Ross, Nan Strait, Andrew Wallace Voice, The (NBC) Producers: Stijn Bakkers, Mark Burnett, John de Mol, Chad Hines, Lee Metzger, Audrey Morrissey, Jim Roush, Kyra Thompson, Nicolle Yaron, Mike Yurchuk, Amanda Zucker The following programs were not vetted for producer eligibility this year, but winners in these categories will be announced at the official ceremony on January 19: The Award for Outstanding Sports Program: 24/7 (HBO) Hard Knocks (HBO) Monday Night Football (ESPN) Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel (HBO) SportsCenter (ESPN) The Award for Outstanding Children’s Program: Dora the Explorer (Nickelodeon) iCarly (Nickelodeon) Phineas and Ferb (Disney Channel) Sesame Street (Sprout) SpongeBob Squarepants (Nickelodeon) The Award for Outstanding Digital Series: Burning Love (http://screen.yahoo.com/burning-love/) Epic Rap Battles of History (www.epicrapbattlesofhistory.com) Lizzie Bennet Diaries, The (www.youtube.com/lizziebennet) Video Game High School (http://www.rocketjump.com/category/vghs) Wired: What’s Inside (http://video.wired.com/series/what-s-inside)