Best Picture Contenders for the 2014 Oscars
by boyles-k-michael | created - 16 Sep 2014 | updated - 16 Sep 2014 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Boyhood (I) (2014)
R | 165 min | Drama
The life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.
Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Elijah Smith
Votes: 367,245 | Gross: $25.38M
2. Unbroken (I) (2014)
PG-13 | 137 min | Action, Biography, Drama
After a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, Olympian Louis Zamperini spends a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he's caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.
Director: Angelina Jolie | Stars: Jack O'Connell, Miyavi, Domhnall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund
Votes: 182,790 | Gross: $115.64M
3. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama
A washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough
Votes: 666,707 | Gross: $42.34M
4. Foxcatcher (2014)
R | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
U.S. Olympic wrestling champions and brothers Mark Schultz and Dave Schultz join "Team Foxcatcher", led by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont, as they train for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, but John's self-destructive behavior threatens to consume them all.
Director: Bennett Miller | Stars: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Vanessa Redgrave
Votes: 149,320 | Gross: $12.10M
5. The Imitation Game (2014)
PG-13 | 114 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
During World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians while attempting to come to terms with his troubled private life.
Director: Morten Tyldum | Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Allen Leech
Votes: 825,356 | Gross: $91.13M
6. Gone Girl (2014)
R | 149 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry
Votes: 1,067,910 | Gross: $167.77M
7. Interstellar (2014)
PG-13 | 169 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
When Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Mackenzie Foy
Votes: 2,101,958 | Gross: $188.02M
8. The Theory of Everything (2014)
PG-13 | 123 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Stephen Hawking gets unprecedented success in the field of physics despite being diagnosed with motor neuron disease at the age of 21. He defeats awful odds as his first wife Jane aids him loyally.
Director: James Marsh | Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Tom Prior, Sophie Perry
Votes: 482,261 | Gross: $35.89M
9. Inherent Vice (2014)
R | 148 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
In 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles private investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston
Votes: 110,763 | Gross: $8.11M
10. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
R | 99 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
A writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.
Director: Wes Anderson | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody
Votes: 887,205 | Gross: $59.10M
11. Selma (2014)
PG-13 | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History
A chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.
Director: Ava DuVernay | Stars: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 95,512 | Gross: $52.08M
12. Fury (2014)
R | 134 min | Action, Drama, War
A grizzled tank commander makes tough decisions as he and his crew fight their way across Germany in April, 1945.
Director: David Ayer | Stars: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña
Votes: 547,528 | Gross: $85.82M
13. Into the Woods (2014)
PG | 125 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A witch tasks a childless baker and his wife with procuring magical items from classic fairy tales to reverse the curse put on their family tree.
Director: Rob Marshall | Stars: Anna Kendrick, Meryl Streep, Chris Pine, Emily Blunt
Votes: 148,066 | Gross: $128.00M
14. Wild (I) (2014)
R | 115 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A chronicle of one woman's 1,100-mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Gaby Hoffmann, Michiel Huisman
Votes: 138,915 | Gross: $37.88M
15. American Sniper (2014)
R | 133 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Navy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris Kyle's pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home with his family after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Kyle Gallner, Cole Konis
Votes: 529,493 | Gross: $350.13M
16. Whiplash (2014)
R | 106 min | Drama, Music
A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.
Director: Damien Chazelle | Stars: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist, Paul Reiser
Votes: 990,289 | Gross: $13.09M
17. A Most Violent Year (2014)
R | 125 min | Action, Crime, Drama
In New York City 1981, an ambitious immigrant fights to protect his business and family during the most dangerous year in the city's history.
Director: J.C. Chandor | Stars: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, Alessandro Nivola
Votes: 77,649 | Gross: $5.74M
18. Big Eyes (I) (2014)
PG-13 | 106 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A drama about the awakening of painter Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Krysten Ritter
Votes: 99,134 | Gross: $14.48M
19. Men, Women & Children (2014)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of high school teenagers and their parents attempt to navigate the many ways the Internet has changed their relationships, their communications, their self-images, and their love lives.
Director: Jason Reitman | Stars: Kaitlyn Dever, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ansel Elgort, Jennifer Garner
Votes: 33,742 | Gross: $0.46M
20. Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
PG-13 | 150 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The defiant leader Moses rises up against Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II, setting six hundred thousand slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle of deadly plagues.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver
Votes: 179,287 | Gross: $65.01M
21. Mr. Turner (2014)
R | 150 min | Biography, Drama, History
An exploration of the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner's life.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey
Votes: 27,182 | Gross: $3.96M
22. Still Alice (2014)
PG-13 | 101 min | Drama
A linguistics professor and her family find their bonds tested when she is diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.
Directors: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland | Stars: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth
Votes: 143,527 | Gross: $18.75M
23. The Lego Movie (2014)
PG | 100 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
An ordinary LEGO construction worker, thought to be the prophesied as "special", is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil tyrant from gluing the LEGO universe into eternal stasis.
Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller | Stars: Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett
Votes: 388,483 | Gross: $257.76M
24. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
PG-13 | 144 min | Adventure, Fantasy
Bilbo and company are forced to engage in a war against an array of combatants and keep the Lonely Mountain from falling into the hands of a rising darkness.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett
Votes: 572,058 | Gross: $255.12M
25. Trash (I) (2014)
R | 114 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
Set in Brazil, three kids who make a discovery in a garbage dump soon find themselves running from the cops and trying to right a terrible wrong.
Directors: Stephen Daldry, Christian Duurvoort | Stars: Rickson Tevez, Gabriel Weinstein, Martin Sheen, Rooney Mara
Votes: 22,836 | Gross: $0.01M
26. Nightcrawler (2014)
R | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
When Louis Bloom, a con man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.
Director: Dan Gilroy | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed
Votes: 604,876 | Gross: $32.38M
27. Black & White (I) (2013)
Drama
An NYC black man in his late 20's with an obsession for white women must confront traumatic memories from his past and goes to dark measures to satisfy his need for love.
Director: Michael Ray | Stars: Anna Fikhman, Anna Lakomy, Juliana Martinez
28. The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
PG-13 | 126 min | Drama, Romance
Hazel and Gus are teenagers who meet at a cancer support group and fall in love. They both share the same acerbic wit and a love of books, especially "An Imperial Affliction", so they embark on a journey to visit an author in Amsterdam.
Director: Josh Boone | Stars: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Nat Wolff, Laura Dern
Votes: 401,266 | Gross: $124.87M
29. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014)
R | 123 min | Drama, Romance
One couple's story as they try to reclaim the life and love they once knew and pick up the pieces of a past that may be too far gone.
Director: Ned Benson | Stars: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Bill Hader
Votes: 13,108 | Gross: $0.59M
30. The Homesman (2014)
R | 122 min | Drama, Western
Three women who have been driven mad by pioneer life are to be transported across the country by covered wagon by the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy, who in turn employs low-life drifter George Briggs to assist her.
Director: Tommy Lee Jones | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank, Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto
Votes: 35,755 | Gross: $2.43M
31. Rosewater (2014)
R | 103 min | Biography, Drama
Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari is detained by Iranian forces who brutally interrogate him under suspicion that he is a spy.
Director: Jon Stewart | Stars: Gael García Bernal, Kim Bodnia, Dimitri Leonidas, Haluk Bilginer
Votes: 10,968 | Gross: $3.13M
32. The Judge (2014)
R | 141 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Big-city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth; along the way he reconnects with his estranged family.
Director: David Dobkin | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton
Votes: 201,731 | Gross: $47.12M
33. Get on Up (2014)
PG-13 | 139 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A chronicle of James Brown's rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history.
Director: Tate Taylor | Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Nelsan Ellis, Dan Aykroyd, Viola Davis
Votes: 26,146 | Gross: $30.51M
34. Love Is Strange (2014)
R | 94 min | Drama, Romance
After Ben and George get married, George is fired from his teaching post, forcing them to stay with friends separately while they sell their place and look for cheaper housing -- a situation that weighs heavily on all involved.
Director: Ira Sachs | Stars: John Lithgow, Alfred Molina, Marisa Tomei, Charlie Tahan
Votes: 13,305 | Gross: $2.25M
35. Kill the Messenger (2014)
R | 112 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Journalist Gary Webb, California 1996, started investigating CIA's role in the 1980s in getting crack cocaine to the black part of LA to get money and weapons to the Contra insurgents in Nicaragua.
Director: Michael Cuesta | Stars: Jeremy Renner, Robert Patrick, Jena Sims, Robert Pralgo
Votes: 48,765 | Gross: $2.45M
36. Annie (2014)
PG | 118 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A foster kid who lives with her mean foster mom sees her life change when business tycoon and New York City mayoral candidate Will Stacks makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in.
Director: Will Gluck | Stars: Quvenzhané Wallis, Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx, Rose Byrne
Votes: 40,552 | Gross: $85.91M
37. Miss Julie (2014)
PG-13 | 129 min | Drama, Romance
Over the course of a midsummer night in Fermanagh in 1890, an unsettled daughter of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy encourages her father's valet to seduce her.
Director: Liv Ullmann | Stars: Colin Farrell, Jessica Chastain, Samantha Morton, Nora McMenamy
Votes: 6,156
38. Calvary (2014)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
After he is threatened during a confession, a good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him.
Director: John Michael McDonagh | Stars: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen
Votes: 64,362 | Gross: $3.59M
39. The Gambler (2015)
105 min | Drama
Set in Las Vegas, "The Gambler" tells the story of a wealthy Eastern-European family whose misunderstanding of the American ways results in the loss of their dignity and self-respect. The ... See full summary »
Director: Szabolcs Hajdu | Stars: Andi Vasluianu, Ion Sapdaru, Orsolya Török-Illyés, Oana Pellea
Votes: 19
40. True Story (II) (2015)
93 min | Drama
After a single New York father meets a woman, he is forced to deal with his past while maintaining his childhood friendships.
Director: Rasheed Wilds | Stars: Jason Barkely, Halifridur Adda Birnir, Danielle Blair, DeRon Brigdon
Votes: 25
41. St. Vincent (2014)
PG-13 | 102 min | Comedy, Drama
A young boy whose parents have just divorced finds an unlikely friend and mentor in the misanthropic, bawdy, hedonistic war veteran who lives next door.
Director: Theodore Melfi | Stars: Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Jaeden Martell
Votes: 108,548 | Gross: $44.13M
42. Begin Again (II) (2013)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A chance encounter between a down-and-out music business executive, and a young singer songwriter new to Manhattan, turns into a promising collaboration between the two talents.
Director: John Carney | Stars: Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Adam Levine, Hailee Steinfeld
Votes: 166,998 | Gross: $16.17M
43. A Most Wanted Man (2014)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A Chechen Muslim illegally immigrates to Hamburg, where he gets caught in the international war on terror.
Director: Anton Corbijn | Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Daniel Brühl, Robin Wright
Votes: 80,198 | Gross: $17.24M
44. This Is Where I Leave You (2014)
R | 103 min | Comedy, Drama
After their father passes away, four grown siblings are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes, and might-have-beens.
Director: Shawn Levy | Stars: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Adam Driver
Votes: 89,288 | Gross: $34.29M
45. Chef (2014)
R | 114 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A head chef quits his restaurant job and buys a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family.
Director: Jon Favreau | Stars: Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman
Votes: 231,845 | Gross: $31.42M
46. Tracks (I) (2013)
PG-13 | 112 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A young woman goes on a 1,700-mile trek across the deserts of West Australia with four camels and her faithful dog.
Director: John Curran | Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver, Lily Pearl, Philip Dodd
Votes: 31,739 | Gross: $0.51M
47. The Good Lie (2012)
Not Rated | 92 min | Thriller
After his mother is tragically killed, a privileged young man discovers that he was the product of a vicious rape, and so he sets out to track down his sinister biological father.
Director: Shawn Linden | Stars: Matt Craven, Michael Mando, Thomas Dekker, Kimberly-Sue Murray
Votes: 124
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