2015 Academy Awards Odds

[This article was originally published on Jan. 15, 2015.]

The recently announced nominations for the 87th annual Academy Awards, which take place Feb. 22 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, were full of surprises, the biggest of which was “Selma” director Ava DuVernay not getting nominated for Best Director. She would have been the first African American woman to receive the honor.

On the other side of the coin, the Academy seems to adore director Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which received a remarkable nine nominations. The acting-centric “Birdman” didn’t disappoint, either, garnering nine nods from the self-indulgent Academy.

What will transpire come February is likely to be less of a surprise than the nominations; many categories feature heavy favorites, including Best Director and Best Picture, where the smart money is on Richard Linklater and his 12-year epic “Boyhood”.

But there are a few categories that are truly up in the air. Perhaps the most interesting is Michael Keaton (from “Batman” er I mean “Birdman”) going head-to-head with Eddie Redmayne (from “The Theory of Everything”) for Best Actor.

Who else might want to clear some space on their trophy shelf? Here’s a look at the odds for all the major categories.

Best Picture
1/4: “Boyhood”
8/1: “The Imitation Game”
9/1: “Birdman”
10/1: “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
12/1: “Selma”
25/1: “American Sniper”
25/1: “The Theory of Everything”
30/1: “Whiplash”

Best Director
1/4: Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
4/1: Alejandro González Iñárritu, “Birdman”
10/1: Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
12/1: Morten Tyldum, “The Imitation Game”
25/1: Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher”

Actor in a Leading Role
1/1: Michael Keaton, “Birdman”
2/1: Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”
5/1: Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game”
15/1: Bradley Cooper, “American Sniper”
15/1: Steve Carell, “Foxcatcher”

Actress in a Leading Role
1/4: Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”
5/1: Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”
10/1: Felicity Jones, “The Theory of Everything”
10/1: Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”
15/1: Marion Cotillard, “Two Days, One Night”

Actor in a Supporting Role
1/4: J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”
4/1: Edward Norton, “Birdman”
9/1: Mark Ruffalo, “Foxcatcher”
10/1: Ethan Hawke, “Boyhood”
20/1: Robert Duvall, “The Judge”

Actress in a Supporting Role
1/5: Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”
8/1: Meryl Streep, “Into the Woods”
8/1: Emma Stone, “Birdman”
20/1: Laura Dern, “Wild”
25/1: Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game”

Writing – Original Screenplay
3/2: Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
3/2: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo, “Birdman”
4/1: Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
10/1: E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, “Foxcatcher”
20/1: Dan Gilroy, “Nightcrawler”

Writing – Adapted Screenplay
2/3: Graham Moore, “The Imitation Game”
2/1: Anthony McCarten, “The Theory of Everything”
3/2: Damien Chazelle, “Whiplash”
10/1: Paul Thomas Anderson, “Inherent Vice”
15/1: Jason Hall, “American Sniper”

Animated Feature Film
1/1: “How to Train Your Dragon 2”
3/1: “Big Hero 6”
4/1: “Song of the Sea”
5/1: “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya”
10/1: “The Boxtrolls”

Foreign Language Film
3/2: “Ida”
3/2: “Leviathan”
6/1: “Timbuktu”
10/1: “Wild Tales”
20/1: “Tangerines”

Documentary Feature
1/4: “Citizenfour”
3/1: “Virunga”
9/1: “Last Days in Vietnam”
15/1: “Finding Vivian Maier”
15/1: “The Salt of the Earth”

Original Song
1/4: Glory (“Selma”)
3/1: Everything is Awesome (“The Lego Movie”)
8/1: Lost Stars (“Begin Again”)
10/1: I’m Not Gonna Miss You (“Glenn Campbell: I’ll Be Me”)
20/1: Grateful (“Beyond the Lights”)

(Photo credit: BDS2006 (English: I created this work entirely by myself.) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)