Editor’s Note: Trending Today is a new video feature that will appear regularly on the GW Today website homepage. Trending Today will be home for voices and opinions of the George Washington University community—students, staff and faculty—on current events and issues of the day.
The red carpet rollout for Sunday’s 87th Academy Awards ceremony is days away, and the race for best picture remains tight among the eight nominated films.
Will it go to Richard Linklater’s acclaimed coming-of-age tale “Boyhood?” The film, shot over 12 years with the same cast, emerged as an early favorite after securing a Golden Globe for best motion picture—it even held a perfect rating on the film review website Rotten Tomatoes for a period of time. But other contenders include Ava DuVernay’s powerful “Selma,” about the 1965 voting rights march led by Martin Luther King Jr., and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s surreal dark comedy “Birdman.”
Audiences also will watch closely to see who wins acting accolades. The awards show faced criticism this year for its all-white nominees and caught flack on Twitter.
The choices are up to the Academy now, but in preparation for this weekend’s telecast, George Washington Today turned to the GW community to ask what films they’d pick if they were in charge of handing out gold statues.
@GWToday @TheAcademy It should have been #TheLegoMovie
— ♥JOY♥ (@bshepherdtweets) February 3, 2015@GWToday @fconroy @NickGumas @FelisaHsieh Boyhood was great!
— Peter Sacco (@PeterSaccoANC2A) February 13, 2015@GWToday @GWTimMiller Haven't seen them all yet...but probably Boyhood or The Imitation Game! What do YOU think, #gwu?
— The GW Troubadours (@GWTroubadours) February 16, 2015