Fox and Warner Brothers tried, they really did, but neither Rise of the Planet of the Apes, nor Harry Potter got Oscar nominations beyond the usual stuff, the technical awards.
You would have thought there’d be geek rioting, and that the ‘Net would explode with riotous anger over this great disturbance in the Force, but it just felt like a ripple in the pond. Then again, as a little kid, I couldn’t believe E.T. didn’t win for Best Picture, but I learned the truth early: those kinds of films just don’t win the Academy Awards.
So far, I have yet to find any comment from Andy Serkis about not being nominated, and of course there was hope his acting would be recognized and it would be a big push forward for motion capture.
He was pleased that James Franco said he should be nominated, and as reported on Hitfix, Serkis noted, “I thought it was incredibly eloquent. I think it was very bold. [It was] one of the first times I’ve really felt that there has been such support and understand of the craft and that is born out of the experience of working together and him witnessing it as close hand.”
Serkis also said there shouldn’t be a motion capture category at the Oscars. “It’s an important message to the acting community that I’s no more than acting because it’s a tool which enables us to play so many characters and how it is finally manifested onscreen is not really the issue.”
And perhaps Serkis did his job too well because he’s still not recognized out of his Ape or Golumn guise. As he told Collider, at the Golden Globes, Morgan Freeman’s son was very excited to meet him, brought up over to meet his father, and papa Freeman didn’t recognize him: “And what do you do?” he asked.
According to The Wrap, Daniel Radcliffe isn’t thrilled about Harry Potter getting the shaft from the Academy, and he said, “I don’t think the Oscars like commercial films, or kids’ films, unless they’re directed by Martin Scorsese. I was watching Hugo the other day and going, ‘Why is this nominated and we’re not?’ I was slightly miffed. There’s a certain amount of snobbery. It’s kind of disheartening. I never thought I’d care. But it would’ve been nice to have some recognition, just for the hours put in.”
