On the heels of a positive night at last Sunday’s Golden Globes, J.C. Chandor’s All Is Lost got one lonely Oscar nomination for its sound editing. That’s too bad, because Alex Ebert’s original score for the film, which earned him a Golden Globe win, is one of the best of the year. The frustration comes from the impression that Ebert’s score contributed so significantly to All Is Lost and was indeed a major factor in the success of that movie, whereas a score like John Williams’ nominated work for The Book Thief may be good on its own, but doesn’t serve its material quite as strongly (or so I deduce from what I’ve read about the film, which I have not seen, so I could be completely off base here).
Again, All Is Lost suffers from a crowded field in the category of Best Actor, which is the only acting award it could compete for, as Robert Redford performs an entire one-man show. It’s for this reason that many expected him to earn a nomination—not only for the fact that he’s an elder statesman of the industry, which often results in closer consideration from the more senior demographic of the Academy, but because he has to carry to the entire movie on his own shoulders. It’s a physical role that makes you marvel at what this 77-year-old can still do. But now, all Academy members can do is write-in a ballot with Redford’s name, stick it in a bottle, and throw it out into the open sea.
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