The Danish Girl -

Actor in a Lead Role - Eddie Redmayne
Actress in a Supporting Role, Alicia Vikander

Production Design, Eve Stewart (Production Design); Michael Standish (Set Decoration)

Costume Design, Paco Delgado

The thing about The Danish Girl is that it's such a beautifully simple story.  Eddie Redmayne plays artist Einar Wegener who discovers his true self and gender identity while posing for paintings done by his artist wife, Gerda.  As his journey unfolds to becoming a her, Wegener renames herself Lili Elbe and pursues a dangerous gender reassignment surgical procedure, long before the surgery had been perfected.

My first reaction after seeing The Danish Girl was, "looks like Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks are welcoming a new member to the club of people who won lead actor two years in a row."  He totally transformed himself and even without the makeup and the costumes, his movements and his demeanor changed so dramatically that you still believe him to be a transgender woman, that is to say, a woman.

Alicia Vikander also blew me away.  Struggling herself with her love for her husband combined with wanting to be supportive and wanting to protect him from harm, she finds her voice in the journey, as well, both as a woman and as an artist.

The costumes and the production design are clear nominees, in my mind.  They are all so beautiful and of course, period pieces always do well in these categories.  But when you add the grandeur of Paris in the 1920's and the incredible detail put into the costumes, you've got shoe-ins for these nominations.  You absolutely have to see them for yourself, if just for these elements, but you'll be dazzled by Redmayne and Vikander's performances along the way.

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING - 5 nominations

Best Picture - Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
Actor in a Leading Role - Eddie Redmayne
Actress in a Leading Role - Felicity Jones
Original Score -  Johann Johannsson
Adapted Screenplay - Anthony McCarten

The Theory of Everything is a biopic chronicling the life and relationships of Stephen Hawking, noted physicist.  Diagnosed at 21 with a fatal illness, the majority of the film follows Hawking's body's deterioration as his scientific theories achieve monumental success.  It is fascinating to watch the science develop which allows him to communicate ever more effectively, until he is equipped with a voice translator, becoming the famous figure we know today.

Lead characters with physical disabilities yet brilliant minds do well at the Oscars, partly because of the challenge to the actor playing the part.  My Left Foot is an example of this genre, and I suspect Redmayne's fate will be that of Daniel Day Lewis', that is, holding the statue at the end of the night. And the truth is that Redmayne will have deserved the accolades, having so transformed himself to become the man he portrayed.  

Also of note was the incredible Original Score, which was the very first thing I noticed about the film the moment it began.  This is the kind of film that showcases a score so well because of the open spaces without dialogue.  It rises to the occasion.

Having said all of this, the film, for me, was good, solid, but I'm not sure that it really deserves to be in the Best Picture category, nor would I necessarily have placed Felicity Jones above some of the performances that were not nominated.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the film from top to bottom, I'm just not sure that without Redmayne's performance, any of these nominations would be where they are, except for Original Score.