Gay themed Imitation Game gets 8 Oscar nominations

The Imitation Game, the acclaimed film about the life of gay World War II code-breaking genius, Alan Turing, has been nominated in eight categories for this year’s Academy Awards.

It received a nomination for the awards’ highest honour, Best Film, as well as for Best Actor for star Benedict Cumberbatch and Best Supporting Actress for Keira Knightley.

The film was further recognised in the categories of Best Director (Morten Tyldum), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Film Editing and Production Design.

The Imitation Game tells the true story of how Turing (played by Cumberbatch) was recruited to crack the Nazi communication code. His success is credited with playing a key part in ending the war.

Described as the father of computing and artificial intelligence, Turning was prosecuted for homosexuality and was sentenced to chemical castration. A year later, at the age of 41, he committed suicide – apparently by eating a cyanide-laced apple. In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous pardon.

The film has been criticised for downplaying Turing’s homosexuality and for not including any gay love scenes, instead focusing on and expanding his brief relationship with his female colleague and fiancée, Joan Clarke (Knightley).

The Imitation Game will be released in South Africa on 23 January. The 87th Academy Awards will take place on 22 February.

Below are the full nominations.

Best Picture
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

Best Director
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

Best Actress
Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best Actor
Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Laura Dern, Wild
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall, The Judge
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward Norton, Birdman
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Adapted Screenplay
Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice
Damien Chazelle, Whiplash
Jason Hall, American Sniper
Anthony McCarten, The Theory of Everything
Graham Moore, The Imitation Game

Best Original Screenplay
Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Dan Futterman and E. Max Frye, Foxcatcher
Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo, Birdman
Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Foreign Language Film
Leviathan
Ida
Tangerines
Timbuktu
Wild Tales

Best Documentary Feature
CITIZENFOUR
Finding Vivian Maier
Last Days in Vietnam
The Salt in the Earth
Virunga

Best Animated Feature
Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya

Film Editing
American Sniper
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Whiplash

Best Song
Everything is Awesome from The LEGO Movie (written by Shawn Patterson)
Glory from Selma (written by Common and John Legend)
Grateful from Beyond the Lights (written by Diane Warren)
I’m Not Gonna Miss You from Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me (written by Glen Campbell)
Lost Stars from Begin Again (written by Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley and Nick Southwood)

Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alexandre Desplat, The Imitation Game
Johann Johannsson, The Theory of Everything
Gary Yershon, Mr. Turner
Hans Zimmer, Interstellar

Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins, Unbroken
Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman
Dick Pope, Mr. Turner
Robert Yeoman, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski, Ida

Best Costume Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Into the Woods
Maleficent
Mr. Turner

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Production Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Mr. Turner

Best Sound Editing
American Sniper
Birdman
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
Unbroken

Best Sound Mixing
American Sniper
Birdman
Interstellar
Unbroken
Whiplash

Best Visual Effects
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Best Short Film, Live Action
Aya
Boogaloo and Graham
Butter Lamp
Parvaneh
The Phone Call

Best Short Film, Animated
The Bigger Picture
The Dam Keeper
Feast
Me and My Moulton
A Single Life

Best Documentary, Short Subject
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Joanna
Our Curse
The Reaper
White Earth