Now that the Oscar nominees have officially been released, Indie Outlook couldn’t resist putting together a list of its own for the third year in a row. If Indie Outlook picked the nominees, they would look something like this. “Whiplash” leads the pack with eight nominations, followed by “Ida” and “Under the Skin” with seven apiece, “Stations of the Cross” with six and “See You Next Tuesday” with five. Back again is the category honoring the best performance by an actor under 18, and four of this year’s extraordinary group of nominees were discovered during the 2014 Chicago International Film Festival.

 

BEST PICTURE (U.S.)

Love Is Strange

See You Next Tuesday

Stand Clear of the Closing Doors

Under the Skin

Whiplash

 

BEST FOREIGN FILM

Concrete Night

Ida

Leviathan

The President

Stations of the Cross

 

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Citizenfour

Finding Vivian Maier

Life Itself

The Overnighters

Transfusión

 

BEST DIRECTOR

Dietrich Brüggemann, “Stations of the Cross”

Damien Chazelle, “Whiplash”

Sam Fleischner, “Stand Clear of the Closing Doors”

Jonathan Glazer, “Under the Skin”

Pawel Pawlikowski, “Ida”

 

BEST FIRST FEATURE

Daniel Patrick Carbone, “Hide Your Smiling Faces”

Jennifer Kent, “The Babadook”

Samuel Perriard, “Black Panther: The Story of Emilie and Jacob”

Drew Tobia, “See You Next Tuesday”

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Ellie Lumme”

 

BEST ACTOR

Stephen Cefalu, Jr., “This Afternoon”

David Oyelowo, “Selma”

Joaquin Phoenix, “The Immigrant”

Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”

Miles Teller, “Whiplash”

 

BEST ACTRESS

Essie Davis, “The Babadook”

Scarlett Johansson, “Under the Skin”

Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”

Eleanore Pienta, “See You Next Tuesday”

Agata Trzebuchowska, “Ida”

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Josh Brolin, “Inherent Vice”

Ethan Hawke, “Boyhood”

Gary Poulter, “Joe”

Mark Ruffalo, “Foxcatcher”

J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Agata Kulesza, “Ida”

Elisabeth Moss, “Listen Up Philip”

Tilda Swinton, “Snowpiercer”

Uma Thurman, “Nymphomaniac”

Franziska Weisz, “Stations of the Cross”

 

BEST ACTOR UNDER 18

Lea van Acken, “Stations of the Cross”

Villads Bøye, “Speed Walking”

Johannes Brotherus, “Concrete Night”

Dachi Orvelashvili, ”The President”

Charlie Tahan, “Love Is Strange”

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Dietrich & Anna Brüggemann, “Stations of the Cross”

Rebecca Lenkiewicz & Pawel Pawlikowski, “Ida”

Ira Sachs & Mauricio Zacharias, “Love Is Strange”

Drew Tobia, “See You Next Tuesday”

Paul Webb, “Selma”

 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Walter Campbell & Jonathan Glazer, “Under the Skin”

Stephen Cefalu, Jr. & Stephen Cone & Nikki Pierce, “This Afternoon”

Ebru & Nuri Bilge Ceylan, “Winter Sleep”

Damien Chazelle, “Whiplash”

Bo Hr. Hansen, “Speed Walking”

 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Peter Flinckenberg, “Concrete Night”

Ryszard Lenczewski & Lukasz Zal, “Ida”

Emmanuel Lubezki, “Birdman”

Lyle Vincent, “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”

Robert Yeoman, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

 

BEST EDITING

Sandra Adair, “Boyhood”

Tom Cross, “Whiplash”

Sofi Marshall, “See You Next Tuesday”

Simon Njoo, “The Babadook”

Paul Watts, “Under the Skin”

 

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Dennis Gassner, “Into the Woods”

Ondrej Nekvasil, “Snowpiercer”

Klaus-Peter Platten, “Stations of the Cross”

Marcel Slawinski & Katarzyna Sobanska-Strzalkowska, “Ida”

Adam Stockhausen, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Mark Bridges, “Inherent Vice”

Milena Canonero, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Anne-Dorte Eskildsen & Pia Myrdal, “Speed Walking”

Catherine George, “Snowpiercer”

Patricia Norris, “The Immigrant”

 

BEST SCORE

Alexandre Desplat, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Philip Glass, “Leviathan”

Justin Hurwitz, “Whiplash”

Mica Levi, “Under the Skin”

Antonio Sanchez, “Birdman”

 

BEST SOUND

The Babadook

The Immigrant

Stand Clear of the Closing Doors

Under the Skin

Whiplash

 

Seven Special Mentions

BEST ANIMATED FILM

The Lego Movie

BEST MINISERIES

Olive Kitteridge

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

BEST COMIC DUO

Earl Lynn Nelson & Paul Eenhoorn, “Land Ho!”

BEST USE OF 3D

Jean-Luc Godard’s “Goodbye to Language”

BEST FINAL BOW

Philip Seymour Hoffman, “A Most Wanted Man”

WORST FILM OF THE YEAR

God’s Not Dead