The Academy Awards, aka the #Oscars, are the movies’ biggest night. This is where the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences honors the best films of the previous year. These awards are in 24 categories, ranging from makeup and costume design, to sound mixing and original scores, to visual effects and film editing. See the full list of nominees here.

Just how do films get considered for the awards? You can find out more about nomination criteria here in this Mental Floss article from 2014, but the formula stays the same – Directors nominate directors and actors nominate actors and so on, although, Best Picture of the Year is up to the entire Academy.

Most eyes, however, are on the last award of the night – the Best Picture of the Year nominees. The 8 films in the running are (in alphabetical order) American Sniper, Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Selma, The Theory of Everything, and Whiplash.
Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel lead the pack with 9 total nominations each.

Which film has your vote for Best Picture of the Year?

If you’re anything like me, you haven’t had a chance yet to watch all of the films yet. Well luckily Digg is a couple of steps ahead and put out this 4-minute compilation video with a brief summary of all of the films nominated. CAUTION: Spoilers ahead!
As Digg puts it, “now you can have an opinion on the nominees 982 minutes faster than watching the actual films.”

Got four minutes?

Catch the #Oscars Live February 22nd at 7pm EST to see all of the big winners!

~Arielle