Nominated for its stellar reworking of Irish writer Colm Tóibín’s beloved novel of the same name, Brooklyn was also up for the top prize of the night, as well as Best Actress for Saoirse Ronan.
Carol, with a total of six Academy Awards nominations, was the only one of the three not gunning for Best Picture, but like The Big Short and Brooklyn, it was recognized for its adaptation of a novel. ~Shelby Morton
Based on the bestselling non-fiction book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis, The Big Short is set prior to the 2008 global financial collapse in which banks screwed their customers by committing the greatest fraud in U.S. history. Four outsiders (Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt) decide to take them down when they figure out how to “short” the market. The risk is huge, and they have only one shot at it.
Trailer: The Big Short
With few opportunities for young women in postwar Ireland, soft-spoken Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) gets the chance of a lifetime in Brooklyn. Her family arranges with a kindly priest (Jim Broadbent) for Eilis to move America to have a better chance at life. Although she gets a room at a boarding house with other Irish women and a job at an upscale department store, Eilis struggles to get over her homesickness. Things change for her when she meets Tony (Emory Cohen), a handsome young Italian man with an infectious passion for life. When a family tragedy draws her back to Ireland, she’s faced with a dilemma.
Trailer: Brooklyn
Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) is helped by young clerk Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) while shopping at a New York department store for a Christmas present. Based on the 1952 romance novel by Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt, written under the pseudonym Claire Morgan, Carol explores the relationship these two very different women develop — from mere companionship to a deep romantic affair. Carol’s husband Harge (Kyle Chandler) desperately tries to save their marriage, even though he knows of his wife’s attraction to women, while Richard (Jake Lacy) hopes Therese will agree to marry him, despite her indifference towards spending her life with him.
Trailer: Carol
The comedy Sisters follows two zany sisters (Tina Fey and Amy Poehler) who have to return home to clean out their childhood bedroom before their parents sell the family home. In an attempt to relive their glory days, they throw a high school style party for their former classmates that turns into an epic rager, perfect for a bunch of washed up adults.
Trailer: Sisters
Beloved characters Alvin, Simon, and Theodore are back in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip. This time around, the chipmunks believe Dave (Jason Lee) is going to propose to his new girlfriend Samantha during a getaway to Miami and after that, he’ll have no need for them and will get rid of them. They have three days to reach him and stop the proposal before it’s too late.
Trailer: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
Apple legend Steve Jobs is famous for his genius. But who was the man on the stage under the giant iPhones? What was it that caused so many strangers around the world to grieve when he died? Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney presents a critical examination of Jobs, revered both as an iconoclastic genius and denounced as a barbed-tongued tyrant, in Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine. The film uncovers the mystery behind Jobs’ life, through candid interviews with a handful of those who were close to him.
Trailer: Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine