3 People Who Need Oscars, Now that Leo Has One

If winning Oscars was kicking footballs, Leonardo Dicaprio would surely be Charlie Brown. Every year he seems so close to getting it, only to have it pulled away from him by someone just because they "gave a better performance". But alas, this year Leo managed to finally go home with the gold, in an event that shook the internet harder than Kim Kardashian bringing down the Berlin Wall with her posterior. With their dreams finally fulfilled, what perpetual underdog will Leo fans throw their support behind next? Gary Oldman, Will Smith and Jim Carrey are very popular on lists like these. Here are some other suggestions.

1. David Fincher

BIGGEST SNUB: The Social Network

Yeah, we're not just doing actors! David Fincher, director of The Social Network, Seven, and a movie I'm not supposed to talk about, does not have an Oscar. This is a serious concern. Since 1995 Fincher has been putting out nothing but fantastic work. His worst movie in that time frame is probably Benjamin Button, and still got nominated for Best Director.

Directors are usually split into two categories, Technical and Acting. It's a director's job to handle both the cast and the crew and make sure both of them work together to create something memorable. Still, most directors favor one or the other. Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock are famous for his near total indifference to the actors in their films. Meanwhile Woody Allen is entirely invested in his Actor's dialogue and delivery. Fincher does both.

Look at the Social Network. This is a movie constantly praised for it's writing, and specifically it's author Aaron Sorkin. But it also introduced the world to Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and the Hammer twins; John and Armie. Working with family is always tough for actors, especially when one of those family members doesn't exist and I just made them up to prove how good Armie Hammer is in that movie. All this attention paid to acting, and screenplay, but The Social Network earned two other Oscars in more technical categories: Editing and Score.

Editing is (spoilers) an award for editors, but a films edit begins on the first day of preproduction. Fincher has to get all the right shots, all the right moments, pace everything perfectly to give the editor something to work with. It's also his job to assemble the proper team, Team members like "composer" Trent Reznor. I put "composer" in quotes, because before his Academy Award winning score for The Social Network, Trent Reznor had never scored a film. Fincher's background as a music video director led him to Reznor, and helped create one of the best soundtracks of all time. It's this balance that makes David Fincher one of the greatest working directors, and why he deserves an Academy Award.

2. Sacha Baron Cohen

BIGGEST SNUB: Bruno

*Some NSFW things...*

Nope. I'm not kidding. Sacha Baron Cohen seriously deserves a Best Actor in a Leading Role award for Bruno. Yes, the movie where he plays a gay caricature and tries to seduce Ron Paul. The movie where he has sex with a man in front of an enormous homophobic crowd. He deserves recognition for the simple reason that he wasn't recognized. And that is impressive.

It's one thing to call an actor a chameleon and say he disappears into the role. It's another thing to fool an entire presidential campaign the year after you became a memetic phenomenon. Seriously, do you remember how obsessed everyone was with Borat? Well Borat created another character a year later and disappeared in plain sight. How is that not enormously impressive?

Leo is being praised, as many actors do, for dealing with harsh conditions on the set of The Revenant. While this means nothing for quality of performance, it still carries quite a bit of weight for commitment to the part. Thusly, I would like to examine the Swingers scene in Bruno. Some members of the production paid a dominatrix/adult film star to show up, and said they would pay her more if she could actually seduce "Bruno" without telling her which one he was. SPOILERS, she figures it out. Sacha is then whipped with a belt repeatedly before breaking out through a window and running away stark naked. Through the entire exchange, he never breaks character.

As far as risking one's personal safety, Producer's organized a "cage-fight" that was meant to turn into a celebration of homoeroticism. They did this in the deep south, and advertised it as a place with cheap beer, hot babes, and no gay stuff. Believe it or not, the crowd was rather hostile and a full blown riot broke out.

Beyond all this, Bruno satirizes the deep running homophobia still evident in our culture today, Bruno is more caricature than character, but that's the point. He's the encapsulation of every homophobes idea of a gay person, which is why nobody recognized Sacha Baron Cohen. The movie points out how people view the homosexual community, then literally rubs it in their face.

3. Stephen Prouty

BIGGEST SNUB: Bad Grandpa

For all of those unaware, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa is an Academy Award nominated film (Academy award-winning Screenwriter Spike Jonze is in it!). Not for acting, directing, writing, or any of the "big" awards, but for a little thing called Makeup and Hairstyling. That's right, we're closing out our list with Makeup and Hairstyling, because it's important darn it! As a former student filmmaker, I can say without a doubt, make-up artists (MUA's) are what separates professional films from the amateurs. You ever wonder why the video's you take on your phone don't look as good as a movie? It's not the camera quality, you're phone is better than the camera that shot Star Wars, you just don't have a MUA.

To properly talk Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the Academy awards, we first have to understand how the Academy works. Essentially, the Academy is a constantly spinning wheel of self-congratulation that serves itself first, while slowly overtime grabbing new members. Let me explain with another category, Best Animated Feature. Disney/Pixar account for 11/15 total winners, meaning they get to pick the nominees. This is why movies like The Lego Movie, The Simpson's Movie, and The Peanuts Movie, get snubbed; they're not members of the club. Once again, wheel of self-congratulation.

So let's head back to make-up. There's no studio bias, but there is a heavy stylistic bias. Fantasy/Sci-Fi films and Period pieces account for just about 100% of the category, meaning those are the people who work in other genres, like Horror/Comedy get snubbed. Enter Stephen Prouty, MUA for Bad Grandpa.

He's worked on tons of Make-up heavy films, but his work with the Jackass crew is so insanely impressive, in the same way that Sacha Baron Cohen's work is impressive in the acting category. In the age of digital editing and special effects, a slapdash makeup job can be assisted (not fixed) before it hits theaters, and nobody will be any the wiser. The make-up on Bad Grandpa had to work in the real world, on real people, or the movie wouldn't have worked. Stephen's contribution extends to every part of Johnny Knoxville's anatomy and I do mean every. It all worked, and it worked directly in people's faces.

As I've mentioned in previous articles, the Academy's first step to solving its diversity problem is to nominated and award new people. When the same people keep voting for the same people, it's no surprise that the same people win. Doing away with the idea of a "lesser film" being undeserving of an award would open up the possibility for fresh new talent to permeate not just the Academy, but the industry as a whole. And it all starts by recognizing every part of Johnny Knoxville's anatomy. And I do mean every.