LENNIE JAMES

Actor, Les Misérables, Snatch

I have gone for choices that were not only overlooked by the Academy but have also been ignored in conversations and column inches dedicated to “snubs” and “omissions” from this year’s list.

For best film I’d choose Dear White People. Smart. Laugh-out-loud funny. Edgy. Challenging. Nuanced. Complicated, relevant and utterly current. Justin Simien’s debut is a brilliant example of what truly diverse film-making could be – not just in the colour of the faces on screen, but in its content and substance.

Ralph Fiennes should have been nominated for best actor. The Academy doesn’t really reward comic performances in this category – remember Eddie Murphy’s criminal omission from the list for Bowfinger? I never thought of Fiennes as funny, but in The Grand Budapest Hotel he was spectacular. He hit every note and looked at ease doing it. So good I forgot it was him.

For best actress I would have nominated Essie Davis. Another category the Academy doesn’t pay much attention to is scary films. The Babadook suffered a little because of its genre but is my most underrated film of the year: a truly frightening and fantastic film with one of the year’s most accomplished performances by Essie Davis at its centre. She was immense.

PS: I know it doesn’t qualify for Oscar consideration, but the performance I believe if nominated would have deserved to win would be Toby Jones’s portrayal of Neil Baldwin in the BBC2 drama Marvellous. It doesn’t get any better.

Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything. Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

SEAN O’CONNOR

Producer, The Deep Blue Sea; editor, The Archers

I directed Felicity Jones in her first episode of The Archers when she was a schoolgirl, so I’d be absolutely delighted if she won an Oscar. Jones plays one of the few female characters in this year’s crop of best picture contenders [in The Theory of Everything]. From the shortlist, it seems that the Academy has no interest in films by or about women. Every nominated director is male. Every nominated screenwriter is male. Of the best picture nominations, all the stories are (pretty much) about men. Women’s stories just don’t seem to count.

Last year Cate Blanchett upbraided the industry for imagining that “films with women at the centre are niche experiences; they are not. Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they make money.” Everybody applauded and cheered. But, looking at this year’s shortlist, was anybody actually listening?

I guess there weren’t very many films about women made because of the current politics and economics of the box office. In the 40s and 50s women’s stories dominated the box office; now lads’ films and kids’ films do. But in this sparse group of nominations for women, why did Gillian Flynn get no nominations for Gone Girl? Or Ava DuVernay for Selma? Where was Angelina Jolie? There’s been a justifiable fuss about Selma and apparent racism, but the issue of ignoring the stories and achievements of 50% of the global population is worrying, too.

In the best actor category, I’m also disappointed that Brits Timothy Spall and David Oyelowo were overlooked. Humphrey Bogart was nominated three times, winning once for The African Queen. Does the Academy really consider that Bradley Cooper – who now matches him with three acting nominations – is the Bogie of our generation?

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Fassbender and Domhnall Gleeson in Frank: ‘innocent and joyful and clever’. Photograph: Allstar Picture Library

CLIO BARNARD

Director; The Selfish Giant, The Arbor

My focus seems to have been on British films this year and it’s been a good year – a brave and eclectic mix, no two films the same.

I loved Frank. Innocent and joyful and clever and knowing all at the same time, and yet by the end deeply serious – which catches you by surprise. Under the Skin is a true original – a strange and dark and disturbing film that works its way into your subconscious in the most peculiar way. I’m astonished Mr Turner hasn’t been nominated for more awards. It stayed with me and is unlike any other film about an artist I’ve seen. And I loved Joanna Hogg’s Exhibition – a complex film poem.

I’d like to have seen Night Will Fall and Next Goal Wins on the documentary list. The former moved me profoundly, while Next Goal Wins gently challenges all kind of preconceptions.

I think we have a great emerging talent in Hong Khaou – his film Lilting is a gem. Elaine Constantine is terrific too, with her brilliantly detailed labour of love, Northern Soul.

Paddington should have been up for best animation!

Finally, two others to add to my list: We Are the Best! [Lukas Moodysson’s film about three girls in 1980s Stockholm who form a punk band] – funny, full of energy, full of life. Loved it! And The Tribe [Miroslav Slaboshpitsky’s film about a deaf teenager struggling to fit into the boarding school system] – harrowing, gripping, dark.

Of the contenders, I’m really pleased to see Two Days, One Night, Ida and Boyhood all nominated.

Chadwick Boseman as James Brown in Get on Up: ‘it’s hard to embody somebody who’s made such an impact on popular culture and not do an impersonation’. Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

AMMA ASANTE

Director, Belle, A Way of Life

As a film-maker, I always see awards as a bonus – it’s not what we should be doing it for, in the end. The Oscars are a relatively small organisation, and ultimately they vote according to their tastes. A lot of the people who have been nominated this year deserve their nominations, but I would have loved to see a few others. One overlooked piece I really loved this year was Justin Simien’s Dear White People, which is out in the States and had some great reactions. It’s witty, it’s new, and it’s fresh. It comes at race issues from a different angle, which takes the barriers down and allows you in.

Overall for me, the film that was overlooked the most, despite its nomination for best actress, was Gone Girl. Films about women tend to have a more difficult time at the Oscars, even if it’s a man who’s directed it. I would have loved to have seen Gillian Flynn be recognised for her adapted screenplay. I think it’s a brave movie, and when we get to the point where we can be comfortable with women playing all kinds of roles, good and bad, dark and light, then we’re really at a place of gender equality. I would have liked to have seen it win best picture – although I’m split between that and Selma.

It’s a shame that Chadwick Boseman didn’t get a best actor nomination for Get On Up, the James Brown movie. He did an incredible job: it’s really hard to embody somebody who’s made such an impact on popular culture and not do an impersonation, but just channel them in some way.

In terms of British talent, Jack O’Connell, who was in ’71 and Unbroken, is just an incredible young star. I’ve avoided anyone in my own movies, but if I say him I have to say Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle) as well: she really should have been acknowledged.

Something Better to Come: ‘a devastating ending’.

JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER

Director, The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence

It’s been a rich year in documentary film-making. For example, Ne me quitte pas, a Dutch film about alcoholic friends, is a beautiful film by Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Niels van Koevorden. Another is Of Men and War

by Laurent Bécue-Renard, which is about soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan to the United States, who are in therapy for trauma. Camilla Nielsson’s Democrats is a very powerful Danish film that deals with politics in Zimbabwe.

But my most powerful experience of nonfiction cinema this year was either Something Better to Come or Waiting for August. The first is by Hanna Polak, who spent 13 years filming a girl growing up from the age of 10 to 23 on a garbage dump in Moscow. In her teens she has a baby, living on the garbage dump, and she has to put it up for adoption. It has an ending so devastating that I wasn’t just sobbing, I was uncontrollably weeping. The second is a Romanian film following a family where the mother has to go and find work in Italy, and her five or six children have to raise themselves, more or less.

These are superlative works of nonfiction cinema that are stylistically and artistically in such contrast with the journalistic works that tend to get theatrical releases in the United States. I’m very honoured to have had the Academy members’ eyes on my own work last year [The Act of Killing was nominated for best documentary in 2014], but I’d like to bring attention to how few of the great documentaries that get made are ever seen by Academy voters, because they don’t get the distribution they need to qualify, even for consideration. There’s all sorts of reasons for this, but it’s a very small and ultimately unrepresentative section of documentaries that ever get nominated.

A fiction film that I don’t think made it to the nominations is Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The President. I follow his work religiously – he made one of the greatest films of all time for me, Salaam Cinema, while his daughter, Samira Makhmalbaf, made another, The Apple, and he’s in Close-Up by Abbas Kiarostami. Those three films are all in my top 10 documentaries ever. So the fact that he’s out with a very strong, very moving fiction film this year, a kind of moral fable – I don’t know that it’s better than what’s been nominated, but it’s definitely of that calibre. It’s an astounding film.

Philip Seymour Hoffman in A Most Wanted Man: ‘his last chance to win an Oscar’. Photograph: Roadside Attractions/Court/Rex

ANTON CORBIJN

Director, A Most Wanted Man, Control

I think there have been some really interesting and great nominations, especially in the foreign Oscars. I was very happy to see Ida and Leviathan, from eastern Europe. I liked the starkness of the reality, and I guess because I’m northern European I can understand that world quite well. They’re beautiful stories, and very strong, and unknown actors are always really interesting because they don’t carry any baggage, so you really go by the character they play.

I feel quite strongly that the talent of Philip Seymour Hoffman has been overlooked [in Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man]. This was his last possible chance to get an award: his performance was so subtle, but it was a masterclass in acting. It’s not sour grapes or anything else, but I felt that it would have been very fitting for him to get some acknowledgment.

I thought that in cinematography there was perhaps an omission for Interstellar, with Hoyte van Hoytema. He did such outstanding, beautiful work, and so consistent. It definitely caught my attention.

I liked the portrayal of Martin Luther King by David Oyelowo in Selma. But the nomination is only five names, so it’s always difficult – who do you leave out if you want somebody else in? I liked the historical element in Selma: it’s something we shouldn’t forget, especially in the light of what still happens in America on a day-to-day basis, almost. And it was very well directed.

Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler: Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

KATE OGBORN

Producer, Hockney, The Spirit of ’45

There are some excellent films in this year’s Oscar nominations – Ida, Leviathan, Boyhood, Whiplash and Citizenfour are my personal favourites – and there are many extremely talented people who have been recognised. For me the omissions are Jake Gyllenhaal for his brilliantly creepy performance in Nightcrawler, David Oyelowo for his towering rendition of Martin Luther King in Selma, and Timothy Spall for bringing Turner back to life in such fascinating detail.

Selma is an important, powerful film that deserved wider recognition, and it is disappointing that neither director Ava DuVernay nor cinematographer Bradford Young were nominated.

I would have liked to have seen more nominations for Nightcrawler: performances, direction and cinematography were all superb.

Documentaries have been very strong this year, but Life Itself is an omission, such a moving portrait of Roger Ebert expertly crafted by Steve James.

The Lego Movie ‘had an even more infectious song than Pharrell’s Happy’. Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

DOMINIC BUCHANAN

Producer, Gimme the Loot, Lilting

First up is Selma. Having seen the film I do think it is a shame that Ava DuVernay did not pick up a best director nomination – it was warranted. David Oyelowo did a good job as Martin Luther King – no easy feat – and should be rewarded too.

I was amazed by Elyes Gabel’s performance in A Most Violent Year. As a man conflicted – trying to protect himself while his boss’s business comes under attack – Gabel really held his own against Oscar Isaac and helped give both characters added depth.

Riz Ahmed has always been a good actor, and him teaming up with Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler really highlighted his talent.

The Lego Movie failed to get a nomination for best animation, but I wish it had, simply because it has a song (Everything Is Awesome, which is nominated) even more infectious than Pharrell’s Happy from last year.

It would have been a nice twist to have Gillian Robespierre get a nomination for her Obvious Child script. The film took me by surprise and was as risky thematically as it was funny.

Last, the fact that Bradford Young did the cinematography for two of the year’s best films – Selma and A Most Violent Year – is astonishing. In my eyes, either one of them should have afforded him a nomination.

Selma: ‘it’s a shame not to see nominations for David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo’. Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

CAROL MORLEY

Director, Dreams of a Life, The Falling

It’s a real shame not to see nominations for Selma actors David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo. It’s odd how every film in the best picture category has many nominations in various categories, apart from Selma, which has only one other, for original song. I’m not surprised that none of the eight best picture nominations feature a female protagonist, or that all of the five nominations for best director are men. I don’t think this is some Academy conspiracy though, I just think it’s a reflection of the wider film industry at play. It’s brilliant that Ava DuVernay has managed to work within the studio system and achieve all that she has, but it would be well deserved if she had a nomination for directing Selma too. In effect the nominations show that everyone outside of the white guys should just go and start their own film industry!

Oscar tango: this year’s movers and wallflowers

■ Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel top the list of Oscar contenders with nine nominations apiece. Both are nominated for best director and best picture.

■ British actors Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch will go head-to-head in the best actor category for their roles as Stephen Hawking (in The Theory of Everything) and Alan Turing (The Imitation Game) . Both films have also been nominated for best picture.

■ Boyhood, which won the Golden Globe for best film, is also in the Oscars’ best picture category. It has been nominated for five other Oscars.

■ Meryl Streep secured her 19th nomination with Into the Woods, making her the most nominated actor in Oscar history. She has won three times.

■ Alexandre Desplat faces good odds in the original score category after being nominated for both The Imitation Game and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

■ Selma received only two nominations, provoking controversy about the voting demographic for the Oscars, which is 94% white. 2015 is the first year since 1998 that no non-white actors have been nominated.

■ A Most Violent Year received no nominations despite being pitched as an Oscar hopeful. Aliya Ram