FWD:labs

Websites of the 2016 Oscar Nominees

  • Published in Film + Web

In appreciation of all the nominees for the 2016 Academy Awards, here is another perspective at the 57 different nominees — their official film websites.

Some highlights of looking through them all include:

  • How many official film sites used Tumblr as their platform? 6, but one wasn’t working so well.
  • How about using Facebook as their official site? 2 — and both were distributed by Netflix, a digitally born company that ought to do better next time.
  • How about WordPress? 8.
  • How many sites rolled their own code? 30!
  • How many run a banner ad for something else above the fold? 1! Blasphemous!
  • How many films didn’t have a clear official website? Definitely one! Woah. We’re here to help.

Now, on with the show:

45-years

“45 Years”

  • 45yearsfilm.com [NO LONGER ONLINE]
  • Nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role
  • Website powered by Tumblr

100-year-old-man

“The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared”

amy

“Amy”

anomalisa

“Anomalisa”

  • anomalisa.com [NO LONGER ONLINE]
  • Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film
  • Custom HTML5 website with some Google Fonts typography

ave-maria

“Ave Maria”

  • avemariafilm.com
  • Nominated for Best Live Action Short Film
  • Custom HTML5 website with some Fancybox jQuery

bear-story

“Bear Story”

  • bearstory.cl [NO LONGER ONLINE]
  • Winner for Best Animated Short Film
  • Website powered by WordPress

big-short

“The Big Short”

  • thebigshortmovie.com
    Winner for Best Adapted Screenplay
  • Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Directing, Best Film Editing
  • Custom HTML5 website using React boilerplate

body-team-12

“Body Team 12”

  • bodyteam12.com [NO LONGER ONLINE]
  • Nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject
  • Website powered by WordPress

boy-and-the-world

“Boy and the World”

  • “Bridge of Spies”

    • bridgeofspies.com [NO LONGER ONLINE]
    • Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound Mixing
    • Custom HTML5 website with lots of JavaScript and some TypeKit typography

    brooklyn

    “Brooklyn”

    • foxsearchlight.com/brooklyn/ [there’s also brooklyn-themovie.com running on Tumblr, but it’s not loading consistently]
    • Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Adapted Screenplay
    • Generic studio template housing a custom HTML5 website with some TypeKit and also Google Fonts typography

    carol

    “Carol”

    • carolfilm.com
    • Nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score
    • Custom HTML5 website with Bootstrap CSS

    cartel-land

    “Cartel Land”

    chau-beyond-the-lines

    “Chau, Beyond the Lines”

    cinderella

    “Cinderella”

    claud-lanzmann

    “Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah”

    • lanzmannfilm.com
    • Nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject
    • Website powered by Go Daddy Website Builder

    creed

    “Creed”

    • creedthemovie.com
    • Nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
    • Website powered by Tumblr

    danish-girl

    “The Danish Girl”

    • focusfeatures.com/the_danish_girl
    • Winner Best Actress in a Supporting Role
    • Nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design
    • Custom XHTML 1.0 website with Bootstrap JavaScript among other libraries

    day-one

    “Day One”

    • dayonefilm.com
    • Nominated for Best Live Action Short Film
    • Website powered by Squarespace

    embrace-of-the-serpent

    “Embrace of the Serpent”

    everything-will-be-ok

    “Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)”

    • patrickvollrath.com [NO LONGER ONLINE] [not technically an official site for the one project]
    • Nominated for Best Live Action Short Film
    • Website powered by WIX

    ex-machina

    “Ex Machina”

    • exmachina-movie.com
    • Winner for Best Visual Effects
    • Nominated for Best Original Screenplay
    • Custom HTML5 website with some Google Fonts typography

    fifty-shades-of-grey

    “Fifty Shades of Grey”

    • fiftyshadesmovie.com [NO LONGER ONLINE]
    • Nominated for Best Original Song
    • Website powered by Tumblr

    girl-in-the-river

    “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness”

    hateful-eight

    “The Hateful Eight”

    • thehatefuleight.com [NO LONGER ONLINE]
    • Winner for Best Original Score
    • Nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Cinematography
    • Custom HTML5 website by Familiar crafted with a handful of JavaScript

    hunting-ground

    “The Hunting Ground”

    • thehuntinggroundfilm.com [NO LONGER ONLINE]
    • Nominated for Best Original Song
    • Website powered by WordPress

    inside-out

    “Inside Out”

    joy

    “Joy”

    • foxmovies.com/movies/joy
    • Nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role
    • Generic studio template housing a custom HTML5 website with some assets served by Amazon S3

    last-day-of-freedom

    “Last Day of Freedom”

    look-of-silence

    “The Look of Silence”

    mad-max-fury-road

    “Mad Max: Fury Road”

    • madmaxmovie.com
    • Winner for Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing
    • Nominated for Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Directing, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects
    • Custom HTML5 website with some open-source JavaScript libraries like MediaElement.js

    martian

    “The Martian”

    • foxmovies.com/movies/the-martian
    • Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects
    • Generic studio template housing a custom HTML5 website with some assets served by Amazon S3

    mustang

    “Mustang”

    “Prologue”

    • No official website
    • Nominated for Best Animated Short Film

    racing-extinction

    “Racing Extinction”

    revenant

    “The Revenant”

    • foxmovies.com/movies/the-revenant
    • Winner for Best Cinematography, Best Directing, Best Actor in a Leading Role
    • Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects
    • Custom HTML5 website with some assets served by Amazon S3

    room

    “Room”

    • roomthemovie.com
    • Winner for Best Actress in a Leading Role
    • Nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Directing
    • Custom website

    sanjays-super-team

    “Sanjay’s Super Team”

    • pixar.com/short_films/Theatrical-Shorts/sst [NO LONGER ONLINE]
    • Nominated for Best Animated Short Film
    • Custom website

    shaun-the-sheep

    “Shaun the Sheep Movie”

    shok

    “Shok”

    • shokshortfilm.com (which is getting a lot of traffic right now and frequently offline)
    • Nominated for Best Live Action Short Film

    sicario

    “Sicario”

    • sicariofilm.com [NO LONGER ONLINE]
    • Nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing
    • Custom website

    son-of-saul

    “Son of Saul”

    spectre

    “Spectre”

    • sonypictures.com/movies/spectre/ [NO LONGER ONLINE]
    • Winner for Best Original Song
    • Generic studio template housing a custom website

    spotlight

    “Spotlight”

    • spotlightthefilm.com
      Winner for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay
    • Nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Directing, Best Film Editing
    • Custom website

    star-wars-the-force-awakens

    “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

    steve-jobs

    “Steve Jobs”

    straight-outta-compton

    “Straight Outta Compton”

    • straightouttacompton.com [NO LONGER ONLINE]
    • Nominated for Best Original Screenplay
    • Website powered by Tumblr

    stutterer

    “Stutterer”

    • stuttererfilm.com [NO LONGER ONLINE]
    • Winner for Best Live Action Short Film
    • Website powered by Weebly

    theeb

    “Theeb”

    trumbo

    “Trumbo”

    war

    “A War”

    “We Can’t Live Without Cosmos”

    • No official site
    • Nominated for Best Animated Short Film

    what-happened-miss-simone

    “What Happened, Miss Simone?”

    when-marnie-was-there

    “When Marnie Was There”

    • marniefilm.com
    • Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film
    • Website powered by WordPress

    winter-on-fire

    “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom”

    world-of-tomorrow

    “World of Tomorrow”

    youth

    “Youth”


    For all screenshots, we took an old standard (1024px width by 768px height) and removed the browser chrome to reach a 690px height. We made an animated GIF if video was involved, but not if interactions were required (e.g. closing a lightbox). We truncated some of the loading screens to cut to the chase.


Author

Aaron Proctor
Founder, FWD:labs
Director of Photography site
Contact



Commentary


Congrats to #InsideOut for winning Best Animated Feature Film! https://t.co/F8se2H6tmC #Oscars #Oscars2016 https://t.co/oZSKQaRVY1

fwdlabs #

Congrats to #BridgeOfSpies for winning Best Actor in a Supporting Role! https://t.co/F8se2H6tmC #Oscars #Oscars2016 https://t.co/nDX6PKnMWC

fwdlabs #

Congrats to #AGirlInTheRiver for winning Best Documentary Short Subject! https://t.co/F8se2H6tmC #Oscars #Oscars2016 https://t.co/gBGoxtphAY

fwdlabs #

Congrats to #Amy for winning Best Documentary! https://t.co/F8se2H6tmC #Oscars #Oscars2016 https://t.co/AiuIEFdDYx

fwdlabs #

Congrats to #Stutterer for winning Best Live Action Short Film! https://t.co/F8se2H6tmC #Oscars #Oscars2016 https://t.co/zkEiU3ywnn

fwdlabs #

Congrats to #SonOfSaul for winning Best Foreign-Language Film! https://t.co/F8se2H6tmC #Oscars #Oscars2016 https://t.co/pqsVMUhEJE

fwdlabs #

Congrats to #TheHatefulEight for winning Best Original Score! https://t.co/F8se2H6tmC #Oscars #Oscars2016 https://t.co/34QBmQtlc2

fwdlabs #

Congrats to #Spectre for winning Best Original Song! https://t.co/F8se2H6tmC #Oscars #Oscars2016 https://t.co/Rtv0VLJLvp

fwdlabs #

Cool look at all the websites of the 2016 Oscar Nominees by @aaronproctor @fwdlabs #Oscars https://t.co/GflkHV5TB0

scott_gruber #

Congrats to #Room for winning Best Actress in a Leading Role! https://t.co/F8se2H6tmC #Oscars #Oscars2016 https://t.co/Tn0F1bvlaS

fwdlabs #

RT @fwdlabs: Congrats to #TheRevenant for winning Best Cinematography! https://t.co/F8se2H6tmC #Oscars #Oscars2016 https://t.co/jXDKbhGbmY

popularculturep #

That’s a wrap on live tweeting the #Oscars! https://t.co/kUP3Tl1OIf https://t.co/vQR1SkxPc0

aaronproctor #

See the tech #Oscar nominees used on their
sites from Custom, Wix, Tumbler, Squarespace, Vimeo, WordPress & Facebook https://t.co/bHjCPtbpCJ

scott_gruber #

RT @scott_gruber: Cool look at all the websites of the 2016 Oscar Nominees by @aaronproctor @fwdlabs #Oscars https://t.co/GflkHV5TB0

fwdlabs #

RT @scott_gruber: Cool look at all the websites of the 2016 Oscar Nominees by @aaronproctor @fwdlabs #Oscars https://t.co/GflkHV5TB0

abberdab #

@ChrisThilk Thought you’d get a kick out of this round up: https://t.co/F8se2H6tmC. Whatcha think happened w/ Cinderella’s banner ad header?

fwdlabs #

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