Written by: Isaiah Smart

Oscars and Grammys and snubs, oh my!

With the release of the awards nominations, the Oscar buzz has begun.

This year, the Oscars will honor the 75th anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz,” which was nominated for Best Picture in 1939.

There are nine nominations for the coveted Best Picture category: “American Hustle,” “Captain Phillips,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Gravity,” “Her,” “Nebraska,” “Philomena,” “12 Years a Slave” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

These same movies pretty much lead the biggest night in film by also being included in most of the accompanying categories.

In the Best Actress in a Leading Role category, Sandra Bullock (“Gravity”) goes up against veteran actress Meryl Streep (“August: Osage County”), Amy Adams (“American Hustle”), Cate Blanchett (“Blue Jasmine”) and Judi Dench (“Philomena”).

Meanwhile, Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Wolf of Wall Street”), Christian Bale (“American Hustle”), Matthew McConaughey (“Dallas Buyers Club”) and Bruce Dern (“Nebraska”) battle it out in the Best Actor in a Leading Role category.

I’m picking Bullock to take the women’s category. The Best Picture category is tough, but I’m sure it will be either “12 Years a Slave” or “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

I’m a big fan of DiCaprio and Ejiofor, but I think DiCaprio might finally get his due because he’s been getting snubbed from some great roles in the recent years.

Speaking of snubs, let’s talk about the Grammys.

The 56th Annual Grammy Awards took place on Sunday and brought a lot of surprises and social media commentary.

From Pharrell’s Arby’s, Smokey the Bear hat to Lorde’s performance twitch to hip-hop’s power couple opening, the show was full of things to talk about.

The night’s best performance came from Kendrick Lamar, an artist who was nominated seven times and somehow left without receiving one award.

The Compton rapper performed a mash up of “Radioactive (Remix)” with Imagine Dragons and “m.A.A.d. City” from his debut album that excited many viewers with the surprise collaboration.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis dethroned “King Kendrick” by winning in the category of Best Rap Album.

Pharrell Williams took home the Producer of the Year (Non-Classical) award and Record of the Year alongside everyone’s favorite electro/alternative robots, Daft Punk.

Of course Jay Z didn’t leave empty-handed, as he and Justin Timberlake won in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Rihanna also won Best Urban Contemporary Album for “Unapologetic.” 

I’ve always wondered who makes up the Recording Academy that decides the winners and how they got there because I would like to have a word with them.

Nonetheless, congrats to all the Grammy winners, and hopefully the Oscars will be less controversial