Keaton earned the first Oscar nomination of his career for his role as Riggan Thomson, a washed up actor who is best known for playing an iconic superhero, in the days leading up to the opening of his Broadway play.
Who would take home the statue for best picture on Oscar night if everyone on social media could vote? The big winner would be Birdman, according to the Adobe Digital Index.
ADI sifted through more than 3 million social media mentions — across platforms including blogs, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and more — about the Oscars from Jan. 15, the day nominees were announced, through Feb. 16 to determine which nominees were getting the most buzz.
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The results found that while Alejandro G. Inarritu‘s black comedy generated the most overall buzz, Clint Eastwood‘s American Sniper had the most growth in buzz over time. It’s worth noting that results vary when looking at specific social platforms. On Facebook, for example, American Sniper is the frontrunner with fans, while Twitter would give the top prize to Selma.
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ADI found that broken down by location, American Sniper got the most love in the United States, while The Theory of Everything was popular internationally. There was also a state-by-state divide. Texans favored American Sniper, Californians loved The Imitation Game and New Yorkers supported Selma.
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According to ADI, the frontrunners in the acting categories included Bradley Cooper for American Sniper, Julianne Moore for Still Alice, J.K. Simmons for Whiplash and Meryl Streep for Into the Woods. Meanwhile, Wes Anderson got the most buzz in the best director category for The Grand Budapest Hotel ahead of Inarritu, who saw the most growth in buzz over time.
While there is certainly a lot of buzz around the Oscars each year, ADI found that the chatter this year was decidedly negative because of the lack of diversity in the nominations. The findings show that 65 percent of social media mentions indicated sadness or surprise.
There was also a surge in conversation around the best picture category, which had three times the mentions than last year. Meanwhile, there was a drop in chatter around the best actor category, with four times fewer mentions about the nominees compared with last year, when Matthew McConaughey and Leonardo DiCaprio were in the running.
The Academy Awards air on Sunday, Feb. 22, at 5:30 p.m. PT on ABC.
