The Nominees:

• American Sniper — Joel Cox, Gary Roach
• Boyhood — Sandra Adair
• The Grand Budapest Hotel — Barney Philling
• The Imitation Game — William Goldenberg
• Whiplash — Tom Cross

Will Win: American Sniper

Could Win: Boyhood

Should Win: Whiplash

This category comes down to the precision of action-sequence editing in American Sniper and the seemingly hefty task of editing “12 years” of footage for the sake of Boyhood. I use quotations marks because the 12 years ended up looking like 20 weeks of shooting, and this framing gives a different context to the amount of film that had to be edited for Linklater’s film. However, keeping track of a film for over a decade (and using the same editing software for that long), would make Boyhood a daunting task. However, the editing in Sniper seems more intricate, and the popularity of the film may overshadow Boyhood, especially in these less talked about categories. It is an extremely close race between these two films. My heart is telling me to side with Boyhood, but my gut is saying American Sniper.