There are usually few nights I look forward to more than the night The Academy Awards are held. In many ways, The Oscars are my Super Bowl, and are usually a night of unspeakable enjoyment for me. This year, however, the 87^th Academy Awards proved to be something else entirely.

I’m going to start by getting the embarrassing part out of the way. This year I only got fourteen of the twenty-four categories correct. In any circle this is a pretty rotten score, but for me this is especially hurtful. It’s the lowest number I’ve gotten in more than five years, or to put it another way, the worst I’ve done since I was a freshman in high school.

My record may not show it right now, but I do my homework when it comes to The Oscars. I watched every single movie nominated this year, I read hundreds of articles on them and I cross-examined my list against countless other film critics. I was so sure I had this award season’s picks on lock, and yet, at the end of the night I had only scored a measly 58 percent.

What happened, you asked? I was wondering that same thing.

After some contemplation and a lot of swear words, I find myself coming back to a theory I came up with a month ago. This year was just an incredibly bad year for movies, and an even worse year for The Oscars.

As I look back now at all the movies nominated, I can say with confidence that I truly loved and enjoyed only two of the films up for Best Picture– Boyhood and The Imitation Game. As for the rest, I was either incredibly indifferent towards, or didn’t like at all.

Now I’m not saying that if I don’t like a movie, I can’t think it’s well done (if that were the case, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman would have never appeared as any of my picks). Rather, what I’m saying is that if someone like me had trouble getting excited about the Oscar nominees this year, than it must have been brutal for the average person.

Look at all of the films up for awards this year. How many of them did you actually see? One? Two, maybe? Do you even really care about the Oscars at this point? I feel like the answer from most people is no.

I could go on all day about how the experimental movie Boyhood and its prolific director Richard Linklater were snubbed more than once last night, but what’s the point? The fact of the matter is nobody cares about Boyhood, nor do they care about the movie that ended up winning the night’s top accolade, Birdman.

You’d almost have to be a critic to actually want to go and see these movies, and the same can be said for the award show itself this year.

Besides Neil Patrick Harris’s opening song and dance number, the night lacked any real pulse or enthusiasm. The three hour show dragged on, and it seemed like every few minutes another award was given out to a person no one has ever heard of, for a movie that they didn’t go see.

Now, perhaps I’m being harsh, and perhaps I am bitter from the night, but I think what I’m saying is actually true. This years Oscars were boring, soulless, and disappointing. Hopefully next year brings a better platter of films that are not only enjoyed by the masses, but also deserving of the honor that is an Academy Award.

Best Picture

Birdman — Alejandro G. Inarritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole

Best Director

Alejandro González Iñárritu — Birdman

Best Actor

Eddie Redmayne — The Theory of Everything

Best Actress

Julianne Moore — Still Alice

Best Supporting Actor

J.K. Simmons — Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress

Patricia Arquette — Boyhood

Achievement in Costume Design

Milena Canonero — The Grand Budapest Hotel

Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling 

Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier — The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Foreign Language Film

Ida  – Pawel Pawlikowski

Best Live Action Short Film

The Phone Call — Matt Kirkby and James Lucas

Best Documentary Short Subject

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 — Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Dana Perry

Original Screenplay 

Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and Armando Bo

Achievement in Sound Mixing

Whiplash — Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, Thomas Curley

Achievement in Sound Editing

American Sniper —  Alan Robert Murray Bub Asman

Achievement in Visual Effects

Interstellar — Ian Hunter, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley and Paul Franklin

Best Animated Short

Feast — Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed

Best Animated Movie

Big Hero Six — Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli

Achievement in Production Design

The Grand Budapest Hotel — Adam Stockhausen and Anna Pinnock

Achievement in Cinematography

Birdman — Emannuel Lubezki

Achievement in Film Editing

Whipalsh — Tom Cross

Best Documentary Feature

Citizen Four — Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky

Best Original Song

Glory — John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn

Best Original Score

The Grand Budapest Hotel — Alexandre Desplat

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Imitation Game – Graham Moore