While at the Winter TCA tour to promote the new Hulu adaptation of Stephen King's 11.22.63, director J.J. Abrams continued to field questions about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Namely, Abrams was asked whether he think the film should receive consideration at the Oscars. "There are certain people that I know deserve it definitely and it would be wonderful if they got it. I feel like the gift of working on that film is such that I don’t need any further validation than the movie being out there and people liking the movie. There are people that I will be disappointed if they don’t get nominated because I think that the work they did was really exemplary."'
When pressed to name who those individuals are that he thinks deserve nominations, Abrams declined to go into detail. Abrams could be referring to members of The Force Awakens cast (Daisey Ridley, John Boyega) or members of the crew, like the cinematographer (Daniel Mindel) or the editors (Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon). "If I mention eight people, the ninth person would be like, ‘Thanks.’ But honestly, it feels obvious to me who deserves that kind of recognition. They might not even care. This may be something that they’re like, ‘Oh please.’ I feel like I saw how hard some of these artists worked and I feel they are deserving, but they probably don’t."
Nominations for the 88th Academy Awards will be announced on January 14th at 5:30AM PST.