The 87th Annual Academy Awards will take place on Feb. 22 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. The prestigious film award ceremony has many people talking, including experts as well as Moorpark College students.

The most highly coveted award at the Oscars is the best picture award. It represents the highest overall achievement of any movie released in the past year.

“It is a very unique moment and such a supremely happy one,” said Steve Carrell for an interview at the Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon on being nominated this year.

This year there are eight best picture nominees. Many experts are unanimous in their prediction for “Boyhood”, a film about the highs and lows of growing up, to win this category. The movie already won the Golden Globe and the Critic’s Choice Award for best picture and shows great achievement in directing, storytelling, and acting, as it was filmed over 12 years with the same cast.

Some Moorpark College students have a different opinion on which film should win best picture.

“’Theory of Everything’ was an amazing movie because those not living with the disease can really capture what it would be like,” said Amanda Alfino, a 19-year-old psychology major from Camarillo, on a film about Steven Hawking’s life with Lou Gehrig’s disease. “I can really relate because my cousin has a motor neuron disease.”

“American Sniper”, a film about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s duty in Iraq and “Selma”, a film about Martin Luther King Jr.’s struggle to gain voting rights for African Americans, have been the most talked about films in the past few weeks over social media.

“Go Bradley; he has worked really hard for this film,” said Cecilia Larson, a 21-year-old Chemistry major from Simi Valley.

Many believe that the director of “Selma”, Ava DuVernay, should have received a nomination for best director. The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite broke out on Twitter when she was not nominated for the award and many believe it is a blatant sign of racism amongst the primarily white male academy.

“Selma shouldn’t have been the only hope for faces of color in this type of celebration of film,” said DuVernay during a video interview for Democracy Now.

“American Sniper” has proven too conservative for most movie experts and critics, which is why many do not expect it to receive the best picture award. Despite these opinions, the film has obtained over $200 million in box office sales in it’s first two weeks in theaters and has become a fan favorite across the country.

“’American Sniper’ ended really abruptly, which makes sense because war is abrupt,” said Larson.

To catch the movie awards, performances, and extravagant celebrity outfits tune into the Oscars on Feb. 22 at 4 p.m. on ABC.