Oscar Nominations
So the Oscar Nominations were announced this morning. I know, it's all very subjective and meaningless, but I've always feel a little movie-geeked out when they are announced.
No real surprises this year. A couple of minor ones -- 13-year-old actress Saoirse Ronan got a supporting-actress nomination for Atonement, and Casey Affleck got the family's first acting nomination for his supporting work in The Assassination of Jesse James, in which he was very good.
Cate Blanchett was nominated twice, for Best Actress (in Elizabeth, the Golden Age) and Best Supporting Actress (playing an incarnation of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There). Probably the two most-disparate roles that anyone has ever been nominated for in the same year.
No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood tied for the most nominations, with 8 each; Michael Clayton and Atonement got 7 (even though Atonement was skipped over for Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director). They were all nominated for Best Picture, along with Juno.
Well-reviewed films that were largely shut out include Sweeney Todd, Eastern Promises, American Gangster, 3:10 To Yuma, Charlie Wilson's War, The Great Debaters, Into the Wild, the Bourne Ultimatum and Once. It was a pretty good year for movies.
Best Actor: George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones (In the Valley of Elah), Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd) and Viggo Mortenson (Eastern Promises).
Best Actress: Blanchett, Page, Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose), Julie Christie (Away From Her), and Laura Linney (The Savages).
Best Supporting Actor: Affleck, Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men), Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson's War) and Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton).
Best Supporting Actress: Blanchett, Ronan, Ruby Dee (American Gangster), Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) and Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone).
Best Animated Film: Ratatouille, Persepolis, Surf's Up.
Best Director: Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Jason Reitman (Juno), Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men), Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Christopher Hampton (Atonement), Sarah Polley (Away From Her), Ronald Harwood (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men), Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood).
Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody (Juno), Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), Nancy Oliver (Lars and the Real Girl), Brad Bird (Ratatouille), Tamara Jenkins (The Savages).
Impressively, that's four writing nominations for women, including three of the five best original screenplay nominees.
I'd post my list of the best films of the year, but I still shamelessly, woefully haven't seen a lot of these. Soon.
If anyone else wants to make their picks, go for it.
posted by Scott the Reader @ 8:22 AM
11 Comments:
Overall not bad. I'd take Juno out, even though it was good. I felt Into the Wild and Zodiac got screwed over pretty well. No song nominations for Eddie Vedder? Makes no sense.
These are the predictions I posted in my own blog:
Picture: No Country for Old Men
Directing: Joel and Ethan Coen
Lead Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
Lead Actress: Marion Cotillard
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem
Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett
Animated Film: Ratatouille (I know I should support Persepolis, but Ratatouille has a spot in my heart)
Cinematography: No Country for Old Men (though I could see this going to Diving Bell and Butterly for its amazing use of first-person POV)
Documentary: No End in Sight
Editing: Bourne Ultimatum (and Sound Editing and Sound Mixing) (say what you will about its narrative, you can't knock the technical achievement)
Foreign Film: (haven't seen any of them, but I've heard fantastic things about The Counterfeiters)
Visual Effects: The Golden Compass (though I have a sinking feeling that this could go to Pirates. I will set myself on fire outside the Kodak Theatre if it goes to Transformers.)
Adapted Screenplay: No Country for Old Men
Original Screenplay: Juno
Original Song: (isn't it annoying when one movie has three out of the five nominees? oooh... suspenseful)
Heath is gone!
Best Picture: There Will Be Blood
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (though I'd like to see it go to Viggo Mortenson)
Best Actress: Laura Linney (though frankly if Juno is nominated for script and picture, Ellen Page should be up here because her performance is what made the other nominations possible)
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem
Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton
Best Animated Film: Ratatouille (Persepolis was a good film, as a film and a story, but the animation performance is not award worthy)
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson
Foreign Film: Katyn
Documentary: No End In Sight
Cinematography: The Assasination of Jesse James...
Visual Effects: Pirates
Art Direction: Sweeney Todd
Sound Editing: Ratatouille
Sound Mixing: Ratatouille
Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum
Best Original Screenplay: Ratatouille (I'd like to see an animated film win this once, but I'm pretty sure that Juno will win simply for being the little indie film that could, which is also fine, as it was a pretty good script -- as was Michael Clayton)
Short Live Action: Haven't seen enough of them
Short Animated: Don't care for any of the ones I've seen (I preferred The Ark, which was a Cannes official selection this year)
Like you Scott, I too need to spend a little more time at the multiplex to make educated picks. VERY impressed by the movie knowledge and opinions of those who posted in the peanut gallery.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
What's interesting too is that the 20 acting nominations come from 18 different movies.
Michael Clayton got 3. No other movie got more than 1.
Daniel should win easily. His performance is astounding. Other than that I think it'll be a No Country night, although it'd be sweet if Clayton got Best Pic.
I've got to look pretty deeply into the nominations to find something I've seen, it's pathetic. Ratatouille is the only film at first glance that I've seen in a theater, and I watched Bourne on DVD. Yeah, that's criminal.
daniel day lewis was great, though I didn't get why he still had a bit of a UK accent...
Whatever wins for Editing will win for Best Picture-- that's the way it's gone for the past 27 years.
I can't wait to hear Roderick Jaynes's acceptance speech! His intros to the Coen's scripts are always hilarious.
(yes, I know he's not real)
I'd go with Juno. Granted, I haven't seen most of these either, but Juno just made me feel so damn good I'm really rooting for it.
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