81st Annual Academy Awards Nominations

[Franz Ferdinand]

I just recently caught up with Happy-Go-Lucky, and I quite enjoyed both Hawkins and Marsan - thinking at least she was guaranteed a place, and hoping Marsan would find his way in. I am a bit disappointed with how that played out.

[rolotomasi99]

What did you find the most troublesome, Rolo?

--the good--
8 noms for MILK
multiple noms for FROZEN RIVER and DOUBT
no noms for GRAN TORINO
screenplay nom for IN BRUGES

--the bad--
no screenplay noms for SYNECDOCHE, NY and RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
no double acting nom for winslet
far too few noms for REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
any nom for CHANGELING outside of jolie
still no female ever nom'd for cinematography

--the ugly--
no best picture for THE DARK KNIGHT or WALL-E



Edited By rolotomasi99 on 1232640922

[MovieWes]

I'm disappointed that neither WALL-E or The Dark Knight could score Best Picture nominations, but damn... 8 nominations is a lot for a movie that wasn't nominated for Best Picture. The Dark Knight is up in Dreamgirls and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? territory, isn't it? And 6 nominations for WALL-E is pretty extraordinary as well.

[Big Magilla]

Most everything of ineterst has already been said here, except I don't think anyone's mentioned the surprise snub of Woody Allen for Original Screenplay.

I was going to mention it, but thought I'd be nice after dissing the skinny English girl.

The award is supposed to be for best writing of a screenplay, not the most words used in writing a screenplay. It's an awful screenplay that shouldn't be nominated for anything except maybe a Razzie. His use of narration to state the obvious is the most intrusive of any film within memory. The only thing worse than his writing on this film was his direction of his two "stars", Rebecca Hall and Scarlet Johanssen, each of whom seem to be trying to out-Anine Hall the other.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1232638761

[Mike Kelly]

I have a feeling that if it wasn't for the "Barry Fitzgerald" rule, Winslet would have received nominations for The Reader in both lead and supporting categories. As it stands, while I think she is the favorite for Best Actress, I wonder if she would have had smoother sailing in the Supporting Actress cagtegory. I wouldn't count out Meryl Streep just yet.

[Jim20]

Such an uninspired group of Best Picture nominees. The Academy deserves the poor ratings this year. And yes, I do believe they are completely out of touch.

[Big Magilla]

Big Magilla reducing her to "the skinny girl" tells me that the veteran, "old school" members must just not have gotten her performance.

Got it, just weren't impressed.

[OscarGuy]

I think the Minghella/Pollack connection helped the film more than Weinstein, though he definitely pushed the film hard...but it's still interesting that voters rejected his push of Winslet in supporting...

Some history:

13-nomination films that didn't win Best Picture: Mary Poppins, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

13-nomination films that did win Best Picture: Gone with the Wind, From Here to Eternity, Forrest Gump, Shakespeare in Love, Chicago

10-nomination films that won Best Picture: The Life of Emile Zola, How Green Was My Valley, Going My Way, The Apartment, Lawrence of Arabia, Tom Jones, The Sound of Music, Patton, The Godfather, The Sting, Rocky, Braveheart.

It's still a race. History favors both films. Notice Rocky in the 10-nomination camp and Forrest Gump in the 13-nomination camp.

And historically, the 13-nod losing films lost to: My Fair Lady (12 nominations), A Man for All Seasons (8 nominations), A Beautiful Mind (8 nominations).

Also, since Director matches Best Picture, our next best help is Editing where only The Reader is excluded.

Slumdog's only hurdle now is that it received no Acting nominations. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King was the last film to win without them. Before that, you have to go back to Braveheart and before that The Last Emperor. So, it's not a no-go but it doesn't help. And those three films are all period films with heavy segments set during war times and are epic in nature.

[Sonic Youth]

Harvey Weinstein is Oscar god. He made it once again despite all the negative publicity. Wow

It only took... how many years before he finally got another one?

From immortal deities, I expect better than "first time in x years."

[OscarGuy]

Damien, you just reminded me...I called for a Woody Allen snub some time ago and stuck to my guns keeping it out of my predictions.

my success:

5/5: Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Visual Effects (3/3)

I didn't do abjectly terrible in any category except Foreign Film where I only got 2 of 5, which goes to show that even with a list of finalists, you can't predict where the Foreign Language voters will go.



Edited By OscarGuy on 1232636250

[Damien]

Most everything of ineterst has already been said here, except I don't think anyone's mentioned the surprise snub of Woody Allen for Original Screenplay.

I didn't have much of a rooting interest invested this year (still have a bunch of films to catch up on), so nothing about these nomiantions affect me greatly one way or the other. I do like Milk quite a bit, though. And since Paranoid Park is my favorite movie so far, I'll be rooting for Gus van Sant.

Favorite surprise inclusion: Milk for Costume Design (how did something that subtle sneak in?)

Never say never, but if Wall-E couldn't score a Best Picture nomination, it's hard to imagine any animated film doing so. Yay! The cartoonists demanded a special category for and now they're destined to fester in that ghetto only. Serves them right.



Edited By Damien on 1232636490

[Sonic Youth]

LOL! Here's my big AMPAS nominations story. Ten minutes before the announcement, my cable and internet service went out.

And that's all I have to say, really. Don't snipe at each other too ruthlessly, people.

Oh, as for ratings. We'll see how big the Dark Knight's fanbase's loyalty for their favorite film is, if they refuse to watch Heath Ledger's inevitable win out of childish spite.

[FilmFan720]

Last years returning nominees:

Roger Deakins (Cinematography, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford / Cinematography, No Country for Old Men - Cinematography, The Reader)
Eric Fellner (Picture, Atonement - Picture, Frost/Nixon)
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Supporting Actor, Charlie Wilson's War - Supporting Actor, Doubt)
James Newton Howard (Score, Michael Clayton - Score, Defiance)
David Parker (Sound Mixing, The Bourne Ultimatum - Sound Mixing, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Michael Semanick (Sound Mixing, Ratatouille - Sound Mixing, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button / Sound Mixing, Wall-E)
Albert Wolsky (Costume Design, Across the Universe - Costume Design - Revolutionary Road)
Matthew Wood (Sound Editing, There Will Be Blood - Sound Editing, Wall-E)

[anonymous1980]

This goes to show you that the BAFTA's should never underestimated. The Reader did well there and The Dark Knight was snubbed in the top categories save for Ledger. At the back of my mind, I thought that was trouble for The Dark Knight because last year, we have largely written off Atonement but then, it did extremely well at the BAFTA nominations and scooped 7 noms including Best Picture. I didn't want to believe it but my instincts were right.

Never fucking underestimate a Holocaust movie.

[Bog]

What did you find the most troublesome, Rolo?