Babel
The Departed
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
How I Went: I predicted 4 of these, as did most people. I had Dreamgirls in the space that's currently occupied by Iwo Jima.
Thoughts: Well... er... wow. I don't particularly care that Dreamgirls got snubbed (not like if, say, Moulin Rouge! or Chicago had missed), but it was my favourite of the bunch and now it's not there. Hmmm. I'm thinking Dreamgirls just didn't get enough #1 or #2 votes (understandable, having seen the film), but it's still a shock.
BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93
How I Went: Another 4/5, and again I had predicted Dreamgirls's Bill Condon instead of
Thoughts: I knew Greengrass would be nominated. I knew it. I've been saying it since April. It was just the type of director/film this branch rewards. The Eastwood nomination... well, that's not surprising really, but still.
BEST ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, HalfNelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
How I Went: 3.5/5. I had Sasha Baron Cohen instead of Gosling (my alternate) and even though I predicted Leonardo, I predicted him to be nominated for The Departed.
Thoughts: Not one of these men is in a Best Picture nominee - crazy! And Leonardo for Blood Diamond and not The Departed - crazy! Also, Blood Diamond got two acting nominations, and The Departed got one - crazy!
BEST ACTRESS
Penelope Cruze, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, Thhe Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children
How I Went: 5/5 here
Thoughts: *grumbles* Oh well. The best year for actresses in ages and we get the same five nominees at every awards show.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed
How I Went: I got 3/5 here, correctly picking Arkin, Murphy and Wahlberg, but I missed out on Affleck and Nicholson (that was a big surprise, but a nice one!) for Hounsou and Haley (my major alternate).
Thoughts: At least this year's craziest category made way for three newcomers instead of sticking with people like Nicholson. I know I should be, but I was surprised to see Hounsou show up. I suppose I should see that movie now. It has 5 nominations in total, which makes it pretty major. Blah.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel
How I Went: Yeah, 5/5 here. Pretty standard. I really was hoping for an Emily Blunt surprise, but...
Thoughts: Even though it didn't get a Best Picture nomination, I think Jennifer has this sown up. Eddie up there not so much, but Jennifer I reckon is gonna get it.
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Guillermo Arriaga, Babel
Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis, Letters from Iwo Jima
Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine
Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth
Peter Morgan, The Queen
How I Went: 3/5 here, I predicted Volver and United 93 over Pan's Labyrinth and Iwo Jima, which were my two alternates.
Thoughts: Disappointing to not see Volver or U93 there, but alas... there's two nominees called Guillermo! And now Paul Haggis becomes a five time nominee in the span of three years. Isn't that crazy!?!
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Sasha Baron Cohen and co, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Alfonso Cuaron and co, Children of Men
William Monaghan, The Departed
Todd Field and Tom Perrotta, Little Children
Patrick Marber, Notes on a Scandel
How I Went: 3/5 here too. I got the middle three, but predicted The Devil Wears Prada and Thank You For Smoking instead of Borat! and Scandel.
Thoughts: So happy Borat! got in, but sad for The Devil Wears Prada. Oh well. What a diverse and interesting bunch though! There's comedy, there's sci-fi, there's action, there's melodrama and there's straight drama.
ANIMATED FEATURE
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House
How I Went: Yeah, 3/3
Thoughts: I really hope Happy Feet can win, but if it does go to Cars I'll be happy cause I love that movie too. It'll just be kind of frustrating cause Ratatouille looks solid for next year and this category is in jeopardy of becoming the Pixar Category. Plus, I want George Miller to have an Oscar.
ANIMATED SHORT
The Danish Poet
Lifted
The Little Matchgirl
Maestro
No Time for Nuts
I didn't predict this category. Way to go for the nominees though!
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Algeria, Days of Glory [Indegines]
Canada, Water
Denmark, After the Wedding
Germany, The Lives of Others
Mexico, Pan's Labyrinth
How I Went: 3/5 here, picking Volver over After the Wedding and Blackbook instead of Days of Glory, which was my alternate.
Thoughts: WHERE IS VOLVER?!?! There is no excuse for Almodovar's Volver to not be here. Although, I'd really like people to stop insinuating that Deepa Mehta's quite superb Water was the one was knocked Volver out, when it was clearly After the Wedding.
ART DIRECTION
Dreamgirls
The Good Shepherd
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Prestige
How I Went: 3/5. I predicted Dreamgirls, Pan's Labyrinth and The Prestige (I think I was one of the only people who predicted Chris Nolan's fabo film to get any notice) but had predicted Children of Men and Flags of Our Father.
Thoughts: Didn't see The Good Shepherd coming, but the Pirates nod is acceptable to me. The design was really great there all around. So happy that The Prestige got noticed (and that I predicted it!). It got another nod for Cinematography (below) so I'm happy. It totally deserved them. That there was so Children of Men is sad, but I said it months ago. While it was totally awards-worthy, I didn't think it would be nominated because a lot of it is just countrysides and houses.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Black Dahlia
Children of Men
The Illusionist
Pan's Labyrinth
The Prestige
How I Went: I got 3/5 yet again, I missed on The Black Dahlia and The Prestige for Blood Diamond and Dreamgirls
Thoughts: My "OMG" prediction (the one that I could love to see happen) was The Black Dahlia, so umm... I'm sorta FUCKIN' HAPPY AS LARRY!!! Yeah. AND The Prestige and Children of Men!!!! This is always my favourite tech category, and this year they've gone above and beyond. YAY!
COSTUME DESIGN
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Queen
How I Went: 4/5 here, missing on The Queen for The Painted Veil. The Queen wasn't even on my radar.
Thoughts: Okay, so after watching the nomination announcements I thought Paul Greengrass's Director nod was my favourite, but no - my favourite is Patricia Fields' nomination for The Devil Wears Prada. Holy jesus! That is brilliant. SO HAPPY! Man! I love it so much! The rest are pretty great too. Even The Queen - finally recognising that contemporary costuming that effects your perception of character is just as awards worthy as same-ol-same-ol period costumes. EEEEEP! So happy.
FILM EDITING
Babel
Blood Diamond
Children of Men
The Departed
United 93
How I Went: 3/5. I predicted The Queen and Dreamgirls instead of Children of Men and Blood Diamond
Thoughts: So happy that United 93 and Children of Men got in. Here's hoping that they don't give the prize to Babel and actually give it to a movie whose editing was one of the very reasons why it was so good (United 93). It's possible considering the editing is quite flashy. Sorta glad Dreamgirls didn't get in - some of that editing was annoying.
MAKE UP
Apocalypto
Click
Pan's Labyrinth
How I Went: 1/3 only getting Pan's Labyrinth
Thoughts: LOL. Click is now an Oscar nominees. Kris Tapley keeps mentioning Time Machine, but that year there were only two films shortlisted! This year there wasn't any excuse for not going with something else. Blech. What a bad category. I'm pretty sure Pan's will get this.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns
How I Went: 2/3, missing Poseidon
Thoughts: Whatever.
ORIGINAL SCORE
Gustavo Santaolalla, Babel
Thomas Newman, The Good German
Phillip Glass, Notes on a Scandal
Javier Navarette, Pan's Labyrinth
Alexandre Desplat, The Queen
How I Went: Er. So, I'm saying I got 2, but really only 1. I predicted Babel, but I predicted different scores for Glass and Desplat so that's .5 for each. I thought Glass would get in for The Illusionist and Desplat wouldget in for The Painted Veil. Also predicted DaVinci Code instead of the dead Good German
Thoughts: Hmmm. I wish Desplat had got a nod for The Painted Veil, but at least he's now an ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE! Hopefully next time he does a score as genius as Birth or Painted Veil he will get in. Still, I liked The Queen's score. I thought Oscar regular Newman wouldn't make it for a change because his film was dead. Hmm. Sad that Clint Mansell didn't make it for The Fountain
ORIGINAL SONG
An Inconvenient Truth, "I Need To Wake Up"
Cars, "Our Town"
Dreamgirls, "Listen"
Dreamgirls, "Love You I Do"
Dreamgirls, "Patience"
How I Went: I got 3/5, plus an alternate. Missed the last two Dreamgirls songs for songs from Happy Feet and Bobby
Thoughts: Three nominations from Dreamgirls! Holy crap. But, you know what? I don't care. Apart from them all being great songs, they are actually IN the movie. They aren't like the Oscar-nominated songs from Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera and the Globe-nominated Producers song. They were just over the credits, the Dreamgirls songs are incorporated into the movie and given proper scenes. So, way to go.
SOUND MIXING
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Dreamgirls
Flags of Our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
How I Went: 2/5. I had The Departed, Casino Royale and Happy Feet
Thoughts: Meh. Whatever.
SOUND EDITING
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Flags of Our Fathers
Letters from Iwo Jima
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
How I Went: 2/5. I missed my predictions of Cars, Happy Feet and Superman Returns althought when I was doing my predictions I really couldn't have cared any less. I reiterate though: "Why is there five nominees this year? NOBODY CARES" Seriously. THese match 4/5 with the sound mixing category. What's the point?
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Deliver Us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq in Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country
How I Went: I got 4/5, missing Shut Up & Sing for My Country, My Country
Thoughts: Aww, I wanted the Dixie Chicks to show up! Oh well. I haven't seen any of these, so I don't really have an opinion, although it'd be nice if the standard Truth could make way for something like Deliver Us From Evil
DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The Blood of Yingzhou District
Recycled Life
Rehearsing a Dream
Two Hands
I did predict this category. Congrats to these guys though.
LIVE ACTION SHORT
Binta and the Great Idea
Eramos Pocos
Helmer and Son
The Saviour
West Bank Story
I didn't predict this category, but I hope The Saviour can win. It's Australian (or made by Australians at least), but congrats to the others anyway.
So... yeah. Hmmm. Interesting lot. Some disappointments (VOLVER!!!) but they're made better (slightly) by stuff like Greengrass, Patricia Field and love for Children of Men and Borat.
4 comments:
Oh my god, that red ink was SCARY, how did you do that???
Also, how do you put YouTube videos directly into your blog post? I really want to and can't figure out how. And you know how to do everything.
re: oscar nominations...
Desplat's The Queen nod sadly reminds me so much of Clarkson's Pieces of April nod a few years ago. They finally recognize a genius talent after SO many years of ignoring them, but then they have to do it for their least inspired piece of work ever, when they even had a better one out that very year. Meh.
Also, do you feel like maybe Prada could actually WIN costume design? I have this weird feeling that maybe it will. Now that Dreamgirls has lost some steam. I feel like maybe all those people who really wanna vote for Meryl Streep but aren't allowed to cause it's the year of MIRREN will throw a vote to her film in that category. Plus it'll make them feel cool.
Yeah, the Volver snub is inexcusable. TOTALLY worthy of red ink.
I also predicted United and Volver for screenplay, and am pissed that neither of them made it.
I still think Whitaker could easily lose to O'Toole.
Random note: I can't believe you liked Dreamgirls better than Little Miss Sunshine.
Other random note: Why do you want Truth to lose? Have you seen it???
Oh, and do see Blood Diamond. It's bad, but it's still entertaining. JConn's terrible line readings are totally quotable in their badness. And Leo and Djimon are pretty damn hot together.
I like surprises Adam. Inconvenient Truth losing would be a surprise and I think the more attention given to a film like Deliver Us From Evil the better, quite frankly.
Desplat = Clarkson = so true
I think another reason The Devil Wears Prada could win Costume Design (other than there's no Best Picture nominee other than The Queen, which ain't winning there) is because Patricia Field is so respected. Like, crazily so. She hasn't done that much film or even tv work, but shes I think there's a big amount of support for her.
I really wanna watch Little Miss Sunshine again. I think I may like it more? Which would mean it's actually a B+. I just don't know. My feelings keep fluctuating. I think LMS is definitely better made (Dreamgirls is sloppy sometimes), but... yeah. I dunno. It's a very confusing year all up, actually.
I'm sending you an email with the rest.
Thanks.
...but re: Truth, the "more attention the better" argument is EXACTLY why it should win. I mean, really. Global warming is scary.
And yeah, see Little Miss Sunshine again. And just remember that all those unlikely events COULD happen. Unlikely, but quite possible. Don't let that get in the way of your enjoyment.
Pfft. I haven't seen Truth but even I can tell it's preaching to the converted. The only people that movie is shocking are those that already knew there was a problem.
Meanwhile Deliver Us From Evil is just as socially necessary from what I've seen/read. The men in that film need to be publicly shamed but the film made barely any box office, and I can't think of anything wider than the Oscars.
My main issue with LMS still remainds the ending. I'll see if I can get over it with another viewing... whenever its out on DVD.
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