80th Academy Awards Nominations

[Mike Kelly]

Some Nomination Day Trivia:

Cate Blanchett becomes the first actress to be nominated twice for the same role. She joins actors Bing Crosby, Peter O'Toole, Al Pacino, Paul Newman with this accomplishment.

Hal Holbrook edges out Ralph Richardson as the oldest Supporting Actor Nominee.

Ruby Dee sets record for shortest performance (under 5 minutes) to receive a nomination.

[Akash]

Well, late last year, he thanked the children's hospital who took care of his daughter (who almost died from E. coli poisoning) by donating $2 million and entertaining the kids by reading bedtime stories as Capt. Jack Sparrow for four hours. He did all of it in secret last November (it was only revealed by a tabloid only recently). He wins a lot of cool points with me on that.

And this makes him sexy because....?

Oh right, a child was involved. Of course you're turned on.

[Akash]

Why would you assume everything Tom O'Neil says is true? I do think the double-standard applies to younger men in the lead category.

Hello? I've made fun of Tom O'Neil how many times? I'm just assuming -- since he ALWAYS quotes this statistic, and since it's not one of his crazy conspiracy theories, and since it's something that would be pretty easy for any of the many entertainment people he's said it to to fact check and impeach him on -- that there might be some truth to it.

Also, I'm not debating the sexism that plays out in Actor and Actress at all. It's all too obvious. Pretentious unattractive men like PS Hoffman are seen as real actors, and are HELPED by the fact that they aren't "pretty" (they are taken way more seriously) whereas female actors are given credit for being pretty and playing against type etc. Typical gender bullshit. My point was just that it has nothing to do with a lack of gay men in the Academy since straight women probably comprise a large enough bloc and are just as susceptible to gender inequalities and sexist ideology as straight men.



Edited By Akash on 1201015295

[OscarGuy]

Here are two reasons The Simpsons didn't get a nod and what should have been my first indication Surf's Up was a contender.

Simpsons was largely animated in other country's. It's work has been exported for years and really has very little ties to the American animation industry, but still acts like a truly American production. That's a bitter taste in the mouths of the animators who nominate here.

Simpsons is also a TV-to-screen adaptation. We've all seen how well those go over. There's a disconnect between film animators and tv animators, perhaps a jealousy. There may be some overlap, but I think it's television origins hurt it a good deal.

We should have seen Surf's Up coming because it led the Annie Awards nominations. They may not be the best precursors, but they do tell us quite a lot about how the animation industry feels about the year's films.

When I heard Persepolis called out, I let out a sigh of relief, then a knot of apprehension got me. I knew Ratatouille was in, but right before they announced Surf's Up, I had a premonition that The Simpsons Movie would lose out to that or Shrek 3.

Ratatouille ended up with an astounding 5 nominations. Beauty and the Beast has the most in Academy history with 6. But it was bolstered by 3 song nominations. Ratatouille got Screenplay, Animated Film, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Score.



Edited By OscarGuy on 1201015110

[Sonic Youth]

For all the justified griping of the parochial mindset of the Foreign Film committed, I suppose it's worth noting that there's only one Western European nominee this year. And it's not France or Italy.



Edited By Sonic Youth on 1201014892

[Sonic Youth]

I can't speak for Eric but I've never understood the sex appeal of Johnny Depp. He's a wonderful actor (or he was) but he always seems dopey and dirty to me. And have you ever seen him in interviews? Boring and uncharismatic. And not particularly intelligent either.

Well, late last year, he thanked the children's hospital who took care of his daughter (who almost died from E. coli poisoning) by donating $2 million and entertaining the kids by reading bedtime stories as Capt. Jack Sparrow for four hours. He did all of it in secret last November (it was only revealed by a tabloid only recently). He wins a lot of cool points with me on that.

Me too. He's always been a good guy.

So give him the Hersholt instead.

[Uri]

Count me in as one of the very few who are happy with Blanchet in the lead list. She was way too young, the movie was way too silly and so on, but technically, as a piece of acting, it was more than acceptable (not being an Australian, I'm free of the built in resentment towards her Precious Doll seems to have. I keep mine for Amos Gitai). There is no way I would have nominated her last year, for example, but this year she's due solely for the fact that there is really no one else – Angelina Jolie's exclusion was one of today's highlights for me.

And I'm mildly please for Beaufort. It was not my favorite Israeli film of the year (My Father My Lord was), but for trying so hard to be "just like a movie made in Hollywood" if not for anything else, its nomination seems like the right thing. And the irony is that The Band's Visit fiasco was probably a great booster, for the silly people on that laughable committee must have felt guilty for its disqualification, they were more attentive towards its arch rival. Anyway, it's a big deal here – the opening item on the news (no Gaza, no stock market crash –nada), a press conference with the filmmakers is due shortly and I can imagine the patriotic headlines on tomorrow's papers. And WE were not nominated for 23 years, so it's about time. And the Israeli film industry is sort of booming in recent years, so it is nice.

[Sonic Youth]

Wow, if only I didn't get into the Into the Wild hype, I would have still kept Jason Reitman as a director prediciton and Sarah Polley in the Adapted Screenplay catagory. I knew that Into the Wild wouldn't get into to Best Picture, I just had that feeling.

Yes, we're all a bad influence here.

I think it was Magilla who got the "Into the Wild" bandwagon going, but I sealed the deal declaring that since "Diving Bell" was a sure thing, it all came down to "Juno" and "Into the Wild" with the latter winning out. It also took me a long, long time to buy into "Into the Wild". I should have held out.

And when Reitman's name was announced, that's when I knew I REALLY misjudged that one. Oy.

Guess enough people finally saw Atonement. :p JUST enough, but enough.

Has anyone actually seen Tommy Lee Jones in "Valley of Elah"? He's very, very good. The movie itself is interesting at best. It's verrrrry slow and - in stark contrast to 'Crash - verrrrrry quiet, and basically it's a... what exactly IS it?... an elegiac meditation on the psychic toll an extended war takes on the soldiers is probably the best way to describe it. I suppose in that sense it's anti-Iraq War only by extension, but never explicitly, so some are going to hate it for that reason alone. But in Crash, the characters served as exaggerated-on-purpose mouthpieces for their social and racial categories. (I still think Crash was aiming for satire; it probably plays better that way.) Here, there's real depth of feeling for the characters, especially Jones', who plays an old-school conservative traditionalist army loyalist. Haggis recognizes his "other-ness" but never judges him (just as well, since he's grieving for his son.) It's a perfect role for Jones who grows more archtypally American in his demeanor the older he gets, and frankly, I liked him more here than in "No Country".

And as for the nominations tie between "No Country" and "Blood", I think it's easy to assume "Blood" would have had more noms had it not been disqualified for Score yesterday. More and more, I'm thinking it's "Blood's" to win.

Fuckin' A, the sound categories for "No Country".

The Simpsons stopped being relevant after season 5.

One advantage to having a small community: Oscar Watch has crashed.



Edited By Sonic Youth on 1201015496

[anonymous1980]

And, Penelope, at least we can rest happily in the fact that Sweeney Todd won't win 3 Oscars, 2 maximum. No Makeup nod.

I'll be praying for a Johnny Depp upset in Best Actor. :p

[Eric]

I was sort of being flippant in saying it, but there is a lot of truth in the notion that Best Actor candidates' median age is a lot higher than that for Best Actress. That said, it was interesting that it was Angelina Jolie who made room for Laura Linney.

[flipp525]

Tom O'Neil touts this statistic every year so I'm assuming it's true.

Why would you assume everything Tom O'Neil says is true? I do think the double-standard applies to younger men in the lead category. Although, I also happen to think that Gosling, Hirsch, and McAvoy were all on the fringe of a nomination as it was. Only one of them (if any) was going to make it into the final five in the end.



Edited By flipp525 on 1201014366

[OscarGuy]

And, Penelope, at least we can rest happily in the fact that Sweeney Todd won't win 3 Oscars, 2 maximum. No Makeup nod.

[OscarGuy]

It's also been said that a lot of the male voters allow their wives to fill out their ballots.

[Akash]

I don't think there are enough women in the Academy, either.

I'm pretty sure a significant number of Oscar voters are women -- almost half. Which is better than the critics groups anyway (Tom O'Neil touts this statistic every year so I'm assuming it's true).



Edited By Akash on 1201014020

[anonymous1980]

I can't speak for Eric but I've never understood the sex appeal of Johnny Depp. He's a wonderful actor (or he was) but he always seems dopey and dirty to me. And have you ever seen him in interviews? Boring and uncharismatic. And not particularly intelligent either.

Well, late last year, he thanked the children's hospital who took care of his daughter (who almost died from E. coli poisoning) by donating $2 million and entertaining the kids by reading bedtime stories as Capt. Jack Sparrow for four hours. He did all of it in secret last November (it was only revealed by a tabloid only recently). He wins a lot of cool points with me on that.