And the Oscar Nominees Are......

[Bearcat729]

NOMINATIONS BY CATEGORY - 79TH AWARDS

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Leonardo DiCaprio - BLOOD DIAMOND
Ryan Gosling - HALF NELSON
Peter O'Toole - VENUS
Will Smith - THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
Forest Whitaker - THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Alan Arkin - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Jackie Earle Haley - LITTLE CHILDREN
Djimon Hounsou - BLOOD DIAMOND
Eddie Murphy - DREAMGIRLS
Mark Wahlberg - THE DEPARTED

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Penélope Cruz - VOLVER
Judi Dench - NOTES ON A SCANDAL
Helen Mirren - THE QUEEN
Meryl Streep - THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
Kate Winslet - LITTLE CHILDREN

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Adriana Barraza - BABEL
Cate Blanchett - NOTES ON A SCANDAL
Abigail Breslin - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Jennifer Hudson - DREAMGIRLS
Rinko Kikuchi - BABEL

Best animated feature film of the year
CARS
HAPPY FEET
MONSTER HOUSE

Achievement in art direction
DREAMGIRLS
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
PAN'S LABYRINTH
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST
THE PRESTIGE

Achievement in cinematography
THE BLACK DAHLIA
CHILDREN OF MEN
THE ILLUSIONIST
PAN'S LABYRINTH
THE PRESTIGE

Achievement in costume design
CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
DREAMGIRLS
MARIE ANTOINETTE
THE QUEEN

Achievement in directing
BABEL
THE DEPARTED
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
THE QUEEN
UNITED 93

Best documentary feature
DELIVER US FROM EVIL
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS
JESUS CAMP
MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY

Best documentary short subject
THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT
RECYCLED LIFE
REHEARSING A DREAM
TWO HANDS

Achievement in film editing
BABEL
BLOOD DIAMOND
CHILDREN OF MEN
THE DEPARTED
UNITED 93

Best foreign language film of the year
AFTER THE WEDDING
DAYS OF GLORY (INDIGÈNES)
THE LIVES OF OTHERS
PAN'S LABYRINTH
WATER

Achievement in makeup
APOCALYPTO
CLICK
PAN'S LABYRINTH

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
BABEL
THE GOOD GERMAN
NOTES ON A SCANDAL
PAN'S LABYRINTH
THE QUEEN

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
"I Need to Wake Up" - AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
"Listen" - DREAMGIRLS
"Love You I Do" - DREAMGIRLS
"Our Town" - CARS
"Patience" - DREAMGIRLS

Best motion picture of the year
BABEL
THE DEPARTED
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
THE QUEEN

Best animated short film
THE DANISH POET
LIFTED
THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL
MAESTRO
NO TIME FOR NUTS

Best live action short film
BINTA AND THE GREAT IDEA (BINTA Y LA GRAN IDEA)
ÉRAMOS POCOS (ONE TOO MANY)
HELMER & SON
THE SAVIOUR
WEST BANK STORY

Achievement in sound editing
APOCALYPTO
BLOOD DIAMOND
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST

Achievement in sound mixing
APOCALYPTO
BLOOD DIAMOND
DREAMGIRLS
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST

Achievement in visual effects
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST
POSEIDON
SUPERMAN RETURNS

Adapted screenplay
BORAT CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN
CHILDREN OF MEN
THE DEPARTED
LITTLE CHILDREN
NOTES ON A SCANDAL

Original screenplay
BABEL
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
PAN'S LABYRINTH
THE QUEEN

[QuikSand]

Modest surprise that Dreamgirls got snubbed for Best Picture. Most didn't think it was likely to win, but did expect the nomination.

[ISiddiqui]

I'm not sure what you'd take out for Dreamgirls though.

And, I'm hoping the Director of United 93 wins the Best Director award. That movie deserves at least one big nod.

[QuikSand]

Dreamgirls got 10 noms (admittedly including three songs), but not Best Picture. I'm sure someone is scouring to see whether that is a record - it has to be close, at least.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

And, I'm hoping the Director of United 93 wins the Best Director award. That movie deserves at least one big nod.

This is Scorcese's year, baby!

[cartman]

As I said in the other post, I'm a little surprised that Ryan Gosling got a nomination over Sacha Baron Cohen.

[ctmason]

Personally surprised that "Children of Men" did not receive more noms.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

I'm not sure what you'd take out for Dreamgirls though.

And, I'm hoping the Director of United 93 wins the Best Director award. That movie deserves at least one big nod.

I'm surprised to hear you say this about United 93. It was awful and I walked out of the movie, which I have only done once before.

[molson]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I'm surprised to hear you say this about United 93. It was awful and I walked out of the movie, which I have only done once before.

Really? I'd be interested to hear why.

[SackAttack]

I'm still wondering how Borat remotely qualifies for Screenplay of the Year.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by molson

Really? I'd be interested to hear why.

I thought the acting was REALLY bad and the writing worse. They did a good job of integrating the real footage and it was emotional because it reminded me of the events. But the acting and writing were just made-for-tv-movie bad imo.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

I'm still wondering how Borat remotely qualifies for Screenplay of the Year.

It's nominated for 'adapted screenplay', which it qualifies for since Borat was originally a TV character. But it is strange, since the whole movie was improvisations. They had some lines planned ahead of time based on how the conversation might go, but nothing at all that resembled a script.

[Desnudo]

The snubbing of Talladega Nights is disappointing.

[Bearcat729]

I didn't realize that Jackie Earle Haley who is up for Best Supporting Actor is Kelly Leak from The Bad News Bears movies.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I'm surprised to hear you say this about United 93. It was awful and I walked out of the movie, which I have only done once before.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. I loved United 93 and would have given it serious consideration for Best Picture.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I thought the acting was REALLY bad and the writing worse. They did a good job of integrating the real footage and it was emotional because it reminded me of the events. But the acting and writing were just made-for-tv-movie bad imo.

From what I understand, many of the "actors" involved were actually the people involved in those positions during 9/11. Except for the people on the plane, obviously, which I thought was very well done. I didn't think it was best picture material, but neither did I think it AWFUL.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

From what I understand, many of the "actors" involved were actually the people involved in those positions during 9/11. Except for the people on the plane, obviously, which I thought was very well done. I didn't think it was best picture material, but neither did I think it AWFUL.

To be fair, i didn't walk out because it was awful. I walked out because it was too emotional combined with being bad.

That being said, I still think it was one of the worst written/acted movies I've seen. I don't know about who the actors were, but they were bad - all of 'em.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Bearcat729

I didn't realize that Jackie Earle Haley who is up for Best Supporting Actor is Kelly Leak from The Bad News Bears movies.

(not that you didn't realize it, just that I had no idea that was him either)

[stevew]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

(not that you didn't realize it, just that I had no idea that was him either)

It was funny, I was looking at IMDB the other day, trying to find some obscure BNB reference, and I checked out what the guy was doing. Interesting that he's up for an award. His work in .....Breaking Training with William DeVane was top notch IMO.

[stevew]

Glad to see the Dreamgirls thing get snubbed....not really a fan whatsoever of Beyonce, she's possibly the most annoying celebrity right now. And Borat/Baron Cohen got screwed, it should have gotten Picture/Actor nominations.

[Butter]

I would've been shocked to see Cohen get nominated for an Oscar for acting. He was portraying a sketch comedy character stretched out to a full length movie. It would be on par with having nominated Mike Myers for Wayne's World.

[ISiddiqui]

FWIW, I thought the writing and acting was pretty decently done in United 93. It wasn't absolutely amazing writing/acting of, say, a Shakespeare in Love (ok, I did that just for WVUFAN ), but it isn't bad either.

I don't think I'm alone in my assessment. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie got a 91% Fresh, 89% by the Cream of the Crop. If the acting was that bad, I don't think you'd have such great reviews.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/united_93/

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

FWIW, I thought the writing and acting was pretty decently done in United 93. It wasn't absolutely amazing writing/acting of, say, a Shakespeare in Love (ok, I did that just for WVUFAN ), but it isn't bad either.

I don't think I'm alone in my assessment. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie got a 91% Fresh, 89% by the Cream of the Crop. If the acting was that bad, I don't think you'd have such great reviews.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/united_93/

Fair point. Dunno, maybe we were watching a different movie .

[cthomer5000]

Im only surprised that DiCaprio got nominated for Blood Diamond (which i did not see) over The Departed.

And i'd be willing to put money on Scorcese for director right now.

edit: And wow, apparently i'm not alone. 1/5 odds on Scorecese. Cancel that plan.

[Easy Mac]

Wasn't one of the signs of the Apocalypse that Jackie Earl Haley, Mark Wahlberg and Eddie Murphy being nominated for Oscars?

[cthomer5000]

So I watched Blood Diamond. It's a very good movie. I really can't label it great, personally. I'm just not sure it's a movie people are still going to mention 10 years from now. This is in no way a reflection of the content of the movies, in which I would say Blood Diamond is the more "important" of the two. I just think The Departed is a genuine cinema masterpiece.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I'm surprised that DiCaprio's nomination came for Blood Diamond (which I hadn't seen at the time) over what I would have to say is a peak-of-the-career performance in The Departed. Having now seen Blood Diamond, I still feel his performance in The Departed is going to be career-defining. So I started wondering about the politics of the Oscars, and how the studios basically define the race themselves by picking a candidate and championing him. Here's what I mean:

You've got 3 actors (IMHO) that really were superb in The Departed. You've got Mark Wahlberg in a what is clearly a supporting role, and then you've got DiCaprio and Matt Damon in roles that could really go either be defined as supporting or lead, particularly as they pertain to the Oscars. (Then of course you've got Jack Nicholson, who is one of the guys why will get a nomination for basically mailing it in, lets leave him out of the discussion for now).

So if you're the studio and you view the Oscars as basically one huge promotional opportunity, your goal is to rack up as many nominations as possible. It is essentialy free advertising in and of itself, and it offers the ability to slap a nice "Nominated for X Oscars!" sticker on the DVDs, etc. So your goal is to receive as many nominations as possible. This means when making some decisions. Do you try to push both DiCaprio and Damon as "Best Lead," and risk splitting the votes and having neither end up in that list of 5?

And in this particular situation, you're kind of in trouble either way... lets say you decide on DiCaprio as your lead, you now have to make the same decision on supporting actor. Do you trot out Damon AND Wahlberg and again risk coming away with nothing? Do you simply drop one entirely, piss them and their agent off, etc.

And I was sitting feeling quite confident that DiCaprio was basically nominated for his collective efforts on both Blood Diamond and The Departed, and feeling certain that if only one of those movies had been released in 2006, his odds of an oscar nomination would have been greater with The Departed.

So, how do I think it played out? Well, it after simply wondering "Which studios released the films?" i think I found my answer. Both films were released by Warner Brothers. So when going back to my whole "try to acquire as many nominations as possible" through process, I failed to think about how this works from a studio perspective.

Anyone who has seen The Departed just knows it's the type of movie that will received it's share of nominations. When I walked out I guaranteed others that had seen it that it would receive nominations for Best Film, Directing, Screenplay, and Dicaprio for lead. I nailed the first 3, and was surprised to see DiCaprio's Blood Diamond nomination. Now it makes a ton of sense.

Warner decides to push DiCaprio for Blood Diamond, and *not* The Departed so that Leo won't split his own vote. They're big winners here, because he got the nomination, which attracts a lot more attention to the film Blood Diamond.

They probably pushed Matt Damon for lead on The Departed and simply lost that gamble. My gut is he would have had a very strong chance in the supporting category.

...and then they pushed Mark Wahlberg for supporting actor. Supporting Actor/tress is historically an area where the Academy picks out some unlikelys. Wahlberg was a bit of surprise to me, but in a very positive way. I thought he was great in the movie, so the studio wins again here.


So... without any specific insight, but just with a working knowledge of how the studios tend to run their Oscar campaigns, I can say i'm fairly certain this is how things went down.

And maybe I just think about movies too much.