*** Official Oscar Nominations and Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Inspector Hammer!]

In hopes of avoiding an all night quoting and answer session, i'll simply state that you guy's can of course believe what you'd like about the Oscars and i'll believe what I will about them and we'll leave it at that.

I didn't intend to become the bad guy of this thread, but it looks like I have and i'm sorry.

I leave you to your discussion now.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Like others, I was just absolutely *floored* that Revenge of the Sith was not *at least* nominated in the Visual Effects category.

I can't think of a single scene in the movie that did not entail multiple complex SFX. And, unlike the previous two prequel movies in the series, the SFX that was provided perfectly served the story. Which, BTW, most definitely had a soul!

In fairness, I haven't seen Narnia yet, but based on what I know of the movie, I don't think that every single scene was permeated with SFX the way ROTS was. Heck, take just the Balcony Scene in ROTS (The scene in which Anakin and Padme' first discuss Anakin's premonition of her death): This one scene, one of the most sedate in the movie, had more SFX work going on in the background than 10 average Hollywood movies.

Color me *shocked*!!

 

[Vickie_M]

Ok, but I'll still ask a few. Since you're disregarding what some of *us* are saying, after all.

What constitues a "celebrity" to you? People whose faces you know on sight?

Do you think all, or even most, of the nominees this year are celebrities to the general public?

Do you think all the nominees are "sinfully rich"?

If a small handful of nominees are bona fide celebrities (George Clooney for example) and are actually rich (Speilberg, for example), how does who and what they are rub off onto and condemn people like Amy Adams and Bennett Miller and Terrence Howard?

Since most, if not all, of the clothes and jewelry that the nominees wear are loaners from designers (no one pays for their clothes, not if they're a nominee), how does what they wear imply that they're sinfully rich?

Since when has being rich become sinful?

And what of it? Do you think Spielberg doesn't deserve the money he's earned?

No one's boohooing for actual celebrities who earn huge paychecks, but believe it or not, those people are only a small percentage of actors/directors. How can you not believe that few actors are celebrities and that most actors are struggling?

Anyway, the Academy Awards aren't "meaningless" just because movies you liked didn't get nominated. Their biggest benefit is to smaller films, giving them publicity and a box office (or DVD) boost that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Movies like Capote and GNaGL and Fargo and Sling Blade and tons of others got/are getting attention they badly needed and richly deserved. Your like or dislike of the films doesn't enter into it.

You can think and say whatever you like regarding that all actors are ultra rich celebrities and all awards shows are meaningless. Doesn't make it true.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Vickie,
i've been around here long enough to know that when one steps into a mudhole as I have, and if that individual is outnumbered by the majority, he or she will not win a debate here or even stand a chance, no matter if they feel that they're right or not.

I haven't disregarded what you've said, i'll state again that I do not want to get dragged into a big debate about this because I won't stand a chance and it will derail the thread further.

I simply don't care for award shows, that's all, any of them.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I agree with you that I don't see any reason why you should have to continue in this discussion, if you don't want to, so let's get back to discussing the subject matter at hand.





Crawdaddy

 

[Brian W.]

If Brokeback wins BP, it'll be the first time in 25 years, since "Ordinary People" in 1980, that a film has won Best Picture without a nom for Editing.

 

[Tino]

It's always amusing every year when people gripe that the Oscars are BS because their film wasn't nominated.

I for one love the Oscars and for the most part think they get it right with their nominations and wins.

I absolutely loved Crash as it is my #1 film of the year and am thrilled to see it recognized by the Academy. As I said previously, I hope it pulls an upset and beats BBM for BP and BD. Imo, it excels over BBM, a film I liked very much, in every area.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Don't eat oranges on March 5th, Adam. Citric acid stings on the way back up.

 

[Holadem]

Is it as bad as uric acid?

--
H

 

[Lew Crippen]

Sound (Effects) Editing, Visual Effects, and Makeup have been limited to three nominations (and sometimes only two) for some time (although Best Makeup did get four nominations in 2000). Best Visual Effects was not even a category in 1991 and 1984, as the visual effects in Total Recall and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi got a ‘Special Achievement Awards’—but no nominations, as there was no category. Similarly, there was no Best Sound Effects category in 1988, 1985.

The point here is that if there is any standard in certain specialized categories, it is three, not five—and sometimes even when the category is dropped, deserving films still get recognition.

 

[Vickie_M]

I guessed that.

In my whole life I have never EVER walked out on a film. I always try to find SOME worth to justify my time. My husband and I were so bored and appalled by The Producers that we walked out, and it felt good.

I've never felt the desire to go into a thread about The Producers and talk about how much I disliked it. I figure, what's the point? If people want to love the movie, who am I to fart in their thread?

I like you a lot. A LOT. But would it have killed you to keep your thread farting to yourself on a day that many Oscar buffs look forward to all year and are excited about?

And that's all I'll say.

 

[ZacharyTait]

This year’s nominations represent the first time since 1981 that the Directing and Best Picture nominations have honored exactly the same five pictures.

A change in the Original Song rules for 2005, imposing a minimum required scoring average for nomination, accounts for the nomination of just three songs in the category.

This is the first time since the Animated Feature category was inaugurated in 2001 that none of the nominees was produced primarily by CGI techniques.

Three pictures, one in each of the three categories for short films, won 2005 Student Academy Awards: 9 in Animated Shorts, Ausreisser (The Runaway) in Live Action Shorts and The Death of Kevin Carter in the Documentary Short Subject category.

This is the first time in Academy history that a nominee in the Directing category - George Clooney, for Good Night, and Good Luck. - is also nominated in one of the acting categories for a different film.

John Williams’ two nominations this year in the Original Score category are his 44th and 45th Academy Award nominations, putting him in first place in total nominations in the Music categories, breaking a previous tie with Alfred Newman. He also moves into second place in terms of nominations overall, his total individual nominations now second only to Walt Disney’s 59.

Ang Lee, nominated this year in the Directing category for the English-language Brokeback Mountain, received his first Directing nomination for the foreign language film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

14 of the acting nominees are first-time nominees. Of the other six who previously received nominations, four are Oscar winners: William Hurt, Judi Dench, Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand.

 

[Vickie_M]

I love all those stats! Thanks for forwarding Zachary. I hadn't seen that. I tried to keep up with the threads on Oscarwatch and couldn't do it. Now I'm going on a trip for at least a week and will not be able to catch up. Threads fall away very quickly because of lack of server space. They don't archive either, sigh. I'm glad I now have those stats in my email so I can refer to them.

 

[PaulP]

I'm at a disagreement with those of you saying you're shocked Episode III did not get nominated. I did not see Narnia, but the visual effects in Episode III were incredibly bad, I'm sorry. Often you could tell the people were simply pasted into CGI or miniature backgrounds (this is very evident during the last battle). Looked very unprofessional and fake, like an expensive TV-movie production.

 

[Paul Case]

I find it a bit disingenuous and self-serving for people to claim that those stating their disappointment in the nominations are simply doing so because "their film" was not nominated. That is just another lazy, steroetypical cliche'.

I, for one, am not disappointed because "my films" did not get nominated. In fact, my #2 film of the year is nominated for several awards, including Picture and Director. Several of my favorite films of 2005 got nominations. What I find lame about most of the nominations this year is that they are completely and utterly safe, boring, and predictable. There is absolutely *zero* suspense or surprise this year. Most of the major categories are locked for a win and have been for quite some time now. I don't claim to represent everyone or expect anybody else to look at the Oscars the way I do, but I certainly prefer the Oscar years where there is at least some doubt as to how things will play out.

This year, as Chuck pointed out, I only need to tune in to see John Stewart's opening bit. Everything afterwards is likely to be so predictable that it could have been scripted.

As far as favoritism and personal bias goes, however, I will say that it certainly *increases* my disappointment to find that a cliched fantasy picture masquerading as social commentary (Crash) gets nominated when a truly important, landmark cinematic work like The New World gets almost completely ignored.

That's just my opinion, however, and it should not be mistaken for the reason why I think the Oscars are lame this year.

Obviously others will have different opinions and that's great. C'est la vie. But don't try to pigeonhole those of us who are disappointed with the Oscars this year. You certainly won't see me trying to pigeonhole those who are excited as people who are only happy because "their film" is in.

/$.02

 

[Steve Christou]

Great post Zachary! So only Walt Disney has had more Oscar nominations than John Williams? Impressive, most impressive.




Or maybe and more likely you simply don't like the film(s)? I thought the effects in Sith were fabulous, state of the art. I saw Narnia, the lion was okay but the rest of the effects were iffy to say the least. Harry Potter IV had better effects than Narnia. Kong should win that category, but frankly after that snub I wouldn't be at all surprised if Narnia won Best Visual Effects, nothing surprises me anymore.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Good, let's be done with this and refocus this discussion about the films and awards. Thank you.






Crawdaddy

 

[teapot2001]

Ooooooh!

~T

 

[Patrick Sun]

Don't think marketing helps? The AJC reported that Lion Gate sent out 130,000 screeners of "Crash" (typical number of screeners sent out touting a film is around 12,000-15,000).

 

[PaulP]

No, actually I liked Episode III a lot, as a film. There were just far better visual effects this year.