Official Oscar Nominations and Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[ted:r]

"Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Queen" were also nominated in 6 categories.

 

[ted:r]

Hud was nominated for 7 Awards in 1963 and missed out on Best Pic.

As was "Bullets Over Broadway" (1994)

 

[ZacharyTait]

For me, the nominations were a mixture of predictability and surprises.

Surprises:

Letters from Iwo Jima taking Dreamgirls spot.
Paul Greengrass for United 93
Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson
Leo DiCaprio for Blood Diamond (I expected him to get it for The Departed.)
Mark Wahlberg for The Departed (Expected Nicholson to be there.)


Jeffery Katzenberg and David Geffen have to be pissed beyond belief right now. I can imagine the Dreamamount employees cowering under their desks right now!

 

[ted:r]

Ok, I think we have a winner now...

"They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", in 1969 was nominated for 9 awards and missed out Best Pic.

 

[Haggai]

Yes, I think I've seen that movie cited before, as the one that got the most total noms without best picture being one of them. But, in that year, Anne of the Thousand Days had the most nominations, with 10 (including best picture).

So the question remains as to whether any movie (before Dreamgirls) has ever had more nominations than every other movie in its specific year, but without being up for best picture. Someone mentioned My Man Godfrey up-thread, but I think Great Ziegfeld got more noms that year.

 

[ted:r]

Ahh, I see. Well every year a pic got at least 10 noms, it was nominated for best pic, so a pic would need to have 8 or 9 nominations, be the most in its year and still not get pic.

Unless I erred, these are the only years with a possible winner then:
1938, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1955, 1958, 1971, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1999, 2006.

I'll try to look into it later!

 

[Haggai]

Right. Having done some more checking as well, I think Dreamgirls really is a first of this kind.

 

[Michael Harris]

Regarding the "Borat" nomination, what exactly is it adapted from? Is it because the character was from "Da Ali G Show"?

 

[Keith Paynter]

Dreamgirls not having the top golden tickets might make ABC execs nervous - the popular favorite not having Oscar nods may make for home viewers being blasé about the program. Of course the masses will watch it, but without a much-hyped film to root for, who will care or remember in 5 years?

I'm not trying to put down any of the top nominees, but the ones who watch the Oscars for the glitz and glamour will probably care less about the winner. Personally, I haven't seen any of the films this year, so count me as either clueless or unbiased. I'm watching for another Tom Hanks "bitch" shot.

I wouldn't be surprised, however, to see Peter O'Toole get the sentimental vote. I did feel bad that his Daily Show segment last week fell flat, as Jon Stewart was totally flummoxed trying to get responses from him.

 

[Gabriel>P]

I thought that The Departed was the popular favorite. With Scorsese quest for Oscar being the story this year.

 

[TerryRL]

If memory serves, the last film to receive three nominations in the Best Song category was 1994's "The Lion King". "Can You Feel the Love the Tonight", "The Circle of Life", and "Hakuna Matata" all got nods.

I'm pleasantly surprised by how diverse the nods were this year with so many minorities being recognized for their stellar work. I'm especially happy with the nods for Forrest Whitaker, Ryan Gosling, Jackie Earle Haley, and Mark Wahlberg. Though its essentially a supporting role, Whitaker completely dominates the screen and he has to be seen as the favorite. I thought he and Gosling gave the best performances from last year. Though, Peter O'Toole could pull the upset.

While Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy were deserving of their nominations, I don't think the film itself should've been among the top five nominees. "Dreamgirls" is a good movie, but it sort of falls flat when Hudson isn't on screen. Personally, I think the best movie of '06 was "Children of Men" and I was glad it wasn't completely ignored (earning a screenplay nod).

Honestly, two of the biggest surprises for me came in the technical categories as "Click" scored a Best Makeup nod and "Poseidon" ended up among the top three FX nominees. Wow.

Speaking of the FX category, ILM is looking for their first win since 1994's "Forrest Gump". They did the FX for both "Poseidon" and Pirates 2, while Sony Imageworks provided most of the visuals for "Superman Returns".

For the first time in a while, the Best Picture category is wide open. I think it'll come down between "Babel" and "The Departed", but "Little Miss Sunshine" (who won the PGA honor last weekend) could sneak in and steal the Oscar. It should be a very interesting night at the Oscars.

 

[Jose Martinez]

Aliens was nominated for 7 Oscars back in 1986 (but it did not lead the total nominations). It's biggest coming from Sigourney Weaver's Best Actress nomination. Even though it was one of my favorite pictures that year, it was not nominated for Best Picture or Best Director for James Cameron.

Also, I'm surprised in how many people are "surprised" of Letters From Iwo Juma's nomination for Best Picture. I'm also surprised how many people are saying it stole Dreamgirls a nomination. LFIJ deserved to be nominated and I think will be the one to win. I think if there was a film that stole a nomination from Dreamgirls it would be The Departed, the most overrated film of the year, IMHO.

 

[Seth Paxton]

But as everyone is saying, it's still a quirky way to fulfill this role of "most without BP". Song is not a standard "dominant BP" category, and if you compress those 3 noms into 1 then it's really only 4.

The reason I suggest this is because 2 different ACTORS are 2 different aspects to a film far more than 2 different songs represent a different power within a musical. Song is also traditionally a weak category, often dominated by EXIT MUSIC songs rather than "in the film" aspects that directly impact the power of a film.

In this case they are in the film which makes them dominate within that field, without expressing anything more on the film's overall power.


I really like the film and honestly think Condon got snubbed. His direction was one of the highlights for me, he lifted an interesting but average script (and some "light" performances outside the great ones that have been properly nom'd) into a pretty bang-up film.

But no way did this feel like a monster Oscar steamroller and it's noms and lack of BP reflect that to me.


Very, very weak year for the Oscars. Doesn't mean bad efforts are nom'd in the least, but you look at other years and you see a lot of noms that wouldn't stand a chance IMO.


Dreamgirls isn't "popular". By Oscar standards for HIGH ART films it is, but for a pop musical it's only doing modest biz. Not only has Departed done better biz, but so has Borat, Prada, and Pursuit of Happiness. In fact Pursuit seems far more likely to be the film that casual viewers say "what about that Smith film that was so good?" It's also currently out and has TWICE the BO take that Dreamgirls did.

Chicago did 170m to Dreamgirls current of 70m, for reference.


My problem with The Departed as a Best Dir for Scorsese is that I thought most of the best stuff from the film came from the original. The English language version did feature lots of new scripting and character dialog interplay that was strong and fitting for the story material, and that's what made me like it as a remake.

I thought Scorsese did less with it than I expected. Now Wahlberg was outstanding. Lots of great acting in the film.

 

[Craig S]

Good point, but much of Chicago's take was from the "bumps" it got after the nominations and then it's BP win. Obviously, Dreamgirls won't benefit the same way.

 

[Adam_S]

I think the oldest generation of academy voters will split between the Queen, Letters from Iwo Jima and Little Miss Sunshine

Letters from Iwo Jima probably picks up almost all of the artiste voters in the academy.

The Departed will probably pick up the old guard (who were new in the 1970s) of academy voters, they're loyal to Marty and can handle the violence.

I think Babel will get the youngest generation of academy votes and probably split votes with Little Miss Sunshine among the actors branch.

so i think it's going to come down to between Babel and Little Miss Sunshine with Departed as a spoiler, and the likely best director winner.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Interesting, considering that all three are SAG nominees for best cast performance. The results of the SAG awards should be revealing. Last year, they proved to be a good predictor of Crash's BP win.

M.

 

[Tim Glover]

Terry you are nearly as smart as me. I agree with you on Children of Men as the best film of 2006.

 

[Tim Glover]

duplicate

 

[Brandon_T]

I'm no where near a movie critic or a big Oscar guy, and I thought The Departed was the best movie I saw last year, but I was really hoping that Rocky Balboa would get nominated for something. Not sure what, but that movie hit me out of left field. I went in thinking it was going to be a joke, and it was quite moving and inspirational. I know I know, probably not oscar worthy, but I was holding out hope.

 

[Patrick Sun]

That is interesting:

No Best Actor noms from the Best Picture noms, and only Helen Mirren is the only Best Actress nom from the Best Picture noms. That can't happen often (especially with the shutout on the Best Actor side).