Official Oscar Nominations and Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Ray H]

It's the Cold Mountain of this year's Oscars. Cold Mountain had quite a bit of Oscar buzz, got nominated for many of the predecessors, but it just fizzled out by the Oscars. In the end, it got 7 nominations. Like Dreamgirls, it was shut out for Best Picture, Best Director, and Screenplay. Both films each had/have two acting nominations and multiple nominations in the Best Original Song category. Heck, if Cold Mountain had one more nominated song, the two films would just about be even. The only real difference was the Cold Mountain love was predictable since it lost a lot of support in the preceding weeks. Dreamgirls' shut out of the main categories was surprising to say the least.

So here are my thoughts:

Actor - Leading
Somewhat surprising Leo was nominated for Blood Diamond. Of course, he was up for both films, and probably wasn't going to be nominated for both, but The Departed seemed to be stronger with the Oscar voters. Its strength seems to be wavering though. Everything else pretty was pretty much on target in the category. There was some talk of a Sacha Baron Cohen getting in in place of Gosling, but they were just pipe dreams.

Actor - Supporting
Biggest surprise was no Jack. I thought the Academy LOVED him! So another blow to The Departed. I also expected Brad Pitt to get in, but I guess he was never a frontrunner for the category. I'm surprised to see Wahlberg in. His Globe nomination was a pleasant surprise, but his security here always seemed a bit iffy. He was good in the movie, even if his role was small. Also interesting to see Jackie Earle Haley get in. I haven't seen Little Children, but I've heard some good notes for his performance.

Actress - Leading
Pretty much as expected.

Actress - Supporting
Breslin isn't much of a shocker, but it's interesting to see her get in.

Art Direction, Costume Design, and Cinematography
Fairly surprised to see The Prestige score two in these categories. I believe The Illusionist, the other period magician movie, was getting more support with the guilds.

Directing
I expected Eastwood to get in since the Little Miss Sunshine team seemed to be a weakspot with the DGA lineup. But since Dreamgirls got eliminated, it's nice to see Greengrass get in for United 93. Though I'm a little disappointed Alfonso Cuaron or Guillermo Del Toro didn't get in as well/instead.

Foreign Language Film
Probably as big a shocker as the Dreamgirls one - no Volver!

Makeup
Click?! WTF?!

Original Score and Song
The Score category seemed to be fairly unpredictable in my opinion (I think I got 2 of my predicted right). For some reason, I didn't expect 3 songs from Dreamgirls to make it either.

Best Picture
Again, no Dreamgirls is a shocker. I guess Letters was seemed like a predictable replacement, but I was thinking it'd replace Little Miss Sunshine.

Screenplay
Nice to see Children of Men get in. While I loved the movie, it had a pretty bad marketing campaign with very little Oscar support from Universal so not much was expected. Also surprised to see Borat get in. With original, it's nice to see Pan's Labyrinth get in. Also, I didn't expect to see Letters from Iwo Jima.

Looks like the Best Picture race is still wide open. Personally, I'm rooting for the Departed.

 

[Adam_S]

1965 and 1927/28 were the other years no best actor nominations overlapped with best picture. and it ties 1927/28 for fewest nominations overlapping best picture nominees in the lead categories, with only 1.

 

[PaulP]

Wonder why Perfume wasn't nominated for best foreign film?

 

[Holadem]

Well I am glad to hear that, I was worried for The Departed's lack of Leading Performance noms but 4 out of the 5 noms share that "shortcoming" so it's OK

Right now the buzz isn't going my way though. Technically, Babel is the front runner, following it's GG win.

Despite Adam's analysis, I just don't see LMS winning. But then again, I never saw it getting nominated either.

I am most worried about The Queen despite the GG. It just looks best on paper (and happens to be a wonderful movie as well).

Iwo Jima is as relatively quiet BP-wise as The Departed.

--
H

 

[Haggai]

That's not true about 1965. Looking at that year's nominees, Oskar Werner was nominated for best actor for Ship of Fools, which was also nominated for best picture. Though he was the only one out of the five to overlap with a best picture nominee.

 

[Adam_S]

I know Rick Baker was credited first in the credits of Click for the makeup, but he's not on the nominated list.

two things contributed to this. It was some of the best fat makeup ever seen, and some very subtle and outstanding aging took place for many actors, as well as more dramatic transformations (it was seeing Henry Winkler's 80+ makeup that convinced me this nomination would happen).

Also, Pirates of the Caribbean was unlikely to recieve love from the makeup branch of the academy. Only one of the creatures in the movie was actual makeup, the rest of the makeup jobs were 'stolen' by computer artists. Not only does this piss off and terrify the people whose careers depend on practical effects creativity but it's also likely that if they nominated the movie, everyone else in the academy would vote for it without a second thought, the academy not realizing they are only honoring one outstanding piece of creative makeup, not dozens. Brokeback Mountain winning score is a good example of this. There was very little music in the movie, and one iconic theme; the academy voted it the win because they remembered that theme more than the more elaborate and perhaps better scores competing.

 

[Adam_S]

Right you are, I glanced at the actual year but didn't look close. in the original post I had some line like 'if oscar watch is correct' but I guess I took it down when I edited the post.

Adam

 

[Adam_S]

from the official academy award presskit sidebar:

---------------
In the acting categories, ten individuals are first-time nominees. The other ten share a total of 49 nominations. Three (Meryl Streep, Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett) are previous Oscar® winners.


Leading Actress nominee Judi Dench is the only performer who was also nominated last year (for Mrs. Henderson
Presents).


Meryl Streep’s acting nomination this year gives her 14 nominations, breaking the record she set in 2002. Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson are tied at 12 nominations each.


At 31, Kate Winslet is the youngest performer to receive 5 acting nominations. The previous record holder was Olivia de Havilland, who was 33 when she received her fifth nomination in 1949, for The Heiress.


Should he win an Oscar this year in the Leading Actor category, Peter O’Toole would join Henry Fonda and Paul
Newman as actors who won their first competitive Oscars® after having received Honorary Awards from the Academy.


The 38-year interval between nominations for Alan Arkin is not a record for performers. Arkin’s interval ties Jack
Palance’s between Shane (1953) and City Slickers (1991), and represents less of a wait than those experienced by Helen Hayes (39 years between The Sin of Madelon Claudet [1931/32] and Airport [1970]) and Henry Fonda (41 years between acting nominations for The Grapes of Wrath [1940] and On Golden Pond [1981]).


Penélope Cruz and Rinko Kikuchi are both nominated for foreign-language performances. Four performers have won
Academy Awards for roles using spoken languages other than English. They are Sophia Loren (1961, Actress in TwoWomen), Robert De Niro (1974, Supporting Actor in The Godfather Part II), Roberto Benigni (1998, Actor in Life Is Beautiful) and Benicio Del Toro (2000, Supporting Actor in Traffic). In addition, Marlee Matlin received the 1986 Leading Actress award for a performance almost entirely in American Sign Language. The other nominees have been Marcello Mastroianni (1962, Actor in Divorce - Italian Style; 1977, Actor in A Special Day and 1987, Actor in Dark Eyes), Sophia Loren (1964, Actress in Marriage Italian Style), Anouk Aimee (1966, Actress in A Man and a Woman), Ida Kaminska (1966, Actress in The Shop on Main Street), Liv Ullmann (1972, Actress in The Emigrants and 1976, Actress in Face to Face), Valentina Cortese (1974, Supporting Actress in Day for Night), Isabelle Adjani (1975, Actress in The Story of Adele H. and 1989, Actress in Camille Claudel), Marie-Christine Barrault (1976, Actress in Cousin, Cousine), Giancarlo Giannini (1976, Actor in Seven Beauties), Ingrid Bergman (1978, Actress in Autumn Sonata), Max Von Sydow (1988, Actor in Pelle the Conqueror), Gerard Depardieu (1990, Actor in Cyrano de Bergerac), Graham Greene (1990, Supporting Actor in Dances With Wolves), Catherine Deneuve (1992, Actress in Indochine), Massimo Troisi (1995, Actor in Il Postino) and Fernanda Montenegro (1998, Actress in Central Station).


Should Letters from Iwo Jima win Best Picture, it would be the first foreign-language film to win in the category. The seven previous foreign-language Best Picture nominees were Grand Illusion (1938), Z (1969), The Emigrants (1972),Cries and Whispers (1973), The Postman (Il Postino) (1995), Life Is Beautiful (1998) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).


“I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth is the first song from a documentary film to be nominated since
“More” from Mondo Cane in 1963.


Best Picture Release Dates:
Little Miss Sunshine - July 26, 2006
The Departed - October 6, 2006
The Queen - October 6, 2006
Babel - October 27, 2006
Letters from Iwo Jima - December 20, 2006

 

[Tim Glover]

Good reading the last page or so. Looks like October is a good release month for Oscar.

 

[Abby_B]

I am apparently more excited for Oscar than I thought, as all I've been doing today is reading up on the noms and people's thoughts.

I'm so psyched for Ryan Gosling. And Abigail Breslin. And the fact that Pan's Labyrinth will surely win Best Foreign Film now that Volver isn't in it. (I'm so pleased at the 6 nominations for PL, in general. Yay!)

I think this is Marty's year. I really believe it, finally.

 

[Adam_S]

Folks might want to ask Amelie about what it's oscar for best foreign film is like since everyone is so certain Pan's takes the gold. I believe this and best doc are the only categories (outside of the shorts) not voted on by the academy at large, but by a special group within the academy.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Way late with my comments, as I cannot access HTF at work :frowning:

MCN had a very interesting stat...among the major tech categories, only 6 of the dozens of nominees are BP nominees...meaning Hollywood has chosen BP noms this year even less on craftsmanship and more on content than usual.

I was excited to see Pan's get 6 Oscar noms, Children of Men get editing/cinematography/screenplay, and most especially Greengrass getting a BD nom (even though I hope Scorcese wins it). It's a shame that Little Miss Sunshine booted out a better BP nominee, but that's typical...a fun, little engine that could getting nommed is nice for the industry.

Wahlberg was another exciting nom...it's a small role, fairly one-note, but it's immensely entertaining.

While fairly dull otherwise, there are things to cheer for Oscar night.

I do regret than Clint Mansell was shut out AGAIN (as he was for Requiem) for what I considered the best score in years. But at least that category had new faces. I didn't mind no noms (otherwise) for my fave film of the year. The Fountain is not an Oscar film...it has a very specific wavelength it reached.

Oh well...makes for an interesting year.

 

[David (C)]

The sad part about Dreamgirls losing the BP nomination is that it’ll make Hollywood even more reluctant to produce high concept black features with Oscar potential.

 

[Michael Reuben]

I don't see that. The film has been a strong box office performer, and its Golden Globe win and acting noms. should be more than enough to sustain its momentum. Hollywood may like Oscars, but it likes a moneymaker even more.

M.

 

[Nathan V]

I'm flummoxed by a couple of things- people being surprised that COM isn't up for major awards, people being surprised that Babel is leading, and the lack of love for the Departed. Maybe it's just a matter of people being more selective in what they see in cinemas.

Another element that hasn't been brought up- Departed is far and away the BO champ of the BP noms. It has $121 domestic and an additional $125 international. Financially, none of the others can touch it. The public will have that film in mind, more than any other, when they tune in.

Extremely exciting race this year, a much better crop of the year's best work than last year, which to me was a record low; with raw art films like Babel, Departed, Letters, Pans, and good notice for Children of Men, Little Children, Apocalypto, United 93...A fantastic crop of films represented. What a great reversal from the Crash-Chicago-Beautiful Mind trend.

I'm particularly happy about the Blanchett, Philip Glass, Kikuchi, Clint, Blood Diamond, and Greengrass love, none of which I expected. I haven't been this excited about the awards since City of God got 4 major noms out of nowhere in 2003.

Most of all, I'm glad to see the academy hasn't confused great acting with great filmmaking, an unfortunate byproduct of the makeup of the academy.

Of all the recent Marty efforts, I'm glad he'll (likely) win for this one, as it is unquestionably one of his very best efforts, especially directorially. Here's hoping that Thelma WALKS AWAY with the much -deserved editing award yet again.

Of course, this is all my opinion, and nothing more.

Regards,
Nathan

EDIT: Departed will be rereleased to 1300 theaters on the 26th. Marty must feel pretty good right now. Jeffrey and David G, on the other hand...

EDIT: David@, no need to worry about the black film issue, IMO- look at the acting noms. 5 African American, and on top of that, only 12 of the 20 are anglo. And DG will certainly break $100.

 

[Brian W.]

In a way, I was not surprised about Dreamgirls. I felt a lack of love for it in the days leading up to the nominations. I'm not sure why I felt that -- it did get the PGA, DGA, and SAG Ensemble nods. Maybe it was the lack of a WGA nom that concerned me.

But, as I've posted in previous years' Oscar threads, I noticed some time ago that if a film receives all four major guild nominations -- DGA, PGA, WGA, and SAG Ensemble -- it's a lock for a Best Picture nomination. I think I found only one exception to that, ever.

So with Dreamgirls not getting a WGA nod (especially when Chicago and Moulin Rouge had), I felt that if any of the five frontrunners were were vulnerable, it was Dreamgirls.

 

[Ray H]

I'm curious to see how badly they'll need to bleep out Mark Wahlberg's Oscar clip.

 

[Tim Glover]

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Apparently, Ebert's down but not out. He's already got his opinions on the noms up on his website: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...SCARS/70123004

 

[Casey Neutron]

The only real disappointment for me is no nomination for Michael Ballhaus for his brilliant cinematography on "The Departed." I thought that since this was the year they were finally going to honor Scorsese, they might also honor the man who shot 7 amazing films with him.

By the way, when Scorsese wins his Oscar (not if, but when) I predict a lengthy standing ovation which will seriously cut into his acceptance speech time which will already be cut short because by that point the show will be running late. Whoever wins Best Documentary Short Subject, however, will get to drone on and on...