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Oscar Nominations and Pick ‘Em

I first saw the Oscar Nominations at Ain’t It Cool. After the fold you can check out a rundown of what I consider the big 10 nominations, with commentary.

Before the fold I want to first mention that I’m unhappy with the availability of online Oscar pool applications so I’m building a WordPress page for BpB users that will hopefully allow us to record our picks and compare results. (I hope to even do realtime updates during whatever Oscar show we are afforded during the writer’s drought.)

Oscar season is a busy time at my house; buying DVDs, going to the movies. The Academy is nice enough to provide a straight up list of all the nominated movies to help me with my list of things I need to see. Here is my list of feature films in order of importance (with the number of nominations, and number of “the Big 10” nominations.) If any of you see anything amiss — as in you just know I should reprioritize something you really liked — let me know. (Shorts are prioritized separately as a group, hopefully shown at Dobie or the Drafthouse in a bundle.)

1. Atonement (7/3)
2. Michael Clayton (7/4)
3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2/1)
4. 3:10 to Yuma (2/0)
5. American Gangster (2/1)
6. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (4/2)
7. August Rush (1/0)
8. Lars and the Real Girl (1/1)
9. Away From Her (2/2)
10. The Counterfeiters (1/1)
11. Eastern Promises (1/1)
12. Transformers (3/0)
13. Gone Baby Gone (1/1)
14. The Savages (2/2)
15. La Vie En Rose (3/1)
16. I’m Not There (1/1)
17. In the Valley of Elah (1/1)
18. Beaufort (1/1)
19. Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2/1)
20. Taxi to the Dark Side (1/0)
21. No End In Sight (1/0)
22. Katyn (1/1)
23. 12 (1/1)
24. War Dance (1/0)
25. Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience (1/0)
26. Across The Universe (1/0)
27. The Kite Runner (1/0)
28. Into the Wild (2/1)
29. Sicko (1/0)

1. Norbit (1/0)

Ouch…30 films…there is no way I will see them all in time. The last five on the list repel me so that really only leaves me with just 25 films…heh. By my count I saw over 75 films in a theater last year, and somehow I missed all of these.

1. Best Actor – if DDL doesn’t win this, there will be blood
   • George Clooney – Michael Clayton
   • Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
   • Johnny Depp – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
   • Tommy Lee Jones – In The Valley Of Elah
• Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises
• Best Supporting Actor – this has to go to Javier Bardem
• Casey Affleck – The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
• Javier Bardem – No Country For Old Men
• Philip Seymour Hoffman – Charlie Wilson’s War
• Hal Holbrook – Into The Wild
• Tom Wilkinson – Michael Clayton
• Best Actress – Ellen Page was jilted last year for the untouchable Hard Candy, hopefully she can earn it this year
• Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: The Golden Age
• Julie Christie – Away From Her
• Marion Cotillard – La Vie En Rose
• Laura Linney – The Savages
• Ellen Page – Juno
• Best Supporting Actress – Jennifer Garner should be on this list
• Cate Blanchett – I’m Not There
• Rudy Dee – American Gangster
• Saoirse Ronan – Atonement
• Amy Ryan – Gone Baby Gone
• Tilda Swinton – Michael Clayton
• Best Animated Feature – Persepolis is beautiful but hard; can Hollywood award the first Best Animated Oscar to a flim that is not particularly child-friendly?
• Persepolis
• Ratatouille
• Surf’s Up
• Best Director – it’s a close race between PTA and the Cohens
• Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
• Jason Reitman – Juno
• Tony Gilroy – Michael Clayton
• Joel & Ethan Coen – No Country For Old Men
• Paul Thomas Anderson – There Will Be Blood
• Best Foreign Language Film – Mongol was so beautiful and powerful
• Beaufort
• The Counterfeiters
• Katyn
• Mongol
• 12
• Best Picture – for me it’s all Juno, but the Academy will probably pick There Will Be Blood
• Atonement
• Juno
• Michael Clayton
• No Country For Old Men
• There Will Be Blood
• Adapted Screenplay – chalk another one up for There Will Be Blood
• Atonement
• Away From Her
• The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
• No Country For Old Men
• There Will Be Blood+
• Original Screenplay – Diablo Cody’s Juno is the safe bet, but I might hedge towards Lars and the Real Girl
• Juno
• Lars and the Real Girl
• Michael Clayton
• Ratatouille

• The Savages

Bonus categories: “Best Music – Original Song” which better be “Falling Slowly” from Once, and “Best Music – Original Score” which we should all boycott because Johnny Greenwood’s score for There Will Be Blood was disqualified for some inane reason.

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