Awards Season - No Shortage of Love for Country or Blood

January 22, 2008

The Oscar nominations were announced today and there is no shortage of contenders. In fact, with no real juggernaut to deal with, the competition is more up in the air that most years.

The categories and nominations are...

Best Picture

Best Director - Motion Picture

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Best Writing - Original Screenplay

Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay

Best Documentary Feature

Best Animated Feature

Best Animated Short

  • I Met the Walrus
  • Madame Tutli-Putli
  • Même les Pigeons vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go To Heaven)
  • My Love (Moya Lyubov)
  • Peter & the Wolf
Best Live Action Short

  • At Night
  • Il Supplente (The Substitute)
  • Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)
  • Tanghi Argentini
  • The Tonto Woman
Best Documentary Short

  • Freeheld
  • La Corona (The Crown)
  • Salim Baba
  • Sari's Mother
Best Foreign Language Film

Best Song

Best Score

Achievement in Sound Editing

Achievement in Sound Mixing

Achievement in Visual Effects

Achievement in Makeup

Achievement in Film Editing

Achievement in Art Direction

Achievement in Cinematography

Achievement in Costume Design

Notes and Reactions...

  • The Oscar nominations were announced earlier in the day and now that we've had time to digest the nominations, the surprises, the omissions we can... zzzzzzzzzzz... Sorry, nodded off there. No offense to those who were nominated, but for a year with no clear favorite destined to walk home with a mountain of awards, there were not a lot of surprises.
  • Some are calling No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood the two big winners as each film earned 8 nominations. However, while Michael Clayton managed 7 nominations, it did better in the more prestigious categories including earning three nominations for acting alone.
  • Juno had its best showing since the Independent Spirit Awards, pulling in four high prestige nominations. This includes more than just the usual trio for best picture, best actress for Ellen Page, and best original screenplay for Diablo Cody as Jason Reitman, who has been unfairly overlooked for most of the Awards Season, picked up first Oscar nomination.
  • Ratatouille picked up five nominations, which is huge for an animated film and it has to be seen as the odds on favorite to walk away with the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.
  • On a similar note... Surf's Up? Really? The Simpsons Movie earned much better reviews and a bigger box office, which should have given it an advantage.
  • The Savages earned two nominations, but Philip Seymour Hoffman did not earn either of them. In fact, that is probably the biggest shock on this list. (He did earn a Best Supporting Actor nod, so he wasn't completely shut out.)
  • Away from Her was Sarah Polley's directorial debut, and it picked up two nominations. This bodes very well for the rest of her career behind the camera.
  • Enchanted picked up three nominations, all for best song. Vote splitting could cost it the hardware, but if I were to bet, I would say "That's How You Know" will be the winner.
  • On a side note, Alan Menken's three nominations for Enchanted is not a record for him as he earned three nominations for Aladdin and The Little Mermaid and four nominations for Beauty and the Beast.
  • All five films up for Best Documentary have a political twist to them, which is unusual. In fact, Sicko might be less political than the average in that category.
  • Wouldn't it be ironic if Norbit won an Oscar?

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Filed under: Awards Season, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, The Bourne Ultimatum, Ratatouille, Juno, Enchanted, Norbit, No Country for Old Men, The Golden Compass, Charlie Wilson’s War, Surf’s Up, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Atonement, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, August Rush, Sicko, Across the Universe, Gone Baby Gone, Into the Wild, Eastern Promises, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Kite Runner, La Môme, Once, In the Valley of Elah, The Savages, Le Scaphandre et le Papillon, Lars and the Real Girl, Mongol, Die Fälscher, Away From Her, Persepolis, I’m Not There, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, No End In Sight, Taxi to the Dark Side, Katyn, War Dance, Beaufort, Operation Homecoming, American Gangster, 3:10 to Yuma, 12