Ze Nominations Le Oscar

So, the big one, then. The grand-daddy of all award shows, complete with whining and campaigning and bullshitting and cattiness. Here are the nominees:

Best Picture
Babel
The Departed
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

Muahahahaha. No Dreamgirls. That in itself makes me love the Academy this year. I've only seen 3 of the movies on this list (with the exceptions being The Queen and Letters from Iwo Jima). Wide-open category - a couple of days ago, I would've said Babel was the front-runner (if only just) but Little Miss Sunshine's PGA award has muddled up the waters even more. Letters is a surprising and extremely deserving nominee, if the end-of-year lists are anything to go by. Its also surprising to me that United 93 didn't get nominated, but I suppose it lost momentum after its early Critics Circle wins.

Best Animated Film
Happy Feet
Cars
Monster House

Absolutely no surprises here. I think the competition is between Happy Feet and Cars, with Monster House the outside bet. That said, I can't see anyone upsetting the might of Pixar.

Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whittaker, The Last King of Scotland

Two major issues with this list: A) Leo's nom for Blood Diamond, I mean hel-lo. and B) I really really wish the Academy had been less predictable and not nominated Will Smith. Sacha Baron Cohen should've been on that list. However, props for finally nominating Ryan Gosling.

Best Actress
Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

I suppose the nomination for Meryl Streep was unavoidable - she was definitely the best part of the movie for me, the only thing that made it tolerable. But it was such a horrible film that I wish it didn't exist.

Best Director
Babel (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood)
The Queen (Stephen Frears)
United 93 (Paul Greengrass)

Again, no Bill Condon. Yes! Also Paul Greengrass gets nominated at the expense of the Little Miss Sunshine duo.

Achievement in Art Direction
Dreamgirls, The Good Shepherd, Pan's Labyrinth, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and The Prestige.

Honestly, having seen stills of Pan's Labyrinth, I can't see how it will not win.

Best Cinematography
The Black Dahlia (Vilmos Zsigmond), Children of Men (Emmanuel Lubezki), The Illusionist (Dick Pope), Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo Navarro), and The Prestige (Wally Pfister)

See Above. Though I absolutely loved The Prestige.

Best Documentary
Deliver Us from Evil, An Inconvenient Truth, Iraq in Fragments, Jesus Camp, and My Country, My Country

I have, despite my best efforts, seen precisely one of these films...

Best Documentary Short Subject
The Blood of Yingzhou District, Recycled Live, Rehearsing a Dream, Two Hands.

... and none of these.

Best Editing
Babel, Blood Diamond, Children of Men, The Departed, United 93

Blood Diamond?

Best Foreign Language Film
After the Wedding (Denmark), Days of Glory (Algeria), The Lives of Others (Germany), Pan's Labyrinth (Mexico) Water (Canada)

For me, the biggest snob of these awards: No nomination for Volver, thus shutting out Almodovar.

Original Score
"Babel" (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Gustavo
Santaolalla
"The Good German" (Warner Bros.) Thomas Newman
"Notes on a Scandal" (Fox Searchlight) Philip Glass
"Pan's Labyrinth" (Picturehouse) Javier Navarrete
"The Queen" (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Alexandre Desplat

I adore the Babel score.

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Walhberg, The Departed

Alan Arkin everybody! Also, yay Mark Wahlberg. And yay for NOT nominating Brad Pitt.

Best Supporting Actress
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

Fabulously happy with Rinko Kakuchi and Adriana Barraza's nominations.

Best original scripts
Babel
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen

Um no problems here...

Best adapted scripts
Borat
Children of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal

... Or here. I hope Children of Men wins, though The Departed is a lesson in how to do a remake.

All in all, I'm actually pretty pleased with this list. Though I would've liked the Academy to be more adventurous, it never is, and hence films like Children of Men and The Prestige get shut out.

Oh, the Razzie nominations:

Worst Picture

Basic Instinct 2 (a.k.a. Basically, It Stinks, Too) -- Sony/Columbia --- Hee!!!!
Bloodrayne -- Romar Entertainment
Lady In The Water -- Warner Bros.
Little Man -- Sony/Revolution
Wicker Man -- Warner Bros.

Worst Actor
Tim Allen -- The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, The Shaggy Dog and Zoom
Nicolas Cage -- Wicker Man
Larry, The Cable Guy (Dan Whitney) -- Larry The Cable Guy: Health Inspector
Rob Schneider -- The Benchwarmers and Little Man
Marlon Wayans & Shawn Wayans -- Little Man

Worst Actress
Hilary Duff & Haylie Duff -- Material Girls
Lindsay Lohan -- Just My Luck
Kristanna Loken -- Bloodrayne
Jessica Simpson -- Employee Of The Month
Sharon Stone -- Basically It Stinks, Too

Worst Supporting Actor
Danny DeVito -- Deck The Halls
Ben Kingsley -- Bloodrayne
M. Night Shyamalan -- Lady In The Water
Martin Short -- Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
David Thewlis -- Basically, It Stinks, Too! and The Omen

Worst Supporting Actress
Kate Bosworth -- Superman Returns
Kristin Chenoweth -- Deck The Halls, Pink Panther and RV
Carmen Electra -- Date Movie and Scary Movie 4
Jenny McCarthy -- John Tucker Must Die
Michelle Rodriguez -- Bloodrayne

Worst Screen Couple
Tim Allen & Martin Short -- Santa Clause 3
Nicolas Cage & His Bear Suit -- Wicker Man
Hilary & Haylie Duff -- Material Girls
Sharon Stone's Lop-Sided Breasts -- Basically, It Stinks, Too
Shawn Wayans & Kerry Washington -- Little Man
Shawn Wayans & Marlon Wayans -- Little Man

Worst Remake or Rip-Off
Little Man -- (Rip-off of the 1954 Bugs Bunny cartoon "Baby Buggy Bunny")
Pink Panther -- Sony/Columbia
Poseidon -- Warner Bros.
The Shaggy Dog Story -- Disney
Wicker Man -- Warner Bros.

Worst Prequel or Sequel
Basically, It Stinks, Too -- Sony/Columbia
Big Momma's House 2 -- Fox
Garfield 2: A Tail Of Two Kitties -- Warner Bros.
Santa Clause 3 -- Disney
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning -- New Line

Worst Director
Uwe Boll -- Bloodrayne
Michael Caton-Jones -- Basic Instinct 2
Ron Howard -- The Da Vinci Code
M. Night Shyamalan -- Lady In The Water
Keenan Ivory Wayans -- Little Man

Worst Screenplay
Basically, It Stinks, Too -- Screenplay by Leora Barish & Henry Bean -- Based on Characters Created by Joe Eszterhas
Bloodrayne -- Screenplay by Guinevere Turner, Based on the Video Game
Lady In The Water -- Written by M. Night Shyamalan
Little Man -- Written by Keenan Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans
Wicker Man -- Screenplay Adapted by Neil LaBute from a Screenplay by Anthony Schaffer

Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment -- (New Category!)
Deck The Halls -- Fox
Garfield 2: A Tail Of Two Kitties -- Fox
RV -- Sony/Columbia
Santa Clause 3 -- Disney
The Shaggy Dog -- Disney

Basically, yay. Though I think Uwe Boll should be given a category of his own now. And thank the Lord that Kate Bosworth was nominated. Ugh, Lois Lane indeed.