Oscar nominations are out

[Chip R]

Complete list of the 79th Annual Academy Award nominations announced Tuesday at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif.:

1. Best Picture: "Babel," "The Departed," "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Queen."

2. Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, "Blood Diamond"; Ryan Gosling, "Half Nelson"; Peter O'Toole, "Venus"; Will Smith, "The Pursuit of Happyness"; Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland."

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

4. Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, "Little Miss Sunshine"; Jackie Earle Haley, "Little Children"; Djimon Hounsou, "Blood Diamond"; Eddie Murphy, "Dreamgirls"; Mark Wahlberg, "The Departed."

5. Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza, "Babel"; Cate Blanchett, "Notes on a Scandal"; Abigail Breslin, "Little Miss Sunshine"; Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"; Rinko Kikuchi, "Babel."

6. Directing: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, "Babel"; Martin Scorsese, "The Departed"; Clint Eastwood, "Letters From Iwo Jima"; Stephen Frears, "The Queen"; Paul Greengrass, "United 93."

7. Foreign Language Film: "After the Wedding," Denmark; "Days of Glory (Indigenes)," Algeria; "The Lives of Others," Germany; "Pan's Labyrinth," Mexico; "Water," Canada.

8. Adapted Screenplay: Sacha Baron Cohen and Anthony Hines and Peter Baynham and Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips, "Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"; Alfonso Cuaron and Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, "Children of Men"; William Monahan, "The Departed"; Todd Field and Tom Perrotta, "Little Children"; Patrick Marber, "Notes on a Scandal."

9. Original Screenplay: Guillermo Arriaga, "Babel"; Iris Yama$hita and Paul Haggis, "Letters From Iwo Jima"; Michael Arndt, "Little Miss Sunshine"; Guillermo del Toro, "Pan's Labyrinth"; Peter Morgan, "The Queen."

10. Animated Feature Film: "Cars," "Happy Feet," "Monster House."

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

12. Cinematography: "The Black Dahlia," "Children of Men," "The Illusionist," "Pan's Labyrinth," "The Prestige."

13. Sound Mixing: "Apocalypto," "Blood Diamond," "Dreamgirls," "Flags of Our Fathers," "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

14. Sound Editing: "Apocalypto," "Blood Diamond," "Flags of Our Fathers," "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

15. Original Score: "Babel," Gustavo Santaolalla; "The Good German," Thomas Newman; "Notes on a Scandal," Philip Glass; "Pan's Labyrinth," Javier Navarrete; "The Queen," Alexandre Desplat.

16. Original Song: "I Need to Wake Up" from "An Inconvenient Truth," Melissa Etheridge; "Listen" from "Dreamgirls," Henry Krieger, Scott Cutler and Anne Preven; "Love You I Do" from "Dreamgirls," Henry Krieger and Siedah Garrett; "Our Town" from "Cars," Randy Newman; "Patience" from "Dreamgirls," Henry Krieger and Willie Reale.

17. Costume: "Curse of the Golden Flower," "The Devil Wears Prada," "Dreamgirls," "Marie Antoinette," "The Queen."

18. Documentary Feature: "Deliver Us From Evil," "An Inconvenient Truth," " Iraq in Fragments," "Jesus Camp," "My Country, My Country."

19. Documentary (short subject): "The Blood of Yingzhou District," "Recycled Life," "Rehearsing a Dream," "Two Hands."

20. Film Editing: "Babel," "Blood Diamond," "Children of Men," "The Departed," "United 93."

21. Makeup: "Apocalypto," "Click," "Pan's Labyrinth."

22. Animated Short Film: "The Danish Poet," "Lifted," "The Little Matchgirl," "Maestro," "No Time for Nuts."

23. Live Action Short Film: "Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)," "Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)," "Helmer & Son," "The Saviour," " West Bank Story."

24. Visual Effects: "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," "Poseidon," "Superman Returns."

[Red Leader]

To this day, I do not understand the love for Little Miss Sunshine. That movie was flat out awful.

[Razor Shines]

Originally Posted by Red Leader

To this day, I do not understand the love for Little Miss Sunshine. That movie was flat out awful.

I loved that movie. I think it should win best picture. A kid who only reads Nietzche and doesn't speak and a gay Proust scholar who tried to kill himself and they look at each other like "What's wrong with you?" And a Grampa who is a huge perve, but cares about his grand daughter more than anything. I think it's about family and getting along with family no matter how ****ed up they are. I guess most people either loved it or hated it.

[Sweetstop]

Originally Posted by Razor Shines 1B

I loved that movie. I think it should win best picture. A kid who only reads Nietzche and doesn't speak and a gay Proust scholar who tried to kill himself and they look at each other like "What's wrong with you?" And a Grampa who is a huge perve, but cares about his grand daughter more than anything. I think it's about family and getting along with family no matter how ****ed up they are. I guess most people either loved it or hated it.

I loved it, too, and I think it's about what you think it's about. Just bought a copy of the dvd the other day.

If Amanda Breslin were to win the best supporting actress award she would be the second youngest actress by five months (after Tatum O'Neal for "Paper Moon") to ever win. She's 10.

[Chip R]

Originally Posted by Razor Shines 1B

I think it's about family and getting along with family no matter how ****ed up they are. I guess most people either loved it or hated it.

I agree with that. I thought it made a great comment on beauty pagents for kids. I was LMAO at the choice of the little girl's song.

[westofyou]

Originally Posted by Chip R

I agree with that. I thought it made a great comment on beauty pagents for kids. I was LMAO at the choice of the little girl's song.

I think there is a slight backlash against the dysfunctional, ironic comedies that make fun of the 70's (IE Squid and Whale, Running with Scissors, Tannenbaum's etc..) Most of this backlash I find is coming from folks who grew up in homes or around situations that were equally dysfunctional and they find little charm in reliving that.

[Red Leader]

Originally Posted by westofyou

I think there is a slight backlash against the dysfunctional, ironic comedies that make fun of the 70's (IE Squid and Whale, Running with Scissors, Tannenbaum's etc..) Most of this backlash I find is coming from folks who grew up in homes or around situations that were equally dysfunctional and they find little charm in reliving that.

Interesting take. In my case, I'm guessing that I don't like those films because I was too young to really remember the 70's for the most part. Most of my memories start in the 80's.

[redsmetz]

Originally Posted by westofyou

I think there is a slight backlash against the dysfunctional, ironic comedies that make fun of the 70's (IE Squid and Whale, Running with Scissors, Tannenbaum's etc..) Most of this backlash I find is coming from folks who grew up in homes or around situations that were equally dysfunctional and they find little charm in reliving that.

I loved this picture too and it struck me that it was about transformation all around. Of the flicks you mentioned, the only one I hated was the Royal Tannenbaums. I was surprised that Arkin got the nod over Steve Carrell. Arkin was good, but I thought Carrell gave a great performance. We finally got our 18 year old son to watch it this week (he loves Carrell on The Office), he loved it too.

[George Foster]

Originally Posted by Red Leader

To this day, I do not understand the love for Little Miss Sunshine. That movie was flat out awful.

I thought it was one of the 10 best movies I've ever seen. I mean it. It had everything, tragedy, conflict, comedy, suspense, a message, etc. It was perfectly written and casted. It's a long shot but I will stay up to see if it wins.

[Johnny Footstool]

Borat!

[Yachtzee]

Wow. Never in a million years did I ever think that Kelly Leak, Sherman Klump, and Dirk Diggler would get nominated for an Academy Award.

[MrCinatit]

Originally Posted by Yachtzee

Wow. Never in a million years did I ever think that Kelly Leak, Sherman Klump, and Dirk Diggler would get nominated for an Academy Award.

Good one! I did not realize the kid was still around.

Meanwhile, remember several years ago when Eastwood was practically an industry joke, with Dirty Harry cracks abound?
Now, almost everything the guy has touched since Unforgiven has been magic. Kinda cool to see, actually.

[Sweetstop]

I've seen all the Best Picture nominees except "Letter From Iwo Jima", which is next on our 'to see' list (saw "Flags of Our Fathers"...and I agree, Clint has become one of our very best filmmakers.)

I like all of these films alot and think they were excellent choices. Since I haven't seen "Dreamgirls" yet, I can't comment on the apparent surprise that it wasn't nominated.

If pressed, I might have to choose "Babel".

[Danny Serafini]

I'm used to Oscar nominations being full of movies I haven't seen, but this year it's full of movies I haven't even heard of. Are there a bunch of oddball nominations this year or am I just that far out of it?

[Joseph]

Originally Posted by Danny Serafini

I'm used to Oscar nominations being full of movies I haven't seen, but this year it's full of movies I haven't even heard of. Are there a bunch of oddball nominations this year or am I just that far out of it?

I'm in the same boat with you. There are tons I'd not even heard of, 'The Queen'? 'Babel'? 'Half Nelson'? 'Venus'? I've never heard of these, at least upon first read. Someone might describe a trailer and I might remember one of them, I dunno. I've only heard of Pan's Labyrinth because I have a friend at New Line who was involved and she said its great, but I've still yet to receive my promo copy! lol