film
jan 22
2009

Oscars

Oscars were just announced. Frost/Nixon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire and The Reader for best picture. WALL-E and The Wrestler got screwed. The rest inside.

13 comments

best picture

  • Frost/Nixon
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Milk
  • Slumdog Millionaire
  • The Reader

    • best actor
  • Sean Penn (Milk)
  • Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)
  • Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
  • Richard Jenkins (The Visitor)
  • Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

    • best actress
  • Kate Winslet (The Reader)
  • Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)
  • Meryl Streep (Doubt)
  • Angelina Jolie (Changeling)
  • Melissa Leo (Frozen River)

    • best supporting actor
  • Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
  • Josh Brolin (Milk)
  • Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road)
  • Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder)
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt)

    • best supporting actress
  • Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
  • Amy Adams (Doubt)
  • Viola Davis (Doubt)
  • Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
  • Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler)

    • best director
  • David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
  • Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
  • Gus Van Sant (Milk)
  • Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon)
  • Stephen Daldry (The Reader)

    • best animated feature
  • WALL-E
  • Kung Fu Panda
  • Bolt

    • best original screenplay
  • In Bruges
  • WALL-E
  • Frozen River
  • Milk
  • Happy-Go-Lucky

    • best adapted screenplay
  • Slumdog Millionaire
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Frost/Nixon
  • The Reader
  • Doubt

    • best foreign language film
  • The Baader Meinhof Complex
  • The Class
  • Departures
  • Revanche
  • Waltz With Bashir

    • best documentary feature
  • The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
  • Encounters at the End of the World
  • The Garden
  • Man on Wire
  • Trouble the Water

    • posted by Rex at 9:06 AM on January 22, 2009

    I wonder about the average age of those who actually submit nominations.

    posted by MHB at 9:34 AM on January 22, 2009

    My best picture noms would be:

    + Man on Wire
    + Dark Knight
    + Wall-E
    + Synecdoche, New York
    + The Wrestler

    And the next five would be:

    + Frost/Nixon
    + Slumdog Millionaire
    + Milk
    + Waltz With Bashir
    + Doubt

    posted by Rex at 9:37 AM on January 22, 2009

    ...and Aronofsky gets fucked in the best director nod.

    posted by taulpaul at 9:41 AM on January 22, 2009

    Rex, are docs eligible for Best Picture? I thought they were only for best full-length documentary. Or is it that a doc can't be nominated for both?

    Frost/Nixon was average at best, and Ron Howard in no way should have been nominated. The Wrestler definitely should have been in that spot.

    posted by DS at 10:00 AM on January 22, 2009

    I believe that the rule is you can't enter a documentary in both categories.

    posted by Rex at 10:04 AM on January 22, 2009

    I agree that "Wall-E" got screwed over. It's one of the few movies that I've seen that made me feel like a kid again. I couldn't believe how an animated film with virtually no dialogue and mechanical "actors" was able to so clearly illustrate emotions. That, to me, was revolutionary. The amount of creativity involved to tell a story like that just blows my mind.

    posted by Kiyoshi Martinez at 10:34 AM on January 22, 2009

    That number of nominations for Benjamin Button is ridiculous.

    posted by harryh at 11:12 AM on January 22, 2009

    awards nominating committees seem to be the key demographic for benjy buttons.

    of all the nominated movies, though, I think I loved Encounters at the End of the World the most.

    posted by josh at 11:29 AM on January 22, 2009

    Downey got an Oscar nom! awesome.

    I though Bejamin Button was good, but not 13-Oscar-noms good. I am very disappointed the Dark Knight was not nominated for best picture.

    posted by marrina at 1:51 PM on January 22, 2009

    Similarly, in 1999, these films were nominated: American Beauty, The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile, The Insider, and The Sixth Sense. That's actually a decent selection, but the most discussed films that year are still going to be The Matrix and Being John Malkovich.

    Clearly, Oscar is fucked.

    (Retrospectively, three other films from that year -- The Talented Mr. Ripley, Boys Don't Cry, and Magnolia -- all could be called more important than the five nominated.)

    posted by Rex at 1:56 PM on January 22, 2009

    good for downey, best actor nod for a comedy,

    and melissa leo! the lady detective from H:LOTS. wow, that's almost more of a comeback story than mickey rourke. there goes my plan to rescue her from obscurity with my michael-clayton-meets-high-and-low family drama planned for next year.

    posted by adm at 2:43 PM on January 22, 2009

    Man, I haven't seen anything. Anyone wanna go to the movies this weekend? Or at least get Tropic Thunder on DVD.

    posted by katiebakes at 3:12 PM on January 22, 2009




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