Oscar Nominations

Pan's Labyrinth got 6 nominations! IT's pretty much a lock for Best Foreign Film especially without Volver as competition. It's also great to see the three amigos getting nominated in the screenplay categories.

Unfortunately Alfonso Cuaron got absolutely snubbed for Best Director, hopefully Lubezki wins for cinematography to at least honor the work done in the film. Paul Greengrass getting in brought a huge smile to my face, even if it was in lieu of a Cuaron nomination.

I'm pissed that Clint Mansell got snubbed for his score for The Fountain. Also the lack of a nomination for the film's special effects is a joke. Another misunderstood classic.

All in all a very diverse list that has created a relatively wide open race at all fronts. I'm rooting for Babel in the BP category, Scorsese for director (more for his legacy than for his film), Rinko Kikuchi for supporting actress, Pan's for foreign film and makeup, Monahan's adaptation of Infernal Affairs, Arriaga or del Toro for original screenplay, and Lubezki for cinematography.

Should be the most interesting Oscars in a long while.

This strikes me as the LEAST interesting Oscars in a while.
BLACK DALIAH trumps CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER for cinematography? No PAPRIKA for Best Animated Feature (no wonder the Academy didn't want ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES eligible for Best Animated Feature, that would have opened up the possibility of another embarrassing-to-Hollywood Japanese win in this category)? And DREAMGIRLS gets THREE nominations for Best Song Written For A Motion Picture? Weren't those songs written for the PLAY of the same name, years ago... or are they actually original songs for the movie? At least DEPARTED didn't get nominated for Best Original Screenplay - stranger things have happened.

I'm calling it (and like Clint Eastwood said, deserving's got nothing to do with it - though a handful will actually deserve it):

Foreign Language Film - PAN'S LABYRINTH
Adapted Screenplay - BORAT (CHILDREN OF MEN and DEPARTED split the difference)
Original Screenplay - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Best Picture - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Best Documentary Feature - HACKING DEMOCRACY (Wait, it wasn't nominated? Well, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, then.)
Best Animated Feature - DOC HOLLYWOOD, um, I mean CARS (though this category's a joke, noted above - whoever wins, it's a crock)
Best Director - the pity vote goes to Scorcese.
Best Actor - Peter O'Toole
Best Supporting Actor - Marky Mark
Actress - Helen Mirren
Supporting Actress - Jennifer Hudson (with the unintended side effect of legitimizing AMERICAN IDOL and moving the Doomsday Clock one minute closer to IDIOCRACY)
Art Direction - DREAMGIRLS
Cinematography - toss-up between CHILDREN OF MEN and PAN'S LABYRINTH
Costume Design - DEVIL WEARS PRADA (trumping deserving winner CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER because CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER does not have PRADA in the title).
Documentary short - THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT (random guess)
Editing - CHILDREN OF MEN
Make-up - PAN'S LABYRINTH
Original Score - THE QUEEN
Original Song - DREAMGIRLS (who cares which song)
Animated Short - LIFTED (random guess)
Live-Action Short - WEST BANK STORY (random guess)
Sound Editing - LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
Sound Mixing - DREAMGIRLS
Visual Effects - SUPERMAN RETURNS (in the inexplicable absence of THE FOUNTAIN)

OK--why is Iwo Jima in the regular Oscar slot and not the foreign language slot?

Cause it's an american made film. It's for films produced outside Hollywood. I found it weird that it was nominated for that award at the Globes.

Yeah, but The Queen (according to IMDB) was made entirely with pounds and Euros (and Pan's Labyrinth was made with some Warner money, right?) It seems contradictory--we have an English language film made entirely by Europeans and a Japanese language film made entirely by Americans competing for the same statuette--but hey, it's the Oscars.

Apparently it wasn't submitted as a candidate for Best Foreign Language film - I'm sure WB didn't want to step on its own toes since they're behind PAN'S LABYRINTH too, and that might have split the vote and sent the victory to another studio. There was NO American submission for Best Foreign Language film. Maybe it isn't even allowed.

In other weirdness, Hong Kong sent THE BANQUET, which I thought was largely a Mainland film. Not as goofy as the time HK tried to send THE TOUCH (chosen over INFERNAL AFFAIRS) and got deservingly disqualified, but still pretty questionable. HK should have sent ISABELLA, but it really doesn't matter since without a US theatrical release of some sort, you're pretty much ass-out. Hence no KING AND THE CLOWN. Politics...

Simple answer: Best Foreign Film is comprised of single submissions from non-US countries. Letters From Iwo Jima is an american production even though it is entirely in the Japanese language making it ineligible. If I'm not mistaken Japan's submission was Memories of Tomorrow (ironically another Ken Watanabe film). The same goes for Apocalypto which is entirely in Mayan. Its silly but that's the way it goes. I recall Jeanut's A Very Long Engagement failed to get France's submission a couple of years ago because it was determined that a majority of the funding came from Warner Brothers, so even though its entirely in French it was a no go. Make sense of that?

Award shows mean nothing.

Ah, so I guess whatever percentage of money Warner gave for Pan's Labyrinth it wasn't enough to make it a non-foreign movie. Got it. :)

Then you shouldn't waste your energy posting in threads about them.

And don't even get started on what is a 'supporting role' vs. what is a 'lead role' . I seem to recall Training Day getting it backwards, and Washington walking away with a statue...while Hawke was a supporting role when he was in 99% of the film and the film was from his point of view!

I'm still flabergasted that Volver and King and the Clown are not in the foreign language category. Heck, if King and the Clown were made in the US, it would practically be a shoo-in for best pic!

Best oscars ever, PAN'S LABYRINTH, Children of man, Borat, what more do we want!!
I just want to see Guillermo Del Toro getting that award.

5 noms for the departed is pushing it... i know that martin scorsese is way overdue an oscar... but come on? the departed is really, really bad.. i cant understand how so many people think that this dumbed down remake with the traditional market friendly cop out in the end is actually oscar worthy.
kudos for the mark whalberg nomination though, come to think of it his performance really was the best thing about the movie.

iñárritu will be robbed and scorcese will win the best director award. as consolation for iñárritu, babel will win best movie and i hope jesus camp wins for best documentary... that movie scared the hell out of me.

Yes, jhonny - all that Del Toro love made me very, very happy.

"Supporting Actress - Jennifer Hudson (with the unintended side effect of legitimizing AMERICAN IDOL and moving the Doomsday Clock one minute closer to IDIOCRACY)"

Oh, that made me howl. You are a funny man Rhythm-x

Sorry Kurt but King And The Clown is vastly overrated. It just didn't captivate me in the least. But a lot of people like it so I'm definitely in the minority...but how many would say it's better than The Host?

The Departed a bad movie? I love the original Infernal Affairs and even I can't deny just how good Scorsese's adaptation is. Easily the most quotable film of the year. To even imply that Marty would win a little gold man out of pity is just wrong.

And Rhythm-X, as a testament to how INTERESTING and wide-open this year's nominees are I can tell you right now your picks are way off especially on the major categories...mark my words.

79th Academy Awards Rules For Disringuished [sic] Achievments [sic] During 2006:
Rule Fourteen:
Special Rules for the Best Foreign Language Film Award:
http://www.oscars.org/79academyawards/rules/rule14.html

And the award for "disringuished achievments" in orthography goes to...

what? for once there IS a year with an absolute stunning soundtrack and it's written for a film that's Oscar-material and NO nomination? Obviously, I'm talking about John Tavener's score for "Children of men"

well....guess that's the fate of real talent (ask Ennio)

Can someone please tell me why the most over-rated movie of the year, BORAT, is up for best screenplay!? WHY!? Isn't it mostly improvised? Nobody wrote what those people are saying. There really isn't even a story with meaningful dialogue. A guy goes across America to find Pamela Anderson. The rest is all messing with people "on the street." Well, at least he wasn't nominated alongside Whitaker and Gosling for best actor... sigh.

KURT, hope you're ready for a long podcast tonight with some of my anger and joy on some of these nominations....

I was going to say, "Thank God, no penguins this year!!" but alas I forgot about those damned "Happy Feet" in the animation category.
DelToro should win but probably won't (I hope I'm wrong.) I can't forgive Scorcese for that blatent cheap visual image at the end of THE DEPARTED with the rat crossing the window frame. I'll admit at least there's not one sure thing this year in this "getting-very-old horse race" called the oscars.

ijaffery:

Japan's official submission was "Hula Girls".

http://www.ryuganji.net/news/index.php?entry=entry060915-083652

My Oscar pick: Ellen DeGeneres to be inoffensive and mildly humorous.

Definitely no love for "The Fountain" though it should definitely have received a nod for score and visual effects at the very least (since apparently none of the normal critics care for a unique plot). Illusionist and The Prestige did have good cinematography, but in comparison to The Fountain, The Illusionist at least, falls short.