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Studio scorecard: Paramount 28 (Paramount 14 + Paramount Vantage 6 + DreamWorks 6 + Marvel 2), Warner Bros 21, Universal 20 (Universal 6 + Imagine 5 + Focus 9), Disney 14 (Walt Disney 8 + Miramax 6), Fox 13 (20th Century Fox 1 + Fox Searchlight 12), The Weinsten Co 6, Sony 5 (Sony Classics 5), Marvel 2, MGM/UA 0
My analysis: As usual, the Academy Motion Picture Arts & Sciences voters got it wrong. That they could ignore a Best Picture nod for The Dark Knight and a Best Director nomination for Chris Nolan, nor show any love for Iron Man which was a very satisfying film as well, shows just how out of touch the mostly geriatric members who decide the Oscars really are. The result is that this year’s broadcast, lacking any movies that smack of blockbuster in the major category, should be low-rated yet again. Wall-E was robbed for Best Picture, too. It’s long overdue for an animated film to win that category. And overlooking Darren Aronofsky for Best Director was absurd, though he’s honored indirectly for both Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei’s nods. And what’s the deal for ignoring Bruce Springsteen’s swell song for that film?
But the madness of today’s nominations for the February 22nd Academy Awards goes on and on…
The voters blanked Clint Eastwood for Best Actor, despite the fact he’s never won in that category, and for Best Director, which he’s won twice. I’d suspected since December that the Gran Torino story, dialogue and message wouldn’t appeal to the Oscar elite because it’s too blue collar. But, as I’ve said before, if you want to properly handicap the Oscars, just figure out who is envied or hated most by the Academy voters. This year, Clint certainly deserved a major category nomination, and the geriatrics love the guy cuz he’s still got a prostate and balls. But Hollywood is also jealous of him because he’s won too many times. The community figures if he wins any more Oscars, then the awards might as well be renamed the Clints. So the Academy pries the viewfinder from his liver-spotted hands and picks from younger directors to make that walk to the podium. Although the well-deserved nod for Angelina Jolie in Changeling is an indirect tribute to Eastwood.
So many major category nods for The Reader also bewilder me. Yes, I thought Kate Winslet would get the nomination for that movie because 1) people who vote for the Academy Awards seemed to hate her in Revolutionary Road as well as disliked that pic overall, and 2) the thinking was she’d be nominated for Best Supporting Actress and win, and 3) she’s now in first position to win Best Actress. I think The Reader‘s popularity with the Oscar balloters was all about Harvey, but not as a reward for The Weinstein Co asshole. This is a sympathy vote for Scott Rudin and Stephen Daldry and Kate Winslet for having to put up with that nasty oaf during the tortured post-production and release of the movie, and for Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella for passing away before their time.
It was heartening to see that, unlike the Academy voters’ diss of Brokeback Mountain to win Best Picture after barely screening the pic because of its guy-on-guy action (albeit tame), the balloters were not scared off Milk. Terrific that both Anne Hathaway and Mickey Rourke won nods: the Academy could have blamed her for appearing in that crappy pic Bride Wars, and him for opening his mouth too much and opining about everything. (Less is more, Mickey…) And fortunately, Heath Ledger, the 7th posthumous nominee, is undisputed frontrunner for Best Supporting Actor and fittingly nominated exactly one year to the day since his death from an accidental drug overdose.
Back on December 26th, I raised the question whether this year’s Oscars as shaping up as rather suspense-less. See my Oscar Ballots Mailed: Are Best Picture And Other Major Categories Already Decided? Despite the huge money (too much) which Paramount is spending to sell Benjamin Button because Brad Pitt was Brad Grey’s former client, I’m still certain that Slumdog Millionaire is a shoo-in for Best Pic. And the only major categories in any real doubt at this point are Best Actor which is slightly less competititive now without Eastwood, and Best Supporting Actress which is wide open now that Winslet isn’t in it.
Nominees for the 81st Academy Awards
Best motion picture of the year
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros)
A Kennedy/Marshall Production
Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
Frost/Nixon (Universal)
A Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Production
Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fellner, Producers
Milk (Focus Features)
A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production
Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers
The Reader (The Weinstein Company)
A Mirage Enterprises and Neunte Babelsberg Film GmbH Production
Nominees to be determined
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight)
A Celador Films Production
Christian Colson, Producer
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Richard Jenkins in The Visitor (Overture Films)
Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon (Universal)
Sean Penn in Milk (Focus Features)
Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (Fox Searchlight)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married (Sony Pictures Classics)
Angelina Jolie in Changeling (Universal)
Melissa Leo in Frozen River (Sony Pictures Classics)
Meryl Streep in Doubt (Miramax)
Kate Winslet in The Reader (The Weinstein Company)
Achievement in directing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros) David Fincher
Frost/Nixon (Universal) Ron Howard
Milk (Focus Features) Gus Van Sant
The Reader (The Weinstein Company) Stephen Daldry
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Danny Boyle
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Josh Brolin in Milk (Focus Features)
Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt (Miramax)
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.)
Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Amy Adams in Doubt (Miramax)
Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (The Weinstein Company)
Viola Davis in Doubt (Miramax)
Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler (Fox Searchlight)
Original screenplay
Frozen River (Sony Pictures Classics) Written by Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky (Miramax) Written by Mike Leigh
In Bruges (Focus Features) Written by Martin McDonagh
Milk (Focus Features) Written by Dustin Lance Black
WALL-E (Walt Disney) Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon
Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter
Adapted screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros) Screenplay by Eric Roth
Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Doubt (Miramax) Written by John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon (Universal) Screenplay by Peter Morgan
The Reader (The Weinstein Company) Screenplay by David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy
Best animated feature film of the year
Bolt (Walt Disney) Chris Williams and Byron Howard
Kung Fu Panda (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount) John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
WALL-E (Walt Disney) Andrew Stanton
Best foreign language film of the year
The Baader Meinhof Complex, A Constantin Film Production, Germany
The Class (Sony Pictures Classics), A Haut et Court Production, France
Departures (Regent Releasing), A Departures Film Partners Production, Japan
Revanche (Janus Films), A Prisma Film/Fernseh Production, Austria
Waltz with Bashir (Sony Pictures Classics), A Bridgit Folman Film Gang Production, Israel
Best documentary feature
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) (Cinema Guild), A Pandinlao Films Production, Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
Encounters at the End of the World (THINKFilm and Image Entertainment), A Creative Differences Production, Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser
The Garden, A Black Valley Films Production, Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Man on Wire (Magnolia Pictures), A Wall to Wall Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
Trouble the Water (Zeitgeist Films), An Elsewhere Films Production, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal
Best documentary short subject
The Conscience of Nhem En, A Farallon Films Production, Steven Okazaki
The Final Inch, A Vermilion Films Production, Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant
Smile Pinki, A Principe Production, Megan Mylan
The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306, A Rock Paper Scissors Production, Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros) Alexandre Desplat
Defiance (Paramount Vantage) James Newton Howard
Milk (Focus Features) Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) A.R. Rahman
WALL-E (Walt Disney) Thomas Newman
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Down to Earth” from WALL-E (Walt Disney) Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
“Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar
“O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
Achievement in art direction
Changeling (Universal)
Art Direction: James J. Murakami, Set Decoration: Gary Fettis
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt, Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros)
Art Direction: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Peter Lando
The Duchess (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films)
Art Direction: Michael Carlin, Set Decoration: Rebecca Alleway
Revolutionary Road (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)
Art Direction: Kristi Zea, Set Decoration: Debra Schutt
Achievement in cinematography
Changeling (Universal) Tom Stern
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros) Claudio Miranda
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) Wally Pfister
The Reader (The Weinstein Company) Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Anthony Dod Mantle
Achievement in costume design
Australia (20th Century Fox) Catherine Martin
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Jacqueline West
The Duchess (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films), Michael O’Connor
Milk (Focus Features) Danny Glicker
Revolutionary Road (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage) Albert Wolsky
Achievement in film editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros) Lee Smith
Frost/Nixon (Universal) Mike Hill and Dan Hanley
Milk (Focus Features) Elliot Graham
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Chris Dickens
Achievement in makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros), Greg Cannom
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros), John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O’Sullivan
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Universal), Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz
Best animated short film
La Maison en Petits Cubes, A Robot Communications Production, Kunio Kato
Lavatory – Lovestory, A Melnitsa Animation Studio and CTB Film Company Production, Konstantin Bronzit
Oktapodi (Talantis Films) A Gobelins, L’école de l’image Production, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
Presto (Walt Disney) A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Doug Sweetland
This Way Up, A Nexus Production, Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes
Best live action short film
Auf der Strecke (On the Line) (Hamburg Shortfilmagency), A Media Arts Cologne Production, Reto Caffi
Manon on the Asphalt (La Luna Productions), A La Luna Production, Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont
New Boy (Network Ireland Television), A Zanzibar Films Production, Steph Green and Tamara Anghie
The Pig, An M & M Production, Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh
Spielzeugland (Toyland), A Mephisto Film Production, Jochen Alexander Freydank
Achievement in sound editing
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros) Richard King
Iron Man (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment) Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Tom Sayers
WALL-E (Walt Disney) Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
Wanted (Universal) Wylie Stateman
Achievement in sound mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros) David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros) Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
WALL-E (Walt Disney) Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt
Wanted (Universal) Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt
Achievement in visual effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros) Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros) Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin
Iron Man (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment) John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan
PREVIOUS: At 5:30 AM PT. (I’m traveling for family business on the East Coast so, for once, I don’t have to cover this at the crack of dawn…) Nominations for the 81st Academy Awards will be announced by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis and Oscar-winning actor and Academy member Forest Whitaker at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Tuesday we innaugurate Obama and on Thursdsay this happens. Wow. But actually quite brilliant. Many folks will make the same observation. There will be articles written and TV segments cut. This to be controversy may actually drive up ratiings for a normally unwatchable show!
Please strike now SAG. As there are no films I care about you should strike and make the horrible Oscars go away and be a simple press conference to announce the winners.
No Dark Night. Not watching again.
Oh Nikki!
So much conjecture, is it really necessary?
Your theories about Oscar voters being too old to vote for Batman but too jealous to vote for old man Clint and about voters hating Harvey enough to award his film The Reader’s crew sympathy Oscars were particularly amusing.
Not everything can be analyzed.
Especially not the Oscars.
I’m with Anya. I found Benjamin to be a wonderful movie, old fashioned storytelling in the best way. I’m thrilled it received all of those noms. But the three actors in Doubt. And Anne Hathaway. Well, each to his own..
Aronofsky getting robbed was a tragedy. Eastwood’s won before, for Million Dollar Baby and Unforgiven so his snub there wasn’t heartbreaking. He was amazing though in Gran Torino. That definately was a crusher! And what’s the deal with the reader?! Was it even that great?
Nikki indirectly supplies another reason why the Oscars are so irrelevant – movies get nominated not because of their quality but because of behind-the-scenes turmoil, sympathy, grudges, jealousy and crushes. Or worse, who’s won too many times or whose turn is it. Pathetic. How are the Oscars any more legit than figure skating?
I can think of a dozen movies I enjoyed more than any of the 5 ‘best’ on this list.
Prostat & Balls…wonderful.
“Get away from my dog”.
It’s gotta be some sort of crime that ‘The Dark Knight’ didn’t get a nod for Best Picture. It’s one of the best crafted, fully satisfying blockbuster films ever. Christopher Nolan was snubbed, indeed.
The rest of the nominations fall in my place with my expectations. I’m kinda-sorta glad that ‘Revolutionary Road’ didn’t get all the nods it was rumored to get. It’s one hell of a downer movie (although well acted by Leo and Kate). Though, it’s neat that the Michael Shannon got a Supporting Nod for his assholeish, mentally unbalanced mathematician.
I’ve yet to see ‘Slumdog Millionaire’… and its awards train is now moving full steam ahead into the Academy Awards. I really got to make some time and see it.
I went to three showings of The Dark Knight. Contrary to the apparent opinion of the Oscar voter, there were people of all ages sitting in packed theatres. Old couples sat next to teenage lovers. They weren’t there to see Batman; they were there to see one of the best-reviewed movies of the year. They were there to see a great FILM.
For The Dark Knight not to get even a nomination is a travesty. How can anyone take seriously the idea that the Best Picture winner is the year’s best movie when TDK isn’t even in the top five? The Oscars are voting themselves into irrelevancy, and I guarantee you it will be reflected in the ratings for this year’s show.
Harvey must be stopped! Enough is enough!
Agree with you about Dark Knight, disagree about Wall-E. As you probably know, each branch nominates for its own branch (or in the case of foreign films and animated features any member can vote if they attend the screenings). Every member gets to nominate for Best Picture and I included Dark Knight as one of my five selections. However, it’s really not that hard to believe that too few other members did as well since the majority if the Academy members are in the Actors branch and they tend to be a bunch of out-of-work blue hairs who tend to vote for ‘serious’ films instead of great films. I suspect that very few of them even watched Dark Knight or if they bothered to turn it on probably didn’t make it through the end of the first ten minutes. Oh well…
Isn’t it amazing how closely the nominations (in applicable categories) match the SAG Awards nominations?
What I love most about the Oscars is the way Hollywood celebrates Hollywood, but the producer accepting the Best Picture award invariably says, “Nobody wanted to make this movie…”
What a turdpile of a nominations list. No TDK in Picture, Director or Adapted Screenplay, no peace. And the five nominated films making about 40 million $ less than TDK made in its OPENING FRAKKIN’ WEEKEND. Academy to mainstream moviegoing public: F-U.
CCoBB was HORRIBLE Gump 2.0…look for the YouTube side/by/side comparison…Roth should be ashamed…Pitt cribbed everything from Hanks except heart…only good thing about it–and she was GREAT–is Taraji…believe it got all the noms and Angelina’s best actress so that they’ll add some glam to the awards…no Springsteen, wtf?! Agree that Dark Knight should have gotten a pic nom, and Gervais nailed it: go Holocaust or mental and get rewarded.
I do NOT understand the hoopla over THE WRESTLER. Except for being a decent inside look at a Wrestler’s life — the STORY was abysmal.
Mickey’s good but not brilliant maybe cuz the script sucks.
The script is a cliched ridden bowl of lukewarm soup.
Cliche #1:Substitute Boxer for Wrestler and its Requiem for a Heavyweight. And every other boxing movie.
Cliche #2: Marissa is the stripper — with a heart of gold!
Cliche #3: Plot twist: she has a kid (which goes nowhere by the way). Guess what – EVERY stripper has a kid.
Cliche #4: Mickey lives… in a trailer park!
Cliche #5: he cant pay his rent – and has been locked out!
Cliche #6: his daughter is mad at him because “he was never there!”
Cliche #7: He screws up because he’s late to take her to dinner bec he was out partying! (sheesh – he was only 2 hrs late)
Cliche #8: She’s a lesbian – another plot point that goes nowhere.
Cliche #9: Mickey has a cute dog – oh wait, he doesnt have a dog but he plays with the neighborhood kids… Ahh, he must be a nice guy.
Cliche #10: Mickey gets a real job but gets recognized.
Oh, this is not a cliche – but Mickey’s speech at the end before he fights?? What was that? A clunky expositional summation of all his thoughts and feelings – it felt like Mickey’s thank you speech to the cast and crew at the end of the shoot that Darren decided to cut in, not something the character would say and do….
The oversight of the Academy to have no best pic or director nomination for “Dark Knight” is not only insulting but stupefying. I don’t want to place the film in the same league as “Ben-Hur” or “Lawrence of Arabia” but it’s in that arena of epic, large, and powerful spectacles. I wouldn’t expect it to win but the neglect here is more shocking than a win would be.
WB may have been well to re-release it on IMAX and have Academy voters see it as it was intended. I haven’t had my jaw drop for a movie since seeing the big boat in Titanic sink.
Really? ‘Curious’ gets 13 nominations? It’s nothing more than a Hallmark movie of the week so long it literally has a scene where you watch paint dry.
Why such a hater, Nikke? Wouldn’t a sympathy vote for Rudin and Winslet be to, oh I don’t know, nominate REV ROAD instead?
I couldn’t agree more Nikki Wall-e deserved best picture. That movie almost made me cry
Gran Torino was a bad tv movie starring Clint Eastwood. It deserved what it got.
Original Joe – Iron Man had no leaps of faith? Just the whole building an Iron Man suit while stuck in a cave. Good thing those guards never went in the cave! TDK and IM were movies and both required a leap of faith.
Best Pic – TDK, The Wrestler, Slumdog, WallE, & Benji Button – with winner going to either Wrestler or Slumdog. Everything else is just awards filler that no one cares about.
As a member of the visual effects branch, I think we got our three movies exactly right.
I agree that Wall-E should have been a best picture nominee, and even the best picture. I felt that way, even more strongly, about Pixar’s previous The Incredibles.
Well, we’ll see how it goes. I don’t see Button taking very many of those 13 categories — but we’ll just have to wait and see.
You may have known too much of what happened behind the scenes to enjoy it but I thought “The Reader” was a terrific film.
Go CCBB, Finch & Claudio!
What’s with the song category?
Last year, 3 from Enchanted.
This year, two from Slumdog. And only one other?
As if there weren’t a slew of good songs to choose from?
How about the song from Gran torino? Bruce’s song from The Wrestler?
RIDICULOUS.
Clint was robbed a best actor nod–I just saw gran torino and thought it was an incredible performance. He was much more interesting than Pitt who was the beneficiary of several actor’s performances to create the role of Button.