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Glad to see atleast Amy Ryan get an nom for Gone Baby Gone, altho that film would've deserved few a more nominations. Infact, I never thought I'd be saying this, but I think Affleck would've deserved a nomination for directing. The film wasn't without it's problems, but I loved Affleck's restraint in the direction.

4 months not getting nominated is ridiculous. They could've atleast pretended to consider it, so foreign film nom list wouldn't look so pathetic. I think portnoy is right, The Counterfeiters is going to win.

"Surf's Up" over "The Simpsons"? Snub, inexplicable idiocy or is "Surf's Up" better than it looks?

Apparently it's won some animation awards, but it's ranked somewhere below unanesthetized dental surgery on my To Do List

Great, now I'm going to have to hear the writers bicker about the Oscars on the audio commentary tracks for seasons to come like they do the Emmys.

Oh, and Norbit has more noms than Zodiac. Try and chew on that one for awhile.

Hilary Swank has more Oscars than Abraham Lincoln.

I have no response.

I am still choking on La Blanchette for Liz the Golden Years. This is only the second time I have walked out of a film and I was a captive audience on a cross channel ferry. Line readings courtesy of Margaret Thatcher's lesser speeches and even more preposterous than that Joan of Arc thing with the woman with a serbian anagram of a name. When that limp piece of cardboard ( Clive Owen) offered up the spoils of spuds and fags I couldn't exorcise the ghost of Bob Newhardt and that was it.

souvenir wrote:Very surprised to see Persepolis, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, and The Orphanage all missing.

The first two were ineligible due to the byzantine Academy rules, and I'm sure The Orphanage was considered too much of a genre picture to be a "serious" nominee.

Honestly, with a few minor quibbles this is a surprisingly solid list of nominees. The only two that really offended me were Cate Blanchett's nomination for Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Surf's Up being nominated for anything (and honestly, even though I enjoyed Juno the directing nomination for Jason Reitman seems a little odd).

geoffcowgill wrote:"Surf's Up" over "The Simpsons"? Snub, inexplicable idiocy or is "Surf's Up" better than it looks?

It's better than it looks. I'm surprised the nominating committee was intelligent enough to give it the go-ahead.

patrick wrote:

souvenir wrote:Very surprised to see Persepolis, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, and The Orphanage all missing.

The first two were ineligible due to the byzantine Academy rules.

At least Persepolis got a Best Animated Film mention, even if it stands a snowball's chance in hell against Ratatouille! (Knowing Oscar it would probably have struggled just against Surf's Up!)

Aside from The Simpsons Movie, notice what else was not nominated in the animation category? Katzenberg must be boiling right now.

Aside from the lack of any recognition for Margot at the Wedding and Zodiac (which comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone), I'm actually okay with this year's nominations.

patrick wrote:The first two were ineligible due to the byzantine Academy rules, and I'm sure The Orphanage was considered too much of a genre picture to be a "serious" nominee.

I'm fairly certain that 4 Months... was, in fact, eligible.

In my opinion, this is the best the Academy has done all decade in terms of nominations (with the exception of the "Best Original Score" nomination, a category they continue to fuck up on no matter what). Yeah, the best performance I saw all year isn't recognized (Ashley Judd, Bug) and the absence of I'm Not There in the top categories terribly suspect, but enough is right and enough is at least interesting that I actually feel somewhat 'involved' this year, which has never really happened before.

neal wrote:

patrick wrote:The first two were ineligible due to the byzantine Academy rules, and I'm sure The Orphanage was considered too much of a genre picture to be a "serious" nominee.

I'm fairly certain that 4 Months... was, in fact, eligible.

It's listed among the official selections, which were posted in this thread in November.

Anyone else surprised that There Will Be Blood got this many nominations?

Matt wrote:Anyone else surprised that There Will Be Blood got this many nominations?

I will be more surprised if it manages to win anything outside of Best Actor.

Matt wrote:

neal wrote:

patrick wrote:The first two were ineligible due to the byzantine Academy rules, and I'm sure The Orphanage was considered too much of a genre picture to be a "serious" nominee.

I'm fairly certain that 4 Months... was, in fact, eligible.

It's listed among the official selections, which were posted in this thread in November.

The big ballyhoo was over the films being voted out of the running quite early in the game. They were "eligible," but the category is chosen by a committee of 55 people, not the entire academy. The Academy was obviously embarrassed by some of the films left off and has promised to look into another way of deciding the category for the future

Matt wrote:Aside from The Simpsons Movie, notice what else was not nominated in the animation category? Katzenberg must be boiling right now.

Wow, it has to be a huge slight - the French/Iranian film is a deserved if surprising kick to Shrek but even more telling is choosing one of the interchangeable wisecracking animal cartoons over Shrek 3! Perhaps they are trying to break away from the perception that the category is a shoe in for the big hitters or perhaps more likely is that Shrek 3 was worse than I imagined - so bad they just couldn't justify the Oscar nomination given to its predecessors!

Matt wrote:Anyone else surprised that There Will Be Blood got this many nominations?

In the weeks leading up to its release, the consensus seemed to be that the film would be great, but the kind that the Academy would completely ignore (like Zodiac, which was unsurprisingly and undeservedly snubbed). I think what happened with There Will Be Blood was that it got such huge buzz from the critical establishment that the Academy couldn't ignore it -- and the presence of Daniel Day-Lewis in what was viewed as a monumental performance helped its visibility. So, to answer your question, a month ago I would've been surprised but today I'm not.

colinr0380 wrote:At least Persepolis got a Best Animated Film mention, even if it stands a snowball's chance in hell against Ratatouille! (Knowing Oscar it would probably have struggled just against Surf's Up!)

I disagree; remember that Spirited Away beat Ice Age and Lilo & Stitch in 2003.

neal wrote:

patrick wrote:The first two were ineligible due to the byzantine Academy rules, and I'm sure The Orphanage was considered too much of a genre picture to be a "serious" nominee.

I'm fairly certain that 4 Months... was, in fact, eligible.

Both were. Neither made the shortlist.

Dylan wrote:In my opinion this is the best the Academy has done all decade in terms of nominations.

Agreed here, and I actively dislike at least one Best Picture nominee and find another pretty mediocre. Overall, the slate of nominees present here is remarkably impressive.

souvenir wrote:Honestly, with a few minor quibbles this is a surprisingly solid list of nominees.

You misspelled "stolid."

Svevan wrote:

colinr0380 wrote:At least Persepolis got a Best Animated Film mention, even if it stands a snowball's chance in hell against Ratatouille! (Knowing Oscar it would probably have struggled just against Surf's Up!)

I disagree; remember that Spirited Away beat Ice Age and Lilo & Stitch in 2003.

The difference being, though, that Ratatouille and Persepolis are both fantastic films (and better than most of this year's Best Picture nominees), while in 2003, Spirited Away was inarguably superior to the others, despite their Hollywood backing.

Time to root for Katyn so Andrzej Wajda can have a "real" Oscar to go with his honorary one.

lacritfan wrote:Time to root for Katyn so Andrzej Wajda can have a "real" Oscar to go with his honorary one.

Is it about the Holocaust? If so, he's a shoo-in.

Are any of the foreign nominees about the Holocaust? If so, then that's your winner.

If not, then pull a name out of a hat.

tavernier wrote:

lacritfan wrote:Time to root for Katyn so Andrzej Wajda can have a "real" Oscar to go with his honorary one.

Is it about the Holocaust? If so, he's a shoo-in.

Are any of the foreign nominees about the Holocaust? If so, then that's your winner.

Ahem. The Counterfeiters is about the Holocaust.