2009 Academy Award Nominees

BEST PICTURE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
MILK
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire


BEST DIRECTOR
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant, MILK
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire


BEST ACTOR
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, MILK
Bradd Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler


BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, MILK
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk
WALL-E


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

ANIMATED FEATURE
BOLT
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

ANIMATED SHORT
La Maison de Petits Cubes
Lavatory - Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

LIVE ACTION SHORT
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

ART DIRECTION
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

COSTUME DESIGN
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
MILK
Revolutionary Road

FILM EDITING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
MILK
Slumdog Millionaire

MAKE-UP
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

VISUAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

SOUND EDITING
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

SOUND MIXING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

ORIGINAL SCORE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
MILK
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E

ORIGINAL SONG
"Down to Earth", WALL-E
"Jai Ho", Slumdog Millionaire
"O Saya", Slumdog Millionaire

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Betrayal
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Lunch
Smile Pinki
The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
The Class (France)
Departures (Japan)
Revanche (Austria)
Waltz with Bashir (Israel)

Wow. The Reader? Seriously? I guess I'll have to go see it. Is it really all that? I haven't seen a single thing about it here. What a joke... Have you seen it Holden?

__________________
We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Other than The Reader popping up so much in the big eight categories, the only real "surprise" in the nominees was Michael Shannon getting a nod as Supporting Actor in Revolutionary Road. No Leonardo, no Winslet, but he manages to crack through over some stiff competition in that category. And it was nice to see In Bruges and Frozen River get original screenplay nods, though I'm a little surprised the writers didn't nominated Charlie Kaufman.

Jenkins was a sure thing, that scene near the end of The visitor was made for the Oscar clip.

__________________
http://www.last.fm/user/diezelpower/

So Benjamin Button sets the pace with thirteen nominations. Wow. Slumdog Millionaire gets ten noms, while MILK and The Dark Knight have eight a piece. WALL-E had six with Frost/Nixon, Doubt and The Reader all getting five each.

I'll have to look a little closer at these, but Sally Hawkins not getting a nom is a straight up travesty

And no Springsteen? What?

Yeah, hers was certainly the most startling omission, considering how many other awards and honors she had outright won this season, much less been nominated for.

Oh, well.

Bummer. I guess The Dark Knight will probably clean up in a lot of the technical categories it was nominated in. And I think it's entirely possible Ledger will win the thing.

Not particularly shocked or upset that it wasn't nominated for The Big One. But I was pretty convinced that Nolan would get a nomination. The amount of work and skill that had to go into that film has to be greater than some of the more dramatic pieces.

I realize the two categories are largely going to mirror each other, but I think Nolan's case is clearly one in which, whatever you thought of the film, it was an unbelievable undertaking. Setting aside which was the better film, ask yourself: was it really harder or more impressive, from a directorial standpoint, to film something like Frost/Nixon than it was The Dark Knight? I don't see how the answer is yes.

Couldn't have said that better myself even if I tried, mate. Very well said. Nolan loses out. Again. I too thought that Nolan would at least get a nom. Afterall Peter Jackson won for The Lord Of The Rings, which had me hoping that maybe the Oscar genre bias had died down. Apparently not. Very disappointed for Nolan. Very disappointed. Oh well, at least Ledger got the nom.

Yea, I haven't heard much about it either until a friend asked me if I wanted to see it last week. We chose Doubt instead... (which I didn't really like...)

I need to think about these a bit more, but off the top of my head, that In Bruges nomination makes me extremely happy. Its been really nice that that film hasn't been forgotten...

I need to see quite a lot of these movies... I'm pretty in the dark this year.

Yeah, and I think Ledger's the odds-on favorite to win, too.

Definitely more frustrated as I reflect on the nominations. If films like Jurassic Park and The Dark Knight don't merit nominations, isn't that the same as saything that almost no action or comic book film ever does? What is inherent in character studies and pure dramas that are almost invariably deemed better than thrillers or adventure films? Why are the emotions those films create more objectively valuable?

And since when is a film which depicts a moving event the same thing as a moving film? Are films about the Holocaust great, or is the event itself so staggering that the strength of the emotional reaction is built into the topic?

Yes, I know there are exceptions. I know the LOTR films were nominated. I know The Silence of the Lambs won. But I also know that these are exceptions to the rule.

It wasn't always like this, I don't think. From 1975 to 1977 we saw Jaws and Star Wars receive nominations, and we saw Rocky win. It's hard to imagine a similar outbreak of populism these days.

I'm probably in the minority here but I'm suprised that Robert Downey Jr. got the nod for Best Supporting Actor. It's good to see a comedic role in there (from such a silly comedy at that), and I thought his performance was funny, but I never really thought of it as one of the best supporting roles of the year. But I suppose I didn't see many movies last year.

It is quite funny how the "award winner" character gets an Oscar nomination though.

__________________
TOP 100 | "Don't let the bastards grind you down!"

I've used to ask myself and others similar questions. So far nobody has been able to come up with a straight forward answer. My guess is that most people just deem thrillers, horrors and action adventure films as superficial in some way. That they are films that shouldn't be recognised beyond their technical accomplishes. Obviously this is bull as these films use these technical approaches as a means to tell their story.

Take The Bourne Ultimatum for example. The action in that film ably progresses the story. It's the action that tells the story and it's also the action that tells us a lot about the characters. It's just using more practical methods as opposed to telling a story through suggested dialogue and understated acting and that doesn't make it any less. In fact, I reckon it's harder to convey through practicality. Some of these people forget that films like The Dark Knight are VERY multi-dimensional in that they can be funny, sad, frightning and adrenaline pumping as opposed to a film like The Reader which is clearly and purely aimed at the heartstrings. How can a film that encompasses all ranges of human emotions be so overlooked?

Fincher makes Se7en - no best director nomination , makes Fight Club - nope , makes Zodiac - nope.

Then comes one of his weakest films , that is doesn't scratch the surface of what he can do as a director - oh there it is.

No makeup nomination for Synecdoche , Wall-E and Dark Knight snubbed from Best Picture - then again they would have the shame of receiving the same award as Crash and Titanic.

__________________

No Director
No Best Picture

and No Springsteen?

The Oscars had a chance to do something right here, but they failed in my eyes. Oh well, The Oscars needed The Dark Knight more then The Dark Knight needed the Oscars.

__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

I'm not sure how a film which is up for the Producers Guild Award, the Directors Guild Award and the Screenwriters Guild Award (that film is The Dark Knight) can be shut out in all three categories. I realize that the different guilds contain members who also work in TV, and that the Academy is strictly concerned with films, but somehow The Reader, a film which hasn't even received that good of reviews, has managed to beat it out in all three categories. Metacritic measures The Dark Knight at 82 and The Reader at 58! I know this can't be a conspiracy, but there has to be some kind of group mentality operating which told members that nominating a comic book movie would somehow tarnish their reputation, which is in fact the opposite of the truth.

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

I'm going to give a geeky, comprehensive breakdown of the nominations when I get the chance, but, man, is this the worst year for movies, ever or what? The more I think about it, the more real that thought seems and I'm not just trying to be an ******* who keeps saying this. To be fair, I haven't seen The Reader yet but honestly that thing pretty much looks like the lame faux-film Kate Winslet was shooting in her episode of Extras.

Tell me, Academy Award voters, could you ask for anything more?

&feature=related