'07 Academy Awards
 

Nominees List

Anyone who uses the oscars as a barometer for quality is a fool, but just because we don't like it doesn't mean we can't be obsessed (see Iraq War).

So after last year's Crash, probably one of the most indefensible Best Picture wins ever (not a hyperbole), I'm reasonably excited they have two good films up for their top award. My reactions:

Pros:
- Dreamgirls/Bill Condon off the Best Pic/Nomination shortlist. Sends a big "fuck you" to hype-charlatans such as Dave Poland, who probably gets a check from Paramount every time they write about it
- Letters of Iwo Jima considered a Best Pic nominee as opposed to foreign
- Penelope Cruz's career-best caught the eyes of voters
- The Black Dahlia up for cinetog. In fact, the noms here (with exception of Children of Men) surprised me. I'm most pleased with this category
- and Ennio fucking Morricone getting the honorary statuette

Cons:
- Inland Empire absent
- Babel/Little Miss Sunshine up for anything (besides Kinkuchi's performance)
- DiCaprio nominated for the wrong picture
- Three Times not up for foreign picture
- Where is Jack Nicholson?

as an aside can anyone imagine that Click (yea, the Sandler flick) is an Oscar nominee?!

I fear Scorsese will get busted again

Are you weeaboo, or just averse to films only one fifth English-language?

The main thing that surprised me was Alan Arkin's nomination for Little Miss Sunshine. Don't get me wrong, he was good, but he was only in half the movie... Steve Carell or even Toni Collette would've been better choices. Steve winning an Oscar would blow my mind. LOL.

Same here. This time he'd actually even deserve it.

Well, Anthony Hopkins and his 20 minutes on screen in Silence of the Lambs got him an academy award. Everything is relative. Arkin wasn't especially good, though. And not even the movie (Little Miss Sunshine) deserves a nomination for best picture. It was just a "viewer-friendly" audience-toe-kissing version of any Wes Anderson flick. I'm not saying it's bad at all, just not good enough.

They tried to go with the theme "diversity" this year, it seems. If I had to pick a comedy up for nomination it would have been Hard Candy. Don't know if the movie was even eligible (since it was marked down as being 2005), but that stuff was some hilarious shit.

I'm kind of saddened by Children of Men's lack of nominations so I'll be rooting for The Departed, El Laberinto del Fauno (and possibly even Babel), and Penelope Cruz's performance, which saved an otherwise mediocre movie.

And Abigail Breslin's nomination is just too cute.

Babel
 

How can Babel be up for anything.....I mean it was alright........Just a bit flat....Certainly not Oscar Worthy.........

There are no movies on the list as bad as Crash.

I see that at least as being a marked improvement.

Being that I have no more interest in Japanese culture than any other country's and that I'd rank the likes of L'Enfant, 4, Volver, Three Times, and The Death of Mr. Lazarescu in last year's 10 best, I'd have to go with neither.

Regarding Amores Perros III, how many times can a director direct the same film? Babel showed little to no character insight at all, and aesthetically makes a fool of new Iranian/Japanese cinema (let's not forget the last shot and the words "For my children").

As for Little Miss Sunshine - strictly mediocre, are we really supposed to believe the academy respects the work of Dayton and Faris more than the latest from say Cuaron, Lynch, Almodovar, Altman, etc? Abigail Breslin is cute, but there was a far deeper performance seen in Shareeka Epps whose debut in Half Nelson was nothing short of spectacular. Good movie, but Best Picture nominee is a joke. Its self-conscious, self-proclaimed "this-is-an-indie" film is mildly condescending.

I echo Mikey sentiment, and if there is a so-called threat to Marty this year, I'd say it's more Inarritu than Eastwood, if only because of the similarity of "storytelling" between Babel and last year's favorite.

I don't want to give the impression that I've seen many of these, but it's a little disappointing that they give Letters a spot in the main category away from the foreign selections and not Pan's Labyrinth. I mean, Labyrinth has six total nominations in comparison to Letter's four. They could of gave it Sunshine's spot.

Oh well, at least it did get a decent amount of noms and might actually win for picture in foreign!

No Borat... :(

i thought Sasha Cohen would get a nod after the globes...

Unfortunately for me, I haven't seen the movie, but it looked like a marked improvement on Crash, and I rather liked the political angle. But as for your comment, well, there's always auteur theory to back him up.

I honestly believe "Little Miss Sunshine" will win Best Picture.

I just have this feeling. Anyone call me on it?

I too am not an expert, drawing from only the ~4 Irani new wave films I've seen. New Irani cinema particularly is interested in nuance, philosophy, and above all, politics, but I believe Inarritu's Babel is a large cartoon (instead of an homage) of what Iran has to offer.

Oh but I more than agree on the Japan segment. I believe it's the strongest and richest of the three, showing how a girl becomes ridiculed and leads to thoughts of suicide due to her disconnection. Kikuchi (and I failed to mention before, but Barazza - the nanny) give very nuanced performances. However, the connect-the-dot-isms and other segments are superfluous. In fact, the fragmented storyline is not what harms the film, but I think its the storylines themselves, with their self-consciously manipulating setups, sometimes riding on ridiculous. When Gael Garcia fires that pullet in the air during the party, everyone was wondering whether or not it'd ricochet the stringed up tin cans, and enter through someone's skull. Same for the scene when he rips the head off the chicken and frightens the children. Like United 93, life is portrayed as a grim roller coaster ride, but after it's over, what did it have to say beyond the 'thrill' experience while riding it?

It's not entirely unmeriting but as with Little Miss Sunshine, I'm merely annoyed that they're getting so much undeserved recognition, when at least a dozen more American films this year - Inland Empire, Miami Vice, A Prairie Home Companion, even Perfume and Apocalypto I think are far more daring.

Though I too am dismayed, it's not at all a surprise to see Sacha Boren Cohen's omittance. I find it a slap in the face that Borat is up for "best adapted screenplay" as if to suggest the majority of the film is fiction.

I think you mean to say, "as if there was a screenplay."

The only slap in the face you should concern yourself with is that DiCaprio is up for Blood Diamond and NOT for The Departed.

I'm sure he did a nice job in Blood Diamond, but could it really have been any better than he did in The Departed? Even if they were virtually even performances, you've got to give the nod to the better movie, which is, without a doubt, The Departed. =/

I never really thought about it that way, but it makes a bunch of sense. Huh. :)

Why give the prize for the better movie when the prize is for an acting performance. He did a great job on both movies, learning a new accent for both roles, etc. But the main character of Blood Diamond was such a complex role to execute, that I'm still amazed how he managed to do it well WITH the weird mid/south-African accent.

I personally think he should be up in the nominees for both of the roles. What I DON'T know is that should he win the award or not, since I haven't seen the other four nominees in their respective films.

That's another way to put it. While there were scripted elements, practically the whole film was improvised in character (I'm arguing it should be placed under Best Original Screenplay). I think Jim Emerson puts it best when he states "what was the movie supposed to be "adapted" from? Life?"

[quote=The only slap in the face you should concern yourself with is that DiCaprio is up for Blood Diamond and NOT for The Departed.[/quote]
Definitely (I lamented this in post 1). We're getting slapped all over the place. The Departed had a handful of this year's best male performances, yet only one's up for Academy recognition. Their over-sight must have something to do with the cranberry juice they all seem to be imbibing in large doses.

Omg I really hope Best Cinematography goes to Children of Men. Beautiful beautiful film. It's like they made something ugly and scary into a beautiful work of art. I'm definitely excited about that! I haven't seen Pan's Labyrinth yet but from the trailer and the still shots, I wouldn't mind them winning either.

I'm happy to see Kate Winslet nominated for Best Actress, but I'm pretty sure it will go to either Judi Dench or Mirren. I would actually like to see Dench win it.

Little Miss Sunshine owns :) filmed close to my house. I just want that to win :)

The nominations, now that I can finally view them, seem fairly even. None of them stand out as anything undeserved, except for Meryll Streep's nomination for "The Devil Wears Prada". Don't get me wrong, it was probably a funny enough film, but Meryll Streep could read from the Betty Crocker Cookbook with cameras rolling and earn an Oscar nomination because the Academy has a long history of overrating her.

What disappoints me is that there was no nominations for "Thank You for Smoking". That was a well done, interesting and highly original film. Even if you ignore the acting, at least the Screenplay was well deserving of a nod.

Little Miss Sunshine, it was alright, not as funny as people said. A cutesy film. If anyone from that movie should've received a nomination, it should've been the kid who played Duane, the silent Nihilist. Most interesting character in the whole movie.

Dammit. Now Scorscese will get an Oscar for a movie that just doesn't deserve it.
Why isn't Nicholson there? Because he hasn't done jackshit this year that would've been Oscar-worthy. If anyone now mentions his perfomance on The Departed I will laugh in his face. I'm still not sure wether that was Jack Nicholson or Jack Black doing an impersonation of Jack Nicholson.
And yes, it was Nicholson who ruined this movie, which is pretty good otherwise.
So my bets are on Scorcese for best director, best picture Babel, best actor diCaprio, best actress Mirren.

Now that the results are in, it's time to revive the tread for a spot of discussion.

Reactions?

I was thrilled that Scorsese won his Oscar; much better than getting a tacky honorary award. His speech, which referred to all the people who wanted him to win, was nice too. "The Departed" winning best picture was a mild upset as far as I was concerned, but whatever.

I was horrified that Babel won Best Score, but I knew it was coming. Now Santaolalla has more Oscars than Bernstein, Goldsmith, and Horner :( The Best Song was a real shocker too--Dreamgirls unseated by An Inconvenient Truth! Good to see Ennio get an award, though, even if Eastwood had to translate for him.

I was really surprised at how limp Ellen's schtick was; she wasn't a terribly great host. Will Farrell and Jack Black's comedy song, Jerry Seinfeld's introduction, and the bit with Lucas, Spielberg, and Coppola were the comdy highlights of the night, for me.

I'm pretty surprised Eddie Murphy didn't get the nod for best supporting actor and that Pan's Labyrinth lost the best foreign language film. Rumor had it that Pan's Labyrinth was actually going to be nominated for best motion picture.

I only saw The Departed for the first time last week, but it instantly became one of my favorite movies; it is certainly one of the best I've ever seen. Totally agree with Best Picture/Director.

Nothing else really interesting. Ellen was a good host, like she has been for the Emmys.

I haven't paid attention to the academy awards for years. My GF was just watching it and i caught a glimpse briefly and from what i saw, it hasn't improved in quality at all.

The thing i don't get is why they've lately been riding the cock of any movies that deal with 1950/60's Motown/R&B acts. Ray was good, although not oscar worthy and the same can be applied to Dreamgirls which bored the shit out of me. Jennifer Hudson IMO didn't deserve to win tonight.

There are lobby groups. Also, Ray Charles died the year that film came out, so it won just because of that.

Jennifer Hudson, IMO, did a phenomenal job. But so did the the two actresses nominated from Babel. I'm glad I'm not the person that had to pick for that category because it was stacked. Any of them could have taken it. If I had to decide though, I think I might have nominated the Japanese girl. It must be friggin' tough to play a deaf-mute like she did.

You mean a deaf-mute, not a blind-mute. :P

After watching the Oscars I really want to see Pan's Labyrinth now, it seemed really interesting from what I saw at the Oscars and it did get many nods. I want to see The Departed also. I didn't see the Oscar's in full because Michigan had a stupid snow storm and cable was out on the entire campus. But I really did enjoy the Dreamgirls performance (and thought it was hilarious how they performed three songs, yet someone else won) And I loved that Jennifer Hudson won. Take that American Idol!

Additional Spam:
Oh, I loved how diverse the nominees were too!

Ya... ugh. I was half-asleep when I wrote that message.

Pretty surprised Pan's lost Best Foreign and Best Score. Also, can the Best Supporting Actress next year be a woman who actually had to act for her role?

Oh come on, Pan's Labyrinth was not that great. I mean, I liked it very much, and yeah, it had its moments, but it's by far not an Oscar-worthy movie.

And I bet you haven't even watched The Lives of Others yet, am I right or am I right ;)

They were both great movies. No need to put down Pan's for it.

Jennifer Hudson did . . .

Let me put it this way: Had she not had any singing to do in that role, do you really think anyone would have recognized her acting ability?

I haven't seen The Departed yet, but now my interest has increased since this is the movie that got Scorsese his Oscar. I also attribute my surprise that the Academy was not up Eastwood's ass this year to not having seen The Departed. Letters from Iwo Jima certainly looks a lot more appealing than Flags of Our Fathers was, which I didn't care for.

Too bad Pan's Labyrinth didn't get the Best Foreign Film Oscar, then again it is the only foreign film I have seen this year. I still think Children of Men was Best Picture material, worthy of a nod at the least.

I haven't seen the Oscars, but I will state two thinga I heard.

Props to Scroses for thanking Infernal Affairs, and boo to whoever decided IA was from Japan and not Hong Kong.

Racial ignorance, not to mention lazyness, 3 seconds on google would have corrected them.

Singing is quite different from musical acting. And considering how quite a few actors and actresses have won for musical roles before, it's not exactly unprecedented.

Yup. It takes a certain amount of skill to make emotion come across like she did throughout the film.

I was pulling for Pan's to win best foreign.

I actually rented The Departed last night and watched it instead of the oscars. Great movie. I was glad to later find out it won.

I still think every single other nominee in the category (save little Miss Breslin! =D) out-acted her. And since the award was for Best Supporting Actress, shouldn't that be what counts?

Well, I don't really know, the only movie I saw out of that list was Little Miss Sunshine. I'm just saying that saying that acting in a musical isn't really acting is false. It is acting, just different from dramatic.

That's what I was thinking as well. I mean, they HAD to give it to him, anything else would have been an outrage. Maybe that kind of explains why he didn't seem to be THAT happy, too

I'll dish out a few thoughts, bullet form

Too long, though unlike most, I enjoyed Pilobolus Dance Troupe's pointless shadow art. Sure, blame acceptance speeches for running time then pull out 50 montages and song n dance numbers from a party hat. Was the sound effects chorus really necessary?

Ellen was okay.

The Academy loves corsets.

Alan Arkin and The Departed's BP win were both both very pleasant surprises

Jennifer Hudson will probably never act again.

The announcement that attempted to connect Volver actress Penelope Cruz with Wolver-rine Hugh Jackman as they trotted on stage together was both the most creative and cringe inducing PA of the evening.

Most bummed about cinetog. How did the cinematographer of Spy Kids win over the DP behind Children of Men? Somebody needs to explain to AMPAS that Art Direction and Cinematography aren't the same damn thing.

The cut from Ennio Morricone's Italian to Ken Watanabe's confused face was priceless.

When Spielberg, Coppola, and Lucas took their first step towards the stage, Scorsese's name was practically read.

Scorsese's improve with Ellen (when she handed him the script) was brilliant - we tend to forget how good an actor he is.

In the end, though, I must ask how we got from there, to here.:(

Fuck Jennifer Hudson. Hmm, a big black girl singer cast to play... a big black girl singer?! HOLY FUCK!

Rinko Kikuchi deserved that award. Her performance in Babel was fuckin' arresting. The movie on the whole was excellent, but her role was stand-out.