So the Academy Award nominations are finally out and there were some surprises and even greater disappointments. Here are the comparisons between my predictions and the actual nominations as well as my personal reactions to the latter by category. For the five that I did not predict: Foreign Language Film, Feature Documentary, Documentary Short, Live Action Short Film and Animated Short Film, I have just listed the actual nominees.
BEST PICTURE
Predicted: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Frost/Nixon; Milk; Slumdog Millionaire.
Actual: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Frost/Nixon; Milk; Slumdog Millionaire; The Reader.
I did not predict the Academy to get past their bias against animated films to nominate the best film of the year, Pixar’s WALL·E, but I thought they would at least honor a distinguished summer blockbuster for the first time with The Dark Knight. I was wrong and very disappointed. When is the Academy going to wake up and get over their recurrent condescension towards great summer entertainment? Do they think that movies like Spider-Man 2, Batman Begins, and now The Dark Knight are not worthy because they create pyrotechnic fury on top of a strong beating heart and manage to become accessible to mass audiences? Well, I think the low ceremony viewership within the last few years might go even lower because of this unfair snub.
Passing over that one, the Academy caved into their inclination towards Holocaust-themed movies and gave a nod The Reader. The nod may also partly be a sentimental vote for the movie’s late producers, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella (interestingly, as of now, they are still determining the actual people to nominate). Milk and Frost/Nixon, of course, got in as the political issue films, as did the Oscar-friendly The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the likely frontrunner, Slumdog Millionaire. Seriously though, considering how stellar Pixar movies have been getting lately, I think the Academy should think about explicitly changing this Best Picture to Best Live Action Picture if they are going to continue ignoring animated films for general competition.
BEST DIRECTOR
Predicted: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire; David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon; Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight; Gus Van Sant, Milk.
Actual: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire; Stephen Daldry, The Reader; David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon; and Gus Van Sant, Milk.
The nominated movies are the same as Best Picture here and so my complaints from Best Picture spill over here more or less. Or maybe they are actually a little stronger because Christopher Nolan has had such a consistent track record of efficiently directing good to great small to big films and he really should have gotten recognition for pouring his visionary artistic and commercial sensibilities into The Dark Knight. That is more than you can say for David Fincher who, even though I predicted it, should not have been nominated over Nolan for a technically superb but emotionally hollow film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. And I guess the Academy really loves nominating Stephen Daldry because he is 3/3 including his past films from Billy Elliot and The Hours. Well, at least it is nice that directors of usually “smaller” gems like Danny Boyle and Gus Van Sant are up there. It would have been really something if, besides Nolan, the Academy showed some reach to nominate Darren Aronofsky for The Wrestler.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
Good, thorough write-up.
I don't see why Slumdog is a likely front runner. It was made outside of Hollywood. If you take into consideration the voting body and some of the aspects you mention, The Reader has much more going for it, and I would put CCoBB ahead as well. The Oscars are not much different from high school and the voters are going to pick friends over strangers. Milk was good but certainly not Top Five of the year.
"at least the Academy did not make the same silly mistake that the Golden Globes and SAG did."
The organizations do not decide what category an actor gets nominated in. That's determined by the producers who submit them.
"I wonder if she will make a reference to that in her speech if she wins."
Considering Gervais already did this at the Golden Globes, I doubt it.
"this category would have been even stronger with the inclusion of Waltz with Bashir"
It's not that it sufficed, but then it couldn't have competed in the Best Foreign Language category. It's a silly rule, but it is what it is.
I would be curious about why the Song was limited to three. People would tune in for Miley and Bruce.
2 - El Bicho
According to AP, "An academy spokeswoman says songs need to earn a score of at least 8 and a-quarter out of ten to be nominated and the songs by Cyrus and Springsteen scored less than that."
Ouch.
3 - Robert M. Barga
your entire post is simply a fanboy of dark night
it was a good movie, and Heath was a good actor. The only thing it was worthy of is best supporting actor (heath) but he is dead, so he doesn't really deserve it
4 - John
Hmm, I would be careful with the wording of "but he is dead, so he doesn't really deserve it." Could be open to misconstruing.
5 - El Bicho
"he is dead, so he doesn't really deserve it"
All else can you take it other than uninformed? Did Peter Finch not deserve his Oscar? Should they disqualify The Reader sine two of the producers have died? How exactly does someone 'deserve' an Oscar?