The Academy Award nominations are in....

[Angel P]

Best Picture

'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

'Frost/Nixon'

'Milk'

'The Reader'

'Slumdog Millionaire'

 

Best Director

Danny Boyle, 'Slumdog Millionaire'

Stephen Daldry, 'The Reader'

David Fincher, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Ron Howard, 'Frost/Nixon'

Gus Van Sant, 'Milk'

 

Best Actor

Richard Jenkins, 'The Visitor'

Frank Langella, 'Frost/Nixon'

Sean Penn, 'Milk'

Brad 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'

Penelope Cruz, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'

Viola Davis, 'Doubt'

Taraji P. Henson, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Marisa Tomei, 'The Wrestler'

 

Best Animated Feature Film

'Bolt'

'Kung Fu Panda'

'Wall-E'

 

Best Foreign Film

'The Baader Meinhof Complex' (Germany)

'The class' (France)

'Departures'(Japan)

'Revanche' (Austria)

'Waltz With Bashir' (Israel)

 

Best Original Screenplay

Dustin Lance Black, 'Milk'

Courtney Hunt, 'Frozen River'

Mike Leigh, 'Happy-Go-Lucky'

Martin McDonagh, 'In Bruges'

Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Pete Docter, 'WALL-E'

 

Best Adapted Screenplay

Eric Roth, Robin Swicord, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

John Patrick Shanley, 'Doubt'

Peter Morgan, 'Frost/Nixon'

David Hare, 'The Reader'

Simon Beaufoy, 'Slumdog Millionaire'

 

Best Documentary Feature

'The Betrayal'

'Encounters at the End of the World'

'The Garden'

'Man on Wire'

'Trouble the Water'

 

Best Original Score

'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

'Defiance'

'Milk'

'Slumdog Millionaire'

'WALL-E'

 

Best Original Song

'Down to Earth,' WALL-E

'Jai Ho,' 'Slumdog Millionaire'

'O Saya,' 'Slumdog Millionaire'

 

Best Film Editing

Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Lee Smith, 'The Dark Knight'

Mike Hill, Dan Hanley, 'Frost/Nixon'

Elliot Graham, 'Milk'

Chris Dickens, 'Slumdog Millionaire'

 

Best Documentary - Short Subject

'The Conscience of Nhem En,' Steven Okazaki

'The Final Inch,' Irene Taylor Brodsky, Tom Grant

'Smile Pinki,' Megan Mylan

'The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306,' Adam Pertofsky, Margaret Hyde

 

Best Cinematography

Tom Stern, 'Changeling'

Claudio Miranda, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Wally Pfister, 'The Dark Knight'

Chris Menges, Roger Deakins, 'The Reader'

Anthony Dod Mantle, 'Slumdog Millionaire'

 

Best Costume Design

Catherine Martin, 'Australia'

Jacqueline West, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Michael O'Connor, 'The Duchess'

Danny Glicker, 'Milk'

Albert Wolsky, 'Revolutionary Road'

 

Best Sound Mixing

David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, Mark Weingarten, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick, 'The Dark Knight'

Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty, 'Slumdog Millionaire'

Tom Myers, Michael Semanick, Ben Burtt, 'WALL-E'

Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Monta?o, Petr Forejt, 'Wanted'

 

Best Sound Editing

Richard King, 'The Dark Knight'

Frank Eulner, Christopher Boyes, 'Iron Man'

Tom Sayers, 'Slumdog Millionaire'

Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood, 'WALL-E'

Wylie Stateman, 'Wanted'

 

Best Live Action Short Film

'Auf der Strecke (On the Line),' Reto Caffi

'Manon on the Asphalt,' Elizabeth Marre, Olivier Pont

'New Boy,' Steph Green, Tamara Anghie

'The Pig,' Tivi Magnusson, Dorte H?gh

'Spielzeugland (Toyland),' Jochen Alexander Freydank

 

Best Animated Short Film

'La Maison de Petits Cubes,' Kunio Kato

'Lavatory - Lovestory,' Konstantin Bronzit

'Oktapodi,' Emud Mokhberi, Thierry Marchand

'Presto,' Doug Sweetland

'This Way Up,' Alan Smith, Adam Foulkes

 

Best Makeup

Greg Cannom, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

John Caglione, Jr., Conor O'Sullivan, 'The Dark Knight'

Mike Elizalde, Thom Flout, 'Hellboy II: The Golden Army'

 

Best Art Direction

James J. Murakami, Gary Fettis, 'Changeling'

Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Nathan Crowley, Peter Lando, 'The Dark Knight'

Michael Carlin, Rebecca Alleway, 'The Duchess'

Kristi Zea, Debra Schutt, 'Revolutionary Road'

 

Best Visual Effects

Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, Craig Barron, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber, Paul Franklin, 'The Dark Knight'

John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick, Shane Mahan, 'Iron Man'

 

http://www.oscar.com/nominees/?pn=nominees

[James T]

Robert Downey jr is kinda surprising to be up there. His performance was great, I just never thought the Oscars would even consider it.

 

Can't comment on anything else as I have only seen Dark Knight and Ben Button as the additional films

[Jordan_E]

The only Best Picture movie I saw was Frost/Nixon. Better than last year, when I saw none of them beforehand.

[Lutter]

Uh, The Wrestler?

[Whooter]

Uh, The Wrestler?

 

Have you seen it? I understand it's quite amazing.

[Carlucci]

Have you seen it? I understand it's quite amazing.

 

 

I think he means "Why is The Wrestler not represented here?" as it was in the Golden Globes nominations.

 

 

 

Carlos.

[Angry the Clown]

Fascinating insight into how the AMPAS voting system actually works:

 

http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_article/VR1117998897.html?nav=news&categoryid=1982&cs=1

[Lutter]

I think he means "Why is The Wrestler not represented here?" as it was in the Golden Globes nominations.

 

 

 

Carlos.

Exactly. I'm shocked that there's no Best Picture or Best Director nod at all for the picture.

 

Even the original song wasn't nominated.

 

I know Best Animated Film is going to Wall-E but I secretly wish that Kung Fu Panda would get it just for the fact that it was hands above anything Dreamworks has ever put out before.

[Covak]

The Best Animated Feature Film category looks funny to me. They might as well only have nominated Wall-E

 

Robert Downey jr is kinda surprising to be up there. His performance was great, I just never thought the Oscars would even consider it.

 

I was surprised to see that, too

[Angry the Clown]

...I secretly wish that Kung Fu Panda would get it just for the fact that it was hands above anything Dreamworks has ever put out before.

 

Really? I tend to hate Dreamworks Animation?. and I think I might hate Jack Black as well (I?m still not sure). I was wary of checking it out as a consequence. Personally I think the Academy have many years of giving Pixar Oscars just to make up for Shrek taking the statuette home over Monsters Inc.

 

No Springsteen nomination is a surprise. I didn?t even think two songs from the same film (Slumdog Millionaire in this instance) were allowed to be nominated. Elfman?s song from Wanted was great fun. They could have nominated that too. Is there a three song limit? I forget.

[Jordan_E]

I liked Kung Fu Panda quite a bit and I am NO Jack Black fan.

As far as Springsteen, I read that because it's included on his album is why it wasn't nominated.

[rustyjaw]

I think Wall-E is one of Pixar's weaker movies, while Kung Fu Panda was Dreamworks best 3D movie by a huge margin. I could see KFP winning over Wall-E, but I suspect I'm in the minority.

[Angry the Clown]

I'll be sure to check out Kung Fu Panda at some point.

 

I tried watching Shark Tale on television over Christmas. I couldn't make it to the end.

[JoeyN]

You aren't the only one. I hated Shark Tale

[kelley]

The Wrestler not being nominated for Best Picture and DA not getting a Best Director nod is really pathetic.

[Angry the Clown]

The DGA did not nominate Aronofsky either. They did nominate Nolan however - in fact Dark Knight won nominations from the Writers, Directors and Producers guild awards. Given that, it's funny it misses out on those categories at the Oscars when many of the same people who vote in these guilds cast votes for AMPAS... but that article I linked to goes some way in explaining why certain films/individuals seemingly get “snubbed.”

 

The SAG leading and supporting nominees are almost identical to the Oscars this year.

Edited January 23, 2009 by Doctor Hoo

[GreenMonkey]

We saw Kung-Fu panda, for some reason the kids weren't interested at all. Pretty funny.

 

WALL-E is a great movie...not that I normally like Disney/Pixar stuff. I've seen it like 10 times at least with my 3 yr old and I find I still enjoy it.

[Romier S]

I think Wall-E is one of Pixar's weaker movies

Funny, it's my favorite Pixar film followed closely by The Incredibles (and I consider Cars to be thier weakest movie by a large margin). I've watched it almost as much as I've watched "The Dark Knight" since picking it up on Blu-Ray.

 

I'm going to see "The Wrestler" as soon as I get home from this business trip also!

Edited January 23, 2009 by Romier S

[Tonner Cyn]

I went in to The Wrestler with huge expectations and maybe because of that it did not live up to them. Definitely a good movie, but not necessarily Best Picture worthy.

 

I saw The Reader tonight and that one also left me a little cold, although I had little to no expectations going in. Not a total travesty that it is included in the Best Picture list, but I would have had no problem putting The Dark Knight in over it. While I enjoyed The Wrestler more than The Reader, I don't think I would swap those two.

[iainl]

Great news for Danny Boyle, anyway. I can't believe Slumdog has got TEN nominations.

[Jordan_E]

Seems like the Academy was reaching to allow certain movies to receive so many nominations. Friends I know hated Benny Button and refuse to watch the Oscars due to the number of noms it received. Haven't seen it myself, but a part of me likes the fact that Fincher has at least struck Nomination Gold this time around.

[dienekes96]

I liked Button. It's not a third of the movie Zodiac was, but it's pretty good. It's success is also going to empower David Fincher, and I struggle to see that as a bad thing.

[Angry the Clown]

Benjamin Button opens here on the 6th. They?re running a TV spot here which is basically a one minute version of the movie. All I know is that I love Desplat?s score. Despite its obvious Williams and Barry influences it was one of the best of 2008, and Desplat himself is an exceptional talent and one of the few ?new? film composers who truly understands how to write for orchestra. It would be nice if Desplat took home the statuette as a result.

 

Still, Thomas Newman and Elfman are long overdue an Oscar. Wall-E is a great score, and of Elfman?s collection of personal and emotionally driven scores Milk is up there as one of his best. I can take of leave Newton Howard?s Defiance score. Williams and Crystal Skull, or even Zimmer with Frost/Nixon would have been more suitable substitutes I think (I really do like Zimmer when he isn't scoring an action movie).

 

All that said, I am expecting the Oscar for original score to go to Slumdog Millionaire.

 

Tedious fact: Benjamin Button is, as far as I am aware, the first film shot digitally to be nominated for an Academy Award for cinematography (having been shot 99% on the Thompson Viper camera, with 35mm used only for some slow motion and effects shots ? chiefly in the wartime sequence). Slumdoog Millionaire, also nominated, was about 60% digital too. Personally I think Deakins should have had a Revolutionary Road nomination in place of the nomination he shares with Chris Menges for The Reader.

[secretvampire]

I liked Benjamin Button quite a bit, what I can't understand are the comparisons to Forrest Gump. That makes zero sense to me...and I pretty much loathed Forrest Gump.

[Angry the Clown]

I liked Benjamin Button quite a bit, what I can't understand are the comparisons to Forrest Gump. That makes zero sense to me...and I pretty much loathed Forrest Gump.

 

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1897317

 

 

I accept they’ve taken liberties for the sake of humour, but it did make me chuckle. I think I’d read that Eric Roth had written his earliest drafts of Benjamin Button before he actually wrote Gump as everyone passed on Button 15yrs ago and/or it proved a logistical nightmare to figure out how to make at the time.

 

I can take or leave Gump. I like it less and less with each viewing, and have never cared for how the women in the script were written.