And Thomas Newman is one of them!!
God, those nominations made me ECSTATIC. First I recieved a text message during my literature class from Marie on my phone, telling me that Paul Greengrass was nominated for Best Director and I went BERSERK. I tried to get a grip since there were about thirty people around me –but now I’m in my bedroom and insanely happy to see the people getting recognized. See, the thing about the Oscars is that there is so much build-up, with all the Golden Globes and Guild awards and whatnots, that it all feel quite dizzy and confusing when the actual Oscar nominees are announced. And of course, I don’t care about the Academy since they gave the Big Prize to bloody Crash last year instead of Brokeback Mountain. But still, heh.
ANYWAY, let’s discuss the nominees right now!
Best Picture
Babel
The Departed
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
Teh Category, of course. I predict the winner will be Babel, as a sort of consolation prize, but I reckon Letters From Iwo Jima could pull off an upset (since Crash did so very unfairly, you never know). I’m rooting for Little Miss Sunshine in this category, the little crowd-pleaser which was quite unexpected here. So is the fact that there is no Dreamgirls in there.
Best Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Babel
Martin Scorsese – The Departed
Clint Eastwood – Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears – The Queen
Paul Greengrass – United 93
OKAY, I know, I know. Greengrass will never, ever win this –but the nomination alone is the coolest thing ever from the Academy. Think of how they’ll be able to put in movie trailers and posters ‘Academy-Award nominee Paul Greengrass’! Heh. But, hem, back on track. I’m insanely devoted to Greengrass’ work but MARTY CANNOT NOT WIN THIS ONE. Or else, he might just shoot himself and everyone at the Warner Bros. PR departement. Clint Eastwood looks very threatening here, but if Marty doesn’t win this year, I just don’t know what to say anymore. We’ll know when the Directors’ Guild Awards winner is announced, and when the ceremony will take place, obviously (February 25th, that is). But, yeah, two words: GO MARTY (even though Paul Greengrass obviously…)
Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling – Half Nelson
Peter O’Toole – Venus
Will Smith – The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker – Last King of Scotland
‘Academy-Award nominee Ryan Gosling’, heh. It’s just so cool that he gets recognized while being so young. I guess they can stop calling him “up-and-coming” now. Anyways, Leo gets nominated and beaten again, because this category is such a lock for such a long time that further debate is useless. Forest Whitaker, ladies and gentlemen, is our Best Actor ’07.
Best Actress
Penelope Cruz – Volver
Judi Dench – Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren – The Queen
Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet – Little Children
Well, that one’s a lock, too. Dame Helen Mirren should and will win, of course.
I daresay Kate Winslet is nominated for the fifth time and has still won nothing. Are they waiting for her to be a Dame or what?
Meryl is now at a grand fourteen nominations if my memory’s correct, a record. Dame Judi obviously has a record of her own –winning the Best Supporting Actress ’99 for an eight-minute role, so I reckon she got enough love from the Academy for eternity.
But long live Dame Helen for a truely delightful performance. She’s the rightful winner here.
Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin – Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley – Little Children
Djimon Hounsou – Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy – Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg – The Departed
Oooh, the weirdest race this year, and indeed the picks are quite surprising. I heard Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children is really amazing, but I’ll predict Eddie Murphy as the winner here. I’d root for Alan Arkin, although Mark Wahlberg was really quite amazing in The Departed. Totally stole the show, and the proof is that he got nominated over Jack Nicholson. That’s quite something to pull off, isn’t it? Well done, Wahlberg, well played…
Best Supporting Actress
Rinko Kikuchi – Babel
Cate Blanchett – Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin – Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls
Adriana Barraza – Babel
Love the two Babel ladies getting recognized! They were just both fantastic… And of course, lovely little Abigail getting nominated is just great. I’ll root for her, naturally, but the actually winner will probably be Jennifer Hudson, since she’s the hottest thing in Hollywood right now and people can’t shut up about how great she was in Dreamgirls.
Best Original Screenplay
Guillermo Arriaga – Babel
Iris Yamashita – Letters From Iwo Jima
Michael Arndt – Little Miss Sunshine
Guillermo del Toro – Pan’s Labyrinth
Peter Morgan – The Queen
Heh! Pan’s Labyrinth, who would have thought the Academy would be smart enough?! Anyways, I’m rooting here for Peter Morgan’s amazing screenplay for The Queen. Well, I haven’t seen Letters From Iwo Jima, so I can’t really say… but the four screenplays left are quite amazing indeed. The Queen stands out here for me, because there was so much more beyond the words. The other three screenplays were quite straightforward, if I might say so. They certainly lacked the level of subtlety displayed in The Queen. But I really loved them all, so if any of these wins, it’s fine by me.
I can’t predict a winner here, though. It’s a close call between Letters From Iwo Jima and The Queen, I think.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Peter Baynham & Dan Mazer – Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Alfonso Cuarón & Timothy J. Sexton & David Arata & Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby – Children of Men
William Monahan – The Departed
Todd Field & Tom Perrotta – Little Children
Patrick Marber – Notes on a Scandal
Children of Men! Children of Men! Children of Men! *dies*
Well, naturally, that’s the one I’m rooting for. That’s a bit of a surprise –were they even nominated at the Writers’ Guild Awards? I can’t remember…
The predicted winner, though, is William Monahan’s The Departed.
Heh for Borat, too! Who would have thought? And I *love* Patrick Marber, I bet his adaptation of Notes on a Scandal is excellent, but it hasn’t been released in France yet.
Best Foreign-Language Film
After the Wedding (Denmark)
Days of Glory (Indigènes) (France)
The Lives of Others (Germany)
Pan’s Labyrinth (Mexico)
Water (Canada)
Oooh a nomination for France! Yay! *not objective at all*
I’ll be rooting for Pan’s Labyrinth no matter what, but the predicted winner is The Lives of Others, who’s won pretty much all the European prizes I can think of this year. Or it might just well be Pan’s Labyrinth, for that matter, since it seems to have gotten loads of Academy love. No Apocalypto, HEH.
Best Animated Film of the Year
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House
Cars! Go Pixar! Fuck penguins!
Heeeeeem. I didn’t mean that. Happy Feet was actually pretty cute and everything. So was Monster House. But it’s nowhere near Cars‘ achivement in terms of detail and rendering.
Too bad Flushed Away didn’t get a nod. Why isn’t there five nominees like every other category? Knobheads.
Best Art Direction
Dreamgirls
Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
The Good Shepherd
Art Direction: Jeannine Oppewall; Set Decoration: Gretchen Rau and Leslie E. Rollins
Pan’s Labyrinth
Art Direction: Eugenio Caballero; Set Decoration: Pilar Revuelta
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Art Direction: Rick Heinrichs; Set Decoration: Cheryl A. Carasik
The Prestige
Art Direction: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Julie Ochipinti
Woo hoo! Best cateogry ever! Especially the presence of Nathan Crowley! Congratulations to him and the entire Prestige art departement, they did a terrific job.
Are you wondering why I’m not bitching about Pirates of the Carribean‘s presence? Well, don’t fret; one of the few things I actually loved was Rick Heinrichs’ awsome design for the whole film. He’s one of Tim Burton’s famous collaborators, and he has a knack for making everything look gorgeous. I predict he’ll win the little golden statue… even if I’m rooting for Nathan Crowley, obviously!
If John Myhre wins, it’ll be his third consecutive win. Go figure…
Where is Marie-Antoinette, though?
Best Cinematography
Vilmos Zsigmond – The Black Dahlia
Emmanuel Lubezki – Children of Men
Dick Pope – The Illusionist
Guillermo Navarro – Pan’s Labyrinth
Wally Pfister – The Prestige
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! That’s me being hysterical over Chivo’s nomination for Children of Men! Hehehehehehe.
Okay, let me explain –Emmanuel Lubezki, nicknamed Chivo by his peers, is one of my favorite directors of photography. Very much like Rich Heinrichs, he worked with Burton on Sleepy Hollow and has a gift for lighting anything and everything and make it look like a fuckin’ piece of art. That’s how talented he is. And definitely the one I’m rooting and crossing my fingers for!
Of course, there’s a huge dilemma here since Wally Pfister gets his second straight nomination and I LOVE THE ACADEMY FOR THIS. The Prestige was nowhere to be seen during this year’s award season, and here it pops, making me really happy and proud. Because ol’ Wally has been working with Christopher Nolan since Memento, and he’s really what Janisz Kaminski is to Steven Spielberg –a brillant collaborator which fits the director’s vision in a way no one else can. Otherwise, they’d pick different ones, but they don’t. And since I love Christopher Nolan so badly, it makes sense that Wally Pfister gets my wholehearted support, too. Only half-hearted here since he’s up against Lubezki, and Chivo’s almost this person who got me interested in cinematography in the first place. I remember having the exact same thoughts last year, since they were both nominated last year, too. But then Dion Beebe won for Memoirs of a Geisha and made this awfully sweet speech and he deserved the Oscar as well, so it wasn’t too bad.
The winner might just be Lubezki, but who knows? Zsigmond is a very highly regarded cinematographer, and indeed The Black Dahlia looked absolutely fantastic –and The Illusionist‘s single nomination is this category as well. Pope is part of the BSC, but I don’t think that would hurt his chances. I don’t know much about Navarro except that his work on Pan’s Labyrinth was quite awesome. That is such a close call…
Definitely the most interesting race this year!
Best Costume Design
Yee Chung Man – Curse of the Golden Flower
Patricia Field – The Devil Wears Prada
Sharen Davis – Dreamgirls
Milena Canonero – Marie Antoinette
Consolata Boyle – The Queen
Wow, all those new costume designers! That’s quite a list, though, and sadly enough, the only nomination for Curse of the Golden Flower, which had huge Oscar buzz very early on.
The Queen will probably win this category, although I’m rooting for Marie-Antoinette.
Best Editing
Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise – Babel
Steven Rosenblum – Blood Diamond
Alex Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuarón – Children of Men
Thelma Schoonmaker – The Departed
Clare Douglas, Christopher Rouse and Richard Pearson – United 93
Best. Nominees. Ever! Oh, well, I haven’t seen Blood Diamond yet but I’m familiar with Steven Rosenblaum. More or less, since he edited the first X-Men film, if I remember correctly. That’s weird, because I picture John Ottman as being Bryan’s editor.
Anyhow, United 93 getting into this category is downright brillant, and so are the other three, really. I’m rooting for both United 93 and Babel, but that’s only because Thelma Schoonmaker already got an Academy Award a few years ago. I didn’t know Alfonso Cuarón actually edited Children of Men as well, but it’s just great. Mind you, directors are always so closely involved in their editing, it’s not such a big surprise after all.
The win should go to Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise, though, and a well-deserved one it would be!
Best Makeup
Adlo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano – Apocalypto
Kazuhiro Tsuji and Bill Corso – Click
David Marti and Montse Ribe – Pan’s Labyrinth
What a weird group of nominees! No need to say I’m rooting for Pan’s Labyrinth, not only because it was a visual feast, but also because the thought of Click getting the same number of nomination as, say, Superman Returns, is beyond my comprehension. Is that because of Adam Sandler’s aging at the end of the film? Any good makeup artist could have pulled if off, I reckon. So I’ll just ignore the fact that Click is nominated.
Predicted winner, though, is Apocalypto.
Best Music (Score)
Gustavo Santaolalla – Babel
Thomas Newman – The Good German
Philip Glass – Notes on a Scandal
Javier Navarrete – Pan’s Labyrinth
Alexandre Desplat – The Queen
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
And that’s when I go very crazy on your ass again because this is the EIGHTH nomination for Thomas Newman, if my memory’s correct (and it might not be). How awesome is that?! I’m so proud of him. Yet again, he’s done an amazing job, I’m sure -well, I haven’t seen the movie, but I’m such a HUGE fan of his works that there’s no way I can be objective in that category.
I might point out, though, that I love Philip Glass and Alexandre Desplat, both very classic in their own ways, and of course, Gustavo Santolalla, who won last year for Brokeback Mountain. And the music in Pan’s Labyrinth, I daresay, is so intertwined with the film itself that it’s as fantastic as the screenplay is.
But I’ll still root for my Tom on this one. I’m so bloody proud of him.
The winner will probably be Alexandre Desplat, because his score for The Painted Veil got quite a reaction as well. And his work on The Queen was outstanding, so… oh, and he’s French. Yay!
Best Music (Song)
“I Need to Wake Up” – An Inconvenient Truth
Music and Lyric by Melissa Etheridge
“Listen” – Dreamgirls
Music by Henry Krieger and Scott Cutler; Lyric by Anne Preven
“Love You I Do” – Dreamgirls
Music by Henry Krieger; Lyric by Siedah Garrett
“Our Town” – Cars
Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Patience” – Dreamgirls
Music by Henry Krieger; Lyric by Willie Reale
Huh yeah, okay, that cheesy song from An Inconvenient Truth? No offense, but it was really quite mushy and all.
What are the odds of Dreamgirls losing this one? Answer: none.
I loved Randy Newman’s song for Cars, it was so sweet! Plus, he’s Thomas Newman’s cousin, so… What a brillant dynasty of composers, those guys.
Best Sound Mixing
Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Fernando Camara – Apocalypto
Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Ivan Sharrock – Blood Diamond
Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer and Willie Burton – Dreamgirls
John Reitz, Dave Campbell, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin – Flags of Our Fathers
Paul Massey, Christopher Boyes and Lee Orloff – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Awww, sad. The only nominations for Flags of our Fathers are in the sound categories. I mean, it’s good enough, and there’s NO WAY I’m rooting for either Pirates of the Carribean or Apocalypto over Clint’s films so I’ll just root for Flags of our Fathers here and predict Dreamgirls as the winner. They do seem to love musicals in this category -fair enough, the sound mixing is admittedly a bit trickier in that kind of film.
Best Sound Editing
Sean McCormack and Kami Asgar – Apocalypto
Lon Bender – Blood Diamond
Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman – Flags of Our Fathers
Alan Robert Murray – Letters From Iwo Jima
Christopher Boyes and George Watters II – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Oooh, a double nomination. You won’t see that a lot. Guess the afromentioned Alan Robert Murray is bound to win. And I’ll root for him too because, ditto what I said earlier, I can’t believe Pirates and Apocalypto get nodded in the tech categories. And I haven’t seen Blood Diamond.
Best Visual Effects
John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Boyd Shermis, Kim Libreri, Chaz Jarrett and John Frazier – Poseidon
Mark Stetson, Neil Corbould, Richard R. Hoover and Jon Thum – Superman Returns
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! That’s me screaming outloud again, because I want Supes to win so badly. And expect a LONG ranting when I’ll be seeing Dead’s Man Crap winning over Superman Returns. GOD.
And what’s up with Poseidon? Is Industrial Light and Magic giving away huge giftbaskets or what? Because there’s no other explantions, really.
I wish Mark Stetson won this one. On behalf of all the people who worked so hard on Superman Returns, both at Rhythm & Hues and Sony Pictures Imageworks, but also because he’s such an inspiration to all the VFX people out there. I know he was part of the winning team for Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, but that was five years ago. Pretty please? Can you get it right for once? It’s the category I care the most about! After err, the Best Directing, Picture, Cinematography, Screenplay and Editing ones. Heh.
The categories left are the short films category. Well I don’t know shite about those, so I’ll just post the nominees here without any idea of what they actually are. Sorry…
Best Documentary Short Subject
The Blood Of Yingzhou District
Recycled Life
Rehearsing A Dream
Two Hands
Best Animated Short Film
The Danish Poet
Lifted
The Little Matchgirl
Maestro
No Time For Nuts
Best Live Action Short Film
Binta And The Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)
Éramos Pocos (One Too Many)
Helmer & Son
The Saviour
West Bank Story
You might want to check this year’s Newsweek’s Oscar roundtable, which is sort of a tradition now. It’s this interview with six of the acting nominees, and this year, they are : Brad Pitt (oops, not nominated this year), Forest Whitaker (future winner), Helen Mirren (future winner), Cate Blanchett, Leonardo DiCaprio and Penelope Cruz.
I have to say, this year’s nominations are pretty satisfying. Especially for Paul Greengrass, actually. He sort of nicked Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ spot, but I just… it’s so important to recognize his work, and the incredible accomplishment United 93 represented as a whole. And to acknowledge him –not just as a director, but as a person who has things to say, and to show, about what was truely one of the darkest days in recent memory. And not putting forward any political opinion about it, but just showing the truth, as raw and brutal as it gets. I mean, I don’t need the bloody Academy to tell me that, but the industry apparently does. And he’s just… what Greengrass does, to me, is this new form of cinema, literally, with both Bloody Sunday and United 93. It’s this new way of telling a story, which is basically a fiction, but putting it into a relevant context for today’s audiences -but also for the next generation and so on, and trying to depict the events as accurately as possible. And truely, it constitutes a complex and exciting challenge, to both the filmmaker and viewer –because us, as ordinary people, have to react to it by not only getting emotionally involved but actually rethinking the whole situation. I love movies as entertainement of course, but ultimately, there’s always a part of it which is in touch with our reality, our times. And to me, he’s just it.
So, congratulations Paul for your well-deserved nomination, and here’s to you, looking forward to seeing your next movies in theater, even if the upcoming one is this tiny little-budgeted thing called The Bourne Ultimatum.