Actually, in that category, it’s Lowell vs. Hawkeye Pierce vs. Easy Reader vs. Ugly Wanda vs. The BMW Driver.
Eternal Sunshine was robbed. It should have had Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography nominations.
I haven’t seen Million Dollar Baby, so I’m going to be rooting for The Aviator.
Some thoughts:
Catalino Sandino Moreno, for Best Actress, is my favorite nomination. It’s an impossible performance to deny - if, that is, you’ve seen the movie. And I’m glad enough academy members sat down to watch it.
Closer really got snubbed in the Adapted Screenplay category. Regardless of what you may think of the morality of the characters or the explicit sexuality of the dialogue, it’s a blistering script.
If I owned a house, I’d wager it on Jamie Foxx winning Best Actor. Paul Giamatti was really robbed, but there were at least eight Oscar-worthy performances that critics were talking about (if you include Javier Bardem and Liam Neeson) so it was inevitable that someone got left off. I would’ve preferred it to have been Leo.
Count me in as another who didn’t know Before Sunset was an adapted work. Good nomination, though. From what?
How’d he pull that off?
I’ll add my voice to the chorus that says Eternal Sunshine was robbed, and I’ll add that Kirsten Dunst should have gotten a best Supporting Actress nom.
My thinking is that Jamie Foxx is going to lose in both categories – to Don Cheadle, who did a really amazing job in Hotel Rwanda, and to Morgan Freeman, who did a really amazing job in Million Dollar Baby. I would like to see Foxx win, because he is really talented, but I think that his votes will be “split” – some people won’t vote for him for Best Actor because they figure he’s a shoo-in as Best Supporting Actor, and others won’t vote for him because their thinking will be the other way around.
Like bienville, I’m a little stunned, but thrilled, for the attention that Hotel Rwanda got. It really is a great movie. I am hoping that this movie turns out to be the Marcia Gay Harden of these Oscars®, and that it ends up being seen by enough Academy voters to get the votes it deserves, in at least one category. Don Cheadle rocks, and I am hoping he wins. (And I am usually squarely in the Johnny Depp camp.)
He got enough votes to qualify in both categories. He ended up losing Actor to his co-star Bing Crosby.
After this incident, the Academy passed a bylaw stating that you can only be nominated once for a single performance–whichever category yields you the most votes is the one that you appear in on the ballot.
Harold Russell is the only actor to win 2 Oscars for the same performance. He won an Honorary Oscar for The Best Years of Our Lives, but was also in the running for Supporting Actor, which he ended up winning.
It’s adapted from Before Sunrise. Weird, I know, but that’s how they saw it. I’m just happy about “Academy Award-nominated” Julie Delphy.
The nominations I’m happiest about are:
Catalina Sandino Moreno - Maria Full of Grace (she must be walking on air, just like Keisha last year)
Imelda Staunton - Vera Drake (expected, but still nice to see)
Kate Winslet - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (my main lady, from my favorite film of 2004)
Mike Leigh - Vera Drake (such a surprise!!)
Born Into Brothels for Documentary (one of my favorites from last year)
The Sea Inside - Foreign and Makeup (too bad about no Bardem nom though)
Before Sunset - Adapted Screenplay
The Motorcycle Diaries - Adapted Screenplay (what a shocker)
Eternal Sunshine, Hotel Rwanda, The Incredibles and Vera Drake - Original Screenplay (I love that Writers branch!)
As usual, it’s the Foreign and Documentary categories that screw up my record of the feature films I’ve seen. I really have to get out more. Of those two categories, I’ve only seen Born Into Brothels and The Sea Inside.
Out of all the rest of the feature films nominated in all categories, I’ve seen them all except Shark Tale (Animated) (which I was curious about, but spaced it off) and The Chorus (Music/Song), but I don’t think that’s opened yet. It goes without saying that I haven’t seen any of the shorts.
I don’t think there will be any shocker wins this year, but if there is to be one, please let it be Kate Winslet for ETOTSM. I know it’s between Swank and Bening, with Staunton as the possible spoiler, but I would whoop it up if Kate won.
There were some disappointments (not enough noms for Eternal Sunshine or Sky Captain, no Sharon Warren or Javier Bardem or Paul Giamatti) but I learned years ago that it’s pretty silly to bitch about the Oscars. As long as they keep on bringing attention to smaller films like Maria Full of Grace, Vera Drake, Eternal Sunshine and Hotel Rwanda, among others, they’re useful.
I’m not really passionate about this year the way I was the past 3 years, but I think all the movies are good, some are great, and I think I’ll be happy with just about any win (unless Scorcese and Blanchett lose, then I’ll pout mightily).
I’m stunned Javier Bardem wasn’t nominated for his performance in The Sea Inside. If Imelda Staunton and Catalina Sandino Moreno can be nominated (deservedly) because voters got to see those relatively smaller films, then Bardem should have gotten a nod. Certainly over Depp and Eastwood, and possibly better than DiCaprio as well.
And the director and picture nods for Ray just piss me off. Jamie Foxx’s performance was freakin’ amazing, but the movie was a C-minus at best. I could name twenty more worthy movies without breaking a sweat (and three of them would be The Incredibles). Taylor Hackford certainly meant well with the film (I got to hear him do a Q&A after an advance screening of Ray), but he brought almost nothing creatively to the table on the project. Feh.
I always expect the nominations to be mediocre, but this year they’re just bad. Normally we get mostly deserving nods with a few oddballs, but this year there are more undeserving nominations than deserving. And that’s all the way down into the smaller categories even: Two Cars One Night was a cute little film, but a contender for Best Short? I don’t think so.
Double feh.
Though I agree with you about Ray, it’s still a better movie than The Green Mile, Chocolat, A Beautiful Mind, THe Hours and Seabiscuit, all recent Pic nominees. Given the fact that there are always some extremely lame/conservative/timid/unremarkable nods, I don’t think this year’s any worse than others, and there are still more genuinely deserving than genuinely not.
I’ve only seen six of the movies nominated – Collateral, Maria Full of Grace, Eternal Sunshine, Troy, Spiderman 2, and Troy – and I don’t feel very strongly about movies so I’m not in a position to say much except that I hope Jamie Foxx wins, either for Collateral or Ray, I don’t care which, and that Catalina Sandino Moreno does as well. Both performances were great.
I was one of only three people that wasn’t blown away by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and I don’t care what it wins. If Carrey had been nominated, I’d be behind him because his role was great despite the otherwise average movie but I didn’t care for Winslet’s performance at all.
Garden State was robbed!
I’ll join the ranks of those pissed about Eternal Sunshine getting snubbed for Best Picture. It was the best movie I had seen not only in 2004, but in the past five years. It was original, thoughtful, poignant, and incredibly well-acted. It had incredible art direction, great special effects, and… well, it had everything a great movie should have and then some. So, of course, I also think Jim Carrey got snubbed, for the third time no less.
But at least I can understand why that happened. Eternal Sunshine was released very early in 2004, which didn’t help it. What really baffles me is how Paul Giamatti didn’t get nominated for Best Actor. Not only was he fantastic, but nominating him would follow the Academy’s normal pattern of nominating someone that many felt had been snubbed out of a win previously (for his performance in American Splendor in this case). Call it the “Russell Crowe Effect.”
I’m guessing Morgan Freeman will get his “Oh, Did We Forget To Give You One of These?” Oscar for Million Dollar Baby though I hear that his performance is deserving regardless. I plan on seeing that movie this weekend, and I’ll rent Ray soon after it comes out on DVD, thus marking the first time ever I’ll have seen all five nominees before the ceremony.
Yay, Sweden got a nod for the second year in a row. It won’t win, though.
My predictions for … “the winner is…”:
Aviator will get 8 golden guys, most of them will be for costume, art direction ASF. Scorsese will finally get his Oscar and it’ll take best picture. Leo isn’t there yet, still has some image issues since the back lash from Titanic, but Blanchett is a sho’ in. Hollydumb loves portraits of stars from yeesteryear.
The list for the major awards will then be (my own picks, regardless of nomination):
BP: Aviator (Before Sunrise)
Actor: Eastwood who never got an acting Oscar, I think (Carey)
Actress: Anette Benning (Uma)
Sup. actor: Jamie Foxx
S. actress: Blanchett
Directing: Scorsese (looking through the releases… it was a weak year for directors)
Original screenplay: Aviator (Brad Bird)
Adapted SP: Before Sunset
Cinematography: Aviator (the Village)
Editing: Aviator (Man on Fire)
Art Direction: Aviator (Sky Captain)
Costume: Aviator (Sky Captain)
Song: Believe / Polar Express (n/a)
Core: Passion (n/a)
Is there a poll?
Not a poll, but there is an annual prediction contest here at the SDMB that’ll start up in a couple of weeks…
Nothing wrong with that if the performance is deserving. Oscar “Makeup calls” should only be used as tiebreakers. I’d like to see Freeman get an Oscar.
I like the representation of minorities in this year’s nominees.
Don Cheadle - HOTEL RWANDA
Jamie Foxx - RAY
Jamie Foxx - COLLATERAL
Morgan Freeman - MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Catalina Sandino Moreno - MARIA FULL OF GRACE
Sophie Okonedo - HOTEL RWANDA
It feels like Oscar is getting a little more color blind. That is a good thing.
I don’t understand Sideways, I guess. I thought Paul Giamatti did a much better job than Thomas Haden Church (who’s performace was okay, but not great), but look which one got nominated. I don’t understand how it got nominated for best picture… sure it was a critic’s darling, but come on, there were better movies out there. Giamatti was at least as good as Virginia Madsen, and she got nominated. Maybe they’re tired of the whole “depressed” thing… thinking it’s not really acting?
I did think Kate Winslet’s performace in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was better than Jim Carrey’s and am glad to see she was nominated. Ditto all the comments for its missing best pic nomination: Maybe it was too intelligent or too unique in structure?
How did Shark Tale get nominated? It’s only got a 5.8 imdb rating, while The Polar Express has a 6.7, and the reviews I’ve heard have not been kind. I think that Shrek 2 and The Incredibles are the only two in that category, really… and The Incredibles has more buzz behind it… plus Shrek 2’s franchise already won once.
I hope that Supersize Me wins for best documentary. I haven’t seen any of the others, but I really thought this was an amazing film. It made me want to get up, exercise, and eating a salad (sans dressing) while I was watching it.
The nominations haven’t inspired me to see any movies I wasn’t planning on seeing anyway, although it has strengthened my desire to see Hotel Rwanda. Finding Neverland and Closer are already in my Netflix queue, but I don’t think I’m interested in The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby, or Ray at all.
Overall, it almost seems to have been a pretty lackluster year.
Make that four. Hated it, actually. I think Kaufman tries too hard to be clever and ends up making movies that look nice but don’t make any damn sense.
This whole thread is depressing. I mean, a whole year’s worth of films and those are top five material? In any good year they wouldn’t even be considered for “also mentioned were…” And that’s true no matter if you throw in Eternal Sunshine… obviously a much better picture than Sideways. There just weren’t five pictures worthy of being named. Can we vote No Award and go home early?
Does anyone know why they’ve limited Best Visual Effects to only three movies? In this day and age aren’t there always at least five worthy candidates?
I don’t know if I would put Eternal Sunshine in the top five. It was original and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t think it was spectacular. I give it more credit for trying something different rather than being a super movie.
And while I thought Kate Winslett’s performance was quite good, I thought Jim Carrey’s was pretty standard. I thought he got snubbed for his performance in Man on the Moon, but not here. This was a tough year to be a Best Actor contender.
There were three times this year that I saw something I thought was deserving of an Oscar – and all three were nominated:
Ray for Best Picture
Cate Blanchett for Best Supporting Actress – she was absolutely mesmerizing in The Aviator, so much so that I remember wishing during the film that they would make an entire movie in which she played that character (not necessarily a bio of Katherine Hepburn, but a film in which she got to be the woman she was in The Aviator)
Clint Eastwood for Best Actor – to quote from my post in the Million Dollar Baby thread: “a very fine movie, with an Oscar-caliber performance from Clint”
At least I’ll have something to root for on Oscar night.