Rubystreak’s right, but not only was Russell Crowe nominated in the Lead category, Paul Giamatti was nominated in the Supporting category for his role as Braddock’s trainer. Giamatti had just won the Critics Choice Award a few days earlier, but was beat out at the Golden Globes by George Clooney’s portrayal of a haunted CIA operative in Syriana. I thought highly of Cinderella Man and everyone associated with it, so I’m glad it isn’t being forgotten for awards season, but I fully support the wins of Philip Seymour Hoffman and George Clooney over Crowe and Giamatti.
Crowe and Giamatti are also nominated for Screen Actors Guild awards. Those winners will be announced January 29.
CM is still in the Oscar race, if only for the almost certain lock of Giamatti for a Best Supporting actor nomination. Crowe could be the 5th nominee for Best Actor. The movie itself is probably out of the running, as is Ron Howard for Director. CM also hasn’t gotten much attention from the other Guilds, other than SAG. I keep track of Guild nominations and wins because they give the best hints at what might be nominated, since most AMPAS members are Guild members in their respective crafts*. The Guilds, other than the Screen Actors, haven’t been loving Cinderella Man and no one really knows why. And even the Screen Actors Guild left off Renee Zellweger and the movie as an Ensemble nomination.
*To explain in case someone doesn’t know and is interested, here’s my layperson’s attempt to explain that, with some digression into how the Academy works.
AMPAS (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) is divided into branches. There’s a Directors branch, a Writing branch, an Acting branch, an Art Directors branch, an Editing branch, a Cinematography branch, and so on. A “writer-director” or a “writer-director-actor” has to choose which branch they want to be in. As far as I know, they can’t be in more than one branch, because that would give them more than one vote. So George Clooney, for example, is probably part of the Actors branch, though I believe people can switch, so he could leave the Actors branch and join the Directors branch.
I’m not sure what it’s called and I’m too lazy to go look it up, but there’s something like a “General” branch where people not belonging to specific branches go. There are AMPAS members who work in the business but not in the crafts areas.
Branches nominate their own kind. Directors nominate Directors, Costumers nominate Costumers, Actors nominate Actors, and so on. I think General (or whatever it’s called) can only nominate in the Best Picture category.
Best Picture is nominated by all the branches.
Foreign language, Documentary and Shorts are nominated by panels of people who have seen all the eligible films/shorts.
Once the nominations are in and counted, the nominations are announced (January 31). Then, once final ballots are sent out to AMPAS member in good standing, they fill out their ballots, with exceptions, then mail them in.
Exceptions are the Foreign, Doc and Shorts categories. You have to be able to prove that you SAW those nominees before you can vote on them. They’re the only categories where proof is required. Personally, I think voters should have to prove they’ve seen ALL the nominees, but an AMPAS voter could go his entire lifespan and never see one nominated film/performance and still vote. He’d just leave the Foreign, Doc and Shorts lines blank (you don’t HAVE to vote for every category, and could probably send in a ballot with just the Best Supporting Actor filled out if you wanted). It’s probably not fair that a Costume Designer with no knowledge of Sound Editing is allowed to vote in that category, but that’s the way it is. When it comes to the Artistic categories (often mistakenly called the “Technical” awards) like Sound, Sound Effects Editing, Art Direction, Cinematography, Makeup and Editing, people probably often vote for their favorites, and/or what’s showy/splashy because if it’s not their bailiwick, they have no expertise as to what’s worthy. That’s another reason why it’s a good idea to let kind nominate kind. If the Sound people thought that those particular 3 films were worthy to be on the ballot (whatever those particular 3 films might be), then a win for any one of them should be a worthy win. That’s the theory anyway.
You hear stories about people having their spouses or kids or secretaries fill out their Academy ballots, and I’m sure it happens, especially in the original nominating process, but I’d guess that a large number of AMPAS members take their membership seriously and do try to see as many of the nominated films as possible, once nominations are announced anyway. Since you have to be invited to become an AMPAS member, it’s an honor to be selected, and since you pay annual dues to continue being a member, you have to actively work to keep your membership. Why would you pay to belong to something you were invited to join yet not vote in the most publicized aspect of that membership? I’m sure it happens, often, but it would boggle my mind if I thought it were the rule, rather than the exception.
Where was I? Oh, filled-in ballots are sent back, counted, then we get to see the latest fashions (on March 5).
To finish what I started, a Director belongs to the Directors branch of AMPAS. Let’s say that Director ALSO belongs to the Directors Guild of America. No one knows the percentage, but it’s probably safe to say that almost all of the Directors in the Directors branch of AMPAS also belong to the Directors Guild (exceptions: that might not hold true for retired Directors or Directors from other countries). The Directors Guild nominees this year are George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck, Paul Haggis for Crash, Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain, Bennett Miller for Capote, and Steven Spielberg for Munich. It’s not a sure bet that those will be the same nominees come Oscar nomination morning (there are always surprises) but it’s a good starting point to know what the Directors are watching and liking. The Directors actually have a pretty good track record of picking the winners, so whichever Director wins the Guild (winners are announced January 28) will almost certainly, but don’t quote me, win Best Director at the Oscars. Some Guilds have a better track record than others So anyway, that’s why keeping up with the Guild awards is so important to Oscarwatchers. There are whole web sites that keep track of such stats. I don’t run one, but I do keep a list of Guild nominees and winners.
It’s true, I have no life. Why do you ask? Btw, I know there’s an appalling lack of apostrophes above, but things like “Directors Guild” don’t ever use them, so I just don’t, even when sometimes I should.
Did you see the look on Brosnan’s face! It was hilarious.