Reitman absolutely deserves the nomination. Juno works (to the extent it does) almost entirely because of his careful, thoughtful direction. The script is hyperstylized, self-conscious, and cutesy, and in less capable hands would have resulted in an utterly excruciating film. Reitman keeps the cast grounded, and makes sure the actors are speaking with each other instead of at each other. When a movie is praised for the excellence of its entire cast, as Juno is, the credit should go to the director, because he’s the guy keeping everyone on the same page.
Since Equipoise went to all that trouble creating the nominees post, I merged her thread with this one. (Didn’t want to see it go to waste, and it’ll save someone else from the task.)
Some various trivia:[ul][li]The Bourne Ultimatum becomes the first film to have its 3rd installment nominated for an Oscar when the previous two installments were completely ignored by the Academy[]Though not nominated himself, Josh Brolin appears in films tallying 11 nods total–more than any other actor this year[]Cate Blanchett becomes only the 2nd performer (after winner Linda Hunt) to be nominated for playing a member of the opposite gender[]The Pirates franchise now totals 11 nominations, tying it with the Rocky series for 6th most in Academy history[]There have been only 5 animated films in Oscar history to be nominated in the screenplay category, and 4 of them (including this year’s Ratatouille) have been from Pixar[]Enchanted becomes the 4th film to get 3 nominations in the Original Song category, and the first to not get any other nods in any other category. Alan Menken’s 3 nods for these songs put his career total at 13 in this category (he’s won 4 times).[]3 of the 5 original screenplay nominees were written by women–a first.Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead features nominees Phillip Seymour Hoffman & Amy Ryan, though neither were nominated for that film[/li][/ul]
You’re forgetting the Coens, who are up for Director, Screenplay, Editing (Jaynes is a joint pseudonym) and Picture (they’re both credited as producers)
She was also nominated for Afterglow in 1997 (I always use the year the performance is being recognized for, as opposed to the year in which the nomination is merely announced).
I’m pretty sure Beatrice Straight still holds this record (grab your stopwatch!)
Have seen 50-75% of the films. Boring all around. Juno was nice, and I like it when smaller pics get attention, but I wouldn’t have pegged it as Oscar-worthy. Ellen Page is talented but she’s got a future of great performances ahead of her. Sarah Polley should have gotten a nom for Best Director.
ArchiveGuy, of course you’re right about the Coens! How could I have missed that. I should have held it back and thought it over some more. And I can’t believe I missed the Afterglow nomination for Julie Christie too.
I liked reading your Trivia points, they were interesting.
I’ll also step in and say that neither of those movies are pretentious or boring in any way. No Country For Old Men is edge-of-your-seat thrilling almost all throughout. There Will Be Blood isn’t thrilling in the same way, but it’s fascinating and engrossing. I’ve seen No Country twice and There Will Be Blood 3 times (and want to see that one again). There Will Be Blood is, in my opinion, by far the best movie of the year, and Daniel Day-Lewis gives one of the best performances ever.
Daniel Day-Lewis will win. There can’t be any question about that. If he doesn’t, it will go down in Academy history as the biggest blunder ever made (at least, since Citizen Kane lost Best Picture).
Since No Country For Old Men is a masterpiece too, and directed by the Coen Brothers, if There Will Be Blood loses to it that’s fine with me. It’ll be one classic masterpiece losing to another classic masterpiece. It’d be interesting if there were a Picture/Director split though.
Either:
Best Picture: No Country For Old Men
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood
Or
Best Picture: There Will Be Blood
Best Director: Joen Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country For Old Men
Either one of those would be alright with me.
Other nominees with high career counts:
Alan Menken (Enchanted, Song): 18 career nods (8 wins)
Randy Thom (Ratatouille, Sound Mixing & Sound Editing): 14 career nods (2 wins)
Greg P. Russell (Transformers, Sound Mixing): 12 career nods (0 wins)
Rick Baker (Norbit, Makeup): 11 career nods (6 wins)
Dante Ferretti (Sweeney Todd, Art Direction): 9 career nods (1 win)
John Frazier (Pirates 3 & Transformers, Visual Effects): 9 career nods (0 wins)
Regarding “No Country…” and “There will be Blood”: They are probably good movies. But I have to decide how to spend my limited movie dollars somehow. Sometimes I’ll go see a movie because of particular actor or director. I use summaries of the plot, reviews, comments from others, the usual. Everything I read about these two films indicates a movie I personally would not enjoy. Maybe I’ll catch them on DVD.
I too am glad Viggo Mortensen’s wonderful acting got noticed.
So he (they) did! I went to IMDb and they just had the Coen’s names.
This is a really strong year. I think to honour the occasion I’ll go see a movie after I do a little bit of work.
Count me in as another who would have liked to see Into The Wild get more recognition, although I can’t seem to come up with a great case for any single category, except Eddie Vedder for song and soundtrack! How could he get shut out?
“Guaranteed” won the Golden Globe and the soundtrack to the film was letter perfect. What a snub.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman becomes the 18th performer to be nominated for an acting Oscar under Mike Nichols’ direction (the 6th highest of all-time)
Updated nomination totals for films directed by…
42 Mike Nichols (11 films)
31 Ridley Scott (8 films)
18 Joel Coen (4 films)
15 Tim Burton (9 films)
14 Paul Thomas Anderson (3 films)
12 Michael Bay (4 films)
Updated nomination totals for films featuring (including voice work)…
82 Ian Holm (18 films) (7th highest of all living actors)
70 Cate Blanchett (12 films)
68 Tom Hanks (17 films)
65 Ed Harris (18 films)
64 Daniel Day-Lewis (12 films)
63 Vanessa Redgrave (15 films)
61 John Ratzenberger (15 films)
60 Geoffrey Rush (13 films)
57 Peter O’Toole (16 films)
55 Robin Williams (20 films)
54 Julie Christie (15 films), Morgan Freeman (17 films), Tom Wilkinson (12 films)
53 Russell Crowe (8 films), Max von Sydow (18 films)
52 Christopher Lee (17 films)
49 Tommy Lee Jones (12 films), Viggo Mortensen (11 films)
48 Scott Glenn (11 films)
46 Orlando Bloom (8 films), Albert Finney (13 films)
44 Johnny Depp (15 films)
[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]
[li]Cate Blanchett becomes only the 2nd performer (after winner Linda Hunt) to be nominated for playing a member of the opposite gender[/li][/QUOTE]
Um, Hilary Swank ??
Or, what about Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie? Or Julie Andrews in Victor, Victoria (both nominated the same year, 1983, incidentally) That was quite a year for gender bender roles.
Love all the Oscar trivia!
Everyone you cite played characters of the same gender who were masquerading as the opposite gender. Swank played a chick pretending to be a dude, Hoffman an actor pretending to be an actress, etc.
Hunt and Blanchett played Men. Not women-passing-for-men. Men.
Oh, I see what you mean. Hilary Swank’s performance was so good I kinda forgot she was a chick playing a dude…I sometimes think of her character as a dude exclusively.
I’d need to see I’m Not There again to be 100% sure, but in it I seem to remember a high-school yearbook at the end, which showed Jude as a woman, therefore, Jude was a woman pretending to be a man.
About my predictions, which I’ll put here rather than revive the other thread…
I didn’t do too badly. In the Top 8 I predicted 34/40. I did very well on choosing Alternates, but they don’t count, and I didn’t count them in that 34/40 score.
Best:
I got 5/5 on Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography.
Worst:
Original Song 2/5 because I didn’t think Enchanted would get all 3.
Sound Editing 1/5 because I didn’t even really try on that one. I get the Sound categories mixed up and didn’t research it enough.
My total for everything except Foreign/Docs/Shorts, which I didn’t predict, was 64/89.
BEST PICTURE (4/5, with Atonement as a Dark Horse)
BEST DIRECTOR (4/5, didn’t even have Reitman as a Dark Horse!)
BEST ACTOR (4/5, had Tommy Lee Jones as a Dark Horse)
BEST ACTRESS (4/5, had Laura Linney as a Dark Horse)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (5/5)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (4/5, had Saorise Ronan as an Alternate)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (5/5)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY (4/5, didn’t even have Sarah Polley as a Dark Horse!)
34/40
BEST ANIMATED FILM (2/3, didn’t even have Surf’s Up as a Dark Horse!)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (5/5)
BEST COSTUME DESIGN (3/5, had La Vie en Rose as an Alternate, and Across The Universe as a Dark Horse)
BEST ART DIRECTION (3/5, had American Gangster as Alternate, and Golden Compass as Dark Horse)
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE (3/5, had 3:10 as Alternate, but didn’t even have Michael Clayton as a Dark Horse!)
BEST ORIGINAL SONG (2/5, had Happy Working Song as Alternate, but didn’t even have So Close or Raise It Up as Dark Horses!)
BEST EDITING (4/5, but had Diving Bell as an Alternate)
BEST SOUND MIXING (3/5, didn’t even have Ratatouille, or 3:10 To Yuma as Dark Horses!)
BEST SOUND EDITING (1/5, I suck)
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS (2/3, but had Golden Compass as Alternate)
BEST MAKE UP (2/3, but had Norbit as a VERY Dark Horse)
Total: 64/89, blah
A couple more:
Elizabeth I becomes only the second role to earn 3 separate acting nominations (Blanchett twice, plus winner Judi Dench). The other is Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII (Robert Shaw, Richard Burton, and winner Charles Laughton).
Blanchett also becomes the only person to earn nominations for playing two different real-life Oscar winners: Katherine Hepburn and Bob Dylan
Updated list of films with high Oscar-nominees-within-their-cast Counts
All the President’s Men: 11
Ocean’s 12: 10
Adaptation: 8
Just Cause: 8
Midway: 8
The Firm: 7
Hercules: 7 (more than any other animated film, IIRC)
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if “Norbit” won an Oscar?
Uh, no.
I loved the music of Enchanted, but I’m afraid 3 noms will split the vote and one of the other two nominees will win.
But, is anything from Hairspray even eligible? My understanding is that all the music from Hairspray was done first either on Broadway or in the previous version, which would make them ineligible.
How 'bout John Lithgow for The World According to Garp (also 1983)?