2009 Oscar Nominations
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I was listening to Morning Edition on NPR this morning and they were kind of pontificating on whether or not they should bother to hold the Oscars this year.They went on about how much Hollywood just loves Clint Eastwood, that he was a lock for Best Actor and Director, and that Gran Torino had a good shot at Best Picture. It's either a big surprise or typically amusing that all three were skunked by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences this year -- they didn't even get nominated.
Kate Winslet was also supposed to be a strong contender for
This year's list for Best Actor feels much as it does every year. Lots of hype, but not a single successful movie at the box office which means not a single movie that I've seen this year. I won't go into the whole list at this detail (click here to jump straight to it) but here's a breakdown of this year's (2008) best box office performers, and this years nominees for Best Picture.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Cost: $150 million. Gross: $117 million.
Looked like a cute movie but appears to have been a fairly sizable box office flop. Button needed somewhere in the neighborhood of $290 million to break even, without counting whatever the marketing costs were. Since it has been out for nearly a month, this film has the biggest qualification that any film needs to be considered for a Best Picture Oscar: it failed.
FROST/NIXON
Cost: $25 million. Gross: $10 million.
This looked good and I will buy this when it comes out on DVD, but it wasn't compelling enough to drag me to the theater -- or anyone else for that matter. This film should have made a good sized profit for what it cost to make, and that it didn't even get half way there says a lot about how few people want to see a movie about politics right now, no matter how good it might be. I'd put it in the top 2 for odds to win, but I suck at handicapping these things so don't bet on it.
MILK
Cost: $20 million. Gross: $21.6 million.
Harvey Milk was the first openly gay to be elected to public office in California (wiki). He was murdered by a disgruntled former city supervisor in 1978. This looked like a pretty good film with a pretty good actor in Sean Penn. It won't win even though it should, but maybe there's hope for Penn for Best Actor?
The Reader
Cost: $32 million. Gross: $12 million.
Slumdog Millionaire
Cost: $15 million. Gross: $61 million.
The only movie nominated that actually made money also happens to be the front-runner now that Gran Torino is out. Slumdog received 10 nods from the Academy overall to go along with another five wins from the Critics Choice Awards, four Golden Globes, and 11 BAFTA nominations. It doesn't actually sound that good but it's a Danny Boyle foreign flick (if you can consider British "foreign") who is very deserving of the win. Boyle is also up for Best Director.
Here's the list of the top 10 films of 2008 as they performed at the box office: The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Kingdom of the Crystal Stones, Hancock, WALL-E, King Fu Panda, Twilight, Madagascar, Quantum of Solice, and Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!. Notably absent from the nomination list is Dark Knight director Chris Nolan, although Knight did end up with eight nods: Supporting Actor, Art Direction, Cinematography, Film Editing, Makeup, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing (how is that not editing?), and Visual Effects.
Full List
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Richard Jenkins (The Visitor)
Frank Langella (FROST/NIXON)
Sean Penn (Milk)
Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Josh Brolin (Milk)
Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt)
Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road)
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)
Angelina Jolie (The Changling)
Melissa Leo (Frozen River)
Meryl Streep (Doubt)
Kate Winslet (The Reader)
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
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 of the Year
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E
Achievement in Art Direction
The Changling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road
Achievement in Cinematography
The Changling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Achievement in Costume Design
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road
Achievement in Directing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
FROST/NIXON
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Best Documentary Feature
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water
Best Documentary Short Subject
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Dark Knight
FROST/NIXON
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Achievement in Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
FROST/NIXON
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Class
Departures
Revanche
Waltz With Bashir
Achievement in Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)
"Down to Earth" - WALL-E
"Jai Ho" - Slumdog Millionaire
"O Saya" - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Motion Picture of the Year
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
FROST/NIXON
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Best Animated Short Film
La Maison En Petits Cubes
Lavatory - Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up
Best Live Action Short Film
Auf Der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)
Achievement in Sound Editing
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted
Achievement in Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted
Achievement in Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
FROST/NIXON
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Original Screenplay
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk
WALL-E
It looks like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ended up with the most nods, about 13. Sounds like February 22nd is going to be a big night for Pitt and company. Congratulations to all involved and my condolences to all those who were left behind. There's always next year, eh?
The Oscars, AKA The Academy Awards, will air on ABC February 22nd beginning at 8PM EST.
January 22, 2009 1:39 PM | Reply
The Dark Knight didn't deserve a nod for Best Picture. It was a decent film with a very high expectations, but it wasn't the best film of the year. It wasn't even as good as Batman Begins.
And as entertaining as Iron Man, nominating it would have been insulting. I strongly disagree with Nikki on those two movies. I'm as big a critic as you're likely to find for the Academy ignoring fiscally succesful films because eventually you're choosing between which is the most valid definition of "best". If a movie is a block buster than it became such because the people decided it was the best use of their money.
I put more stock in that than purely artistic considerations.
You simply cannot ignore the people like that, even though I just said that Dark Knight shouldn't be nominated for Best Film, and it was the highest grossing flick of 2008, there are plenty of other high grossing films to choose from, like WALL-E.
I've heard a lot of people say that WALL-E was the one this year, and though I haven't seen it yet, I think it has a lot going for it.
January 22, 2009 4:41 PM | Reply
'Kate Winslet was also supposed to be a strong contender for Best Actress but also wasn't even nominated.'
'This is the flick that a lot of people thought would get Kate Winslet a nomination for Best Actress, but didn't.'
'Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Kate Winslet (The Reader)'
Pretty major gaffe there! ;-)
January 22, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply
January 22, 2009 4:51 PM | Reply
I was in such a rush to get this out there that I flubbed it.
January 22, 2009 5:29 PM | Reply