The nominations are... not very surprising. What seemed like a wide-open year has led to a very straightforward list of nominees. Best Picture and Best Director even matched 5 for 5, not a common occurrence.
That helped with my predictions, and the few major ones I missed I'm mostly glad I did. It's great to see Keira Knightley up for best actress and Munich up for best picture rather than my predictions of Zhang Ziyi and Walk the Line. And I went into the nominations hoping for a few serious noms for A History of Violence. I would've preferred my prediction of David Cronenberg for best director but I shouldn't complain about William Hurt's mildly surprising nom for best supporting actor (and can't really complain at all about Steven Spielberg's director nom "instead" of Cronenberg). It really is too bad voters couldn't support both Amy Adams and Maria Bello in supporting actress but I'm extremely happy Adams got in (seriously, now's the time, rent Junebug).
A quick look at the rest of the noms makes me think I did pretty well (even in foreign film, for a change) but I'll tally it up later.
Quick reactions to a few other categories:
It's GREAT that the animated film nominees are Howl's Moving Castle, Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride and Wallace & Gromit; just as they should be. Way to go animation committee!
I'm surprised the documentary committee actually nominated Darwin's Nightmare, a film with a very strong, important message that is very difficult to watch.
I'm not TOO surprised that the Original Song committee limited their selections to three. They had the option to nominate nothing. I'm strongly backing Dolly Parton here but I think Hustle & Flow might take it (and I feel stupid having predicted the other song from the movie instead of the more obvious choice, the movie's centerpiece: It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp).
I really like seeing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire nominated in the art direction category. I expected the Oscars to entirely overlook the fourth film in the series, but instead it's the first art direction nominee since the original Potter film (and gives it the same amount of nominations as the more tech-award hyped Star Wars: Episode III).
About the only category Brokeback Mountain unexpectedly missed in was editing, a category usually representative of the best picture nominees. Fellow picture nominee Good Night, and Good Luck. is sitting it out too, in favor of Cinderella Man (editors love boxers) and The Constant Gardener.
Now it's back to bed, zzzzzz...
2 comments:
I agree, the editing omissions for "Brokeback" and "Good Night" are a little troubling, since that award and best picture typically go hand-in-hand. Perhaps they felt "Brokeback" was too ... placid? Stately? Slow? (Of course, "Crash" gets an editing nom because cutting quickly between multiple story arcs is complex and impressive, even if said story arcs are all irredeemably stupid.)
Cutting quickly between multiple story arcs IS complex and impressive... in Syriana.
I don't know what happened. I'm not an editing expert but I actually thought both Brokeback and Good Night were very well put together (I love the seamless use of archival footage, and those jazz singer cutaways, in Good Night and of course Brokeback is just a perfect movie).
I guess that makes Crash a favorite in this category, which combined with original screenplay could give it two wins. And it will add a little more fuel to the "Brokeback vs. Crash for the win" school of thought. Ugh.
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