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81st Annual Academy Awards--Nominations and Discussion

ApproximatelyInfinite
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ApproximatelyInfinite

ApproximatelyInfinite

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I don't think there's another thread here for this yet :uhoh:

 

Oscar nominations came out today! :dance: I'm a huge Oscar nerd, so I thought it would be fun to see what other people thought about the big movies of the year and what they think of the nominees and the eventual winners.

 

http://www.oscar.com/nominees/?pn=nominees

 

 

 

1. Best Picture: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire."

 

2. Actor: Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"; Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"; Sean Penn, "Milk"; Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler."

 

3. Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"; Angelina Jolie, "Changeling"; Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"; Meryl Streep, "Doubt"; Kate Winslet, "The Reader."

 

4. Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, "Milk"; Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt"; Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"; Michael Shannon, "Revolutionary Road."

 

5. Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, "Doubt"; Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"; Viola Davis, "Doubt"; Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler."

 

6. Director: David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"; Gus Van Sant, "Milk"; Stephen Daldry, "The Reader"; Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire."

 

7. Foreign Film: "The Baader Meinhof Complex," Germany; "The Class," France; "Departures," Japan; "Revanche," Austria; "Waltz With Bashir," Israel.

 

8. Adapted Screenplay: Eric Roth and Robin Swicord, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt"; Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon"; David Hare, "The Reader"; Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire."

 

9. Original Screenplay: Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"; Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"; Martin McDonagh, "In Bruges"; Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"; Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter, "WALL-E."

 

10. Animated Feature Film: "Bolt"; "Kung Fu Panda"; "WALL-E."

 

11. Art Direction: "Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "The Duchess," "Revolutionary Road."

 

12. Cinematography: "Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire."

 

13. Sound Mixing: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Slumdog Millionaire," "WALL-E," "Wanted."

 

14. Sound Editing: "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man," "Slumdog Millionaire," "WALL-E," "Wanted."

 

15. Original Score: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Alexandre Desplat; "Defiance," James Newton Howard; "Milk," Danny Elfman; "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman; "WALL-E," Thomas Newman.

 

16. Original Song: "Down to Earth" from "WALL-E," Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman; "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Gulzar; "O Saya" from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam.

 

 

17. Costume: "Australia," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Duchess," "Milk," "Revolutionary Road."

 

18. Documentary Feature: "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)," "Encounters at the End of the World," "The Garden," "Man on Wire," "Trouble the Water."

 

19. Documentary (short subject): "The Conscience of Nhem En," "The Final Inch," "Smile Pinki," "The Witness — From the Balcony of Room 306."

 

20. Film Editing: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "Slumdog Millionaire."

 

21. Makeup: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Hellboy II: The Golden Army."

 

22. Animated Short Film: "La Maison en Petits Cubes," "Lavatory — Lovestory," "Oktapodi," "Presto," "This Way Up."

 

23. Live Action Short Film: "Auf der Strecke (On the Line)," "Manon on the Asphalt," "New Boy," "The Pig," "Spielzeugland (Toyland)."

24. Visual Effects: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man."

 

 

As you can probably tell by my sig, I'm QUITE happy that Slumdog Millionaire got 10 nominations, second only to Benjamin Button. I wish Dev Patel got nominated for best actor/supporting actor. He totally deserves it, and I love it when young, deserving newcomers win awards for their first real pieces of work. Besides, if Tropic Thunder can get in that category (despite Robert Downey Jr. being totally deserving of it), Dev Patel should be there too.

 

What does everyone else think about the nominees? I'm ashamed to say I have yet to see many of the big movies of the year, but I'm going to try my hardest to fit them in in the next few weeks.

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ApproximatelyInfinite

ApproximatelyInfinite

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oops, i forgot there was a similar thread in the lounge >.<

 

i really need to get to see more of these movies very soon. but now i'm in the middle of nowhere, PA, where most of these aren't around or passed through long ago.

 

at any rate, i don't think i have ever loved a serious movie as much as i love slumdog millionaire, so even if i saw every other nominated film, i'd probably still want it to win it all :P.

 

i have yet to see revolutionary road and benjamin button, those are the two i'm dying to see most.

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RedGirl76

RedGirl76

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I'm not so sure about the Brad nod. I've always found him to be a distinctly average actor, maybe even below average, and I'm not seeing any groundbreaking improvement on that in what I've seen of Benjamin.

 

Yeah, while I'm sure his looks have held himback a little as it may have stopped him being taken seriously at times, I also think that if he didn't look like that, he'd never have got to where he is now.

 

He's not a bad actor, he's just not charismatic like some of his contemporaries

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ApproximatelyInfinite

ApproximatelyInfinite

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i haven't seen benjamin button, but i feel like you both are right in that brad has always been an average actor with above-average looks, and it didn't seem like it would be that much different for this film, but i have to see it before i make a call. i just hope the academy wasn't fooled by all the CGI, thinking he was a better actor, but i bet they're well used to that sort of thing.

 

i'm unhealthily obsessed with slumdog millionaire and its soundtrack, though. anyone who's considering seeing it: SEE IT. best movie i've seen in years, maybe ever.

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RedGirl76

RedGirl76

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Let's face it, his character has all the classics that academy voters like - they do love victims and people who are sick or dying, and they love it when pretty people uglify themselves - Nicole Kidman and her nose for example.

 

What surprised me is how different the nominations are from the Globes - as BB didn't pick up anything there, and got 13 noms here, maybe it's going to me a big winner...

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ApproximatelyInfinite

ApproximatelyInfinite

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i just saw benjamin button. really, 13 OSCAR NOMINATIONS?! it was just...not that worthy. it was a good film, don't get me wrong, but i don't think it should be up for best picture. visual effects, most definitely, makeup too, but not best picture, score, or cinematography, or adapted screenplay.those belong to slumdog millionaire, if you ask me. i guess everything else is fair game, though.

 

it was just...too slow-moving and too predictable. i felt like some of the symbols missed their mark and could have been stronger, and the dialogue was nothing too special. the plot really could have used a big twist, because you knew exactly what was going to happen the entire time, and the movie did nothing to change that fact--it didn't throw anything else in, it just ran its natural course. you knew he was going to lose people, you knew he was going to get younger as everyone else got older. there could have been more.

 

i'm not really saying i didn't like it, because i did. i just don't think it's oscar best-picture quality at all. brad pitt was really good, but part of me wonders how much of that was really him and not just CGI.

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Tnspieler1012

Tnspieler1012

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Benjamin Button was really solid, straight out of the template of Forrest Gump, almost a rip-off in some ways, I wouldn't mind if that cashed in big year. I find Slumdog Millionaire extremely overrated. It was essentially an indian imitation of hollywood cliche's. And while I haven't seen all the film's nominated, Meryl Streep was brilliant in Doubt, so I'm rooting for her where she's nominated.

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ApproximatelyInfinite

ApproximatelyInfinite

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i really want to see milk and revolutionary road. i'm seeing rachel getting married on friday, and the dark knight (in imax) again tonight to refresh my memory of heath ledger's performance.

 

Benjamin Button was really solid, straight out of the template of Forrest Gump, almost a rip-off in some ways, I wouldn't mind if that cashed in big year. I find Slumdog Millionaire extremely overrated. It was essentially an indian imitation of hollywood cliche's. And while I haven't seen all the film's nominated, Meryl Streep was brilliant in Doubt, so I'm rooting for her where she's nominated.

 

of course, to each their own, so i'm not trying to argue here :wink:.

 

but i just found benjamin button to be completely straightforward, predictable, and slow-moving. i felt the symbols and motifs were weak or lacking, and i didn't feel the love or chemistry between the two main characters at all. i didn't even like the character of daisy for most of the film. i feel like the story would have benefitted 100% from a really good plot twist that no one saw coming. as for forrest gump...i see the similarities, but i wouldn't personally say it was a rip-off of any sort. forrest got more and more epic and you didn't really know what amazing thing he was going to do next, whereas with benjamin button, you knew he was going to get younger and younger and that everyone else was going to get older. there were no surprises, no real creativity in the storyline. i think even if a film has a creative premise (like someone getting younger rather than older), it should still have creative writing in it.

 

i do agree with you when you say that slumdog uses a kind of stock storyline about finding a long-lost love and reuniting with her, but i think it's the structure of the film, the characters, the acting, and the writing that saves it from being cliche. i'll admit that the first time i saw it, i thought the very end was a bit cliche in that it's all very nicely wrapped up without any real surprise. but in the *ahem* 4 other times i saw it (:embarassed:), i realized that it was the structure of the end that got me about it.

i'm going to get descriptive here, so if you haven't seen it, don't click the spoiler.

 

 

yes, jamal ends up finding latika, moreover in the trainstation that he said he'd be waiting at every day, which is completely cliche. but what i don't think is cliche is the way they structured it, how they show clips of jamal's happiness in his younger life as he's running towards her in shock (like when he's covered in shit, but has the autograph, and when salim smiles at him). and then, when he kisses her scar, i LOVE how they show the train-station incident backwards, like he's apologizing for giving her that scar and undoing it with the kiss). i think latika could have done without saying "kiss me," but i really liked how they freeze the shot when their lips meet, so its not some hollywood-passionate kiss like every other. and i like how they make it bollywood by putting in a bollywood dance right when the anticipated moment happens. it's an in-joke, and it's epic and awesome, if you ask me.

 

 

 

sorry, i'm a bit obsessed with film, and with slumdog in general. and i'm procrastinating schoolwork :P.

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ApproximatelyInfinite

ApproximatelyInfinite

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i don't even really know what the general favorite is to win. is slumdog an underdog, really? i would think that the fact that it won the golden globe for best picture, it's not so much of an underdog for the academy award best picture.

 

i'll be really pissed if benjamin wins best picture, even if slumdog doesn't win it in its place. but i am going to be sad if slumdog doesn't win, because i'm more hopelessly in love with that movie than i've ever been with any other :P

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