Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Oscar Fever (It's an Epidemic!)

Oscar Fever

Well if you didn't already know, today (January the 22nd) the nominations for the 80th Annual Academy Awards were announced. I personally get pretty excited at this time of year, being that I find the Oscars to be the only award show worth a damn, but also because I like to pursue seeing all the films nominated for best picture. Of which I still need to see "Atonement" (which I am not really looking forward to) and "Michael Clayton" (which though I missed an opportunity to see have decided to rent it instead of watching it all online.) Perhaps it's my tradition to see at least one of the nominees on dvd as I did last year with Babel.

So what's the scoop on the oscars? Looks like "No Country For Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" did pretty well with nominations, both films I quite enjoyed. I'm kind of pissed that "Sweeney Todd" got the royal screw job but will be more pissed if "Atonement" is lame. But it's too bad, I figured Tim Burton was gonna finally get a best director nomination and he could finally have a contender for best picture, but all it really got was just a best actor nom and some costume stuff. Though I doubt Johnny Depp will win (I guess it's an honor just to be nominated). It would appear that everyone is saying Daniel-Day Lewis or as I like to call him "D-Day" is a shoe in for best actor and he certainly deserves it as one of the best actors around.

Cate Blanchett got about her bazillionth nomination for both "I'm Not There" and that "Elizabeth the Golden Age" thing. Somehow I always seem to manage seeing practically none of the films nominated for best actress. Though I did see "Juno" and I suppose Ellen Page deserved a nomination, though I'm not sure about a win. Then again I don't really know what she's up against. It seems pretty strange that the mom from "American Gangster" was nominated. I suppose she was fine but that was certainly one of those strange last minute noms. Also what I feel to be the biggest surprise would be the best supporting actor nomination of Hal Holbrook for "Into the Wild" Now making him the oldest man to ever be nominated for an oscar (He's 82 and will be 83 by the time of the oscars.) while also being his first nomination. Of course I always root for old people if they've never won. I didn't see "Into the Wild" but c'mon 82? He could be dead any day now give him some of that oscar gold.

As for the rest I'm never quite sure it seems as though best director could go any way. I'm going to assume "Juno"will pull a "A Little Miss Sunshine" and win best original screenplay while best adapted screenplay looks like a tough choice, though "No Country" is probably the front runner for that. (As it for lots of things) and good luck to all the other films awarded for things like sound editing and what not. I just hope the ceremony this year on February 24th doesn't get fudged up.

1 comment:

Sean said...

I noticed the same thing about the actress nominees. I guess women don't play leading roles in too many of the big movies these days. I mean, There Will Be Blood didn't really have any women at all, except for the little girl.