General Chat / 81st Academy Awards

The nominees were announced today. Here are the major awards. Quite a few surprises:

Best Picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Director
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Stephen Daldry – The Reader
Gus Van Sant – Milk
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon

Best Actor
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn – Milk
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

Best Actress
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Kate Winslet – The Reader

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin – Milk
Robert Downey Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight (posthumous)
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road

Best 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

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

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Frost/Nixon - Peter Morgan
The Reader - David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire - Simon Beaufoy
Doubt - John Patrick Shanley

Best Animated Feature
Bolt – Chris Williams and Byron Howard
Kung Fu Panda – Mark Osborne and John Stevenson
WALL-E – Andrew Stanton

Can't believe Dark Knight missed on Best Picture and Director. Ledger will still take home the win, I think. Though, I have not seen Hoffman's performance nor Brolin's and I have heard they are fairly great so he is up against a tough competition. Today's also the anniversary of Ledger's death as well. Rest in peace, dude!

Ledger deserves to win.

What the heck is Milk? I've never even heard of the movie.

^ agreed and I hope Ledger wins too. Milk is a movie about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician. Great movie!

I actually was able to see most of the pictures this year, but I'm a little surprised at some of these. I personally wasn't overly thrilled with Benjamin Button so the amount of nominations seems excessive to me. If it wins anything, it would be for cinematography. I have not seen the Reader, but I would think Revolutionary Road would be the oscar nomination for both best picture and best actress Winslet...so that is odd.

I liked Frost/Nixon, Milk, and Slumdog Millionaire equally well, so thats a tough one for me to choose best picture.
Best Actor picks for me would be Langella, Penn, or Rourke. I still haven't seen the wrestler though...and I want to.
I haven't seen the Changeling, so I would go with Meryl Streep, because everything she does is gold. She reminded me of my grade school principal (very scary)...
I feel like Josh Brolin got robbed big time last year so this is interesting, and Hoffman was really good too..but I sure hope it goes to Ledger.
I'd love to see Tomei win, even though I haven't even seen the movie. Amy Adams and Viola Davis were both good, although Viola really really had a small part and not sure if it was enough to win an Oscar for it.
I LOVED WALL-E so original screenplay would be a nice award for this movie.
It should also win best animated picture.

I'm going to have to go see The Wrestler for sure this weekend...

Now that's just funny. I haven't seen any of those films.

People always make stupid jokes about my name and the academy awards.

Heath Ledger did an outstanding job as the Joker in the Dark Knight.

^Agreed. Heath Ledger definitely deserves the posthumous award. It's a shame he can't accept it. Frost/Nixon deserves the Best Picture award because it was such a great movie.

They also need a best Special Effects category. Iron Man would win that one hands down.

EDIT: Why is Benjamin Button getting so much attention? TDK was way better, IMO.

they DO have a special effects category, and iron man was nominated.. steve just didn't post every category.

heath ledger was fantastic as the joker, of course, so here's to hoping that he pulls it off. if it's anything like 2005, though, he'll get absolutely robbed by philip seymour hoffman and everyone will end up in a sour mood. this is the funny thing about the supporting actor category and heath ledger this year: the academy is damned if they do, damned if they don't. tough stuff.

as for the rest, i'm surprised to see kate winslet with only one nomination after her sweep at the golden globes but i've read that her performance in 'the reader' is more like a lead actress anyways.. so maybe they DID do something right. this definitely lowers her chances against the powerhouse that is meryl streep, since i think kate was nominated for the lesser of her two performances.. but i still think she has a good chance.

as for viola davis, becky, i don't think it matters that she had little screentime. judi dench won the oscar for shakespeare in love in 1998 with only 11 minutes of screentime; it's what they do when they're onscreen that makes their performances memorable.. and viola davis DELIVERS and doesn't let up. i think she may just pull through with the win. tough competetion against cruz though.. we'll just have to see.

Mmm.. haven't really seen any of these. But for Vicky Christina Barcelona and Kung Fu Panda and In Bruges. So not the list that is noted at most of these awards, so i'll probably have to watch some movies :).

As much as I'd love to see Kate Winslet grab Best Actress and bring something home for Britain, Angelina Jolie was outstanding in The Changeling.