Oscar Nominations Announced

And here we are at that time of year once more.  This morning the Oscar nominations were announced for last year's films and there were a couple of surprises that went against the general thinking - namely, Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima jumped into the Best Picture and Best Director race, though odd that Ken Watanabe did not snag an acting nomination.

Here's a partial list:

Best motion picture of the year

BABEL
THE DEPARTED
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
THE QUEEN

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Leonardo DiCaprio - BLOOD DIAMOND
Ryan Gosling - HALF NELSON
Peter O'Toole - VENUS
Will Smith - THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
Forest Whitaker - THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Alan Arkin - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Jackie Earle Haley - LITTLE CHILDREN
Djimon Hounsou - BLOOD DIAMOND
Eddie Murphy - DREAMGIRLS
Mark Wahlberg - THE DEPARTED

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Penélope Cruz - VOLVER
Judi Dench - NOTES ON A SCANDAL
Helen Mirren - THE QUEEN
Meryl Streep - THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
Kate Winslet - LITTLE CHILDREN

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Adriana Barraza - BABEL
Cate Blanchett - NOTES ON A SCANDAL
Abigail Breslin - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Jennifer Hudson - DREAMGIRLS
Rinko Kikuchi - BABEL

Achievement in directing

BABEL - Alejandro González Iñárritu
THE DEPARTED - Martin Scorsese
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA - Clint Eastwood
THE QUEEN - Stephen Frears
UNITED 93 - Paul Greengrass

At least Greengrass snagged a Director nod even if the best film I saw last year did not get nominated for Best Picture.  I'll have to return later and figure who's moved ahead with number of nominations and such, and we might even see some Oscarblogging again this year.  You can look back at some previous efforts in this post, including one I already did looking at Peter O'Toole.  He's now up for his 8th and still may not win as Forest Whitaker has been cleaning up.  Mirren is most likely to take the Best Actress, Hudson the Supporting Actress and it now looks as though a path has been cleared for Eddie since one of the largest surprises was that Nicholson did NOT get nominated.  I'll of course also be doing my usual full picks just before the Oscars, this year taking place February 25.  More later. 

EDIT - And I am back after figuring who has scored their first nomination and who's building on their total.  This is the first nomination for Ryan Gosling, Jackie Earle Haley, Eddie Murphy, Mark Wahlberg, Penelope Cruz, Adriana Barraza, Abigail Breslin, Jennifer Hudson, Rinko Kikuchi and somehow...Forest Whitaker. I saved him for last becasue I am rather in shock.  Somehow I was sure he had been nominated in the past.  It's crazy to realize that this is number one.  Let's hope it is not his last.

As for multiple nominations, we have the following:

Will Smith and Djimon Hounsou have their second.

Leonardo Dicaprio, Alan Arkin, Cate Blanchett and Helen Mirren now have their third.

Kate Winslet has her fifth.

Judi Dench has her sixth.

Peter O'Toole has his eighth (and hopefully first win.)

And Meryl Streep is adding to her record total - number fourteen.

In fact, she is the most nominated actor in the history of the Academy Awards.  And there are only five others with nine or more:

Katherine Hepburn with 12 (and four wins)
Jack Nicholson with 12 (and three wins)
Bette Davis with 10 (and two wins)
Laurence Olivier with 10 (and one win)
Spencer Tracy with 9 (and two wins)

Jack just missed moving into second place all by his lonesome.  But he and Hepburn (along with Walter Huston and Ingrid Bergman) are the only actors to ever score more than two actual awards, so he still has something to be happy about.  I am sure he'll be there anyway, grinning as he does, and supporting The Departed, which I think has a very good chance to take Best Picture.  But I am not ready to make my predictions yet.  We'll save that until late February. That is all.

Comments

[Keith Konior]

I got a feelin'...A feelin' deep inside, oh, yeah...

I actually DO have a feeling about Best Supporting Actress. The kid is gonna win. She was actually fantastic in the role, and it has been a while since the Academy made a kid's day, er...year, er...century by awarding them the Oscar...

As I said, just a feelin'.