[IMG:L]The Oscars are looking a bit grim this year–and not because of the ongoing writers’ strike in Hollywood. The bleak theme comes via a group of dark, disturbing films that led the pack of Academy Awards nominees.
With eight total nods apiece No Country for Old Men staked out major territory and There Will Be Blood struck black gold, while Atonement and Michael Clayton were close behind with seven. The moody crop was lightened by the spirited indie comedy Juno, delivering four total nods.
Sid Ganis, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, was joined onstage by Oscar-winning actress Kathy Bates for the annual, highly anticipated nominations announcements at the Academy’s Beverly Hills headquarters at 5:38 a.m., and despite delivering good news to a number of diverse films–Ratatouille and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly also fared well in total nominations with five and four, respectively–the morning was tinged with some uncertainty over how the three-month old writers’ strike would impact the Feb. 24 ceremony.
But the Oscars’ top brass remained enthusiastic, offered a little advice to the A-list Hollywood crowd who’s grown weary of the bleak mood that’s settled over the showbiz industry. “Get your gown, get your car, and get ready for a blast–It’s going to be a party, absolutely,” said Gil Cates, executive producer of the Oscar telecast, “We are moving straight ahead. We’re goin’!”
“The show goes on,” said Cates, who has proceeded full speed ahead with plans for the ceremony, despite the woeful consequences the strike had on the star-less Golden Globes, which became a non-event.
With 30 days left to prep the Oscars, Cates–who was instrumental in the pact struck by the Directors Guild of America last week that may serve as a template for a deal between the writers and producers regarding new media residuals–-told reporters he felt that one way or another some kind of traditional Academy Awards ceremony will take.
“A month is a long time,” he said. “There’s no way of knowing whether the writers will be out in a month or not. Obviously if they are, it’ll be a different kind of show … The show’s basically a news event to see who wins the awards, and it’s also an opportunity to pay a certain kind of appreciation with love and affection for excellence in filmmaking.”
For a complete list of nominees, click here.
[IMG:R]Topping the List
This year the Oscar were spread among a wealth of worthy films, with no one movie overtly dominating the major categories. Leading the pack in the “marquee” territories was Michael Clayton: Star George Clooney received his first Best Actor nomination, along with Tom Wilkinson for Best Supporting Actor, Tilda Swinton for Best Supporting Actreess and Tony Gilroy for Best Director, along with nods for Original Screenplay, Original Score and the Best Picture berth.
While Best Picture nominee No Country for Old Men earned major nods for star Javier Bardem as Best Supporting Actor and helmers Joel and Ethan Coen as Best Director(s), the rest of its nods came for more behind-the-scenes categories (Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing and Sound Editing, Sound Mixing. The Coens’ team nomination as Best Director marks the third such occasion in Oscar history, joining West Side Story’s Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (1961) and Heaven Can Wait’s Warren Beatty and Buck Henry (1978).
The Coens also scored another, more under-the-radar nod: “Roderick Jaynes,” the pseudonym used by the brothers for Film Editing, garnered a second career nomination.
Similarly, Best Picture contender There Will Be Blood got high-profile nods for Daniel Day-Lewis as Best Actor and Paul Thomas Anderson as Best Director, collecting its remain noms for Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Cinematography, Film Editing and Sound Editing.
Meanwhile, Juno made the most of its four nominations in top-tier categories, landing nods for star Ellen Page as Best Actress, helmer Jason Reitman as Best Director, Original Screenplay and Best Picture.
It was a good morning for Cate Blanchett, who collected her fourth AND fifth career Oscar nomination–she was tapped in the Best Actress category for Elizabeth: The Golden Age and in the Best Supporting Actress Category for her Golden Globe-winning performance in I’m Not There. Blanchett was previously nominated for playing Queen Elizabeth I in 1998’s Elizabeth, making her the fifth performer and first woman to be nominated for playing the same role in two different films. It’s also the eleventh time a performer has been nominated in both the leading and supporting role in the same year–no actor has collected both trophies in one year.
Each year there’s almost inevitably at least one disconnect between the nominees for Best Picture and Best Director. This year Atonement’s Joe Wright was left off the list of helmers, while Julian Schnabel took the slot for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Schanbel’s nod marks the second year in a row that an American director has been tapped for directing a foreign language film, following in the footsteps of Letters From Iwo Jima’s Clint Eastwood last year.
[IMG:L]Surprises
Oscar voters traditionally do their best to zig and zag away from choosing nominees that have populated every other awards show list. Some of this year’s choices weren’t exactly shockers given the nominees’ wide praise in critical circles, but the choices that came with less advance awards buzz did pump a some fresh life into the gold derby.
While Tommy Lee Jones has earned accolades for his supporting turn in No Country for Old Men, the Academy instead rewarded him with a Best Actor nomination for his work in another film, In the Valley of Elah.
Despite several other high-profile awards nods for his turn in Eastern Promises, Viggo Mortensen wasn’t considered a short-lister for a Best Actor nod but earned his first-ever Oscar nom. Laura Linney had garnered a handful of select critical nods for her performance in The Savages but she landed her third career Oscar nomination and second as Best Actress.
The Academy never practices agesim : The much beloved actress Ruby Dee received her first-ever Academy Award nomination, as Best Supporting Actress for American Gangster at age 83, while Atonement’s 13-year-old actress Saoirse Ronan also scored her debut Oscar nom in the same category.
And if your tastes run toward more popular, popcorn fare, don’t feel like you’re not getting your share of Oscar nourishment. Among the year’s huge box office hits, three nominations apiece went out to Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Enchanted, along with Ratatouille’s five–including a surprise nod for Best Original Screenplay.
[IMG:R]Missing Out
In a year when Eddie Murphy’s Norbit, the recipient of no less that five Razzie nods for some of the worst film had to offer in 2007, took home an Academy Award nomination (for Makeup), the Academy also offered up a handful of headscratchers among its omissions.
If Joe Wright’s exclusion in the Best Director field was a surprise, it was downright shocking that Atonement’s grown-up stars Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Vanessa Redgrave failed to receive any love from the Academy.
Angelina Jolie has been quietly, tastefully yet assiduously stumping for an Oscar nomination for A Mighty Heart since the film’s release, but the Academy’s heart wasn’t in it.
Hairspray had filmgoers dancing in the aisles all year, with John Travolta and Nikki Blonsky’s performances striking a particular chord, but the Academy was tone deaf to it. Meanwhile, Amy Adams’ turn in Enchanted was star-making, but apparently not nomination-earning.
Denzel Washington had two strong reasons to expect to be on the Oscar short list this year, with gripping turns in American Gangster and his self-directed The Great Debaters, but didn’t win the argument and was shot down by the Academy voters.
And just because you’ve already collected your Oscar(s) doesn’t mean you’ve got an automatic in. Academy Award winners Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Mike Nichols had the golden pedigree, great reviews and solid box office receipts for Charlie Wilson’s War, but they were casualties in this year’s race.
