Wow, no Best Picture for “The Dark Knight” nor a nomination for Christopher Nolan for Best Director. The Weinstein’s gamble with “The Reader” paid off.
Man, some preordained stuff, but some major surprises too. David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” led the pack with 13 nominations; it’s only he 11th film ever to receive 13 nominations or more. “Slumdog Millionaire” was second with 10 nominations and “Milk” and “The Dark Knight” both earned themselves 8 nominations each, but ‘TDK’ was shut out of the main two categories. The big surprise underdog, “The Reader,” scored five nominations as did Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon” and John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” which scored nominations in each acting category.
As we expected “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” scored the most nominations, but we’re really convinced its not walking away with any major awards. It will probably do well in the tech categories and very probably with cinematography, but then again, there are politics…
BEST PICTURE
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Reader”
“Milk”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“Frost/Nixon”
BEST DIRECTOR
Gus Van Sant (“Milk”)
Ron Howard (“Frost/Nixon”)
David Fincher (‘Benjamin Button’)
Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Stephen Daldry (“The Reader”)
BEST ACTRESS
Kate Winslet (“The Reader”)
Angelina Jolie (“Changeling”)
Melissa Leo “(Frozen River”)
Anne Hathaway (“Rachel Getting Married”
Meryl Streep (“Doubt”)
BEST ACTOR
Mickey Rourke (“The Wrestler”)
Brad Pitt (“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”)
Sean Penn (“Milk”)
Frank Langella (“Frost/Nixon”)
Richard Jenkins (“The Visitor”)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams (“Doubt”)
Penelope Cruz (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
Viola Davis (“Doubt”)
Marisa Tomei (“The Wrestler”)
Taraji P Henson (‘Benjamin Button’)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (“Doubt”)
Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road”
Robert Downey Jr. (“Tropic Thunder”)
Josh Brolin (“Milk”)
Heath Ledger “(The Dark Knight”)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Waltz With Bashir” (Israel)
“Revanche” (Austria)
“The Class” (France)
“Der Baader Meinhof Komplex” (Germany)
“Departures” (Japan)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Screenplay by Eric Roth, Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
“Doubt” (Miramax), Written by John Patrick Shanley
“Frost/Nixon” (Universal), Screenplay by Peter Morgan
“The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Screenplay by David Hare
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics), Written by Courtney Hunt
“Happy-Go-Lucky” (Miramax), Written by Mike Leigh
“In Bruges” (Focus Features), Written by Martin McDonagh
“Milk” (Focus Features), Written by Dustin Lance Black
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Changeling” (Universal), Tom Stern
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Claudio Miranda
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Wally Pfister
“The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Anthony Dod Mantle
BEST EDITING
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lee Smith
“Frost/Nixon” (Universal), Mike Hill and Dan Hanley
“Milk” (Focus Features), Elliot Graham
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Chris Dickens
BEST SCORE
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.),Alexandre Desplat
“Defiance” (Paramount Vantage), James Newton Howard
“Milk” (Focus Features), Danny Elfman
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A.R. Rahman
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Thomas Newman
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Down to Earth” from “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
“Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar
“O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman andMaya Arulpragasam
BEST ANIMATED FILM
“Wall-E”
“Bolt”
“Kung Fu Panda”
BEST ART DIRECTION
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Changeling”
“The Duchess”
“Revolutionary Road”
“The Dark Knight”
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
“Australia” (20th Century Fox), Catherine Martin
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Jacqueline West
“The Duchess” (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films), Michael O’Connor
“Milk” (Focus Features), Danny Glicker
“Revolutionary Road”
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)” (Cinema Guild), A Pandinlao Films Production, Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
“Encounters at the End of the World” (THINKFilm and Image Entertainment), A Creative Differences Production, Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser
“The Garden” A Black Valley Films Production, Scott Hamilton Kennedy
“Man on Wire” (Magnolia Pictures), A Wall to Wall Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
“Trouble the Water” (Zeitgeist Films), An Elsewhere Films Production, Tia Lessin and Carl
BEST MAKEUP
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Greg Cannom
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O’Sullivan
“Hellboy II: The Golden Army” (Universal), Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
“La Maison en Petits Cubes” A Robot Communications Production, Kunio Kato
“Lavatory – Lovestory” A Melnitsa Animation Studio and CTB Film Company Production, Konstantin Bronzit
“Oktapodi” (Talantis Films) A Gobelins, L’école de l’image Production, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
“Presto” (Walt Disney) A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Doug Sweetland
“This Way Up”, A Nexus Production, Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
“Auf der Strecke (On the Line)” (Hamburg Shortfilmagency), An Academy of Media Arts Cologne Production, Reto Caffi
“Manon on the Asphalt” (La Luna Productions), A La Luna Production, Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont
“New Boy” (Network Ireland Television), A Zanzibar Films Production, Steph Green and Tamara Anghie
“The Pig” An M & M Production, Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh
“Spielzeugland (Toyland)” A Mephisto Film Production, Jochen Alexander Freydank
BEST SOUNDS EDITING
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Richard King
“Iron Man” (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment), Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Tom Sayers
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
“Wanted” (Universal),Wylie Stateman
BEST SOUND MIXING
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney),Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt
“Wanted” (Universal), Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin
“Iron Man” (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment), John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan
Well all the Picture and Director nominees lined up, but they excluded The Dark Knight and included The Reader!
They just said Ben Button got 13 nominations…that’s the exact same number of noms Forrest Gump got…the copying continues.
What does the Dark Knight and Revolutionary Road have in common? They were only nomed for Best Supporting Actor…ouch. Still happy for Michael Shannon though.
The Reader is a terrible movie. What a bummer.
Were the Academy’s voters susceptible to a ‘TDK’ backlash? I think a few more noms (maybe Picture, but definitely one for Nolan) would’ve been in order and shown that they’re not adverse to something outside of dramas. (Though there is the Downey nom.)
I love that Richard Jenkins got the 5th nod, though.
Holy fucking shit…so Springsteen didn’t get a song nom? WTF! Further proof that the Academy is whacked outta their minds when it comes to the song category. Last year a whole CDs worth or original songs by Eddie Vedder got shut put and now this! Remember when the Phil Collins song from Tarzan beat Aimee Mann’s from Magnolia. They are idiots.
In fact, it’s just like last year cause Eddie Vedder won the Globe for Best Song and then wasn’t even nomed for the Oscar. Springsteen won the Glode this year, and see what happened. Will this be a new trend?
And what’s with only three noms? I know they sometimes nom three films the years where it seems they isn’t enough contenders, but when you don’t nominate the frontrunner and then only have three noms, it’s like a slap in the face.
Although The Dark Knight was snubbed in the major categories (Picture, Director, Writing) it made up for it in the technical ones, even getting some we didn’t expect (Makeup, Visual Effects, Art Direction). So you can’t really say the Academy refused to accept it.
And you’ll notice it did get the Editing nom we expected it to get since we thought all those films would be the same for Pic and Director. That right there makes me wonder if they didn’t just pick The Reader to be different.
Umm, where is the Dark Knight’s Best Score nomination!?
Yeah, the Original Song nominations are deserved, but it’s absolute B.S. that Springsteen didn’t get nominated. That and the Newton Howard/Zimmer got snubbed after the big ado about them ineligible.
I also think that ‘TDK’ still got snubbed because looking at a movie for its acting and directing are different from giving it deserved nominations for editing, SFX, etc. As much as some of us would like to think otherwise, a makeup Oscar’s got a bit less weight than an acting Oscar.
I can’t believe The Reader got that many noms. Some people over at Vulture are also rightly pissed that Angelina got a nom over Blanchett.
I cannot wait for Sukhwinder Singh and A R Rahman to tear up the house when they perform the SD songs at the Oscars. Sukhwinder is just an amazing singer and performer, and ARR’s music just does not get a hearing outside the South Asian community (I’m not South Asian myself). His SD work is not even his best stuff but certainly worthy of these nominations. Maybe folks will now check out some of his other great film music…Lagaan, Rang de Basanti, Guru, Jodhaa Akbar, Swades, Dil Se, Nayak-The Real Hero, to name only a few, and the excellent project album (not a film) Vande Mataram.
Elliott Smith lost to Celine Dion…but that was expected. Looking back, Smith getting a nom is kind of amazing.
Devastated the Nolan didn’t get the nod, and don’t even start me on the “best score” nonsense – I’m a HUGE Rahmann fan, loved his musical (produced by dipshit A.L. Webber) but his score for Slumdog is one of his weakest efforts. TDK score is one of the biggest/boldest in years and right up there with his work on Gladiator a couple of years back which I believe did get recognition. Hard to believe the TDK score wasn’t even nominated. There is no justice. And watch Peter Gabriel get beaten by a second-rate song by a justified legend of Indian music as a make-up call for not recognizing his MUCH BETTER earlier works….