Comments and picks on the Oscar Noms

well, well. Today was an interesting day. Most critics are of course refering to the shocking upset of no oscar nominations for Dreamgirls for best picture nor best director, a nice slap in the face to the Oscars. However, there are several other interesting picks that leave me to believe this is the year of the dark oscars. Now, the Oscars aren't exactly known to overly love comedies and romance films, but from looking at the picture of this years nominees, it seems that hollywood went out of its way to stick to more dramatic and artistic pieces.

For best actor the Oscar's removed DiCaprio's nomination for The Departed and added Ryan Gosling's depiction in the critically acclaimed indie film, Half Nelson. Whereas for best supporting actor, only Eddie Murphy and Mark Wahlberg's nominations carried over from the Golden Globes. New nominations include Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine, Jackie Earle Haley from Little Children and Djimon Hounsou for Blood Diamond. For best actor, it looks like the same game from the Golden Globes and the expectation is on Forest Whitaker to win again with Ryan Gosling as the dark horse. However, Half Nelson and Gosling's performance were very well praised when released to theaters, so maybe he could pull a Crash-Brokeback scenario for the win. Even though Eddie won in the globes, with the emphasis on darker characters, except alan arkin, I get the feeling that his run might be up in the air. Although Murphy is still in the lead for this, expect Jackie Earle Haley to have a strong possibility too. The underdog being Alan Arkin.

Next come the actresses. For best actress, four of the nominees are culled from the best actress in a drama globes and one is from the comedy section. In other words, even though Merryl Streep is in the running, I highly doubt that by adding her it would stop the train that The Queen is on. Expect Helen Mirren for best actress since Streep has plenty of flashy gold statues. Penelope Cruz is the underdog in this race. For best supporting actress, 4 of the same girls from the golden globes are included, the only exception is Abigail Breslin getting a nod for Little Miss Sunshine instead of Emily Blunt for The Devil Wears Prada. Maybe this was done because the Academy honestly felt that Abigail deserved it more, or maybe it was because they already knew that Merryl Streep would win for best actress...either way, it doesn't add or change much about the supporting actress category for which Jennifer Hudson will surely win. Even though I have yet to see Dreamgirls, I hold out hope that Rinko Kikuchi wins this for Babel, but I think that may be a lost cause. The underdogs for this category are Abigail Breslin and Adriana Barraza.

Next comes the Director category in which it is a really heated and tight race. Many critics choose either Martin Scorcese or Clint Eastwood to gain the win. Although I think Stephen Frears has a nice shot at winning and Inarritu could just as easily come out with it, since Martin and Clint are both well established and loved directors. Plus, in the past, Flags of our Fathers was less than inspiring and there is a history of little love for Scorcese at the Oscars. So why not take that into consideration and announce the coming of a new brilliant director such as Inarritu or Frears? Greenblass for United 93 is the underdog and has little to no chance since he replaced Bobby at the Globes and it might be nominated more as a nod to the great film it was and it's well done recreation of said events. A patriotic move by the Oscars but hardly statue worthy.

Best Picture nominations will prove very interesting and Babel's win at the Globes might actually hurt it here. Then again, Letters From Iwo Jima's small release might hurt it as well. I don't think whoever wins the picture this year will win the director spot and I have a feeling Clint or Martin will win in at least one of these two categories so let us say that this year, Clint is getting old and he is a beloved man. Oscar goes to him for Letters from Iwo Jima if Frears wins the best director. This makes sense, or the other way around, but The Queen will more than likely win in one of the two categories. Either way, Little Miss Sunshine is the darkhorse with no chance and the rest of the category is a guessing game, but a fun one!

Miscellaneous categories include Pan's Labryinth to wipe the foreign film category clean. Also, Cars for animated film. For costume design its a close call between Curse of the Golden Flower, Dreamgirls, and Marie Antoinette with my bet being on Marie Antoinette. Cinematography is a close close call with the strong forerunners being Pan's Labryinth, Children of Men, and The Prestige. The only one i wouldn't bet on would be Black Dahlia. Dreamgirls for art direction. Original song from Dreamgirls, probably 'Listen.' Best original screenplay will probably be The Queen again. Best adapted screenplay will probably go to either the Departed, Children of Men, or interestingly, Borat.

Some other little tidbits include that the globe winners for best original score and best song, were snubbed come oscar time. The Painted Veil is mentioned nowhere and Happy Feet is only included in the animated area. Hell, a song from the documentary An Inconvenient Truth replaced them! Click got nominated for best makeup...wtf? Also, the Pursuit of Happyness song listed in the Globes has been removed from the song category by the academy. See what I mean when I say no Happy? The giant flop Poseidon got nominated for best visual effects. Also, the short film awards are given to some really great films. I have watched a couple of past award winners and nominees and I was very impressed with the quality. More people should see quality short films. And with that, I'm out.

Wannabe