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Best Picture The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Frost/Nixon Milk The Reader Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire Stephen Daldry - The Reader David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon Gus Van Sant - Milk
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 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 Supporting Actor Josh Brolin - Milk Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road
Best Foreign Language Film Revanche - Austria The Class - France The Baader Meinhof Complex - Germany Departures - Japan Waltz With Bashir - Israel
Best Animated Feature Film Bolt Kung Fu Panda Wall-E
Best Adapted Screenplay The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Doubt Frost/Nixon The Reader Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Screenplay Happy-Go-Lucky Milk Wall-E In Bruges Frozen River
No place for The Dark Knight or WALL-E in Best Picture...oh well.
Overall, there are 13 nominations for Benjamin Button, 10 for Slumdog Millionare, and 8 for The Dark Knight and Milk.
The Dark Knight got nominations for Art Direction, Cinematography, Editing, Make-up, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects, as well as Ledger's Best Supporting Actor. WALL-E got Best Score, Best Original Song, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing as well as the 2 in the above list. And the short, Presto, is up for best animated short!
Oh these are bad...The Reader over The Dark Knight in Picture and Director?
The Reader at Rotten Tomatoes - 60% The Reader at Metacritic - 58
The Dark Knight at Rotten Tomatoes - 94% The Dark Knight at Metacritic - 82
I don't get it.
No Rachel Getting Married in screenplay...No Sally Hawkins...Two Slumdog songs over "The Wrestler"...
Slumdog is gonna sweep
Check out my Script:
Feature: "Candy: Inspired by the Houston Mass Murders" Horror, Drama - 15 year old drunkard Wayne Henley gets caught up in procuring his teenage friends for a serial killing psychopath. 117 pages
Best Picture THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (even though The Dark Knight is really it for me) Frost/Nixon Milk The Reader Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director DANNY BOYLE-SLUMDOG MILLIONARE Stephen Daldry - The Reader David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon Gus Van Sant - Milk
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 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 Supporting Actor Josh Brolin - Milk Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt HEATH LEDGER-THE DARK KNIGHT (Oh Yeah!!!) Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road
Best Foreign Language Film Revanche - Austria The Class - France The Baader Meinhof Complex - Germany NO VOTE HERE Departures - Japan Waltz With Bashir - Israel
Best Animated Feature Film Bolt KUNG FU PANDA Wall-E
Best Adapted Screenplay The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button Doubt FROST/NIXON The Reader Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Screenplay Happy-Go-Lucky Milk WALL-E In Bruges Frozen River
Isle 10- A series I'm currently writing with my friend Adam and it will go into production soon. Think The Office meets 10 Items or Less.
They don't give out special awards just because someone is dead, I think there has been five or six other actors nominated posthumously and only Peter Finch has won for Network back in the 70s. I think Heath Ledger is winning because his acting is head and shoulders above the competition, even if he was alive I'm sure he'd still be winning.
Predicts:
Best Picture Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actor Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
Best Actress Kate Winslet - The Reader
Best Supporting Actress Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Supporting Actor Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Best Foreign Language Film Waltz With Bashir - Israel
Best Animated Feature Film Wall-E
Best Adapted Screenplay Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Screenplay Milk
Check out my Script:
Feature: "Candy: Inspired by the Houston Mass Murders" Horror, Drama - 15 year old drunkard Wayne Henley gets caught up in procuring his teenage friends for a serial killing psychopath. 117 pages
I did hope to see The Dark Knight nominated in other categories as well. I can forgive the Best picture nomination but c'mon at least BEST DIRECTOR/BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY.
And Phil, just a personal question do you really think any of the above nominations for Best Supporting Actor are better performance than The Joker? I hate when people try to bring up his death as a justification. It just SUCKS. If you think Robert Downey jr was better than .... the only performance other than Heath Ledger's is that of Hoffman in Doubt.
Am I the only who has trouble differentiating between the awards for Best Picture and Best Director?
To me, if a movie wins Best Picture it should automatically get the nod for Best Director. I mean, a movie - the actual finished product that appear on the screen - is the director's vision. You can judge an actor's performance and the quality of a screenplay, but imo. the only thing you can judge the director on is the movie.
Everything that appear on screen only gets there because the director wants it. He suggests changes to the script, he directs the actors performances, he's involved in the editing, the music etc. so how could anyone award a movie the Best Picture but say...nah, the direction wasn't that great? I just don't get it.
Obviously the screenplay, the acting, the photography, the sets, the wardrobe, the music etc. play a huge part of a movie's success (and with that I mean "Oscar movies" not blockbusters) but all of those things only made the movie good because the director chose to surround himself with the best people and also because he or she made the right decisions.
Down in the hole / Jesus tries to crack a smile / Beneath another shovel load
And Phil, just a personal question do you really think any of the above nominations for Best Supporting Actor are better performance than The Joker? I hate when people try to bring up his death as a justification. It just SUCKS. If you think Robert Downey jr was better than .... the only performance other than Heath Ledger's is that of Hoffman in Doubt.
I didn't see the other movies, so I can't honestly say. I wonder if the die hard Ledger fans, here, have seen all of them.
And the Joker isn't up for best supporting actor. Ledger is. I'm not pointing this out to be a PITA. It just seems to be a mistake I've before. The award isn't for best character; it's for BSA.
Am I the only who has trouble differentiating between the awards for Best Picture and Best Director?
To me, if a movie wins Best Picture it should automatically get the nod for Best Director. I mean, a movie - the actual finished product that appear on the screen - is the director's vision. You can judge an actor's performance and the quality of a screenplay, but imo. the only thing you can judge the director on is the movie.
Everything that appear on screen only gets there because the director wants it. He suggests changes to the script, he directs the actors performances, he's involved in the editing, the music etc. so how could anyone award a movie the Best Picture but say...nah, the direction wasn't that great? I just don't get it.
Obviously the screenplay, the acting, the photography, the sets, the wardrobe, the music etc. play a huge part of a movie's success (and with that I mean "Oscar movies" not blockbusters) but all of those things only made the movie good because the director chose to surround himself with the best people and also because he or she made the right decisions.
It is more for the producers. In the majority of movies that are released each year the Director really is not the man in charge of the creative vision. In most cases it is the producer gets the project off the ground and sometimes spends years pulling it together, they hire the director, writers, actors etc.. And quite often will have the final say on scripts, editing and even how the movie is shot. The best film nod is an opportunity for them to collect an award and share the limelight with the more famous talent who they had working for them.
Of course sometimes the director is the driving force, the lower the budget the more likely. But most of the time the producers make the movie, the director decides how we see things on the screen but the suits decide what we see.
Slumdog Millionaire was not the brainchild of Danny Boyle for instance. Film 4 films read the book and they approached Simon Beufoy to write the screenplay. Then they went looking for a director willing to join the project, Danny Boyle actually turned them down at first until he read the script. He may well win Best Director for his great work but one could argue that the producers at Film 4 were the driving force behind getting the film made and therefore would be deserving of the best picture win. It may well be that Danny Boyle does not win Best Director, maybe David Fincher wins it, but Slumdog could still be best film and I don't think the two are mutually inclusive.
There is a really great book called 'SCREEN PLAYS' by David S. Cohen, It tells the story behind 25 recent movies and details how each script got from initial conception to final draft and the influence the studio's have over every aspect. Really Interesting read, recommend it to anyone.
I realize I haven't seen every movie nominated just for the fun of it, my two cents...
Best Picture Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actor Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon or Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler (can't decide)
Best Actress Meryl Streep - Doubt
Best Supporting Actress Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler
Best Supporting Actor Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight (I honestly think Ledger will and should win. Honestly, It's sort of a slap in the face of the other actors to give the award to someone who isn't even capable of accepting it but the fact is he's nominated and the fact is his performance is the best out of the nominees. I am however happy, not to mention completely blown away, that Robert Downey Jr. was nominated. I think his performance is the best of the living actors nominated).
Best Animated Feature Film Wall-E
Best Adapted Screenplay Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Screenplay In Bruges
...and all the technical stuff should probably go to the Dark Knight.
The thing is, the Best Picture and Best Director awards don't always go to the same film. Here's the winners for the past 15 years.
1993 - Best Picture & Best Director: Schindler's List 1994 - Best Picture & Best Director: Forrest Gump 1995 - Best Picture & Best Director: Braveheart 1996 - Best Picture & Best Director: The English Patient 1997 - Best Picture & Best Director: Titanic 1998 - Best Picture: Shakespeare in Love / Best Director: Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan 1999 - Best Picture & Best Director: American Beauty 2000 - Best Picture: Gladiator / Best Director: Soderbergh for Traffic 2001 - Best Picture & Best Director: A Beautiful Mind 2002 - Best Picture: Chicago / Best Director: Polanski for The Pianist 2003 - Best Picture & Best Director: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 2004 - Best Picture & Best Director: Million Dollar Baby 2005 - Best Picture: Crash / Best Director: Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain 2006 - Best Picture & Best Director: The Departed 2007 - Best Picture & Best Director: No Country for Old Men
4 times, they went to different films. I suppose, of course, this is a question about film authorship. It takes more than one person to make a film. The director isn't the only person responsible for the success. So I don't think it's right to roll the two awards into one. If you're going down that route, why not just dispense with the awards for editing, cinematography, music, and just have one award? The Academy Award for Best Directed and Overall Best Picture, and then have the acting and screenplay awards.
Actually, that might not be such a bad idea - the whole thing wouldn't drag on for hours then...
(P.S. I think Winslet is almost a dead cert for Best Actress. She won twice at the Globes, she's up twice for Best Actress at the BAFTAs, she's won other awards...plus this is her sixth nomination. I think her time has just come to win one of the bloody things!)
Of those four, this one really sticks in my throat:
"2000 - Best Picture: Gladiator / Best Director: Soderbergh for Traffic"
Scott looked gutted and I was gutted for him. There's no way that there was anything so spectacular in the directing of Traffic that it deserved to trump the Best Picture.
You can understand the thinking with something like this:
"1998 - Best Picture: Shakespeare in Love / Best Director: Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan"
Where one is directed in a spectacular fashion, but the other film is considered a more consistent, intelligent film overall.
I didn't see the other movies, so I can't honestly say. I wonder if the die hard Ledger fans, here, have seen all of them.
And the Joker isn't up for best supporting actor. Ledger is. I'm not pointing this out to be a PITA. It just seems to be a mistake I've before. The award isn't for best character; it's for BSA.
Phil
I saw the other movies, Revolutionary Road, Milk, Doubt, Tropic Thunder... and the only actor that might have a chance against Heath Ledger is Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt.
This isn't about being a Heath Ledger fan, this is about being honest with his performance. And Phil I said The Joker, because HE played the Joker if he will win the Oscar he will win because he played that character, you don't win it because you play yourself.
My advice - watch the other movies and make your decision.
I've seen all the performances in the supporting actor category too...Philip Seymour Hoffman was good in Doubt but It was mostly just a screaming and yelling role...Josh Brolin was great in Milk(Emile Hirsh gave a better supporting role in that movie though)...Michael Shannon was...odd...but in a good way, I just wish he was in more of the film, and Robert Downey Jr. was hilarious,the best part about Tropic Thunder but Heath Ledger gave me goosebumps as the Joker, that's why he stands out to me.
Check out my Script:
Feature: "Candy: Inspired by the Houston Mass Murders" Horror, Drama - 15 year old drunkard Wayne Henley gets caught up in procuring his teenage friends for a serial killing psychopath. 117 pages
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