Oscars 2008

[ZapRowsdower]

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

George Clooney for Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen for Eastern Promises

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie for Away from Her
Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose
Laura Linney for The Savages
Ellen Page for Juno

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook for Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There
Ruby Dee for American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan for Atonement
Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton

Best Achievement in Directing

Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood
Ethan Coen; Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men
Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton
Jason Reitman for Juno
Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Juno - Diablo Cody
Lars and the Real Girl - Nancy Oliver
Michael Clayton - Tony Gilroy
Ratatouille - Brad Bird; Jan Pinkava; Jim Capobianco
The Savages - Tamara Jenkins

Best Writing, Screenplay Base on Material Previously Produced or Published

Atonement - Christopher Hampton
Away from Her - Sarah Polley
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Ronald Harwood
No Country for Old Men - Ethan Coen; Joel Coen
There Will Be Blood - Paul Thomas Anderson

Best Achievement in Cinematography

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Roger Deakins
Atonement - Seamus McGarvey
No Country for Old Men - Roger Deakins
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Janusz Kaminski
There Will Be Blood - Robert Elswit

Best Achievement in Editing

The Bourne Ultimatum - Christopher Rouse
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Juliette Welfling
Into the Wild - Jay Cassidy
No Country for Old Men - Ethan Coen; Joel Coen
There Will Be Blood - Dylan Tichenor

Best Achievement in Art Direction

American Gangster - Arthur Max; Beth A. Rubino
Atonement - Sarah Greenwood; Katie Spencer
The Golden Compass - Dennis Gassner; Anna Pinnock
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Dante Ferretti; Francesca Lo Schiavo
There Will Be Blood - Jack Fisk; Jim Erickson

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Across the Universe - Albert Wolsky
Atonement - Jacqueline Durran
Elizabeth: The Golden Age - Alexandra Byrne
La Vie En Rose - Marit Allen
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Colleen Atwood

Best Achievement in Makeup

La Vie En Rose - Didier Lavergne; Jan Archibald
Norbit - Rick Baker; Kazuhiro Tsuji
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Ve Neill; Martin Samuel

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

Atonement - Dario Marianelli
The Kite Runner - Alberto Iglesias
Michael Clayton - James Newton Howard
Ratatouille - Michael Giacchino
3:10 to Yuma - Marco Beltrani

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

August Rush - Nominees to be determined, for "Raise it Up"
Enchanted - Alan Menken; Stephen Schwartz, for "Happy Working Song"
Enchanted - Alan Menken; Stephen Schwartz, for "So Close"
Enchanted - Alan Menken; Stephen Schwartz, for "That's How You Know"
Once - Glen Hansard; Marketa Irglova, for "Falling Slowly"

Best Achievement in Sound

The Bourne Ultimatum - Scott Millan; David Parker; Kirk Francis
No Country for Old Men - Skip Lievsay; Craig Berkey; Greg Orloff; Peter F. Kurland
Ratatouille - Randy Thom; Michael Semanick; Doc Kane
3:10 to Yuma - Paul Massey; David Giammarco; Jim Steube
Transformers - Kevin O'Connell; Greg P. Russell; Peter J. Devlin

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

The Bourne Ultimatum - Karen M. Baker; Per Hallberg
No Country for Old Men - Skip Lievsay
Ratatouille - Randy Thom; Michael Silvers
There Will Be Blood - Matthew Wood
Transformers - Mike Hopkins; Ethan Van Der Ryn

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

The Golden Compass - Michael Fink; Bill Westenhofer; Ben Morris; Trevor Wood
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - John Knoll; Hal T. Hickel; Charlie Gibson; John Frazier
Transformers - Scott Farrar; Scott Benza; Russell Earl; John Frazier

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Persepolis - Vincent Paronnaud; Marjane Satrapi
Ratatouille - Brad Bird
Surf's Up - Ash Brannon; Chris Buck

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

The Counterfeiters - Austria
Beaufort - Israel
Mongol - Kazakhstan
Katyn - Poland
12 - Russia

Best Documentary, Features

No End in Sight (2007) - Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience (2007) - Richard Robbins
Sicko (2007) - Michael Moore, Meghan O'Hara
Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) - Alex Gibney, Eva Orner
War Dance (2007) - Andrea Nix, Sean Fine

Best Documentary, Short Subjects

Freeheld (2007): Cynthia Wade, Vanessa Roth
La Corona (2008): Amanda Micheli, Isabel Vega
Salim Baba (2008): Tim Sternberg, Francisco Bello
Sari's Mother (2006): James Longley

Best Short Film, Animated

Même les pigeons vont au paradis (2007): Samuel Tourneux, Vanesse Simon
I Met the Walrus (2007): Josh Raskin
Madame Tutli-Putli (2007): Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski
My Love (2006) - Aleksandr Petrov
Peter & the Wolf (2006) - Suzie Templeton, Hugh Welchman

Best Short Film, Live Action

Om natten (2007) - Christian E. Christiansen, Louise Vesth
The Substitute (2006) - Andera Jublin
Le Mozart des pickpockets (2006) - Philippe Pollet-Villard
Tanghi argentini (2006): Guy Thys, Anja Daelemans
The Tonto Woman: Daniel Barber, Matthew Brown

[ZapRowsdower]

Personally, I think the writers strike has made everyone in Hollywood insane.

There is NO WAY Michael Clayton deserved a nomination for Best Picture. One of the year's better films? Yes. One of the year's five best? HELL NO. Dude, TRANSFORMERS was more deserving than Michael Clayton. Freakin' TRANSFORMERS.

Other films that would have fit much better than Michael Clayton:

3:10 to Yuma
Gone Baby Gone
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Hairspray
Into the Wild
Sweeney Todd

Also, I don't care WHAT you're nominating it for, "Norbit" and "Best" should never, EVER be used in the same sentence. Besides that, it's not even the best make-up of the year. Have these guys ever seen Hairspray? 300? Sweeney Todd? Come on. That nomination for Norbit is a slap in the face to anyone who cares about film. Same applies for the Golden Compass.

With the Globes, I thought Surf's Up was a more deserving nominee than Bee Movie, but I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking the Simpsons should have been nominated here.

And the nominees for foreign film... I've never heard of any of those. And how, after all those nominations, has the Diving Bell and the Butterfly NOT been nominated for THAT?

[Heineken Skywalker]

After looking over that list of nominees, the first word that comes to mind is "Yawn....".

I've seen "NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN", which was brilliant and completely deserves its nomination and am looking forward to seeing "THERE WILL BE BLOOD", mostly because of Daniel Day-Lewis. "JUNO" looks pretty good, but the others? Meh.
Johnny Depp for best Actor for "SWEENEY TODD"? Really? I think Depp is an amazing actor, but the Academy just seems to be kissing his ass with that nomination. Where were they when he really deserved a nomination for "ED WOOD"? Or hell, even "EDWARD SCISSORHANDS". There he played well-rounded characters and emoted a wide range of emotions, here he sings bad songs in an average voice.

As for "NORBIT" getting a nom for Best Makeup, I haven't seen the actual movie, but from the clips I've seen, Rick Baker's amazing makep is not the reason that movie sucked. In fact, it might be the only reason to see it. Baker is bar none, the best in his field. If you're saying that "HAIRSPRAY" deserved it over "NORBIT" because of Travolta's fat woman makeup then I have to disagree. I thought Travolta gave a good performance and that "HAIRSPRAY" was a really good movie, but his makeup was not really convincing. I thought it looked kind of plastic and creepy. Keep in mind, they're not nominating the actual movie, just Baker's makeup which looks like it completely deserved it, no matter how bad the movie was.

And why would they nominate "THE SIMPSONS MOVIE", an actual moneymaker and crowd pleaser based on a show with millions of fans when they needed to save that spot for "PERSEPOLIS"? Yeah, I've never heard of that one either.

Overall, this list kind of bores me.

[Pulpmariachi]

I've seen bits of Perespolis and it's pretty good.

But Surf's Up over The Simpsons? What?

And then the score...apparently Jonny Greenwood's frightening and haunting and amazing score for "There Will Be Blood" is disqualified because he used parts of another piece he did at times.

Lame list.

[Pulpmariachi]

Go "Golden Compass" for visual effects!

[Heineken Skywalker]

Go Ratatouille for Best Animated Feature and Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men!! ;D

[Pulpmariachi]

Boo for "Atonement"'s musical win.

Boo boo booooooooo.

[Pulpmariachi]

Daniel Day-Lewis.

Well duh! Regardless, yes!

[Pulpmariachi]

Called 'em all. And on the radio too. Though it wasn't like the winners weren't obvious or anything.

[ZapRowsdower]

I call "Bullshit" on the Golden Compass win.

One of the worst-looking films of the year. I mean, if they really hated Michael Bay that much, at least give it to the valid runner-up, Pirates. This was a slap in the face to anyone who cares about movies. What's next, Bratz winning Best Picture? What a disgrace.

And also, Tilda Swinton? Really? OVER Ruby Dee? OVER Cate Blanchett? I'm sorry, but no. Breathing heavily and trying (but failing) to hide your English Accent does NOT make you a great actress.

No real problems anywhere else. I just wish I got to see more of the movies that were nominated.

[ZapRowsdower]

pulpmariachi said:

Boo for "Atonement"'s musical win.

Boo boo booooooooo.

You really didn't like it? I mean, the movie was a disappointment that in my opinion failed to live up to the hype, but I thought the music was fantastic... My second favorite score of the year, next to the unfairly disqualified score for There Will Be Blood. And at least it wasn't Michael Clayton.

[Pulpmariachi]

It was unoriginal, uninspiried, and purely conventional.

Giacchino shoulda had it for "Ratatouille", or the "Yuma" guy, or even "Kite Runner." Come on.

As for "Golden Compass", while I did like that movie, I did think the visual effects were something hokey (that monkey!). I was just laughing that it won. BUT, you have to admit, it did deserve production design and sets. Those were really wonderful looking sets.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Not a big shock, but "YAY!" for the Cohens and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN!

TRANSFORMERS not winning Best Visual Effects was kind of a surprise.

As was BOURNE ULTIMATUM winning three Oscars.

Didn't see either movie, but I thought Cate Blanchett would win for at least one of her nominations.

I wasn't familiar with any of the nominated songs, but after hearing them all performed on stage, I thought to myself that "Falling Slowly" from ONCE was the only one I would probably listen to outside of the movie. It's the only one that felt like a "real" song, if that makes any sense. I thought it was cool of Stewart and the Oscar producers to allow co-writer/performer Marketa Irglova to come back out to make her speech after being played off.

Jon Stewart did a good job as host. His monologue was pretty strong and the bit later where he was watching LAWRENCE OF ARABIA on his iPhone was funny. "But to really appreciate it, you have to watch it in widescreen." as he's turning the phone sideways.

[Pulpmariachi]

I agree. Stewart did a much better job this time than the first. I talked about the phone bit on another Web site, too! And the playing of the Wii. The joke at Clinton. The joke on Iraq documentaries. The joke of Norbit. Allowing the girl to come back on stage. It was a great job.