Reactions to the Oscar Nominations

Well the Oscar nominees were announced today and there were definitely some surprises. I’m disappointed that The Dark Knight was not nominated for Best Picture and Nolan for Best Director. The surprise Best Picture nominee has got to be The Reader. I liked the Reader better Than Milk so I’m glad to see it on the list but I predict the winner in this race will be Slumdog Millionaire. I have not seen all five nominees yet, in fact to save a little time down the road I have not Seen 12 of the nominated feature English language fiction films. Most in need of viewing among that 12 are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon. So While I’ll comment on who should win what should have been nominated and what shouldn’t I must admit there are some areas in which I’m not fully informed.

In the “that’s surprising category” Kate Winslet’s nomination for Best Actress instead of Best Supporting Actress for The Reader. It seemed likely that Winslet would be nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Reader and Best Actress for Revolutionary Road. I agree with the Reader’s Lead roll status as she is certainly the main female role in the film, and while she does disappear for long portions so have many other past nominees and winners. Just look at Juliette Binoche’s win for Best Actress in the English Patient, where half the movie is a flashback that doesn’t even involve her. Having seen both Revolutionary Road and The Reader I think the Reader is the better performance as well. Will she win? I hope so, I think her biggest competition will be Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. I’ve seen Doubt and Winslet deserves it over Streep, but I have not seen Rachel Getting Married yet so I cannot say for sure who is deserving between those two, though since when does deserving really come into it.

In the Best Actor Race I think Mickey Rourke has a very strong chance and my guess for his strongest competition is Sean Penn. Heath Ledger has a lock on Best Supporting Actor, as does WALL-E for Best Animated film. The race that seems most up in the air to me is Best Supporting Actress, I’d say that conventional wisdom says the two Doubt nominees will rule each other out, but that thinking has backfired before, I’d say given that small handicap they all still have an excellent chance. Best Director I think will go to Danny Boyle.

Other disappointments would be the lack of any nominations at all for Synecdoche, New York. I thought it would at least get a Original Screenplay nomination or Art Direction. Also in the bad form department is the lack of nominations For the Swedish film Let the Right One In. It’s lack of Foreign Language film nomination is due to it not being the film submitted by Sweden which raises the question maybe the Academy should make these nominations rather than the countries of origin. This is a film that was probably dismissed by it’s country as a genre film not worthy of an Oscar when in reality it is a s deserving of an Oscar as the other overlooked genre film of the year The Dark Knight. Which points out the obvious fact that given the opportunity the Academy probably would have made the same mistake.