loonyblog.

Oscar nominations.

So this year's Oscar nominations came out yesterday morning, and while I've been exceptionally busy at work (for reasons that should be more or less obvious to those who follow the news related to that unnamable company I work for), I've had a few moments to look over the list, and as always, I have formed my opinion.

Let's start with the actor categories: I was pleasantly surprised to see Jamie Foxx nominated for both Ray and Collateral. I haven't actually seen Ray (I try to see as few Oscar movies prior to the awards as possible...it throws off my predictions), but I did see Collateral, and thought the acting was top notch. It was nice to see Thomas Haden Church and especially Virginia Madsen nominated for Sideways (which is probably my favorite film of the year, although I've seen so few that I'm really not qualified to make that call), although the snubbing of Paul Giamatti is a real shame here. I was a little disappointed to see Annette Bening nominated for Being Julia, not because I dislike Bening by any means, it's just that particular role seemed a little over-dramatic to be a serious contender. Having said all that, the actress category is really interesting this year, with Bening's old rival Hilary Swank back for a second round, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Imelda Staunton both being serious contenders, and then there's the wild card that is Kate Winslet.

For the screenplay awards, I found myself scratching my head over the nomination of Before Sunset for adapted screenplay. Since when did having a separate story credit qualify as adaptation? It's not like this is an adaptation from a printed story...it's a story written specifically for the movie! Oh well, whatever. At least Sideways was nominated for adapted and The Incredibles for original screenplay.

The documentary category shows itself to be forward-thinking for the third year in a row. The days of the World War II documentary being the easy win seem to be behind us, with Tupac: Resurrection and Super Size Me among the nominees. I was actually surprised that Joe Berlinger's Metalica: Some Kind of Monster was overlooked here.

The others: the music categories are downright sad this year, particularly among the nominees for original song...if either Shrek 2 or Shark Tale wins for animated feature I'll lose faith in humanity...hallelujah for the nominations A Very Long Engagement received...visual effects is unusually tough to call this year, as is the makeup category and the costume category is pretty weak as well, with only one real period piece among the lot (and not a very good one at that).

All in all, not a bad list of nominees. Stay tuned for my full picks as we get closer to Oscar night.

Posted by jason at January 26, 2005 11:01 PM | TrackBack | Read more: Movies , The Oscars