Oscar Nominations Announced

Oscar, originally uploaded by MertWindu.

UPDATE: I've now caught up on pretty much all the movies I'm going to get to in time for Oscar Night. If I happen to catch Munich and it affects any of my picks, I'll update again, but that's going to be tough since I live on Mars. Updated picks bold and italic, updated remarks bold.

The nominations for the 2006 Oscars are out, so I thought I'd post my picks. Hah, beat you to it Jim, this is the benefit of staying up until dawn!!!! (Wait, that's not something to be proud of. Nevermind). Three disclaimers: I have to catch up on a whole lot of movies, so I reserve the right to change my picks. In fact, I think I'll probably plan on redoing them right before the big night, might be interesting to see how things have changed. Two, I have not seen any of the films in several categories. I opted not to guess on any of those until I get a chance to put some effort into seeing those movies. Three, these are the films I would like to see win awards, not the ones I think will. Until I see a few more of the nominees, I'm going to hold off on the want/will distinctions. My picks are in bold.

Best Picture:
"Brokeback Mountain"
"Capote"
"Crash"
"Good Night, and Good Luck"
"Munich"
I've now seen four of the five Picture nominees (minus Munich), and while my pick remains the same, my thoughts are a little different on what may happen. I think that this category could be whittled down to Capote, Crash, and Good Night, and Good Luck. That's not to say that Brokeback and Munich don't belong there, but I feel Brokeback's a small step below the three I just mentioned, and from what I'm hearing about Munich, it's just a little too inconsistent in its effect to win. I'll be reviewing Brokeback, Capote, and GN&GL above shortly, but to put it briefly, they are three of the most complicated movies I've ever seen - Brokeback in an emotional sense, and Capote and GN&GL in an intellectual sense. Bruce thinks Brokeback is going to grab the Academy because of its theme of forbidden love, and I'm worried it's going to grab the Academy simply so the Academy can thumb its nose at conservative America. It's sort of contradictory I guess, but if gay relationships were less controversial, I'd be happier with Brokeback winning. But I'll hold off on the rest of my thoughts until after the Awards, since there's no point wasting more words on what might not happen. For what it's worth, Ebert picked Crash too.

Actor:
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Capote"
Terrence Howard, "Hustle & Flow"
Heath Ledger, "Brokeback Mountain"
Joaquin Phoenix, "Walk the Line"
David Strathairn, "Good Night, and Good Luck."
Honestly, I could see myself changing this pick before the Oscars, and that's kind of amazing for me to think about, considering how much I loved Joaquin. I think the thing that's keeping him bolded here is the fact that he did his own singing in the film, as well as guitar playing. But after seeing Strathairn, I'm nowhere near positive about it.

Actress:
Judi Dench, "Mrs. Henderson Presents"
Felicity Huffman, "Transamerica"
Keira Knightley, "Pride & Prejudice"
Charlize Theron, "North Country"
Reese Witherspoon, "Walk the Line"
Reese was unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. Even better than Joaquin, I felt. The only other nominee I plan to see before Oscar time is North Country, so I'm betting this pick won't change.

Supporting Actor:
George Clooney, "Syriana"
Matt Dillon, "Crash"
Paul Giamatti, "Cinderella Man"
Jake Gyllenhaal, "Brokeback Mountain"
William Hurt, "A History of Violence"
I can finally make a pick here, but it's still not easy. Having seen the whole group, I'm going to go with Clooney, but I'm fine with any of the first four getting the nod. I think the Academy screwed up on this category. The fifth nominee is the right movie (History of Violence), but the wrong guy. Ed Harris might not have been better than Clooney, Dillon, Giamatti, or Gyllenhaal, but he was definitely better (and more important) than Hurt.

Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams, "Junebug"
Catherine Keener, "Capote"
Frances McDormand, "North Country"
Rachel Weisz, "The Constant Gardener"
Michelle Williams, "Brokeback Mountain"
Everyone is loving Williams here, and I can see why. But I feel like her performance was a little one-dimensional. She went from content to angry, and that was about it. Meanwhile, Keener made me want to learn more about Harper Lee, and to read "To Kill a Mockingbird" again, without the restraints of youth and a book report deadline. That's saying something.

Director:
Ang Lee, "Brokeback Mountain"
Bennett Miller, "Capote"
Paul Haggis, "Crash"
George Clooney, "Good Night, and Good Luck."
Steven Spielberg, "Munich"
My upcoming review will explain it a little more, but Clooney managed to turn what could have been a dull history picture and made it riveting. When I checked my cellphone's clock after I got out, I was absolutely stunned to find that the movie was nearly two hours long. As you can probably guess, though, I'd love for Haggis to get the nod here. He did a terrific job as well. I just think Clooney needs to be rewarded for his efforts, and since his work as Fred Friendly wasn't quite prolific enough to earn a supporting nod, I'm giving it to him here.

Foreign Film:
"Don't Tell," Italy
"Joyeux Noel," France
"Paradise Now," Palestine
"Sophie Scholl - The Final Days," Germany
"Tsotsi," South Africa.
I'm picking Tsotsi because I think it could end up being my first favorite movie of 2006, once it comes out. Joyeux Noel looks very good too.

Adapted Screenplay:
Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana, "Brokeback Mountain"
Dan Futterman, "Capote"
Jeffrey Caine, "The Constant Gardener"
Josh Olson, "A History of Violence"
Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, "Munich"
Now that I've caught up, I can make a decision here. Brokeback was very good, just very, very well-spun. But the methodical and mesmerizing pacing of Capote owes to the intricate work of Futterman. If Capote or Brokeback win best picture, then it ought to win screenplay too, because the quality of both movies was so heavily based on the writing.

Original Screenplay:
Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco, "Crash"
George Clooney & Grant Heslov, "Good Night, and Good Luck"
Woody Allen, "Match Point"
Noah Baumbach, "The Squid and the Whale"
Stephen Gaghan, "Syriana"
I just can't decide. I really can't. They're both so tremendous. GN&GL has some Murrow broadcasts to go on, so maybe that should be a knock against it for this category (Murrow's direct attack on McCarthy is just amazing, but it obviously wasn't original. Should that matter?)

Animated Feature Film:
"Howl's Moving Castle"
Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride"
"Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"
I'm hoping for W&G: TCotWR here, but I haven't seen any of them yet, so I won't pick.

Art Direction:
"Good Night, and Good Luck."
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
"King Kong"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"Pride & Prejudice"
The monkey movie simply HAS to win this category (as well as the other one I picked it for). If the Academy doesn't pick it, P. Jackson needs to sit them all down and make them watch his serialized production diaries from the kongisking.net website, so they can see what went into the visuals.

Cinematography:
"Batman Begins"
"Brokeback Mountain"
"Good Night, and Good Luck."
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"The New World"
I read that GN&GL was filmed in color on a grayscale set. That really helped, because despite the lack of color, the film, the visuals, just stand out in this incredible way. And some of the framing tricks (which I know are considered more gimmicks than award-winning traits) do such a great job in making us focus on who we're supposed to focus on.

Sound Mixing:
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
"King Kong"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"Walk the Line"
"War of the Worlds"
I wanted to go with the Ape here, but among the great things about Walk the Line is the pure experience of music found within. It's like a concert film, wrapped up inside a biopic. In fact, that's almost exactly what it is. Got me to blow a whole bunch of money on Cash albums, that's for sure.

Sound Editing:
"King Kong"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"War of the Worlds"
No-brainer here. War of the Worlds had neat sound work, but not Oscar-level sound work. Sorry Tommy and Steve, but WOTW has no business winning any Academy Awards.

Original Score:
"Brokeback Mountain," Gustavo Santaolalla
"The Constant Gardener," Alberto Iglesias
"Memoirs of a Geisha," John Williams
"Munich," John Williams
"Pride & Prejudice," Dario Marianelli
Really beautiful work, such a great base of emotion upon which to put the film.

Original Song:
"In the Deep" from "Crash," Kathleen 'Bird' York and Michael Becker
"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow," Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard
"Travelin' Thru" from "Transamerica," Dolly Parton
A heartbreaking song from one of my favorites of 2005. I'll be pretty angry if it doesn't win.

Costume:
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"Mrs. Henderson Presents"
"Pride & Prejudice"
"Walk the Line"
I've actually only seen Walk the Line, but I can already tell that Memoirs is going to be the favorite here. Seems like a no-brainer, but we'll see.

Documentary Feature:
"Darwin's Nightmare"
"Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"
"March of the Penguins"
"Murderball"
"Street Fight"
Penguins is the only one I've seen, but I liked it a lot. I'll admit, though, that I have no idea how to pick the best doc, so this isn't exactly the pick I'd put money on.

Documentary (short subject):
"The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club"
"God Sleeps in Rwanda"
"The Mushroom Club"
"A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin"
Haven't seen any.

Film Editing:
"Cinderella Man"
"The Constant Gardener"
"Crash"
"Munich"
"Walk the Line"
I hated picking against Walk the Line and Cinderella Man, and frankly I'm betting Cinderella Man wins it. This pick might change when I get a little more perspective, but the reason I went with this is that Crash manages to pull off many different stories without shortchanging them or dragging (like I feel, unfortunately, Magnolia did at times).

Makeup:
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
"Cinderella Man"
"Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith"
No real superstars here, because I think we've pretty much seen everything we got in SW III before. But it was still well done, and helped put us in that universe. Hell, the job they did with Palpatine/Sidious is enough to garner the award here.

Animated Short Film:
"Badgered"
"The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation"
"The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello"
"9"
"One Man Band"
You know what I hate? These shorts are what, five, 10 minutes in length? Why in the hell don't they cut out some of the B.S. from the ceremony and show them instead? I mean, seriously!

Live Action Short Film:
"Ausreisser (The Runaway)"
"Cashback"
"The Last Farm"
"Our Time Is Up"
"Six Shooter"
Same deal here, or hell, make these two awards the first of the show, and then show the winner sometime later on. Wouldn't be that hard.

Visual Effects:
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
"King Kong"
"War of the Worlds"
Again, the Monkey Movie's gotta win here. I haven't seen Narnia, but it looked like it was full of the run-of-the-mill visual effects we've come to be spoiled with in the digital age. Also, Kong went above and beyond the sense that you were watching graphics. I was saying to Bruce a few weeks back that I remember a scene with Ann and Kong on the cliff on Skull Island, and I was looking at Kong's nose, admiring the way the sun glinted off his skin. And at some point, I completely forgot that it was artwork. I was just examining the leathery skin for the sake of examining it, not to appreciate the quality of the CG. That's why the film absolutely HAS to win this. It's a damn crime if it doesn't.