81st Academy Awards nominations

The nominations for the 81st Academy Awards were announced this morning, and the following are the Oscar nominees in the major categories.


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
Gus Van Sant, Milk
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon

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 Actor
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

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 Original Screenplay
Frozen River, written by Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky, written by Mike Leigh
In Bruges, written by Martin McDonagh
Milk, written by Dustin Lance Black
Wall-E, screenplay by Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon, original story by Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, screenplay by Eric Roth, screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Doubt, written by John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon, screenplay by Peter Morgan
The Reader, screenplay by David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire, screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

Best Animated Feature Film
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

Best Score
Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
James Newton Howard, Defiance
Danny Elfman, Milk
A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
Thomas Newman, Wall-E

Best Original Song
"Down to Earth", Wall-E, Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman,
Lyric by Peter Gabriel
"Jai Ho", Slumdog Millionaire, Music by A.R. Rahman,
Lyric by Gulzar
"O Saya", Slumdog Millionaire, Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam

Best Art Direction
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Best Cinematography
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Costume Design
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road

Best Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army




The nomination that I'm happiest about is Robert Downey, Jr. as Best Supporting Actor in "Tropic Thunder". He was brilliant in that movie, and I loved the movie in general anyway, but I really didn't think he'd get a nomination for a role like that. Nice to see that they came through!

The non-nomination that I'm most unhappy about is "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" from "Hamlet 2" as Best Original Song. That really was an amazing song, and I would have loved to have seen them perform it on the show. I figured that since "Hamlet 2" got almost no buzz for anything, that would hurt the chances of the song being nominated. You really have to know the movie to know how well that song fits. I was also kind of hoping that "Dracula's Lament" from "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" might be nominated just because it was funny, but that wasn't meant to be either. I am happy that Peter Gabriel was nominated for "Wall-E" though.

Out of the Best Picture nominees, I've only seen one, "Milk". I have zero interest in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", and I don't care about "The Reader". I will probably end up seeing "Frost/Nixon" and "Slumdog Millionaire" in the next month. Those are the only films nominated in categories that I am interested in seeing before the awards are presented.

It's amazing that all four major roles in "Doubt" resulted in nominations for each of the actors. As I'd mentioned in my review, it's definitely a performance piece. I knew Meryl Street would get nominated for "Doubt" rather than "Mamma Mia", so while I'm disappointed, it wasn't surprising. I definitely agree with the nominations of Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married" and Angelina Jolie in "Changeling". Both were stellar performances.

Heath Ledger's Best Supporting Actor nomination in "The Dark Knight" was not unexpected, but it was absolutely well-deserved. I'm a little surprised at the attention being paid to "Milk", with both Sean Penn and Josh Brolin receiving acting nominations (lead and supporting, respectively), but they both did a great job.

I'm pleased that "Wall-E" was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. I didn't expect that. Its nomination for Best Animated Feature Film was definitely expected, but I'm happy that "Bolt" was nominated as well. I'd really like "Wall-E" to win though. So don't care about "Kung Fu Panda".

Nice that Danny Elfman was nominated for Best Original Score for "Milk". In other categories, I'm happy that "Presto" was nominated for Best Animated Short, and I'm really happy that Ben Burtt received two nominations, for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing on "Wall-E".

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" leads the nominations with 13. "Slumdog Millionaire" received 10 nominations, and both "Milk" and "The Dark Knight" received 8 nominations each.

The winners will be announced on Sunday, February 22, 2009.