And the Nominees are...

[Jared]

BEST PICTURE: BABEL, THE DEPARTED, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, THE QUEEN

BEST DIRECTOR: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel,) Martin Scorsese (The Departed,) Clint Eastwood (Letters from Iwo Jima,) Stephen Frears (The Queen) and Paul Greengrass (United 93)...

BEST ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond,) Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson,) Peter O'Toole (Venus,) Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness,) Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

BEST ACTRESS: Penelope Cruz (Volver,) Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal,) Helen Mirren (The Queen,) Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada,) Kate Winslet (Little Children)



Complete list:
http://www.oscars.org/79academyawards/noms.html

[Tobias March]

Go Scorsese!!!

Will Smith is a big, big surprise. But I guess films like that play for the Academy. It would be wonderful if Peter O'Toole won, but it's a long shot. The best actor selection is not great, but I'm hoping Forest Whitaker takes it home. And if Di Caprio were to be nominated for anything this year it should have been the Departed. His scene in the bar over the cranberry juice was hysterical, but also well played.

Babel better not get within spitting distance of winning. Miserabilism for its own sake, ugh.

[HomerJay]

Can someone explain how BORAT was nominated for best adapted screenplay?

[Ontir]

Babel, which is too bleak for Sweden, has got to be the MOST over-rated film, perhaps THIS CENTURY! Pretentious Oscar-bait, which has apparently done its job. A horrible little film, that defies logic, and ultimately left me feeling as if I'd been dunked in an cesspool repeatedly, and for a long period of time.

Borat was adapted from the Ali G Show. Some of the sketches were re-creations.

[Jamal]

And if Di Caprio were to be nominated for anything this year it should have been the Departed.

I believe they count his role in The Departed as a supporting role because of the many lead characters in the film so that why no best actor nomination.

[Tobias March]

I believe they count his role in The Departed as a supporting role because of the many lead characters in the film so that why no best actor nomination.

Ah I see. Well then Matt Damon should have got a nod :)

[Fatguy]

BEST PICTURE: BABEL, THE DEPARTED, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, THE QUEEN

BEST DIRECTOR: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel,) Martin Scorsese (The Departed,) Clint Eastwood (Letters from Iwo Jima,) Stephen Frears (The Queen) and Paul Greengrass (United 93)...

BEST ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond,) Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson,) Peter O'Toole (Venus,) Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness,) Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

BEST ACTRESS: Penelope Cruz (Volver,) Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal,) Helen Mirren (The Queen,) Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada,) Kate Winslet (Little Children)



Complete list:
http://www.oscars.org/79academyawards/noms.html

Man, 2006 was the year of the missed movie for me :o A laundry list of movies I really wanted to see but havent yet. Particularly the Departed, last King of Scotland, and Half Nelson...though I confess to absolutely no desire to see Babel and United 93.

[hoffmandu]

Hmmmm, am I the only who thinks Little Miss isn't worthy of Best Pic?

[Tages]

Ah I see. Well then Matt Damon should have got a nod :)

Not to mention that "Blood Diamond" sucks ass while "The Departed" is a good movie, and DiCaprio's performance in the latter was good. His performance in BD made me wince. For some reason in some movies he can do accents very well (Texan in "The Aviator" and Boston in "The Departed"), whereas in others he's terrible at it ("Gangs of New York"). In "Blood Diamond" I remember one scene where he seamlessly transitioned from South African to Irish to American Southern and back to South African again.

In the same sentence.

[JohnPopa]

I think it's a solid list overall (haven't seen 'The Queen' though.) I'd have like to have seen Del Toro get a director's nod and some love thrown to 'Children of Men' but, all things considered, I think they got a lot right this year.

I'm on the fence about 'Little Miss Sunshine,' I certainly enjoyed the movie but I worry that giving it an Oscar nomination is going to make people watch it expecting something bigger and far different than it actually is and then resenting it for not meeting those expectations.

[Legato]

Hmmmm, am I the only who thinks Little Miss isn't worthy of Best Pic?

No your not.

IMO The Departed deserves the Oscar for Best Pic because that was a really good movie.


Im rooting for either Martin Scorsese or Eastwood for Best Director.

I like for Leo to win but I wont be surprised if Will Smith wins the award for best actor.

[cactusmaac]

Departed

Scorcese

Whitaker

Mirren

[Ontir]

I've not yet seen Letters From Iwo Jima, and I loved Little Miss Sunshine, but I have to go with the Queen, which was the best of the films nominated. By no means the best film to come out last year, but the best of the films nominated!

The best films I saw last year, were a Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, the History Boys, and Brothers of the Head.

[The Foreigner]

This is a great year for the Oscars. I'm a little surprised about the inclusion of "Little Miss Sunshine" as a Best Picture nominee (Loved the movie, but I never guessed it'd be nominated).

I have to mention that "West Bank Story," nominated for best live action short film was one that I saw at Sundance last year; a friend of mine was the director of photography. It's a musical parody and it's quite excellent.

[Tages]

"Little Miss Sunshine" isn't winning Best Pic. No director nom, no editing nom. The only reasons it has the Best Pic nom is because of the massive critical acclaim, PGA Award, and Fox's Miramaxish Oscar push. It's the perfect movie that gets nominations but no actual wins (except possibly Screenplay, but there it's tussling with three other Best Pic nominees).

"The Queen" is made on Mirren's performance. Mirren is in the same position that Julia Roberts was in for "Erin Brockovich" six years ago: if she loses it will be one of the biggest upsets in the last decade. It's as close to a lock as any of the main races have, but Mirren's performance has overshadowed the film itself.

"Letters From Iwo Jima" has that Eastwood charm and more critics' circle awards than any of the other four contenders, and "Babel" has the political relevance and the Globe. But are the older, more conservative voters really going to give the statue to a movie with all those subtitles? Plus, as noted above, "Babel" has the omniscient sense of gloom coating every single scene up to the end.

Which leaves one contender. "The Departed" has the ensemble cast (which the SAG likes), it's a big studio release (producers like that one), and at this point anyone who doesn't think that it's a crime against humanity that not a single Scorsese pic has ever won the big prize is marginalized to hell. Yes, it's about twenty minutes too long, Nicholson could have reined it in a bit more, and it's certainly weaker than Scorsese's best work. But now that "Dreamgirls" was shut out of the race, to the Academy, this is going to look like the best movie of the five.

[Tages]

Departed

Scorcese

Whitaker

Mirren

Are those your picks, or your predictions?

[Ontir]

"Letters"
Eastwood
O'Toole
Mirren

That's who I think is going to win. The Academy is old, and this year, there are a bunch of films that most of them will have seen, so the ballots won't be handed to their grandkids, as usual.

[Tages]

Not many in the Screen Actors Guild, the largest guild by far and the only reason "Crash" won last year, are going to go for "Letters." There's only one actor in that who is widely known in , and Watanabe is still known as "That Guy from Last Samurai."

And when was the last time a foreign language pic won?

[Serik]

Holy crap Little Miss Sunshine for best picture!? That's awesome.

But to be honest, this is the second Academy Awards in a row I don't really care about...

[Ontir]

"Letters" is about World War II. World War II tends to get academic attention, they love Eastwood, and while "Flags" might not have been nominated, they'll be voting for that AND "Letters."

[Tages]

I remember about eight years ago another WWII pic that was getting a lot of attention come this time too.

I can't see "The Departed" losing. I don't know which of the five I like best since I haven't seen "The Queen" or "Letters" yet.

[Ontir]

I really liked "the Departed," but there's a lot of resistance to it. Something about Scorcese not owning up to it being a re-make, or something, and also there's just a lot of resistance to him in LA, in general. I think he's seen as "too New York," and "not one of us..."

I'm blanking, what was the World War II film 8 years ago?

[Loren]

I'm blanking, what was the World War II film 8 years ago?

"Saving Private Ryan."

Which ended up losing to the classic "Shakespeare in Love."

[J. Robb]

I'm happy "Little Miss Sunshine" got nominated. Fun, fairly lightweight comedies like that usually get ignored, which I don't think is fair. It's just as hard to make people smile and feel good watching a movie as it is to make them feel sad or angry. Maybe harder.

I also think it's cool that Mark Wahlberg got nominated for "The Departed". I wasn't that impressed with the movie overall, but I thought Wahlberg was awesome. I think he may even win.

[KenK]

If They had to give Little Miss Sunshine recognition for acting, I would have preferred the supporting actor nod having gone to Steve Carrell. I think he did more with his character than anyone else in the film. His scenes with Greg Kinear are fantastic. And him and the son finally opening up to one another really hold things together for me, personally, in the third act.

As for the Best Picture nomination, it should have gone to Pan's Labyrinth. A far better film that worked as a fantasy and a deeply-moving drama. The quirky dramedy of Little Miss Sunshine has gotten old at the Oscars.

[J. Robb]

"Saving Private Ryan."

Which ended up losing to the classic "Shakespeare in Love."
But it totally should have lost to the other WWII (kind of) movie, "Life is Beautiful".

Best. Movie. Ever.

[Tages]

I really liked "the Departed," but there's a lot of resistance to it. Something about Scorcese not owning up to it being a re-make, or something, and also there's just a lot of resistance to him in LA, in general. I think he's seen as "too New York," and "not one of us..."

Well, to be fair he hasn't gone on record and said he hates LA like Woody Allen has.

Scorsese has said it's a remake, though he didn't know that until after he'd read the script and agreed to do it.

The one danger "The Departed" has is Hollywood Pride kicking in and refusing to declare that a remake of a *shudder* foreign film was the best movie of 2006.

[hoffmandu]

SUnshine is good, worht a watch, but not great by any means. Given a year, it'll drop from film memory forever IMHO. However, Arkin will win Best Supporting for it, that I declare right now.........all you guys are witnesses, I called it.

[Ontir]

"Saving Private Ryan."

Which ended up losing to the classic "Shakespeare in Love."

Oh yeah... Of course, "Ryan" sucked, so that was deserved. Still, I wouldn't have given it to "Shakespear," either.

The thing about Woody Allen, is that he IS New York to many people, and even though he's said he hates LA, his character, real or not, has always been seen as one who would hate anyplace other than Manhattan. Scorcese is far more working class, Italian, outer-borroughs, and people around here don't seem to know what to make of him. I'm not saying I understand, or agree with it, but that's what I hear.

[Armless Penguin]

The lack of the two key nominations (Director/Picture) for Dreamgirls was a pleasant surprise--a decent movie made out to be much better than it actually was.

On that note, I'm feeling as though Babel might be this year's Crash--an overall good film that steals the Oscar from some other, more worthy film. Though I do feel that Iñárritu's effort was superior to that of Haggis, its best moments were with Barraza and Kikuchi, whose nominations were well deserved. Though the lack of Brad Pitt for Supporting Actor mystifies me.

Little Miss Sunshine was a very enjoyable film whose success with the general public almost assured its inclusion. Truth be told, I'm rather happy to see it there. It may not have been one of the technically best films of the year, but watching it was certainly one of the best film-going experiences I had this year.

Both Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men were, however, arguably more deserving of Babel's and Little Miss Sunshine's places.

Gosling's nomination for Half-Nelson made me giddy. His performance was electrifying, certainly on par with O'Toole and Whitaker, and after the Golden Globes looked him over, I certainly did not expect to see his name here.

DiCaprio for Blood Diamond? Really? A good performance in a mediocre film when his part in The Departed was much, much better? Even so, he wasn't the best in that film (as a lead, I feel Damon was more riveting), so I'm surprised to see Wahlberg as the film's only acting nod. I guess they favored him over Nicholson, who certainly has had his lion's share of nominations. Good for Wahlberg.

One final point before I move on: no love for Volver in Foreign Language? Strange, though I suppose that means Pan's Labyrinth will be walking away (hopefully!) with the Oscar.

[Tages]

Oh yeah... Of course, "Ryan" sucked, so that was deserved. Still, I wouldn't have given it to "Shakespear," either.

That's what I used to think, until Owen Gleiberman's review made me change my mind. Normally I hate Gleiberman's reviewing style, but the way he talked about SPR made me give it a second look.

Now I consider it far superior to "Shakespeare."

The thing about Woody Allen, is that he IS New York to many people, and even though he's said he hates LA, his character, real or not, has always been seen as one who would hate anyplace other than Manhattan. Scorcese is far more working class, Italian, outer-borroughs, and people around here don't seem to know what to make of him. I'm not saying I understand, or agree with it, but that's what I hear.

The one thing that always struck me about many Angelenos was how incredibly insular LA is for an international city. That's part of the reason, I think, that "Crash" won last year.

"Wyoming? I think I've been there, it's by San Bernadino, right?"

[Michael P]

So, "Dreamgirls" was the only movie with music in it last year?

[cactusmaac]

Are those your picks, or your predictions?

Predictions. Scorcese and Mirren are overdue and Whitaker put on the kind of acclaimed acting performance Academy members go for.

[ambush bug]

I could rant and rave about Leo's acting in BD beat the Departed, I won't. I thought it was great Alan Arkin got some recingnition after 40 years. Anybody else thought it was strange there were nods for Pirates of the caribbean 2,Click and Superman returns? But,where's Ben Affleck for Hollywoodland? I though he was amazing in that,same with Jaden Smith for the Pursuit of Happyness. Although it would have been AMAZING if Sacha Boron Cohen would have gooten a nod for Borat!

[EZMOHR]

This year feels like a "Throw Me a Bone Year."

What exactly does that mean? It means, there wasn't a head above shoulders great movie this year....so the academy decided to, "throw a bone" to people and their different tastes in movies.

Was Pan's Labryinth a great movie? Boy, it sure does sound like it. But the academy sure as heck wasn't gonna let it be up for Best Picture. So, how do you appease the fans? Put it up for Best Foreign Picture, where it just seems like it is gonna be a shoe in to win Best Foreign Picture.

And as the academy, you don't want Sascha Baron Cohen showing up too screw up one of your bread and butter awards, Best Actor. So what do you do for a performance that sounds like it might be the best comedic performance ever in a movie? You give him a chance to win the Best Adapted Screenplay Award, cause honestly, if he starts being Borat during that acceptance speech, you can just cut away.

So, it just seems the Academy tried to get a lot of different movies a chance to win something in different catagories.

[Cam63]

Whittaker, Mirren, Hudson and Murphy ( maybe Arkin ) are certs for their roles.

Best Film will probably be Babel with The Departed and Letters From Iwo Jimo close behind.

Scorsese or Eastwood will pick up best director.

[Atom_basher]

im not at all a person who likes musicals but Dreamgirls was subbed hardcore, while i loved LMS dreamgirls was the better film.

[Tages]

If anyone but Scorsese wins Director on Oscar night, the first words of the acceptance speech had better be "Are you people fuckin' stupid?"

[Jared]

Little Miss Sunshine is the only one of the Best Pictures nominees that I've seen yet. Fortunatly, The Departed should hang around some theaters for a while now.

[Tages]

Little Miss Sunshine is the only one of the Best Pictures nominees that I've seen yet. Fortunatly, The Departed should hang around some theaters for a while now.

It's getting a rerelease.

[J. Robb]

If anyone but Scorsese wins Director on Oscar night, the first words of the acceptance speech had better be "Are you people fuckin' stupid?"
I think that was already established in 1990 when he was beat by Kevin Costner.