Defamer
Hollywood's Christmas Morning is finally here, the time when eager Oscar hopefuls rise at an obscenely early hour, rush downstairs in their footie pajamas, and hope to find the previous year's good career behavior validated with lovingly wrapped awards nominations left under the Academy's gilded tree; those deemed good enough for recognition spend the day fielding phone calls from the media, who ask difficult questions about how it feels to be on the receiving end of the golden shower of adoration offered by one's peers (invariably, it feels good! And it's an honor just to be nominated!), while the snubbed quickly retreat back up the stairs to their bedrooms, where they self-medicate their soul-crushing disappointment by swallowing handfuls of prescription painkillers, sobbing through their publicist's assurances that they're still so very, very pretty, and that in this day of the YouTubes, no one watches the Oscars anyway.
This morning, the formerly frontrunning Dreamgirls crew is caught somewhere between elation and the sweet release of barbiturate overdose, as their film led the nominations with eight, but was shut out in the Best Picture, Best Director, and lead actor categories; somewhere on their Melrose lot, Paramount and DreamWorks publicists are staring at a ringing phone, wondering whether to pick it up and emphasize the positives of their eight nods and that their boss, studio emperor Brad Grey, is happy that he's been released from the uncomfortable position of having equally beloved films facing off in the big races, or to let the calls roll into voicemail as they somberly march outside and drown themselves in the nearby fountain in the ultimate act of failed For Your Consideration self-nullification.
In other notable developments: your nominees for The Big One are The Departed, Babel, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen, and Letters from Iwo Jima; Babel received seven nominations; Martin Scorsese gets another shot at the cruelly elusive Best Director prize; our beloved, criminally overlooked Children of Men got three bids; Leonardo DiCaprio avoided another doomed Golden Globes-style showdown with himself by landing just one Best Actor nod; Borat snuck in to the Best Adapted Screenplay race; Ryan Gosling's crackhead teacher and Jackie Earle Haley's child-molester performance were recognized in the lead and supporting categories, respectively; and the producers of Best Picture nominees The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine are sweating as the Academy sorts out who will get the chance the have their acceptance speech interrupted by the orchestra as the ceremony creeps toward the four-hour mark.
A partial list of nominees (i.e., the categories you care about) is after the jump:
Best motion picture of the year
"Babel" (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
"The Departed" (Warner Bros.)
"Letters from Iwo Jima" (Warner Bros.)
"Little Miss Sunshine" (Fox Searchlight)
"The Queen" (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)
Achievement in directing
"Babel" (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Alejandro González Iñárritu
"The Departed" (Warner Bros.) Martin Scorsese
"Letters from Iwo Jima" (Warner Bros.) Clint Eastwood
"The Queen" (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Stephen Frears
"United 93" (Universal and StudioCanal) Paul Greengrass
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Leonardo DiCaprio in "Blood Diamond" (Warner Bros.)
Ryan Gosling in "Half Nelson" (THINKFilm)
Peter O'Toole in "Venus" (Miramax, Filmfour and UK Council)
Will Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness" (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Forest Whitaker in "The Last King of Scotland" (Fox Searchlight)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Penélope Cruz in "Volver" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Judi Dench in "Notes on a Scandal" (Fox Searchlight)
Helen Mirren in "The Queen" (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)
Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada" (20th Century Fox)
Kate Winslet in "Little Children" (New Line)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Alan Arkin in "Little Miss Sunshine" (Fox Searchlight)
Jackie Earle Haley in "Little Children" (New Line)
Djimon Hounsou in "Blood Diamond" (Warner Bros.)
Eddie Murphy in "Dreamgirls" (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Mark Wahlberg in "The Departed" (Warner Bros.)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Adriana Barraza in "Babel" (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
Cate Blanchett in "Notes on a Scandal" (Fox Searchlight)
Abigail Breslin in "Little Miss Sunshine" (Fox Searchlight)
Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls" (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Rinko Kikuchi in "Babel" (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
Adapted screenplay
"Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" (20th Century Fox)
Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Peter Baynham & Dan Mazer
Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Peter Baynham & Anthony Hines & Todd Phillips
"Children of Men" (Universal)
Screenplay by Alfonso Cuarón & Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby
"The Departed" (Warner Bros.)
Screenplay by William Monahan
"Little Children" (New Line)
Screenplay by Todd Field & Tom Perrotta
"Notes on a Scandal" (Fox Searchlight)
Screenplay by Patrick Marber
Original screenplay
"Babel" (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
Written by Guillermo Arriaga
"Letters from Iwo Jima" (Warner Bros.)
Screenplay by Iris Yamashita
Story by Iris Yamashita & Paul Haggis
"Little Miss Sunshine" (Fox Searchlight)
Written by Michael Arndt
"Pan's Labyrinth" (Picturehouse)
Written by Guillermo del Toro
"The Queen" (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)
Written by Peter Morgan
[Photo: Getty Images]
- Nominations List [Oscars.org]
- Oscar nominations unveiled [The Envelope]
- Academy Award nominations [Variety]
- 'Dreamgirls' leads Oscar noms, misses best picture [THR]
- 'Dreamgirls' Picks Up Most Oscar Nods [AP]
Comments
"Little Miss Sunshine"?? Seriously? WTF? Don't get me wrong, it was very cute and all but, seriously, wtf?
Given this, "Thank You For Smoking" got screwed.
The Academy sure does love the ladies with foreign accents.
Little Miss Sunshine is about as fresh and original as an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond".
Helen Mirren in footy pj'. YUM!
Ok and I know that we don't have the full list, but peruse the best makeup nominees ... people made up like an ancient race on the brink of extinction, check ....crazy alice in wonderland, salvador dali type stuff, check ... CLICK? Um no, seriously, CLICK!!!
I know Mintz, I feel the same way. I adore Little Miss Sunshine, but a nom over Dreamgirls is crazy.
Oh, and Mark Wahlborg, if he was going to be nominated for anything, should have been for Invincible.
Quick! Name more than three people that saw, Letters from Iwo Jima!
While I'm stoked that Ryan Gosling got a nod for "Half Nelson," I'm seriously annoyed that "Children of Men" got nothing but a best adapted screenplay nomination. Seriously, man, that was on of the best movies I've seen in years. No best director nomination? No best actor? None of it? Gah!
See, I thought "Little Miss Sunshine" was very funny and wonderfully acted, while I spent most of "Dreamgirls" thinking that there was no reason a movie with this much talent and that much music should drag so badly. But mileage will vary.
My main question about all of this is what the hell happened to Salma Hayek's hair. And her dress. It's like she aged 30 years and gained 20 pounds since the Golden Globes. Maybe this is her version of bedhead?
I was seriously pulling for Marilyn Hack.
Kerry, Children of Men also got nommed for Best Cinematography, which it better effin win OR ELSE!
I'll take more movies like "Little Miss Sunshine" any day of the week. Especially if no one ever makes anything like Babel ever again. Slow, pointless, and indifferent, where do I sign up?
And where in the fuck is Jack's nomination?
Salma Hayek? That picture looks like Suzanne Pleshette.
Man I was thinking...damn "Jima" for best pic? Wait. Who'd it push out to get in? hmm....babel's there, the queen, dreamgi-holy fuck dreamgirls got snubbed! That seriously made my morning - if only because we'll get to hear Beyonce's dad whine again.
I don't think little miss sunshine is a suprise, it's the overrated, under funded, 'deep' comedy...don't we have one of these every year?
And the award for most pervasive promotional campaign goes to Fox Searchlight for hawking that yellow school bus for 6 months. Your prize is a Best Picture nom.
jordo- Jack spent the 2 1/2 hours of the Departed being Wacky Jack, there was not a shred of acting in that performance.
Wait....that's not....OMG...It IS Salma Hayek.
I didn't recognize her without her tits being pushed up somewhere around her chin.
What are the odds that two different guys named "Guillermo" would ever be nominated concurrently in a category other than "Best Foreign Language Film"?
to reiterate, where is jack nicholson in the best actor category?
leo got the right nomination, but for the wrong movie.
everyone quit whining about "little miss"...it worked on many more levels than "babel" and of course was not as terminally depressing as the forever *overlooked* "children of men."
and "dreamgirls" not being nominated confirms there is a god, kind of like the outcome of tonight's state of the union address.
finally, paul greengrass for best director? please.
just give it to scorcese and let's settle up on this one once and for all.
Jack Nicholson's nomination is where it belongs: in the imagination. Seriously, that was the one thing virtually every critic/viewer I talked to hated about "The Departed" -- Jack hamming it up like crazy. The fact that the Academy didn't drool all over that is yet another sign of this year's surprising nominations sanity.
Finally, Jackie Earle Haley for best supporting. He was totally robbed for "Losin' It".
Little Miss Sunshine : Best Picture :: Borat : Foreign Language Film
I finally saw "Notes on a Scandal" this weekend...and holy fucking shit its amazing. I hate to say it, but my Oscar fav is Judi Dench's crazy lesbian school marm over Helen Miren's rack.
...and speaking of lesbians, its awesome that Melissa Ethride was nominated for best Song; however, I thought they limited the number of song noms to 3 and this year there are 5 (three of which are from Dreamgirls).
Here's one from left field, but I really thought there would have been something for A Prairie Home Companion. Especially when they could have still nominated Meryl. More laughs in a movie about death than there were in Devil Wears Prada... plus I didn't have to look at Adrian Grenier's chronic case of Unshaved Camryn Manheim Face in the Altman movie.
At least an award for the person who put the cerlox-bound Johnson Sisters Cookbook in the corner of the shot in the balcony bar.
Y'all remember him, right? Altman, Robert Altman.
Sigh.
Leonardo di Caprio's South African accent is about as convincing as Madonna's 'English' one. Brutal.
And yeah, Little Miss Sunshine - wtf?
Anyone who thinks Little Miss Sunshine is "deep" and works on "many levels" needs to see it again while sober.
I didn't realize people still cared about Oscar nominations in the post-Crash world. I just think of it as that really big fashion show where there will be at least one totally hot guy reading off some names, but probably not more than two totally hot guys.
OK, Salma Hayek looks bad, but Harrison Ford looks like he's cleaning up his act a little.
little ms. sunshine = indie movie by numbers. yaawwwwn.
children of men = genius.
BORAT had a script???!!!
"Post-Crash"?
Gen X, that's only the most recent example I can think of. The Oscars, like most other big award shows, are celebrations of commercial achievement, with the occasional nod to artistic merit.
That's Harrison Ford? I thought it was Clint Eastwood...
Little Miss Sunshine deserved a nomination if only for making Steve Carell look so damn hawt!
What in the Fuck Fuck Fuck?? Little Miss Sunshine? This nomination will only encourage more posery. No indie qualification here - It's a very shitty film. Hey, How about a Life achievment award to Robert Osborne for those great three-minutes intros.
Does anyone else think that the older Harrison Ford gets, the more he looks like Brian Doyle-Murray from Groundhog Day?
Oh, and never mind the whimsicle irony of Selma Hayek's stylist making her up to look exactly like a Groundhog.
Little Miss Sunshine is so overrated. All we can hope for, and look forward to, is Abigail Breslin's next performance in Hounddog II...
Forest Whitaker for the win.
And the Special Academcy Recognition of Sexiest Bunching of Jaw Muscles Oscar goes to... Clive Owen. (See also: The Croupier.)
I was wondering about A Prairie Home Companion too. If The Devil Wears Prada wouldn't have come out at the same time, I think Meryl would have gotten nominated for APHC. Also, I would think they would give Bob Altman a nom for best director, because he died and all. That's usually how it works. Perhaps there are so many good directors this year that the nod to Bob wasn't possible, in light of the fact that he got his lifetime achivement award last year? I thought maybe Bill Condin would at least get in- directing a musical is hard, yo. I guess the question is moot anyway- that Oscar is going to Marty Scorsese.
If the Director goes to Scorsese, I can live with the karmic balance. Directing Meryl in Prada? "Ms. Streep, just be the bitchiest you can possibly be. Action!" Maybe it was just me, but that movie was just so Not Very Good. Ugly Betty is much more fun, frankly.
Garrison Keilor adapts his own story as a screenplay. And Borat's 4 writers gets an adapted nomination. For a slightly relocated 90 minute Polish/Newfie/Redneck joke. I share the shock, readsforaliving.
Keillor didn't write it by himself, Ken Lezebnik (or something like that) adapted the story for a screenplay. But your point is right on. Borat was basically a betterand longer episode of "Punked", as far as writing goes.
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