80th Academy Award Nominees

The nominees, with scores and comments:

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Score: 4/5. Predicted Into the Wild instead of Michael Clayton. But it was my alternate. This is just one of the many snubs for Into the Wild. Glad to see Atonement here. I never took it off my list, even when most others already did.

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
Jason Reitman (Juno)
Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton)
Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)
Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)

Score: 3/5. Predicted Sean Penn (Into the Wild) and Sidney Lumet (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead) instead of Reitman and Gilroy. The nod for Reitman is rather surprising, especially in light of the snub for Penn.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
George Clooney (Michael Clayton)
Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
Tommy Lee Jones (In the Valley of Elah)
Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises)

Score: 4/5. Predicted James McAvoy (Atonement) instead of Jones. Poor McAvoy, overlooked yet again. But hooray for Jones, who surprisingly was not forgotten.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth: The Golden Age)
Julie Christie (Away from Her)
Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose)
Laura Linney (The Savages)
Ellen Page (Juno)

Score: 4/5. Predicted Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart) instead of Blanchett. Wow, the Academy loves its Blanchett. As far as I can tell, she's the first actress in many many years to be nominated for a performance in a film deemed Rotten by Rotten Tomatoes. But I also love her, so I'm happy. Even if Jolie was snubbed for an amazing performance. As I predicted, Linney got in despite having been overlooked in the pre-Oscar races.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson's War)
Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild)
Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton)

Score: 5/5!

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There)
Ruby Dee (American Gangster)
Saoirse Ronan (Atonement)
Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)
Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)

Score: 5/5!

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Diablo Cody (Juno)
Nancy Oliver (Lars and the Real Girl)
Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton)
Brad Bird (Ratatouille)
Tamara Jenkins (The Savages)

Score: 5/5!

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Christopher Hampton (Atonement)
Sarah Polley (Away from Her)
Ronald Harwood (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (No Country for Old Men)
Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)

Score: 4/5. Predicted Sean Penn (Into the Wild) instead of Polley. Into the Wild just crashed.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis)
Brad Bird (Ratatouille)
Ash Brannon, Chris Buck (Surf's Up)

Score: 2/3. Predicted David Silverman (The Simpsons Movie) instead of Brannon and Buck. WTF?! The Simpsons Movie was not a great film, but still... Surf's Up?!

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
Austria (The Counterfeiters)
Israel (Beaufort)
Kazakhstan (Mongol)
Poland (Katyn)
Russia (12)

Score: 3/5. Predicted Brazil (The Year My Parents Went on Vacation) and Italy (The Unknown Woman) instead of Israel and Kazakhstan. What an odd category, more for the omissions than for the actual nominees. The Academy seems to be trying to make amends to Israel for disqualifying The Band's Visit.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

Score: 1/5. Pathetic. Got only Sicko right. I made guesses simply based on what the documentaries are about.

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
There Will Be Blood

Score: 4/5. Predicted Elizabeth: The Golden Age instead of American Gangster.

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
Seamus McGarvey (Atonement)
Janusz Kaminski (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
Roger Deakins (No Country for Old Men)
Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood)

Score: 4/5. Predicted Rodrigo Prieto (Lust, Caution) instead of Deakins's other nod. A masterpiece ignored.

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
Albert Wolsky (Across the Universe)
Jacqueline Durran (Atonement)
Alexandra Byrne (Elizabeth: The Golden Age)
Marit Allen (La Vie en Rose)
Colleen Atwood (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)

Score: 3/5. Predicted Patricia Norris (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) and Rita Ryack (Hairspray) instead of Wolsky and Allen. I'm happy for the nod for La Vie en Rose.

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
Christopher Rouse (The Bourne Ultimatum)
Juliette Welfling (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
Jay Cassidy (Into the Wild)
Roderick Jaynes (No Country for Old Men)
Dylan Tichenor (There Will Be Blood)

Score: 3/5. Predicted Paul Tothill (Atonement) and John Gilroy (Michael Clayton) instead of Rouse and Welfling. The Bourne series finally gets the notice that it deserves with its last installment. I had once predicted Welfling's nom but discarded it for the more conventional choices. Wow, finally a mention for Into the Wild.

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
La Vie en Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Score: 1/3. Predicted Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and 300 instead of Norbit (eew) and Pirates of Caribbean: At World's End. The voters love their fat suits...even when they're disgusting and in a stupid movie. Last year it was Click. This is beginning to become the default category for normally un-Oscar-worthy films to be able to add the tag "Academy Award nominated" to their title. Eew. Where's Sweeney Todd?!

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Dario Marianelli (Atonement)
Alberto Iglesias (The Kite Runner)
James Newton Howard (Michael Clayton)
Michael Giacchino (Ratatouille)
Marco Beltrami (3:10 to Yuma)

Score: 3/5. Predicted Alexandre Desplat (Lust, Caution) and Jonny Greenwood (There Will Be Blood) instead of Giacchino and Beltrami. Sad double snub for Desplat. Learned of Greenwood's disqualification too late. Finally, a nod for Giacchino (he should have been nominated for The Incredibles)!

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
"Raise It Up" (August Rush)
"Happy Working Song" (Enchanted)
"So Close" (Enchanted)
"That's How You Know" (Enchanted)
"Falling Slowly" (Once)

Score: 2/5. Predicted "Do You Feel Me" (American Gangster), "Guaranteed" (Into the Wild), and "Despedida" (Love in the Time of Cholera) instead of "Raise It Up," "Happy Working Song," and "So Close." Three noms from Enchanted. Totally unexpected. The result: snubs of Shakira's song and, again, Into the Wild. At least "Once" got in, as deserved.

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

Score: 3/5. Predicted Into the Wild and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street instead of Ratatouille and 3:10 to Yuma. Musicals usually get in, so the snub of Sweeney Todd is odd.

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

Score: 2/5. Predicted Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Spider-Man 3, and 300 instead of The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood.

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers

Score: 2/3. Predicted 300 instead of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Freeheld
La Corona (The Crown)
Salim Baba
Sari's Mother

No predictions.

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
I Met the Walrus
Madame Tutli-Putli
Even Pigeons Go to Heaven
My Love
Peter & the Wolf

No predictions.

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
At Night
Il Supplente (The Substitute)
Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman

No predictions, but I'm surprised that Hotel Chevalier didn't get in.

Pretty exciting, with all the surprises. No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood lead the nominations with eight each, with Atonement and Michael Clayton following closely with seven each.