And the nominees are

[amanda]

It's nearly that time of year again. The nominees for the 78th Annual Academy Awards will be announced tomorrow, January 31. Oscar night is March 5.

[amanda]

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Philip Seymour Hoffman - CAPOTE
Terrence Howard - HUSTLE & FLOW
Heath Ledger - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Joaquin Phoenix - WALK THE LINE
David Strathairn - GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
George Clooney - SYRIANA
Matt Dillon - CRASH
Paul Giamatti - CINDERELLA MAN
Jake Gyllenhaal - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
William Hurt - A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Judi Dench - MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS
Felicity Huffman - TRANSAMERICA
Keira Knightley - PRIDE & PREJUDICE
Charlize Theron - NORTH COUNTRY
Reese Witherspoon - WALK THE LINE

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams - JUNEBUG
Catherine Keener - CAPOTE
Frances McDormand - NORTH COUNTRY
Rachel Weisz - THE CONSTANT GARDENER
Michelle Williams - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE
TIM BURTON'S CORPSE BRIDE
WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
KING KONG
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
PRIDE & PREJUDICE

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
BATMAN BEGINS
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
THE NEW WORLD

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTSPRIDE & PREJUDICE
WALK THE LINE

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
CAPOTE
CRASH
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.
MUNICH

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE
ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS
MURDERBALL
STREET FIGHT

BEST 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

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
CINDERELLA MAN
THE CONSTANT GARDENER
CRASH
MUNICH
WALK THE LINE

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
DON'T TELL
JOYEUX NOèL
PARADISE NOW
SOPHIE SCHOLL - THE FINAL DAYS
TSOTSI

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
CINDERELLA MAN
STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES
(ORIGINAL SCORE)
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
THE CONSTANT GARDENER
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
MUNICH
PRIDE & PREJUDICE

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES(ORIGINAL SONG)
"In the Deep" - CRASH
"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" - HUSTLE & FLOW
"Travelin' Thru" - TRANSAMERICA

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
CAPOTE
CRASH
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.
MUNICH

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
BADGERED
THE MOON AND THE SON: AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION
THE MYSTERIOUS GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORATIONS OF JASPER MORELLO
9
ONE MAN BAND

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
AUSREISSER (THE RUNAWAY)
CASHBACK
THE LAST FARM
OUR TIME IS UP
SIX SHOOTER

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
KING KONG
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
WAR OF THE WORLDS


ACHIEVEMENT IN 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

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
KING KONG
WAR OF THE WORLDS

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
CAPOTE
THE CONSTANT GARDENER
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
MUNICH

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
CRASH
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.
MATCH POINT
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE
SYRIANA

[amanda]

Katie & Rickus,

Do you know if they are showing any of the nominated shorts this year in OKC?

[rickus]

You can view the Oklahoma City Museum of Art's movies schedule at their website. This is currently what they have to say:

February 3 – March 5

Oscar® Tune-Up

The Academy Awards race is heating up and the Oklahoma City Museum of Art Noble Theater presents its fourth annual Oscar® Tune-Up film series featuring several of this year’s nominees in many of the top categories. Many of these films will make their Oklahoma City premieres. Due to the popularity of this series the Noble Theater will offer screenings six nights a week (closed on Monday). The Noble Theater will also present two special screenings of the “sing-a-long” Sound of Music starring Julie Andrews which won five Academy Awards®. This year’s nominees will be officially announced on January 31. Check back for a complete Oscar® Tune-Up schedule!

[chris]

Old news! Here are the real awards:

www.razzies.com/
www.razzies.com/history/05nompict.asp

[amanda]

One last shot at calling the Oscars. The awards are this Sunday evening.
www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/movies/redcarpet/03pool.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

So.. any predictions?

[kyle]

I would like to say that I feel bad not at all saying that I am completely unqualified to care about who wins the Oscars this year. Going through the list of nominated movies that you put up Amanda, I was only able to find 4 movies that I saw this year...2 of which I didn't even care to see.

These 4 movies were: Crash, Batman Begins, War of the Worlds, and Chronicles of Narnia. I had no desire to see W of W's or Chronicles but sometimes Shae really wanted to see both...

[Thanin]

Kyle, I think you and Adam would benefit the most from watching Brokeback Mountain.

[chris]

The 6th Annual Oscar Dinner menu is up!

therealmckenzies.blogspot.com/2006/03/and-dinner-goes-to.html

[mj]

Best Picture will likely go to Brokeback Mountain, though Good Night & Good Luck could sneak in a win.
Phillip Seymore Hoffman should take Best Actor.
I'm going blindly with George Clooney, though the Academy may give it to Giamatti to make up for previous slights.
I'm rooting for Felicity Huffman to get Best Actress and Amy Adams to snag the Supporting Actress, though she's a long shot.
Best Director will go to Ang Lee.
Wallace & Gromit will celebrate their Animated Feature win over some nice cheese.
Brokeback will take Adapted Screenplay. Wow... I dunno which movie will win Original Screenplay. Maybe Good Night & Good Luck...? I'd like to see it go to Allen.

[jtmx1]

Crash. What the hell?

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11480804/

Skip down to the bottom to see why the reviewer thinks it gets racism in America completely wrong.

Heck, I'll just reprint it here:

"Crash

Now this thing.

I want to like “Crash.” It’s a film about how race and class blend together — but mostly don’t blend together — in modern Los Angeles. That’s a great subject for a serious film. And while “Crash” sees itself as a very serious film, it’s not a good film because it’s false from the beginning.

What do we talk about when we talk about race? We don’t talk about race. I would argue that this is the big problem with race in America. Our tendency to ignore it. Our tendency to pretend otherwise. Our tendency, in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s words, to “wear the mask that grins and lies.”

What is the big problem with race in the Los Angeles of “Crash”? That everyone enunciates every racial thought they have. So the Asian woman complains that “Mexicans” don’t know how to drive and the “Mexican” mocks the Asian woman’s pronunciation (“blake” for “break”), and the white gun store owner calls the Persian man “Osama” and blames him for 9/11 and the white cop mocks the black woman’s name (“Shaniqua. Big f---ing surprise”) and the black cop calls his girlfriend “Mexican,” as the Asian woman did, even though — she informs him — her mother is from Puerto Rico and her father is from El Salvador, to which the black cop makes it up to her by asking her why all of her people park their cars on their lawns.

“Crash” is saying “How horrible that we're all this way” when most of us are not only not this way but the exact opposite of this way. We may think these thoughts but we rarely enunciate them. Sure, racism still exists, but at its most potent it's usually silent. It's opaque. It makes you wonder “Is this happening because of race?” You suspect but you have no evidence. “Crash” not only gives us evidence it manipulates the evidence.

“Crash” has another big problem. It assumes that by showing us the two extremes of a single character it’s giving us a full character. Don Cheadle’s character dismisses his mother and then cares for her; Matt Dillon’s character humiliates a black woman and then risks his life to save her; Ryan Phillippe’s character goes out of his way to rescue an armed black man and then shoots an unarmed black man because of a racial assumption. But two extremes are not a full character. They’re just extremes. “Crash” raises important issues but in the end it gives us no clarity; it just gives us more noise."

By Erik Lundegaard MSNBC contributor

[mj]

And...the best picture goes to Crash. So, yeah. That happened. WTF?

I wish I knew how to quit you, Oscar.

[Thanin]

I agree with the complaints against Crash, although I liked it quite a bit. But I have to say that, hands down, Brokeback Mountain is not only a far better movie, but much more important for this time in america. How many quality movies dealing with race have been nominated? Many. How many quality movies dealing with homosexual love that goes against stereotypes?

In the end Brokeback will be remembered a lot longer than Crash will be, it's just a shame that hollywood didn't have the guts to do what it should have done. It did the safe, easy 'liberal' thing.

So I really feel like this was more about Brokeback losing than Crash winning. It seems like even hollywood is against a movie about homosexuality that breaks stereotypes. People need their scapegoats identifiable. Hollywood obviously knows this and bent over for it.

[Thanin]

www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/what-did-i-tell-you/

I actually don't know anything about this person, but what he said sounds truthful.

[chris]

therealmckenzies.blogspot.com/2006/03/great-night-comes-crashing-down.html

[Thanin]

From the Los Angeles Times

Here's the link: www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-et-notebook6mar06,0,6536312.story?coll=cl-movies-features



'BROKEBACK' DREAMS CRASH AND BURN AS THE ACADEMY'S VOTERS PLAY IT SAFE

By Kenneth Turan
Times Staff Writer

March 6, 2006

Sometimes you win by losing, and nothing has proved what a powerful, taboo-breaking, necessary film "Brokeback Mountain" was more than its loss Sunday night to "Crash" in the Oscar best picture category.

Despite all the magazine covers it graced, despite all the red-state theaters it made good money in, despite (or maybe because of) all the jokes late-night talk show hosts made about it, you could not take the pulse of the industry without realizing that this film made a number of people distinctly uncomfortable.

More than any other of the nominated films, "Brokeback Mountain" was the one people told me they really didn't feel like seeing, didn't really get, didn't understand the fuss over. Did I really like it, they wanted to know. Yes, I really did.

In the privacy of the voting booth, as many political candidates who've led in polls only to lose elections have found out, people are free to act out the unspoken fears and unconscious prejudices that they would never breathe to another soul, or, likely, acknowledge to themselves. And at least this year, that acting out doomed "Brokeback Mountain."

For Hollywood, as a whole laundry list of people announced from the podium Sunday night and a lengthy montage of clips tried to emphasize, is a liberal place, a place that prides itself on its progressive agenda. If this were a year when voters had no other palatable options, they might have taken a deep breath and voted for "Brokeback." This year, however, "Crash" was poised to be the spoiler.

I do not for one minute question the sincerity and integrity of the people who made "Crash," and I do not question their commitment to wanting a more equal society. But I do question the film they've made. It may be true, as producer Cathy Schulman said in accepting the Oscar for best picture, that this was "one of the most breathtaking and stunning maverick years in American history," but "Crash" is not an example of that.

I don't care how much trouble "Crash" had getting financing or getting people on board; the reality of this film, the reason it won the best picture Oscar, is that it is, at its core, a standard Hollywood movie, as manipulative and unrealistic as the day is long. And something more.

For "Crash's" biggest asset is its ability to give people a carload of those standard Hollywood satisfactions, but make them think they are seeing something groundbreaking and daring. It is, in some ways, a feel-good film about racism, a film you could see and feel like a better person, a film that could make you believe that you had done your moral duty and examined your soul, when in fact you were just getting your buttons pushed and your preconceptions reconfirmed.

So for people who were discomfited by "Brokeback Mountain" but wanted to be able to look at themselves in the mirror and feel as if they were good, productive liberals, "Crash" provided the perfect safe harbor. They could vote for it in good conscience, vote for it and feel they had made a progressive move, vote for it and not feel that there was any stain on their liberal credentials for shunning what "Brokeback" had to offer. And that's exactly what they did.

"Brokeback," it is worth noting, was in some ways the tamest of the discomforting films available to Oscar voters in various categories. Steven Spielberg's "Munich"; the Palestinian territories' "Paradise Now," one of the best foreign language nominees; and the documentary nominee "Darwin's Nightmare" offered scenarios that truly shook up people's normal ways of seeing the world. None of them won a thing.

Hollywood, of course, is under no obligation to be a progressive force in the world. It is in the business of entertainment, in the business of making the most dollars it can. Yes, on Oscar night it likes to pat itself on the back for the good it does in the world, but as Sunday night's ceremony proved, it is easier to congratulate yourself for a job well done in the past than to actually do that job in the present.

[jtmx1]

What is funny is that Hollywood's silence about Brokeback--we are all guessing about why it lost after all--is exactly the same kind of silence that Lundegaard argues constitutes most of the problem with racism in America. (See the above link or this morning after whine: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11700333/from/RS.1/ )

[Thanin]

The quiz is dead-on.

[chris]

E. Annie Pissed:

www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/15/film.proulx.ap/index.html