The Oscar nominees have been announced! Leaving the original post up so you can see my lamentable ignorance.
Such as it was, at 25/30, which I believe ties my record. I missed one in each of the categories besides Director, and in three of those the nomination went to one of my dark horses:
–Capote for Walk the Line in Best Picture
-Terrence Howard for Ralph Fiennes in Best Actor
-Keira Knightley for Zhang Ziyi in Best Actress
-William Hurt for Bob Hoskins in Best Supporting Actor
-Frances McDormand for Maria Bello in Best Supporting Actress.
I promise to do better next year. Oh, and I would have been 10/10 on the screenplay categories if I had known that Syriana was original.
Thoughts on the nominations, in no particular order.
-“It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” for Best Song makes me happier than that category ever has or ever will again, and right now I imagine that it will win.
-William Hurt in for Supporting Actor! I remember thinking that right after I saw the film, but then dismissing the role as too small.
-If my favorite cinematographer of the year couldn’t get a nomination (César Charlone for The Constant Gardener), at least he was cut in favor of a kickassingly surprising nomination for Batman Begins (Wally Pfister).
-The last-ever Star Wars film only gets in for makeup. Ouch.
-Has there ever been such a boring year for Best Score? Brokeback Mountain, Constant Gardener, Memoirs of a Geisha, Munich, Pride & Prejudice. I don’t even remember the CG or P&P scores, Munich was dull and perfunctory, and MoaG was the worst sort of Orientalism.
For those who care, the nomination leaders:
-8 for Brokeback Mountain
-6 for Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck. and Memoirs of a Geisha
-5 for Capote, Munich and Walk the Line
-4 for The Constant Gardener, King Kong and Pride & Prejudice