Oscars 2008: The nominees
 

Best picture
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best director
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

Best actor
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

Best actress
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno

Best supporting actress
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Best supporting actor
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James...
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

Best foreign language film
Beaufort, Israel
The Counterfeiters, Austria
Katyn, Poland
Mongol, Kazakhstan
12, Russia

Best animated feature film
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up

Best adapted screenplay
Atonement
Away from Her
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best original screenplay
Juno
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages

Best music (score)
Atonement
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma

Best music (song)
Falling Slowly - Once (performed by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova)
Happy Working Song - Enchanted (performed by Amy Adams)
Raise It Up - August Rush (performed by Jamia Simone Nash and Impact Repertory Theatre)
So Close - Enchanted (performed by Jon McLaughlin)
That's How You Know - Enchanted (performed by Amy Adams)

Best documentary feature
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

Best documentary short subject
Freeheld
La Corona (The Crown)
Salim Baba
Sari's Mother

Best visual effects
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers

Best cinematography
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best art direction
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
There Will Be Blood

Best animated short film
I Met the Walrus
Madame Tutli-Putli
Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)
My Love (Moya Lyubov)
Peter & the Wolf

Best short film
At Night
Il Supplente
Le Mozart des Pickpockets
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman

Best costume design
Across the Universe
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie en Rose
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best make-up
La Vie en Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Best sound mixing
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

Sound editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

Best film editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

you make me feel so stupid
I wish it was five minutes before yesterday
do you remember the time we were gonna do that?

would you like me to tell you the synopsis of no country for old men?

a third time??

no thanks.

I'll never see the movie, but I know it by heart.

I want to see "There Will Be Blood"

why was Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men , not nominated for BEST ACTOR?

Bardem is nominated in the supporting actor category.

Wow, leave it to the Academy to cheapen a great year at the movies with these nominees. Not that they are all unworthy. It's just that this year, like every year, they have overlooked so very much fine work. I think it's a joke that 3:10 to Yuma is nominated in the category for best original score when the music for that movie is a decided weak point; once again, the Academy decided to squeeze another deserving flim in any way that they saw fit. I haven't seen some of these movies, most notably perhaps, Atonement.

At any rate, I have listed my winner predictions in bold. The other likely contender is designated by an asterisk.

Best picture
Atonement*
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
(The winner should rightly be No Country For Old Men or Rescue Dawn, which isn't nominated.)

Best director
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
(The winner should be the Coen Bros., or should rightly be Werner Herzog for Rescue Dawn, which isn't nominated.)

Best actor
George Clooney, Michael Clayton*
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
(The winner should rightly be Christian Bale (who isn't nominated) for Rescue Dawn or Russell Crowe for 3:10 to Yuma who also isn't nominated.)

Best actress
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age*
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno

Best supporting actress
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement*
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Best supporting actor
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James...*
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
(The winner should rightly be Javier Barden for No Country For Old Men or Jeremy Davies for Rescue Dawn who is not nominated. They might just give it to the kid, Casey Affleck. Peter Fonda should have been nominated for 3:10 to Yuma.)

Best foreign language film
Beaufort, Israel
The Counterfeiters, Austria
Katyn, Poland
Mongol, Kazakhstan
12, Russia

Best animated feature film
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up

Best adapted screenplay
Atonement *
Away from Her
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best original screenplay
Juno*
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages

Best music (score)
Atonement
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille*
3:10 to Yuma

Best music (song)
Falling Slowly - Once (performed by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova)
Happy Working Song - Enchanted (performed by Amy Adams)
Raise It Up - August Rush (performed by Jamia Simone Nash and Impact Repertory Theatre)
So Close - Enchanted (performed by Jon McLaughlin)
That's How You Know - Enchanted (performed by Amy Adams)

Best documentary feature
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

Best documentary short subject
Freeheld
La Corona (The Crown)
Salim Baba
Sari's Mother

Best visual effects
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers

Best cinematography
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement*
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
(3:10 to Yuma should have been nominated.)

Best art direction
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street*
There Will Be Blood
(It's ridiculous that No Country For Old Men isn't even nominated in this category.)

Best animated short film
I Met the Walrus
Madame Tutli-Putli
Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)
My Love (Moya Lyubov)
Peter & the Wolf

Best short film
At Night
Il Supplente
Le Mozart des Pickpockets
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman

Best costume design
Across the Universe
Atonement*
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie en Rose
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best make-up
La Vie en Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
(This probably should go to Norbit, but will not for the obvious haha reasons.)

Best sound mixing
The Bourne Ultimatum*
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

Sound editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille*
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

Best film editing
The Bourne Ultimatum*
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men*
There Will Be Blood
(This should rightly go to No Country for Old Men, but the Academy will want to spread the statues around as they are wont to do.)

I didn't think that Atonement was as great as all the critics seemed to think it was. It was probably technically really good (I'm no expert on the technical side of film-making, hence I say probably), the start of it was a good depiction of certain part of British society in the '30s, and the war scenes did a good depiction of the horror of war, but as a whole I found it a bit lacking in focus. I'm pleased that Keira Knightley hasn't been nominated for best actress for it, because she didn't really do enough to deserve it. Anyway, I don't think she's ready for that accolade just yet.

And Wes Anderson gets snubbed again. Darjeeling Limited was way better than Juno (though I loved Juno)

Why the hell was Surf's Up nominated? That was a predictable piece of shit.

speaking of actors
heath ledger isn't really dead is he? how weird.

they had to get at least three animated movies.

Ewww, Once got nominated? I thought that movie and the music both wreaked.

neither atonement, nor michael clayton, nor juno should be up for best picture.

sub those with eastern promises, the assasination of jesse james (finally saw it and it was the fastest 3 hrs and forty minutes ive ever witnessed on film, utterly brilliant), and i guess american gangster.

the academy is just too chicken shit to have 5 ultra violent films be nominated even though they were the best films of the year.

and dude, rescue dawn was absolutley awful, bale is great, that movie is shit. daniel day lewis is one of the few actors who elevates a performance to art, and there will be blood is his career high. it was the film of the year ive now decided after seeing it twice, slightly edging old men and eastern promises.

I don't recall seeing the other films in the Best supporting actor category, but I think Casey Affleck deserves to win something for his part in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

I really want to see No Country for Old Men.

I saw Rescue Dawn and I thought it was good, but I didn't think it was great.

I would substitute a few ones that are different, but yeah, I agree that you're most probably right in assuming that the Academy shying away from all of them having violent themes.

I can't see how it can be rightly described as "awful."

I've displayed an affinty for the true stories recently.
I chose United 93 as the best from last year.