Thoughts on Oscar nominations

This is the first year I can remember that I haven't heard of ANY of the foreign film nominees. Weird.

I thought they screwed Cate Blanchett, b/c her two noms will split the votes for her (and I'm not sure why she was nominated for Elizabeth, which is a reprisal of a role she played before AND no one saw that movie as far as I can tell).

Nice to see Michael Clayton honored so much, though I'm surprised, since earlier releases are often forgotten by the time nominations are announced.

Screenplay I can understand, but Best Picture for Juno?

Keira Knightley and James McAvoy were passed over for Atonement, quite unfairly, but at leat Marion Cotillard was nominated for La Vie en Rose - if she had been passed over, the whole enterprise would lack credibility.

A lot of respected directors were overlooked, despite critical praise, including Sean Penn for Into the Wild and Sidney Lumet for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead in favor of neophyte Jason Reitman for Juno and and mainstream Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton.

The supporting noms were a bit better this year than in the recent past, when lots of famous people in smaller roles got most of the supporting slots, leaving fewer for truly supporting performers. The men are probably better known than the women (Javier Bardem, Philip Seymour Hoffman), but probably mostly by movie fanatics like me. It's exciting to see Ruby Dee nominated, and I thought she was the only truly bold choice on the whole list.

As usual, THREE of the songs came from one movie - Disney's Enchanted. It had great music, but come on!

Overall, not completely satisfying, but it never is.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/22/oscar.complete.list/index.html