2006 Oscar Nominations

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) of the United States has just announced its nominees for motion-picture achievement. Last year was the year that the AMPAS threw its weight behind the right to die, with "Million Dollar Baby" and "The Sea Inside" taking home major awards. This year´s theme is "Anything But Straight or Legal", with fourteen nominations for "Brokeback Mountain" and "Capote" combined (both movies are about homosexual characters) and two for "Transamerica", which has an actress playing a man waiting for his sex-change operation. There are six nominations for "Memoirs of a Geisha", which has the potential for becoming a favorite among drag queens. Finally, "Hustle & Flow", about a pimp trying to succeed in the music business, will be competing in two fields.

Picture:
"Brokeback Mountain"
"Capote"
"Crash"
"Good Night, and Good Luck"
"Munich"

Foreign-Language Film:
"Don´t Tell", Italy
"Joyeux Noel", France
"Paradise Now", Palestine
"Sophie Scholl", Germany
"Tsotsi", South Africa

Animated Feature:
"Howl´s Moving Castle"
"The Corpse Bride"
"Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"

Documentary Feature:
"Darwin´s Nightmare"
"Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"
"March of the Penguins"
"Murderball"
"Street Fight"

Director:
Ang Lee, "Brokeback Mountain"
Bennett Miller, "Capote"
Paul Haggis, "Crash"
George Clooney, "Good Night, and Good Luck"
Steven Spielberg, "Munich"

Actor:
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Capote"
Terrence Howard, "Hustle & Flow"
Heath Ledger, "Brokeback Mountain"
Joaquin Phoenix, "Walk The Line"
David Strathairn, "Good Night, and Good Luck"

Actress:
Judi Dench, "Mrs. Henderson Presents"
Felicity Huffman, "Transamerica"
Keira Knightly, "Pride & Prejudice"
Charlize Theron, "North Country"
Reese Witherspoon, "Walk the Line"

Supporting Actor:
Matt Dillon, "Crash"
George Clooney, "Syriana"
Paul Giamatti, "Cinderella Man"
Jake Gyllenhaal, "Brokeback Mountain"
William Hurt, "A History of Violence"

Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams, "Junebug"
Catherine Keener, "Capote"
Frances McDormand, "North Country"
Rachel Weisz, "The Constant Gardener"
Michelle Williams, "Brokeback Mountain"

Original Screenplay:
Woody Allen, "Match Point"
Noah Baumbach, "The Squid & The Whale"
George Clooney and Grant Heslov, "Good Night, and Good Luck"
Stephen Gaghan, "Syriana"
Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco, "Crash"

Adapted Screenplay:
Jeffrey Caine, "The Constant Gardener"
Dan Futterman, "Capote"
Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, "Munich"
Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, "Brokeback Mountain"
Josh Olson, "A History Of Violence"

Cinematography:
"Batman Begins"
"Brokeback Mountain"
"Good Night, and Good Luck"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"The New World"

Editing:
"Cinderella Man"
"The Constant Gardener"
"Crash"
"Munich"
"Walk The Line"

Art Direction:
"Good Night, and Good Luck"
"Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire"
"King Kong"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"Pride & Prejudice"

Costume Design:
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"Mrs. Henderson Presents"
"Pride & Prejudice"
"Walk the Line"

Make-up:
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe"
"Cinderella Man"
"Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith"

Score:
"Brokeback Mountain"
"The Constant Gardener"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"Munich"
"Pride & Prejudice"

Song:
"In The Deep", "Crash"
"It´s Hard Out Here for a Pimp", "Hustle & Flow"
"Travelin´ Thru", "Transamerica"

Sound Mixing:
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe"
"King Kong"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"Walk The Line"
"War of the Worlds"

Sound Editing:
"King Kong"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"War of the Worlds"

Visual Effects:
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe"
"King Kong"
"War of the Worlds"

Multiple nominees:
"Brokeback Mountain", 8
"Crash", 6
"Good Night, and Good Luck", 6
"Memoirs of a Geisha", 6
"Capote", 5
"Munich", 5
"Walk the Line", 5
"The Constant Gardener", 4
"King Kong", 4
"Pride & Prejudice", 4
"The Chronicles of Narnia", 3
"Cinderella Man", 3
"War of the Worlds", 3
"A History of Violence", 2
"Hustle & Flow", 2
"Mrs. Henderson Presents", 2
"North Country", 2
"Syriana", 2
"Transamerica", 2

The Picture and Director nominees don´t often match completely. The Directors branch likes to honor a person who´s obviously a good director but whose movies are too quirky for the rest of the Academy´s tastes. This year, however, the two categories are 100% in agreement. A lot of people had predicted that "Walk the Line", the biopic about singer Johnny Cash, would get a Picture nomination but not a Director nomination. This once-strong competitor faded in the stretch and picked up five nominations. Without "Walk the Line", the Picture line-up lacks a $100-million grosser, though both "Brokeback Mountain" and "Crash" are considered hits and "Brokeback Mountain" may wind up with more than $100 million if its box-office momentum holds.

"Brokeback Mountain" wound up with the most nominations of any movie. Its total may seem low for a front-runner; front-runners usually score double-digit nominations. However, bear in mind that "Brokeback Mountain" is a low-key drama like last year´s winner "Million Dollar Baby". Also, with three acting nominations, the movie will get a significant lift for Picture like "Million Dollar Baby" (which also received three acting nominations). Still, one has to wonder why "Brokeback Mountain" was not nominated for Editing. A strong contender for Picture is usually represented in the Editing category. (Maybe the AMPAS had problems with the Editing the way I did.)

"Crash" and "Good Night, and Good Luck" are going to do their best to gun for "Brokeback Mountain", but both movies have only one acting nomination apiece. "Crash" is the "industry" movie this year despite its indie origins. The movie is set in L.A. and has a large cast. This undoubtedly helped Lionsgate to its first nominations in the big categories. "Good Night, and Good Luck" is the middle finger to neo-conservatives who claim that dissent is "un-patriotic". This means that George Clooney, who nabbed three nominations by himself, might upset Ang Lee for Director. Otherwise, "Good Night, and Good Luck" would go home empty-handed, which seems like a wasted opportunity (why wouldn´t Hollywood want to tell George Bush and Co. that they´re assholes who´re wrong?). Clooney´s best chance for a win is still for Supporting Actor in "Syriana", which is another middle-finger to the neo-cons.

"Capote" is the little movie that could. Director Bennett Miller had never directed a fictional feature prior to working on this movie. This is a small project that was low on everyone´s radar, but there is much industry love for Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener.

Surprisingly and not so surprisingly, Steven Spielberg´s "Munich" wound up with several key nominations, including Picture and Director. The five nominations for "Munich" are surprising given the controversy surrounding it, but the nominations were not surprising because the industry rallied around Spielberg, who in Hollywood is either your hero or your mentor. Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski was the casualty this time around. Kaminski has won two Oscars working for Spielberg, and he got a nomination for "Amistad", a weak Spielberg effort. However, Kaminski is sitting out of this year´s race.

For Spielberg, 2005 must look a lot like 1993. Both years had a summer popcorn flick ("Jurassic Park" and "War of the Worlds") followed by a serious December drama about Jewish issues ("Schindler´s List" and "Munich"). The popcorn flicks wound up with three Oscar nominations each, and the serious December dramas wound up with nominations for Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, and Score.

"Memoirs of a Geisha" was Sony´s attempt at a throwback to Hollywood´s glamorous era of international epics during the 1960s and 1970s. The Oscar buzz surrounding this movie was enormous before the movie took a critical drubbing when it opened in American theatres. "Memoirs" has plenty of eye and ear candy that wound up with six nominations, but it didn´t score anything for Picture, Director, acting, or writing. This must be especially hard for the "Memoirs" team considering that lead actress Zhang Ziyi had received nominations for the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, and the SAG award. Asian actors have done well in the supporting acting categories, but the respected and admired Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh were out of luck this year. Like I wrote elsewhere, "Memoirs of a Geisha" is this year´s "The Last Samurai" (handsome prestige pic set in Japan with actor Ken Watanabe that sputters). We´re still looking for a Hollywood-style epic set in Asia that can succeed like "The Last Emperor". (Oddly, "Memoirs of a Geisha" was not on the shortlist for consideration in the Make-up category even though it´s difficult to think of geishas without their distinctive make-up.)

This past year, composer John Williams opted out of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" in order to score "Memoirs of a Geisha". As Williams is Spielberg´s go-to guy for music, it was a foregone conclusion that he would score "Munich", too. Williams was way out in the lead to win for "Memoirs of a Geisha", but "Munich" might siphon away enough "Geisha" votes for Gustavo Santoalla to upset for "Brokeback Mountain".

At a time when Disney and DreamWorks have basically turned their backs on non-computer animation, this year´s nominees for Animated Feature were all created outside of the digital realm. Stop-motion animation is about as "old school" as one can get, but the technique is represented by "The Corpse Bride" and "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit". The hand-drawn animation banner is raised by Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki. "Howl´s Moving Castle" is a bit of a surprise since its unique aesthetics would seem unfamiliar to American viewers, but Miyazaki has gone the distance in this category in the past with "Spirited Away".

"Star Wars: Episode III--The Revenge of the Sith" was blanked by the likes of "King Kong" and "War of the Worlds" in the effects categories. The movie wound up with one nomination, for Make-up. This is a sign that the AMPAS has taste. "Episode III" was so bad that I decided to get rid of my entire "Star Wars" DVD collection after I saw it.

My current Oscar predictions:
Picture – "Brokeback Mountain"
Foreign Film – "Joyeux Noel", France
Animated Feature – "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"
Documentary Feature - "March of the Penguins"
Director – Ang Lee, "Brokeback Mountain"
Actor – Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Capote"
Actress – Reese Witherspoon, "Walk the Line"
Supporting Actor – George Clooney, "Syriana"
Supporting Actress – Rachel Weisz, "The Constant Gardener"
Original Screenplay – Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, "Crash"
Adapated Screenplay – Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, "Brokeback Mountain"
Cinematography – Rodrigo Prieto, "Brokeback Mountain"
Editing – Claire Simpson, "The Constant Gardener"
Sound Mixing – "Walk the Line"
Sound Editing – "King Kong"
Music Score – John Williams, "Memoirs of a Geisha"
Original Song – "It´s Hard Out Here For A Pimp", "Hustle & Flow" (this is the AMPAS´s way of showing that it´s cool; foul-mouthed Eminem won in this category not too long ago)
Art Direction – "Good Night, and Good Luck"
Costume Design – "Memoirs of a Geisha"
Make-Up – "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe"
Visual Effects – "King Kong"

This year´s Oscar ceremony takes place on 5 March.

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