Thoughts On The Oscar Nominations
The nominations for the 80th Annual Academy Awards were announced this morning, and by and large they kind of suck. The more I think about the current nominations, the more I hate them. In an attempt to soothe my wounded soul, I spent some time compiling a list of nominees I'd like to sub in for the current, unworthy ones. Keep in mind, I haven't seen all the nominated films (or some of the major snubs, like Into the Wild), so for the most part I left alone the nominees from films I haven't seen, giving them the benefit of the doubt. Behold, my suggestions to the Academy:
Best Picture
NO: Michael Clayton
YES: Zodiac
Best Director
NO: Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton
YES: David Fincher - Zodiac
Best Actress
NO: Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth:The Golden Age
YES: Amy Adams - Enchanted
Best Original Screenplay
NO: Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton
YES: Judd Apatow - Knocked Up
Best Supporting Actor
NO: Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton (sensing a pattern here?*)
YES: Irrfan Khan - The Namesake
Best Supporting Actress
NO: Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton
YES: Tabu - The Namesake
Best Animated Film
NO: Surf's Up
YES: The Simpson's Movie
Best Original Song
NO: "So Close" - Music By Alan Menken, Lyrics By Stephen Schwartz (Enchanted)
YES: "Ladies' Choice" - Music By Marc Shaiman, Lyrics By Scott Wiittman & Marc Shaiman (Hairspray)
NO: "Happy Working Song" - Music By Alan Menken, Lyrics By Stephen Schwartz (Enchanted)
YES: "Baby Don't You Cry" - Music By Andrew Hollander, Lyrics By Adrienne Shelly... I think (Waitress)
NO: "Raise It Up" - Nominees To Be Determined (August Rush)
YES: "Pop! Goes My Heart" - Andrew W. Blakemore, Alanna Vicente (Music and Lyrics)
Miscellaneous Nominees I'd Like To Find A Place For, But Not Entirely Sure Who I'd Swap Out:
Tim Burton, Best Director (Sweeney Todd)
Keri Russell, Best Actress (Waitress)
Jennifer Garner, Best Supporting Actress (Juno)
Helena Bonham Carter, Best Supporting Actress (Sweeney Todd)
Adrienne Shelly, Best Original Screenplay (Waitress)
For The Bible Tells Me So, Best Documentary
Once, Is it eligible for Best Foreign Film?
Grindhouse, I'm not sure what - Best Director(s)? - but how cool would it be if it got nominated for ANYTHING?
I'll turn things over to Pumpkingod to tackle the Best Score category.
And now, what was originally going to be the topic of my post until I got all worked up about the crappy nominations: A couple weeks back, Entertainment Weekly's daily pop culture blog, PopWatch, posted a really interesting article about the Oscar nomination process and how the final nominees are determined. I have to say, it's a lot more complicated than I imagined.
* Michael Clayton wasn't a bad movie, just a vastly overpraised one. Clooney did deserve his Best Actor nomination, however.