Nominations for the 80th Annual Academy Awards

The nominations for the 80th Academy Awards were announced very early this morning and as always there were some surprises and some snubs.

You can view the complete list of the nominees here.

I would love to comment on the quality of the nominated films or the performances, but sadly I have only seen 10 of all the Oscar contenders and only one in the Best Picture category.

Here are just some random thoughts on the Oscar nominations:

They really really like Cate Blanchett. Not only was she nominated for playing Bob Dylan in I'm not There, she also got in for Elizabeth: The Golden Age. She now has a total of five nominations, four of those in the last four years. And she has a huge possibility of wining again this year. Surprising.

And speaking of actresses, it was quite a shock to see Laura Linney get in for The Savages. I was expecting to see Angelina Jolie on that list since she has been nominated for almost every critic award, including the SAG. Also surprised to see Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Ellah since he was practically missing from previous awards. I'm really glad for him since his performance was awesome.

I really wanted to see Jodie Foster get in for The Brave One. It is a real shame that the film in general didn't receive good reviews because if it had, she would surely have been nominated (even the critics who didn't like the movie raved about her performance). But, oh well, it doesn't take away from the fact that it was indeed a terrific performance.

Now, to one of my quibbles of this Oscar season: Michal Clayton. Was it a good movie? Yes. Was it a great movie? No. Did it deserve 7 nominations? NO. I just can't see what's so great about this. It was well made and I was entertained by it but it is not a masterpiece as many people seem to think it is. I can think of three films which were much much better (Jesse James, Zodiac, Gone Baby Gone) who should have been nominated in its spot. George Clooney must have very good PR with everybody in Hollywood, or maybe they just really like the guy. This is a head scratcher for me. (More about the film in my next post.)

Apparently Atonement directed itself since Joe Wright isn't in the running for Best Director. Somehow I kind of find it difficult to comprehend how they can nominate a film and not its director. Ultimately the director is responsible for the success of the whole film. The Academy needed to honor The Diving Bell and the Butterfly somewhere and Best Director was it.

Another thing that caught my eye was, as Nathaniel pointed out, that 40% of the nominated screenplays were written by women. These include Tamara Jenkins for The Savages, Sarah Polley for Away from Her, Nancy Oliver for Lars and the Real Girl, and Diablo Cody for Juno. YAY! We need more women in these professions!

Hopefully the writers strike will be over by February 24th so that we can have a proper ceremony.

That's all I can think of right now. Check back in a few hours for my Most Overrated Movies of 2007 post.