Best Motion Picture - Drama

• Babel
• Bobby
• The Departed
• Little Children
• The Queen

• Borat
• Devil Wears Prada
• Dreamgirls
• Little Miss Sunshine
• Thank You For Smoking

• Leonardo DiCaprio in The Blood Diamond
• Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed
• Peter O'Toole in Venus
• Will Smith in Pursuit of Happyness
• Forest Whitaker in Last King of Scotland

• Penelope Cruz in Volver
• Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal
• Maggie Gyllenhaal in SherryBaby
• Helen Mirren in The Queen
• Kate Winslet in Little Children

• Annette Bening in Running with Scissors
• Toni Collette in Little Miss Sunshine
• Beyonce Knowles in Dreamgirls
• Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada
• Renee Zellweger in Miss Potter

• Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat
• Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
• Aaron Eckhart in Thank You for Smoking
• Chiwetel Ejiofor in Kinky Boots
• Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction

• Adriana Barraza in Babel
• Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal
• Emily Blunt in The Devil Wears Prada
• Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls
• Rinko Kikuchi in Babel

• Ben Affleck in Hollywoodland
• Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls
• Jack Nicholson in The Departed
• Brad Pitt in Babel
• Mark Wahlberg in The Departed

• Clint Eastwood for Flags of Our Fathers
• Clint Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima
• Stephen Frears for The Queen
• Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Babel
• Martin Scorsese for The Departed

• Babel
• The Departed
• Little Children
• Notes on a Scandal
• The Queen

• Bobby for "Never Gonna Break My Faith"
• Dreamgirls for "Listen"
• Happy Feet for "The Song of the Heart"
• Home of the Brave for "Try Not to Remember"
• Pursuit of Happyness for "A Father's Way"

• Gustavo Santaolalla for Babel
• Hans Zimmer for The Da Vinci Code
• Clint Mansell for The Fountain
• Carlo Siliotto for Nomad
• Alexandre Desplat for The Painted Veil

• Apocalypto
• Pan's Labyrinth
• The Lives of Others
• Letters from Iwo Jima
• Volver

• Cars
• Happy Feet
• Monster House

• Babel earned seven nominations followed by The Departed with six and Dreamgirls with five. Of those three, I think The Departed has be best chance of being the big winner.
• Leonardo DiCaprio captured two nominations for best actor in a dramatic role. One for The Blood Diamond and the other for The Departed. Vote splitting could cost him a win for either paving the way for Forest Whitaker to take home the hardware. Then again, some might vote a straight The Departed ticket helping his chances there.
• Clint Eastwood also earned two nods for Best Directing for Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. However, in this case it looks like it's Martin Scorsese's year to win this battle.
• Bobby was the only Best Picture contender not to pick up any other nominations in major categories and therefor has to be seen as a serious underdog.
• Of the Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical nominees, only Dreamgirls has any real shot as Oscar glory, although I was happier to see nominations for Devil Wears Prada and Little Miss Sunshine.
• Peter O'Toole is a senitmetal favorite to win for his role in Venus, but realistically he has to be considered an underdog. He has a better shot at the Oscar as voting committees like to make up for past mistakes and he's had seven nominations with no wins.
• Monster House was better than Over the Hedge? I didn't think so.
• Both Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy seem wide open. I can't pick whose the favorite in those two categories. Even just personal favorite leaves me conflicted.

Source: Hollywood Foreign Press
Date posted: 2006-12-15