Award Season - Oscar Nods Offer Little Surprises - Correction

January 23, 2007

The Oscar nominations were handed out today and for the most part they've followed the script written by previous awards committees fairly closely.

Best Motion Picture

Best Director - Motion Picture

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Best Original Screenplay

Best Adapted Screenplay

Best Animated Film

Best Foreign Language Film

Best Original Song

Best Original Score

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Best Achievement in Editing

Best Achievement in Art Direction

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Best Achievement in Makeup

Best Achievement in Sound

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Best Documentary - Feature Length

Best Documentary - Short Subjects

  • The Blood of Yingzhou District
  • Recycled Life
  • Rehearsing a Dream
  • Two Hands
Best Short Film - Animated

  • The Danish Poet
  • Lifted
  • The Little Matchgirl
  • Maestro
  • No Time for Nuts
Best Short Film, Live Action

  • Binta and the Great Idea
  • Éramos Pocos
  • Helmer & Son
  • The Saviour
  • West Bank Story
Notes and Reactions:
  • Dreamgirls led the way with eight nominations, include three for best song. Babel was not far behind with seven while Pan's Labyrinth and The Queen picked up six each.
  • On an interesting note, Dreamgirls may have earned eight nominations, but was shut out of the Best Picture and Best Director, which ties the record set by Ragtime. In fact, it didn't pick up any nominations in any of the major categories (Picture, Director, Lead Actress, Lead Actor, or Screenplay).
  • Little Miss Sunshine beating out Dreamgirls for best picture nomination is a bit of a shock (as was Abigail Breslin's nomination for Best Supporting Actress). On the one hand, it did earn better reviews. On the other hand, it was released much earlier and is a comedy, both of which were strikes against it.
  • As for Abigail Breslin's nomination, she isn't the youngest to earn an Oscar nod, Justin Henry was at just 8 years old while Tatum O'Neal won at the age of 10.
  • The biggest shock of the day is arguably Pan's Labyrinth's overall performance. Its six nominations, mostly for the technical side, are very impressive performance.
  • Children of Men finally earned some award season nominations, but it could be too late for the film's theatrical run.
  • On the other side, The Departed only managed five nominations, which while very strong is still lower than expected. This could mean the shine has come off the movie and despite earning some of the best reviews of the year. Martin Scorsese may go home empty handed, again.
  • Peter O'Toole earned his eighth nomination this year, although Forest Whitaker is still the favorite to win for Last King of Scotland. Perhaps he and eight time runner-up Martin Scorsese can buy Kevin O'Connell a drink. He has 19 nominations without a win including another for Apocalypto this year.
  • An Inconvenient Truth earning a nomination for Best Documentary is one of the less shocking results of the day. It earning a nomination for Best Song was more unexpected.
  • Speaking of documentaries, all five nominations have political baggage (some deserved, some not). This should cause plenty of flamewars on the Internets but will probably have little impact at the Oscars.
  • Water was nominated for Best Foriegn Language Film and that means they must have changed the rules or Hindi is now an official language in Canada.
  • Two Stage Magician movies earned Best Cinematography nominations. That makes a lot of sense when you think about it as depicting stage magicians on screen in a way that maintains the sense of awe is very difficult.
  • If Pan's Labyrinth doesn't win for Best Make Up, there's something wrong with the voting process. In fact, I would not have even given nominations to the other films.

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Source: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Filed under: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Cars, Superman Returns, Happy Feet, The Pursuit of Happyness, Click, The Departed, Borat, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, Monster House, Poseidon, Little Miss Sunshine, Blood Diamond, The Queen, The Prestige, The Illusionist, El Laberinto del Fauno, Children of Men, Babel, Flags of Our Fathers, United 93, An Inconvenient Truth, The Black Dahlia, The Last King of Scotland, Notes on a Scandal, Marie Antoinette, Letters from Iwo Jima, Volver, Das Leben der Anderen, Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia, Water, Little Children, Venus, Half Nelson, Efter brylluppet, The Good German, Jesus Camp, Indigènes, Iraq in Fragments, Deliver Us From Evil, My Country My Country, Apocalypto