Oscars

Oscar Nominations 2004

This morning the Oscar nominations were announced. There were some surprise nominees, there were perhaps some surprising ommissions, but overall the expected leading movies of the year received the expected acks. Leading the group, is The Aviator with 11 nominations, followed by Million Dollar Baby and Finding Neverland with 7, Ray with 6 and Sideways with 5.

The most obvious surprise nominations are for Mike Leigh as best director and best original screenplay for Vera Drake, a movie that received good critical support, but very little Oscar buzz except for leading actress Imelda Staunton. As a result Finding Neverland is the only best picture nominated movie without a best director nomination.

In the acting categories, Jamie Foxx receives two nominations for both Ray and Collateral. The relatively surprising ommission is that of Paul Giamatti who was expected to be nominated for his role in Sideways. Instead the Academy prefered veteran Clint Eastwood nominated alongside Morgan Freeman and Hillary Swank for their roles in Million Dollar Baby. Alan Alda receives his first Oscar nomination benefiting from Aviator's success. Closer's Clive Owen and Natalie Portman receive nominations matching the Golden Globe nods and their strong performances. Finally, one of the most satisfying acting nominations is that of Kate Winslet for a colorful role in a daring movie (Eternal Sunshine...).

In the other categories, the controversial Passion of the Christ receives nominations for cinematography, make-up and musical score. House of Flying Daggers is only acknowledged for cinematography; Spider-Man 2 is nominated for sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects; Lemony Snickets receives 4 nominations for music score, makeup, art direction and costume design. Dreamworks manages to sneak in their huge flop Shark Tale alongside Shrek 2 for animated feature film, ahead of the more deserving Polar Express.

In the foreign movie category, the tradition mainly continues: Sweden and Germany receive their 14th nominations, Spain their 19th and France their 33rd. South Africa breaks the norm with their first ever nominated movie Yesterday.

In the following days I will add detailed comments on the nominees and start the winner prediction commentaries. In the meanwhile you can view the complete official nomination list and how my predictions fared using the links on the side.