Oscar nominations tomorrow

Here is a reminder that tomorrow at 6am pst the nominations for the 81st annual academy awards will be announced.  Now for those of you having your own little Oscar pool or betting on who will be nominated just for the fun of it here as some things we think you should know to better help you with your decisions.

Best Director:  Though Best Picture and Best Director almost always match up remember that for the past 10 years there has always been a Best Director nominated who did not have a best picture nomination as well such as :

2000 – Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich
2001 – Stephen Daldry, Billy Elliot
2002 – Ridley Scott, Black Hawk Down, David Lynch, Mulholland Drive
2003 – Pedro Almodovar, Talk to Her
2004 – Fernando Meirelles, City of God
2005 – Mike Leigh, Vera Drake
2006 – None
2007 – Paul Greengrass, United 93
2008 – Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell & the Butterfly

Oscar voting is done by pier group so only actors can vote for fellow actors which makes up 1,300 members of the 15,000 academy members .  By this definition alone say if there is a performance the technical members love such as Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino they cannot vote for him, but may feel likely to at least give it a Best Picture nomination as that is on open category in which everyone can vote in.  Politics play a huge role in nominations aside from quality.

Unlike the Best Foreign Language films and Best Visual Effects nominees the other categories can be nominated by anyone regardless if the film has been seen yet or not.  So favoritism is abundant among nominees.

Though Heath Ledger so far is a lock to win the big award for Best Supporting Actor remember that no one even Spencer Tracy has won an award posthumously for acting since Peter Finch for Network in 1977.

Just because a film is nominated by the three major awards guilds (producers, writers, directors) does not guarantee the film will be nominated for best pictures such as the case with Being John Malkovich,  Almost Famous, and Leaving Las Vegas.

Hope this little bit of information helps you all ! Good Luck !