Oscar nominees perspective

With Thursdays nominations announced I thought it would be good to give you a little perspective on this years Oscar nominees and whether their chances are any better or worse .

First off we should speak about the film everyone is upset at right now.  The Reader.  Now while this film did steal the nomination from a certain caped crusader and robot, it should be known that while the  film did garner  a nomination for Best Picture and director, the films chances still do not fare as well as one may hope.  The Reader is the only best picture nominee to be completely shut out of the 4 guilds awards.  Producers guild, directors guild, screen actors guild and writers guild. The films best shot is with the Best Actress nomination of Kate Winslet, as she is considered over due for on Oscar and with her being a lead in the film.  Winslet her self actually campaigned to have her nominated as Best Supporting Actress for The Reader and lead actress for Revolutionary Road but as opposed the say the golden globes, come oscar nominations actors can vote for a performance where ever they see fit.  But if you do have mad love for The Reader maybe the academy will give the film sympathy as it was the final film for Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack.

Thomas Newman the man behind this years oscar nominated Wall E, has just racked up a rather impressive 9th and 10th nomination of his career.  Again these are his 9th and 10th nominations.  He has yet to win a single Oscar.  Will this year be the year he breaks his losing streak?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the only the 11th film in history to be nominated for 13 Oscar nominations.  The film comes as the biggest winner this past Thursday when Oscar nominations were announced but to date the film is also the biggest loser having not won any of  the big awards to date.  The film has been nominated for several awards this season but has failed to win Best Picture as of yet.  The films biggest win so far is the broadcast film critics association givng the film Best Director and Best Screenplay, along with naming the film one of the top 10 films of the year.

Sean Penn Vs. Micky Rourke: Round 1  Sean Penn currently leads with 12 film critics wins while Mikey Rourke is in a close second with 7 nominations. Round 2  Mickey Rouke wins both the golden globe and the broadcast film critics association awards. Round 3 Sean Pennis currently the heavily favored to win the Oscar despite the globe loss, though with the Oscars being very political is currently being effected by his 2 years refusal to even show up at the golden globes despite his win for Mystic Riverand and his zero fondness with the press.  Can Mickey Rourke show up his friend Sean Penn with a win based on his ‘comeback’ alone?

No actor has ever won an Oscar for portraying a presidential figure. The closest one has ever come was Anthony Hopkins back in 1995 for Oliver Stone’s Nixon.  Things don’t look to well for Frank Langella who portrays the same figure so well this year in Frost/Nixon though again politics do come in to play as many believe he is due for an Oscar as well as his win being a penance for him not being nominated for last years  Starting out in the Evening.

Since 1997 with the exception of Shakespeare In Love and Million Dollar Baby no film has won Best Picture with a box office gross of less than 50 million. The current standings are :

The Reader: 8 million

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: 104.3 million

Slumdog Millionaire: 44.7 million

Milk: 20.6 million

Frost/Nixon: 8.8 million

 

A.R Rahman who was nominated 3 times this year for best musical score and twice for Best Song for Slumdog MIllionaire’s O…Saya and Jai Ho is only the 3rd and 4th songs ever nominated that have not been in english.

France is currently the leader in foreign language film wins and is nominated again this year for the class which on this years Palm D’or at he cannes film festival, though the animated film Waltz With Bashir currently holds the most wins for foreign language film of the year.  Waltz With Bashir is also the first animated film to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, though it is the thirteenth cartoon to be submitted.