Ellen Page and
Juno earned Oscar nominations so I'm a happy camper. I had pledged to boycott this year's Academy Awards if Page didn't pick up a Best Actress nom and, thankfully, she did. It would have been very difficult to go ahead with my threat had she not been recognized by the voting members of the Academy. But she was and thereafter I can forge ahead covering the 2008 Oscar hoopla without feeling guilty. Good job Academy people!
There were a few real shockers in this year's Oscar nominee list. Everyone assumed it would be
There Will Be Blood,
No Country for Old Men, and
Atonement battling it out for the most Academy Award nominations.
There Will Be Blood and
No Country for Old Men did tie for the most nods with 8 each. There's no real surprise there.
Atonement and
Michael Clayton were right there nipping at their heels with 7 apiece. But I don't think anyone predicted
Ratatouille would get a Best Original Screenplay nomination. It's the best animated film of the year, but that screenwriting nod seemed to come from out of the blue.
Perhaps the biggest surprises were the omissions of Keira Knightley from the Best Actress and James McAvoy from the Best Actor lists. Instead of McAvoy, Tommy Lee Jones earned his third Oscar nomination (and his first in a leading role) for
In the Valley of Elah. Jones was indeed incredible in
Elah, however he hadn't been picking up acting honors from critics groups or other film-related organizations who pass out awards leading up to the Oscars.
Another big shocker came in the Best Director category. Sean Penn made the Directors Guild of America Awards short list of the five best feature film directors but he was surprisingly absent from the Academy Awards' Best Director group. His fellow DGA nominees - Julian Schnabel, Paul Thomas Anderson, Joel & Ethan Coen, and Tony Gilroy - appear on both lists.
Juno's director, Jason Reitman, earned an Oscar nomination in place of Penn.
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