Reply With Quote
I hope Jamie Foxx and "Ray" win.
The Associated Press
The Howard Hughes epic "The Aviator" led Academy Awards contenders with 11 nominations Tuesday, including best picture among them, plus acting honors for Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett and Alan Alda and a directing slot for Martin Scorsese.
The boxing saga "Million Dollar Baby" and the J.M. Barrie tale "Finding Neverland" followed with seven nominations each, among best picture and acting nominations for Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Hilary Swank and Johnny Depp.
Eastwood also got a directing nomination for "Million Dollar Baby."
The other best-picture nominees were the Ray Charles portrait "Ray" and the buddy comedy "Sideways."
Along with Eastwood, Jamie Foxx also scored two nominations, as best actor for the le role in "Ray" and supporting actor as a taxi driver whose cab is hijacked by a hit man in "Collateral."
Foxx's dead-on emulation of Charles has made him the front-runner in the lead-actor category.
Starring as aviation trailblazer and Hollywood rebel Hughes, DiCaprio also was nominated for best actor. He and Foxx will compete against Depp as "Peter Pan" playwright Barrie in "Finding Neverland"; Eastwood as a cantankerous boxing trainer in "Million Dollar Baby"; and Don Cheadle for "Hotel Rwanda," starring as hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, who sheltered refugees from the Rwandan genocide.
The best-actress category presents a rematch of the 1999 showdown, when underdog Swank won the Oscar for "Boys Don't Cry" over Annette Bening, who had been the front-runner for "American Beauty."
This time, Swank was nominated as a bullheaded boxing champ whose life takes a cruel twist in "Million Dollar Baby." Bening was chosen for "Being Julia," in which she plays an aging 1930s stage diva exacting wickedly comic revenge on the men in her life and a young rival.
Both actresses won Golden Globes for the roles, Swank for best dramatic actress, Bening for actress in a musical or comedy.
Also nominated for the best-actress Oscar were Catalina Sandino Moreno as a Colombian woman imperiled when she signs on to smuggle heroin in "Maria Full of Grace"; Imelda Staunton as a saintly housekeeper in 1950s Britain who performs illegal abortions on the side in "Vera Drake"; and Kate Winslet as a woman who has had memories of her ex-boyfriend erased in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."
Joining Eastwood and Scorsese among directing nominees are Taylor Hackford for "Ray"; Mike Leigh for "Vera Drake"; and Alexander Payne for "Sideways."
Scorsese, arguably the most prominent modern filmmaker who has never won an Oscar, also has never delivered a best-picture winner. Considered a nominal best-picture favorite, "The Aviator" offers him a shot to finally triumph on Oscar night, though Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is a formidable compe or.
"The Aviator" won the Golden Globe for best-dramatic film, but Eastwood beat out Scorsese for the directing prize at the Globes. Eastwood is a past Oscar winner for best-picture and director with 1992's "Unforgiven."
Along with Foxx in "Collateral," Alda was nominated for supporting actor as a senator tussling with Hughes in "The Aviator" while Freeman was picked as a worldly-wise ex-boxer in "Million Dollar Baby." The other nominees: Thomas Haden Church as a bridegroom out for a final fling in "Sideways"; Clive Owen as a coarse lover in "Closer."
For supporting actress, academy voters picked Blanchett, who plays Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator"; Laura Linney as the le character's sexually adventurous wife in "Kinsey"; Virginia Madsen as a deceived lover in "Sideways"; Sophie Okonedo as innkeeper Rusesabagina's wife in "Hotel Rwanda"; Natalie Portman as a gutsy stripper in "Closer."
It was the best year ever for black performers, who had five of the 20 acting nominations. The most previously was three, including the 2001 Oscars when Halle Berry and Denzel Washington both won the lead acting prizes.
"Sideways" star Paul Giamatti was overlooked for a nomination, a surprise given that he had been a contender for most previous film honors. Liam Neeson, who had the le role in "Kinsey," also missed out, as did the movie, which had considered a best-picture contender.
Mel Gibson's religious blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ" missed out on main categories, but did pick up nominations for cinematography, makeup and original score.
Michael Moore's gamble to hold his hit film "Fahrenheit 9/11" out of the do entary category -- to boost its best-picture prospects -- backfired. The movie was shut out across the board.
Moore won the do entary prize two years ago for "Bowling for Columbine."
Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me," which hilariously chronicles his monthlong feed frenzy on an all-McDonald's diet, was among the do entary nominees.
Also nominated was "Born into Brothels," "The Story of the Weeping Camel," "Tupac: Resurrection," and "Twist of Faith."
With its epic scope and dazzling re-creation of early Hollywood, Scorsese's "The Aviator" could claim the inside track as front-runner for best picture. The film won the Golden Globe for best dramatic picture.
Yet unlike last year, when "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" went in as the odds-on favorite and swept all 11 of its categories come Oscar night, the outcome is more uncertain this time.
"The Aviator" could finally bring Scorsese the best-picture and directing wins that have eluded him during his distinguished career. But Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is a heavyweight opponent that could spoil Scorsese's chances.
The fairy-tale comedy "Shrek 2" and the superhero adventure "The Incredibles" will duke it out for the animated feature film Oscar, along with the undersea romp "Shark Tale."
Nominated for foreign-language film were Sweden's "As It Is in Heaven," France's "The Chorus," Germany's "Downfall," Spain's "The Sea Inside" and South Africa's "Yesterday."
Nominees in most categories are chosen by specific branches of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, such as directors, actors and writers. The full academy membership of about 5,800 is eligible to vote in all categories for the Oscars themselves.
ABC will broadcast the Oscars live Feb. 27 from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. Chris Rock is the show's host.
I hope Jamie Foxx and "Ray" win.
I saw Ray, The Aviatior and Finding Neverland. I think Jamie Fox deserves the Best Actor nominee over Leo and Depp. But they might just give Fox the supporting actor in Collateral(I saw that too) as a token and give it to Leo to go along with the other 10 it will win.
To with Leo...give Jamie both!
You were saying this before you even saw the Aviator.
Honestly, DiCaprio turning into Howard Hughes was more impressive than Foxx turning into Ray Charles...I think DiCaprio had the tougher assisgnment. Not only because he looks nothing like Hughes, but because Hughes was a flake.
However, I do think Foxx will probably win because it's the PC pick and the timing of the movie release was perfect.
I'll say this though...all 3 of the guys you mentioned were in biography type films...those guys almost never win the Oscar, and a lot of guys have given excellent performances in those types of roles.
And when you have 2 or 3 guys nominated for that same type of role...DiCaprio's performance is excellent, as is Jamie Foxx's....I could see them canceling each other out...
It won't surprise me if Eastwood steals this one as sort of a career achievement award, other than that I think it will be Foxx...but I don't agree that he he was better than DiCaprio.
I haven't seen Aviator or Ray....but I loved Foxx in Collateral.
I'm a cheap bas ette, remember?
Howard Hughes was "a modest, retiring, lonely genius, often misunderstood, sometimes misrepresented and libeled by malicious associates and greedy little men..."
"I am by nature a perfectionist, and I seem to have trouble allowing anything to go through in a half-perfect condition. So if I made any mistake it was in working too hard and in doing too much of it with my own hands."
Looks like Clint Eastwood s out Oscar gold....didn't Mystic River win a few awards last year as well?
Foxx was excellent in both Collateral and Ray....the fact that he got nominated in two different best actor categories is one of an honor...it doesn't happen very often.
It won't be a travesty if he wins in either category...but I don't think he'll win both.
LOL what's funny is Tom Cruise's costars have won about 60 Oscars and he's been in more blockbuster films than anyone other than maybe Harrison Ford..and he's got no Oscar, ditto Harrison Ford....
Yet a guy like Daniel Day Lewis has an Oscar and I bet most people can't think of more than 1 movie he's been in, and probably never even saw the movie he won the Oscar for...
I've never understood exactly how they choose who wins but it's usually a pretty screwed up choice...to me if the movie is poular and loved it should probably be the best picture...yet those movies never win...LOTR last year is just about the first time I can think of it happening.
But think about it...
Jaws
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Star Wars
None of those movies won any acting or best picture Oscars...but can anyone remember who did win the years those movies were nominated?
Seems stupid to me that the Academy so often rewards forgettable films and roles.
If it's that forgettable then the actors and directors didn't succeed in their jobs.
And yes this is my way of ing about the fact that the immortal Spiderman 2 will go home Oscarless this year.
Spiderman 2- will get...Achievement in Sound Mixing....
yeah...the Academy is really something...the most popular movie of all time where people voted with their dollars to the tune of 700 million smackers doesn't get for nominations for best picture and a movie about snuffing a handicapped person gets multiple nominations in the prime time categorys in the same year really makes a lot of sense...
Which were these?
Passion of the Christ was the biggest box office of all time...and in Million Dollar Baby the lead character (Hillary Swank) gets paralyzed from the waist down and since "life isn't worth living" anymore wants to be euthanized...and is...
I thought the Aviator was... long.
I wish they'd just give Scorsese the Best Director Oscar so he can go back to making Martin Scorsese movies.
I've never seen either of them.....
SW, just don't go see the Passion of the Christ on a full stomach or in a squeamish mood. You will regret it.
Scorsese should have won it for Raging Bull...that was another year the Academy gave a crap artsy fartsy film the Best Picture Award.
What won it that year? Chariots of Fire or some kind of crap like that?
One of my favorite movies of all time.Raiders of the Lost Ark
Harrison Ford easily one of my top 5 actors of all time.
Harrison Ford is great...it's a joke he hasn't won an Oscar for any of his movies...obviously he is capable of creating memorable characters, regardless of whether or not he could do Shakespeare, and to me that's what separates a great actor from merely a good actor. It takes more than memorizing lines to make a good movie...and Ford, like a lot of other much maligned actors who were absolute Superstars and boxoffice gold,, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood,...made you remember him. I think he should have won a Best Actor for Witness or Blade Runner, if not Raiders.
Harrison Ford's only failed movies really are the ones where he was obviously trying to win an Oscar...
Like the Mosquito Coast. That movie is crap, easily the worst movie of his career, and a total box office failure, but it's probably the one that gets him the most critical acclaim.
Last edited by whottt; 01-25-2005 at 02:56 PM.
I actually picked COF for the Oscar the minute I left the theater. I really liked it at the time and I just knew that it would win, I told my girlfriend that it would win that night walking out of the movies. I was right, huh?What won it that year? Chariots of Fire or some kind of crap like that?
I did not care for Raging Bull, personally.
I thought Harrison was awesome in The Fugitive.
Also that one where his wife dies in the airplane crash while having an affair.
Yeah? And you have also admitted an attraction to Brad Pit(if you were female) so why does it not surprise me that you picked COF for the Oscar?
I rest my case.
I did not care for Raging Bull, personally.
I bet you were bummed when The Crying Game got shut out
Chariots of Fire was the only movie, in the history of me going to the movies, that I ever actually fell sound asleep in.
And it was packed in that theater, too.
Dear CC,
Popular movies often get shut out at Oscar time.
Sincerely,
Steven Speilberg and George Lucas
Chariots of Fire was the only movie, in the history of me going to the movies, that I ever actually fell sound asleep in.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
