Oscar nominations

I watched the Oscar nomination announcement live Thursday morning with the anxiety of a kid hoping Santa brought him the one thing he REALLY wanted for Christmas.  I don't know why I became so personally invested, but the one thing I really wanted was that best picture nomination for The Dark Knight.  No offense to The Reader, but it was the lump of coal I got instead.  The Dark Knight did receive eight total nominations, though I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.  I'll save my full Dark Knight rant when I post my favorite movies of 2008 in the next few weeks.  Moving on to the other nominations...

Best picture and best director were the same five movies: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire.  This is probably a 2 1/2 horse race, with Slumdog in the lead, Button within reach, and Milk trailing and hoping they both crash.

Best actor wasn't too surprising, matching the SAGs exactly: Brad Pitt (Ben Button), Sean Penn (Milk), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), and Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler).  Rourke won the Golden Globe.  Penn and Langella will push him for the Oscar.  Penn's win for Mystic River probably hurts his chances a bit.

Best actress played out about the same way, but with one twist: while the same five women were nominated as for the SAGs, Kate Winslet is nominated for The Reader and not Revolutionary Road.  The Academy does not allow an actor to be nominated twice in the same category so the fact that she didn't vote split herself out of contention leads me to believe she would have been double nominated had it been allowed.  I'm going to call her a lock for the Oscar for three reasons: Kate is really good in The Reader, there's no clear favorite everyone is talking about (like a Charlize Theron in Monster),  and it's her turn, something the Academy all too often takes into account.  Also nominated are Meryl Streep (Doubt), Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Melissa Leo (Frozen River), and Angelina Jolie (Changling).

Supporting actor is close to the SAGs with Revolutionary Road's Michael Shannon subbed in for Slumdog's Dev Patel.  The other four are Robert Downey Jr (Tropic Thunder), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt), Josh Brolin (Milk), and, the biggest lock of the season, Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight).

Supporting actress also goes 4 for 5 with the SAGs with Taraji Henson (Ben Button), Viola Davis (Doubt), Amy Adams (Doubt), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), and Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler) takes the spot vacated by Winslet's promotion to the lead category for The Reader.  I am excited to see Amy Adams here, but I'll likely end up rooting for Tomei (watching Wrestler tomorrow).  This might be the tightest race at the Oscars.

Here is the IMDb link for the complete list of nominees: http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Academy_Awards_USA/2009