And the nominees are… (original)
Biggies (i.e., the ones I care about):
Best Actor
Johnny Depp — Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
Ben Kingsley — House Of Sand And Fog
Jude Law — Cold Mountain
Bill Murray — Lost In Translation
Sean Penn — Mystic River
Depp is the surprise nomination here. I still think he was better in Once Upon A Time In Mexico, but what do I know? Bill Murray would be my pick for the Oscar.
Best Supporting Actor
Alec Baldwin — The Cooler
Benicio Del Toro — 21 Grams
Djimon Hounsou — In America
Tim Robbins — Mystic River
Ken Watanabe — The Last Samurai
Alec Baldwin is the trendy cool nomination. Lotta quality performances here; this is a really strong field. Baldwin is deserving, Robbins is deserving, and Watanabe is deserving. I’d bet Del Toro is deserving too.
Best Actress
Keisha Castle-Hughes — Whale Rider
Diane Keaton — Something’s Gotta Give
Samantha Morton — In America
Charlize Theron — Monster
Naomi Watts — 21 Grams
Trendy choice: Keisha Castle-Hughes. Winner: probably Charlize Theron. Shamefully, I have seen none of these.
Best Supporting Actress
Shohreh Aghdashloo — House Of Sand And Fog
Patricia Clarkson — Pieces Of April
Marcia Gay Harden — Mystic River
Holly Hunter — Thirteen
Renée Zellweger — Cold Mountain
I dunno. Shamefully — you know the rest. (OK, I saw Mystic River. Marcia Gay Harden was good.)
Best Animated Film
Brother Bear
Finding Nemo
The Triplets Of Belleville
Triplets is a bit of a surprise. This year, the voters will decide if this award is a prestige award or an award for the big US film (which is not to say Finding Nemo isn’t good, but it’s a perception thing). So far it’s gone both ways, with Shrek and Spirited Away.
Best Director
City Of God
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
Lost In Translation
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World
Mystic River
HEY. I guess City of God is eligible this year after all. It’s not gonna win but possibly it should.
Best Screenplay (Adaptation)
American Splendor
City Of God
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
Mystic River
Seabiscuit
I’m torn between Mystic River and Return of the King. I guess you gotta go with the latter as a recognition of the trilogy, but the Mystic River screenplay was a superlative adaptation of a difficult book.
Best Screenplay (Original)
The Barbarian Invasions
Dirty Pretty Things
Finding Nemo
In America
Lost In Translation
Dirty Pretty Things. Not that I didn’t love Lost in Translation, but it wasn’t the screenplay that made it a great movie.
Best Picture
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
Lost In Translation
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World
Mystic River
Seabiscuit
All good choices. Return of the King gets it, again for the trilogy, although I can’t say it was a better movie than Lost in Translation.
I think the big surprise for me was the animated films category. Finding Nemo and Triples deserve the nomination. But where is Millenium Actress (which I thought was amazing and probably more deserving than Brother Bear (though I haven't seen)).
yeah, you didn't really HAVE to see Brother Bear did you? and WTF, the french get animation nods but not the Japanese? gwuh?
You don't really want to know what i think about the oscars.
I bet I have an idea. I think they're a total joke; I'm interested on a sort of meta-level. See above commentary about cool choices vs. likely choices.
The actual list of nominees for Best Original Screenplay are:
Bend it like Beckham
Dirty Pretty Things
In America
Lost in Translation
The Station Agent
Um, check the official list I linked to.