Here's the official list of this year's Oscar nominations.

Link

I almost never see new movies, so I have no opinion. (I've never even heard of a lot of these movies.)

For those of you who do:

What nominations are not deserved?

Who and what should have been nominated, but were not?

Who and what will win?

Who and what should win?

My first impression is that the list does not seem to represent a bumper year in film.
I think, like Michael Douglass' role in Wall Street, Meryl Streep's excellent performance in the Devil Wears Prada is more worthy of a supporting oscar than a lead one.

From what I have read about Letters From iwo Jima I am extremely excited and it seems like it my prove to be one of the major achievements of American film making. But then again, potential does not a classic make.

I saw Little Miss Sunshine and I like that type of movie but I did not think it merited great acclaim. If this year's films are that weak maybe we should skip the awards ceremony this year.

What nominations are not deserved?

I wouldn't say that there are any nominees that are totally undeserving, but I think Little Miss Sunshine is vastly overrated. There were a lot of films more deserving of a Best Picture nomination this year. I'm also getting a bit tired of Clint Eastwood, but don't mind him getting nominated as Best Director for the 847th time - but if he beats out Martin Scorsese again, I'll be really annoyed.

Actually, come to think of it, United 93 was nominated for Best Direction, which it definitely does not deserve and for Best Editing, which is ridiculous. The editing of that film was a total, incomprehensible mess. So, yeah - there are a couple of nominations that are absolutely undeserving.


Who and what should have been nominated, but were not?

Pan's Labyrinth deserves a lot more attention than it got - and should have been nominated as Best Picture. V for Vendetta, Thank You for Smoking, and Brick, three of the best films of the year, were ignored entirely.

I had serious doubts about Dreamgirls and wasn't even all that interested in seeing it, but it turned out to be actually quite good and Bill Condon is far more deserving of a Best Director nomination than Paul Greenglass is for United 93. The same goes for Alfonso Cuarón, who directed Children of Men and Guillermo del Toro, who directed Pan's Labyrinth. Compared to the Mexican directors this year (including Alejandro González Iñárritu who did get a nomination for Babel), Greenglass is an insect among gods.

I also thought Flags of Our Fathers was pretty good and it was completely overlooked (or maybe just overshadowed by Letters from Iwo Jima, which I have not yet seen). And, even though we've seen it before and he's already been honored for variations on the same performance, I was surprised that Jack Nicholson didn't get a nod as Supporting Actor in The Departed.


Who and what will win?

The only really sure things are (I think) Helen Mirren as Best Actress and Jennifer Hudson as best Supporting Actress. Forest Whitaker also looks pretty certain for Best Actor, but I haven't seen The Last King of Scotland yet. I expect that Cars is a shoo-in for Best Animated feature and it looks pretty likely that An Inconvenient Truth will take home the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. Beyond that, there are a lot of awards that are pretty up in the air so far.


Who and what should win?

Mirren and Hudson definitely deserve Oscars for their performances - and I would love to see Martin Scorsese and Peter O'Toole finally be acknowledged by the Academy. Pan's Labyrinth should win Best Foreign Language film and Art Direction - and probably will. Children of Men deserves the Best Cinematography award, though it could well go to Pan's Labyrinth. If the Academy Awards worked like the Golden Globes and there were separate awards for drama and comedy/musical, I'd like to see Meryl Streep also take home an award for her work in The Devil Wears Prada and Adriana Barraza be honored for Babel. Eddie Murphy was also excellent in Dreamgirls and I'd be delighted if he won the Best Supporting Actor award.

Pan's Labyrinth, Babel, The Departed, Thank You for Smoking, and Children of Men should have been the five nominees for Best Picture (with V for Vendetta as a runner-up) - and I would have been delighted to see any of them win. If The Queen wins the award, I'll be very surprised (though not necessarily disappointed), but if it's yet another Eastwood film or - worse - Little Miss Sunshine, I'll start screaming.

For the record, here are the winners.

Best Picture
THE DEPARTED

Best Director
MARTIN SCORSESE - THE DEPARTED

Best Actor
FOREST WHITAKER - THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

Best Actress
HELEN MIRREN - THE QUEEN

Best Supporting Actor
ALAN ARKIN - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Best Supporting Actress
JENNIFER HUDSON - DREAMGIRLS

Best Foreign Language Film
THE LIVES OF OTHERS (Germany)

Best Original Screenplay
GUILLERMO ARRIAGA - BABEL

Best Adapted Screenplay
WILLIAM MONAHAN - THE DEPARTED

Best Animated Feature
HAPPY FEET

Art Direction
PAN'S LABYRINTH

Animated Short
THE DANISH POET

Live Action Short
WEST BANK STORY

Documentary Feature
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

Documentary Short
THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT

Original Score
BABEL

Sound Editing
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

Sound Mixing
DREAMGIRLS

Visual Effects
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST

Cinematography
PAN'S LABYRINTH

Editing
THE DEPARTED

Make-Up
PAN'S LABYRINTH

Costume Design
MARIE ANTOINETTE

Best Song
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH ("I Need to Wake Up" by Melissa Etherridge)

The Oscars are so low on my radar I honestly didn't even know they were on last night. I read this morning there is some question as to whether Ellen Degeneres should be the host next year.

As an AI fan I say yay to Jennifer Hudson winning an Oscar as a plus I suspect it made Beyonce wince and that sort of thing makes me happy. (Yes I am horribly shallow and petty.) As for Vice President Gore and his win good for him. I don't think there was much of a horse race here.

I too am no devotee of award shows, but I did catch some of it just awhile ago. Entertainment is at a premium over here.....
I was glad to see Forest Whitaker win - he is one of the most talented actors I have ever seen, and though I haven't watched The Last King of Scotland, his presence alone will compel me to see it.

Can't say enough about Ellen Degeneres, she was hilarious!. I loved how she mingled with Scorsese and got Spielberg to snap a picture of her and Clint Eastwood.

I normally don't watch the Oscar's, but I will admit I watched it because I like Ellen Degeneres. I like her sense of humor and I think she pulled last night off quite nicely thank-you-very-much.

I probably don't agree on one political issue with her, but that has nothing to do with her entertainment ability. I'm smart enough to know how to keep the two things separate.

I wasn't particularly excited about any movie or nomination, but I would have given Leonardo DiCarprio the nod for what I thought was an awesome performance in Departed. I thought that unlike the other nominees, he stepped his performance up to a HNL (hole nuther level for any Mad TV fans). The entire movie itself was ok at best.

Ellen getting Spielberg to take her picture with Clint Eastwood and the screenplay she had for Scorsese was funny as hell.

If Ellen does it again next year, I might actually volunteer to watch it instead of my wife bribing me with offers of debauchery if I watch it with her. Of course, I guess I could act like I'm watching it under duress...

It was nice and extremely overdue for Martin Scorcese to finally get some love from his peers for being one of the Top Five Directors making movies today.

It was also nice for Forrest Whittaker and Jennifer Hudson to take home major acting trophies and it wasn't a big thing or an upset.

And Jack Nicholson is still the coolest man on the planet. He's always two drinks ahead of everybody else.