The Oscar nominations are out…

Posted by Movie_Maven

January 24, 2009 |

Within the more “popular” categories, there are a few directors/actors/actresses who seem to be perennial nominees and such remains the case this year as well. Examples include Sean Penn (Milk), Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Kate Winslet (The Reader), Meryl Streep (Doubt), Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt), and Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon) who seem to be nominated en masse every year. Not to take anything away from any of these performers (as I am a huge Kate Winslet fan), it is almost expected.

What is unique this year is the variety of other nominees, with Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire with 10 nominations (2nd only to Benjamin Button with 13 nominations) including best picture, director, and adapted screenplay, etc. To be honest, I had no idea what this film was about until I checked out my fav website, imdb.com to learn it was a film about “an impoverished Indian teen” who becomes a contenstant on the Hindi version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”, wins, and is then accused of cheating. Despite the myriad nominations, Boyle’s Indian co-director, Loveleen Tandan, was overlooked.

Some names we haven’t seen nominated in a while, or never before, include Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler), Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder), Melissa Leo (Frozen River), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon - what brilliant casting), Josh Brolin (Milk), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), and Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married - again, I hadn’t heard about this film either).

I am very happy that Heath Ledger earned a posthumous Oscar nod for The Dark Knight (as much as I adore Christian Bale, I believe Ledger MADE the film and deserves the win in a very tough field this year, but I am not on the voting committee.)

For a full list of all of the nominees, check here.

The 81st Academy Awards will air Sunday, 22 February.