Oscar nominations announced

[WiredTiger]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/11/sprj.aa03.oscar.noms/index.html

I haven't seen many of the movies but I hope to hit a bunch of them before the Awards are announced. No huge surprises but it is weird to see Queen Latifah get a nomination. Can you imagine a world where it is Academy Award Winning Actress Queen Latifah?

[KCBOOMER]

The academy awards offer a little spice to the movie going this time of year.

[WiredTigress]

No huge surprises. The surprise to me, is how very little of the movies I've actually seen.
Also reaffirms that the Golden Globes are not always a good indicator of who the Academy will nominate....Sorry Richard Gere!
I'm motivated to get out there and see some movies.

[Craig S.]

I've seen all 5 nominees, and I'd have to go with Chicago, although it would be nice to see Scorcese win for Gangs.

It's disappointing to see that many of the more original films this year - Adaptation comes to mind - got passed over in favor of 'safer' choices like The Hours, a film that didn't even come close to measuring up to the book it was taken from. I don't know how that got nominated over Far From Heaven, which was a great movie.

Julianne Moore has a real shot at winning twice, although I doubt the Academy would do it. She should at least win for FFH. And I'd love to see Michael Caine or Nic Cage win Best Actor, although I have a feeling they've already rewarded it to Jack.

[gyb13]

How the hell did Cidade de Deus (City of God) not get nominated for Best Foreign??? :mad:

[JamesI]

My predictions (remember I haven't seen most of these films)

Picture Chicago
Director Chicago
Actor Daniel Day Lewis
Actress Kidman
Supporting Actress Juliane Moore
Supporting Actor Ed Harris

[Craig S.]

Originally posted by gyb13
How the hell did Cidade de Deus (City of God) not get nominated for Best Foreign??? :mad:

No idea, gyb. I know that Brazil submitted it, but the Academy once again chose to overlook superior work.

I saw the film after I'd already made my Top 10 list, but it definitely would rank near the top. I find very few movies to actually be "powerful," but COG certainly was.

[Gosfgiants]

There were two films that should of gotten nominated in their respective categories. One was City of God and the other was Bowling for Columbine. City of God was slighted, but Columbine received a nominatation. You win some, you lose some.

As far as the major awards ago, I agree that academy is picking safer, more mainstream films. The darkhorse nominee is The Pianist. The film snob in me is pulling for it to win over the big Hollywood pictures nominated.

[WiredTigress]

Originally posted by WiredTiger
http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/11/sprj.aa03.oscar.noms/index.html
No huge surprises but it is weird to see Queen Latifah get a nomination. Can you imagine a world where it is Academy Award Winning Actress Queen Latifah?

You know what is even more bizarre, Wired Tiger? That Eminem could be an Oscar winner for Original song?!

He's nominated for the song, Lose Yourself from the 8 Mile movie.
I do not doubt his talent, it's just sort of weird/wild to think about...

[WiredTiger]

Originally posted by WiredTigress
You know what is even more bizarre, Wired Tiger? That Eminem could be an Oscar winner for Original song?!

He's nominated for the song, Lose Yourself from the 8 Mile movie.
I do not doubt his talent, it's just sort of weird/wild to think about... With Eminem and Queen Latifah being nominated for Oscars it can't be long before Snoop Dogg gets one for his Girls Gone Wild video

[TGwynn19]

Originally posted by WiredTiger
With Eminem and Queen Latifah being nominated for Oscars it can't be long before Snoop Dogg gets one for his Girls Gone Wild video


now there is one that I have seen;)

[UK_Halo]

Originally posted by gyb13
How the hell did Cidade de Deus (City of God) not get nominated for Best Foreign??? :mad:


A better question is why was it not in the Best Picture list? Must a film be in English to qualify? And if so, is that why 8 Mile didn't get in?

[Skip]

Originally posted by UK_Halo
Must a film be in English to qualify? And if so, is that why 8 Mile didn't get in? Very good. :)

[gyb13]

Originally posted by UK_Halo
Must a film be in English to qualify? no, I think La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful) was nominated for best picture as well as best foreign picture.

[Craig S.]

Originally posted by gyb13
no, I think La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful) was nominated for best picture as well as best foreign picture.

Yes, it was. And Il Postino was also up for Best Picture several years ago, as was Crouching Tiger last year. I just can't imagine a foreign film ever winning, not with the Academy voters.

[Gosfgiants]

Originally posted by Craig S.
I just can't imagine a foreign film ever winning, not with the Academy voters.

I don't think the Academy voters are ever going to make the unsafe choice. Look at some of the films that have won recently. Gladiator, Titantic, and A Beautiful Mind are all safe bet Hollywood films. If I'm the producers of Chicago I would start drafting my acceptance speech now.

[Duque]

I think Peter Jackson is getting seriously shafted out of a director nod - or maybe they'll give it to him for ROTK next year?

[WiredTiger]

Originally posted by Duque
I think Peter Jackson is getting seriously shafted out of a director nod - or maybe they'll give it to him for ROTK next year? That is what Roger Ebert is speculating.

[JamesI]

Originally posted by Duque
I think Peter Jackson is getting seriously shafted out of a director nod - or maybe they'll give it to him for ROTK next year?

I don't see LOTR ever winning a big award. I wasn't surprised Jackson didn't get nominated this year, and will be surprised if he gets nominated next year. Sequels never do well in the oscars.

[Skip]

Tell that to Godfather II

IMO, particularly with a movie as challenging as LOTR:TTT, to nominate the movie without the director is either (a) making a blatant token picture nomination while making it clear there is no chance of winning (so why do it???), or (b) dissing the director. Or both.

[JamesI]

Originally posted by Skip
Tell that to Godfather II

IMO, particularly with a movie as challenging as LOTR:TTT, to nominate the movie without the director is either (a) making a blatant token picture nomination while making it clear there is no chance of winning (so why do it???), or (b) dissing the director. Or both.

Godfather II is the exception, the ONLY sequel to win best picture.

[WiredTiger]

WiredTigress and I went on a movie spree and saw the rest of the Oscar best picture nominations this weekend. We had already seen Two Towers so it was The Pianist and Gangs of New York on Sunday and Chicago and the Hours on Monday.

My overall impressions....
Gangs of New york... Unnecessarily long. I think this might have been a tighter and more entertaining movie at 2 hours long. Not a bad movie but not Scorsesee's best effort. Nowhere near Goodfellas or the Godfather. There were some good acting performances in the movie but nothing that I found outstanding.

Two Towers... A Very good movie. Hard for this one to get support with the third one coming out next year. I rate this one just a notch below the Hours, Chicago and the Pianist.

I am still thinking about which of the next three I liked the best. It's very hard to compare them because they are so different.


The Pianist... Very sad but very moving. I still can't believe what people had to go through in that time period. Adrian Brody was very good and the supporting cast was excellent.

The Hours... I liked this movie a lot. I haven't read the book so I don't really have that to compare it to. The way the stories are intertwined is very interesting and the acting was outstanding.

Chicago... Very entertaining and very good. I didn't much care for Richard Gere (Leading credence to my theory that Richard Gere is not a very good actor or singer or dancer). I wished they had found someone else for this role. The other performers were very good. Catherine Zeta Jones was excellent and Renee Zellwegger played her part well. Queen Latifah was very good in her small role.

If I had to choose right now I would choose The Pianist for my favorite of the five.

Predictions...
Chicago takes the Oscar.

[Craig S.]

Originally posted by WiredTiger
Predictions...
Chicago takes the Oscar.

Right now, that seems to be a pretty safe bet. I think Gangs might gather some momentumn, but I can't see any of the others having much of a shot.

I have to admit, I found The Hours to be pretty dull. Good acting, but I didn't like the script. Maybe because it meandered too far from Cunningham's book for my liking.

And as usual, most of the best films I saw this year were overlooked. Both Adaptation and Far From Heaven were better than any of the nominees.

[WiredTigress]

My brain swims everytime I think of the Oscars! I like to call it the year of the woman. Strong female performances in overwhelmingly stellar films dominated this year's Oscar landscape. I was at a loss to trying to consider what men were nominated for lead performance at first.

There's a movement for Scorcese's film, Gangs of New York to win because of the lack of a best picture (dir. by Scorcese) win for him. Gangs was muddled. Story interesting but not streamlined enough for me to count it worthy.

Two Towers was good, but I have a feeling the honor is going to wait for the third and final installment.

Chicago is the odds makers jewel. I enjoyed it endlessly and was captivated but didn't leave me with a sense that it hands down deserves it.

The Pianist and The Hours left me with a sense of awe. Adrien Brody was stellar. He is the movie.

My own personal vote is for The Hours. (I read the book by Cunningham long ago). It was a difficult book to bring to the screen, but the thing that I loved was the rich layered characters and sense of the evolution of women, their choices, and overall complexity.

A good year for movies, but not a great year. (Is it a coincidence all nominated movies are from the last gasp of 2002?) Seems like a trend...