Oscar Time Again

     Oscar nominations were announced today. Many fine films, many fine actors and actresses, but most of these films did fairly poorly at the box office. The top best film nominee at the box office as of today is "Ray," with about $73 million total. Not exactly a blockbuster. This of course does not mean they are bad films by any stretch of the imagination. The Aviator is supposed to be fantastic, and I'm sure will easily break $100 million by year's end. So my point is that most of these films no one has seen; including me. Of course now that they have been nominated, people will flock to the theaters to see them. I intend to see all of them except Ray by Feb. 27th at 7pm.
     I take little stock in what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences says is the best. After all, the number of snubs and ridiculous wins over the years is staggering. Of course my own personal bias of Star Wars (possibly the most influencial film ever for visual and sound effects) losing to a Woody Allen flick that was nothing short of mediocre. Jim Carrey not being nominated for Man on the Moon. Saving Private Ryan losing to Shakespeare in Love. I could go on and on.
     Of course, having said all that, the Academy usually gets it right. Dances with Wolves, Rain Man, Jessica Tandy in '89, Nicolas Cage in '95, etc. This year, the films aren't the news. All of the media outlets today are quickly mentioning all the nominees, then jumping right into two stories, which are of course the same story: the snubbing of Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Passion of the Christ. Fahrenheit 9/11 received no nominations, and The Passion received 3 for make-up, score and cinematography. Of course these were both political moves on the part of the Academy. Why religion is political I don't know, but apparently it has become that way due to the media and probably Bush's obvious spiritual life.
     So, I might as well jump into the mix as well. Putting politics and religion completely aside, I didn't feel that either film was all that great. Fahrenheit paled in comparison to 2002's Bowling for Columbine. It was simply a fat man preaching about his political beliefs; and The Passion was nothing more than two hours of watching a man being tortured to death. Mel sure loves the violence.
     I do think Fahrenheit should've been nominated for most clever editing, and Jim Caviezel not being up for best actor is crazy! The man learned Arabic and was struck by lightning twice during filming! If you are religious, the film can be very powerful as well. Plus, the film is number 9 domestically in the top-grossing films of all time. He must have done something right, no?
     Anyway, here are my predictions for winners (in the categories that I care about), even though I haven't seen most of the films (yet). These are my predictions, not necessarily my hopes:

Best Film: The Aviator
Best Actor: Don Cheadle...maybe Foxx
Best Actress: Hilary Swank
Best Actor in a
Supporting Role: Clive Owen
Best Actress in a
Supporting Role: Cate Blanchett
Best Director: Scorcese (Aviator)
Best Documentary: Tupac: Resurrection
Writing (adapted): Finding Neverland
Writing (original): Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Visual Effects: Spider-Man 2
Costume Design: The Aviator
Animated Feature: Shrek 2

     Well, that's my mind this year. No clear front-runners, and a bunch of relatively unknown films in a year where Hollywood basically shat itself with junk. Of all the films nominated for something this year, I have seen and can recommend the following:

Hotel Rwanda
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Incredibles
Shrek 2
Phantom of the Opera (if you don't mind a musical)
Super-Size Me
The Village


Related Links:
Everything Osacar here
Fahrenheit 9/11 at IMDB
The Passion at IMDB