Awards Season is upon us...

So awards season has been officially upon us for a little while now but I thought since the Academy has released their official poster and nomination are right around the corner I would throw my two cents out there. The HFPA have already announced their nominees and Babel came out with the most nominations. In addition, they are following the Academy's lead and giving out an Award for Best Animated Feature this year. They chose Cars, Monster House, & Happy Feet as the cream of the crop for the year. As I mentioned above the Academy has released the promotional poster for this years awards. (Pictured above) Nominations will be announced January 23, 2007. I'm looking forward to see what they think were the best films of the year. They have also announced that Ellen DeGeneres will be host the awards this year. Personally I think she is a fantastic choice, her talk show is very entertaining and she has a wonderful personality. This year should also see five nominations in the Animated Feature category for only the second time in the awards short five year history. Annie nominations were also released recently. I'm looking forward to voting on the Annies for the first time this year, but at the same the number of quality of animated films this year are making it hard to make a decision in some catagories.

As far as live action goes I'm a little behind on the films that are getting the most attention this year. Its been like this for a few years for me. With all the attention being focused on big year end films its hard to get out and see them all in such a short period of time. Still I will make a few predictions/picks based on what I have seen this year...

Score: The Fountain, Roving Mars, United 93

Song: Our Town (Cars), You Know My Name (Casino Royale), I Need to Wake Up (An Inconvientent Truth)

VFX: Casino Royale, Pirates 2

Animated Feature: Happy Feet, Cars, Over The Hedge, Monster House, Flushed Away

Animated Short: The Little Matchgirl, First Flight, No Time for Nuts

Art Direction: Pirates 2, Apocolyto,

Cinematography: Miami Vice, Letters from Iwo Jima

Documentary: An Inconvientent Truth

The best film I have seen thus far this year has been United 93. There are still quite a few films that I would like to see that may change my opinion on some of these catagories including The Pursuit of Happyness, The Fountain, Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Dreamgirls, & Babel.

I just realized that I am most likely just talking with myself about this stuff but who cares I guess. I love movies and though it seems the year end awards are all political, I still enjoy the hubbub over movies. Its my passion for film I guess. I'll chime in again if I see anything worth mentioning and when nominations come out.