2006 Oscar Nominations Announced

The Academy announced it's nominations for the 2006 Oscars this morning. The Best picture contenders this year are The Departed, The Queen, Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Little Miss Sunshine. I've only seen two of the five, The Departed & Little Miss Sunshine, so I can't pick apart the nominations to much. But if I had my druthers I would replace Little Miss Sunshine with United 93. Sunshine was fun and a decent picture but not close to a best picture. United 93, though a tough pill to swallow, is an amazing work and really deserves more attention. I don't have a Munich for me to champion this year like I did last. And please don't get me started on The Departed...

As far as the other nominations go I'm not to concerned with the acting noms, but it seems like the kudos were fairly evenly distributed which I think is appropriate in a year such as this.

Best Visual Effects... Pirates 2 is Golden.

Best original Score... Where is the Fountain?! The score to The Fountain is AMAZING and deserves a nomination if nothing else. Given the choices though I pick Notes on a Scandal. Philip Glass is hands down my favorite composer and I would love to see him get recognized with an Oscar.

Best Song... I thought they were sticking with only three nominations like they did last year?! I guess there were to many complaints by those left out in the cold without nominations. Dreamgirls got 3 of the 5 nominations though?! Come on, share the love!! "You Know My Name" from Casino Royale got robbed. Does Dreamgirls really need 3 nomination in a single category? I hope they all cancel themselves out and "Our Town" from Cars wins. Its a beautiful song that worked so well in the film.

Best Director... Everyone is trying to hand this to Scorsese, as they have in the past, but I don't buy it. I like Scorsese and his contribution to the history of Cinema is immeasurable but The Departed is not his best work. Part of me thinks that Clint Eastwood is going to upset him again just as he did in 2004. Maybe Paul Greengrass can slide in there and win for United 93? That would be great!

Best Cinmeatography... I haven't seen any on the noms but given what I have heard and his recent track record I would pick Emmanuel Lubezki for Children of Men.

Best Makeup... Click? Really?! CLICK?! There had to be something that could fill that slot that was better than Click?!

This year looks like a pretty good year for animation at the Oscars. In a year that saw so many animated films in the theaters its a shame that the category is limited to 3 rather than the 5 they would have had if one more film would have qualified. (Arthur and the Invisibles was to round out the tally but it failed to qualify as an Animated Feature due to disproportion of live action to animation in the film) I think Cars, Happy Feet, & Monster House are good picks. I think Cars will take home the Annie this year which would put it as the front runner at the Oscars, but Happy Feet has gained a lot of attention lately and this may be the first year that academy breaks with ASIFA and awards it to someone else. Either way I would be happy. I really enjoyed both films. The Animated Short category looks really nice this year as well, with 3 shorts from major studios showing up nominated. I've seen the Scrat and Little Matchgirl shorts and I like them both. I'd really like to see the new short from Pixar, but most likely I'll have to wait to see it this summer with Ratatouille. Overall it looks like things are continuing to look up for the animation industry as a whole.

For a closer look at the nominees in the animation categories, including video clips, check out the AWN Oscar Showcase located here: http://www.awn.com/oscars07/

Agree? Disagree? Thoughts?