2007 Oscar Nominations

Oscar Nominations were announced for the 80th such ceremony celebrating the art in Cinema. The nominees for best picture are...


I think for the first time I have seen 3 of the 5 nominees before they were announced. While I was really hoping for a Best Picture Nomination for Sweeney Todd I feel pretty satisfied with the announcements. They went pretty much the way people thought it would and there weren't any huge surprises to those paying attention to the awards in general over the last few months. Of the three that I have seen (Juno, "No Country", & "Blood") I would have to say that I would be most happiest to see Juno win. It's just such a great film and it's filled with so much humanity. No Country is an excellent film and in terms of artistic accomplishment I would be content to see that win as well. The thing that impressed me most about that film was the efficiency with which the directors tell the story. They rarely show us anything we don't need to see which adds greatly to the overall impact of the story. I was very eager to see There Will Be Blood based on the trailer and critical praise. In the end to me though it felt like it was one of those films who's praise outweighs the film itself. Don't get me wrong it's very very technically accomplished and it deserves the bulk of the nominations it got but this is definitely a case where the parts are better than the whole, for me at least. (There is a great review Here that sums up very well how I felt about it) I believe I will be able to see the last two (Atonement & Michael Clayton) before the awards are handed out making this the first year I've seen them all going into the ceremony!

(Image from Animated-News)

Animation was pretty well represented again this year. The biggest surprise for me was to see Surf's Up get nominated in the Animated Feature category. It's a good film but it hasn't got much attention lately and didn't do to well at the Box Office. I'd say that I'm content with the three nominees. The one I am most excited to see get nominated, and the one I will be rooting for to win, is Persepolis. It's just such a great film, not just a great animated film. I feel that it also raises the medium to the next level. I hope that it wins and it's just the beginning of this sort of very personal storytelling in animation. Don't get me wrong here though, I love the Pixar, Disney, and DreamWork films just as much as any other animator... it just feels so great to see this sort of diversity within the field. I have unfortunately not seen any of the nominees in the Animated Short category though. From the images above it looks like a very artistically mature lineup. Hopefully they will make their way onto iTunes soon and I can check them out myself.

Lastly I thought I'd share the invite I made for our Oscar Party this year. Given my affinity for a certain singing murderous barber, I'm sure you won't be surprised by the theme...

You can find the full list of nominees Here.