Oscar Nominations

This year's Oscar nominations have been announced; and to my dismay, "How to be a Girl" was not nominated for best short, best screenplay, or best director. This is an OUTRAGE; but I digress, the nominations are here and some of them are a bit of a suprise!

From my wife's blog, Nat's Chat, there is a link to an article of snubbed movies that should have been nominated.

And don't forget to look at the Razzie nominations, they go hand in hand with the oscars and I feel any movie that was nominated in both the Oscars and the Razzies should be considered film of the year.

Here are my picks and maybe some comments of who I think will win, in some cases, it is not who I want to win at all, now that is an Inconvenient truth:

Best Motion Picture Of The Year

• "Babel"
• "The Departed"
• "Letters from Iwo Jima"
• "Little Miss Sunshine"
• "The Queen"

Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role

• Leonardo DiCaprio in "Blood Diamond"
• Ryan Gosling in "Half Nelson"
• Peter O'Toole in "Venus"
• Will Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness"
• Forest Whitaker in "The Last King of Scotland"

Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role

• Alan Arkin in "Little Miss Sunshine"
• Jackie Earle Haley in "Little Children"
• Djimon Hounsou in "Blood Diamond"
• Eddie Murphy in "Dreamgirls"
• Mark Wahlberg in "The Departed"

Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role

• Penélope Cruz in "Volver"
• Judi Dench in "Notes on a Scandal"
• Helen Mirren in "The Queen"
• Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada"
• Kate Winslet in "Little Children"

Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role

• Cate Blanchett in "Notes on a Scandal"
• Abigail Breslin in "Little Miss Sunshine"
• Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls"
• Adriana Barraza in "Babel"
• Rinko Kikuchi in "Babel"

Original Screenplay

• "Babel" - Written by Guillermo Arriaga
• "Letters from Iwo Jima" - Screenplay by Iris Yamashit, Story by Iris Yamashita & Paul Haggis
• "Little Miss Sunshine" - Written by Michael Arndt
• "The Queen" - Written by Peter Morgan
• "Pan's Labyrinth" - Written by Guillermo del Toro

Adapted Screenplay

• "Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" - Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Peter Baynham & Dan Maze, Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Peter Baynham & Anthony Hines & Todd Phillips
• "Children of Men" - Screenplay by Alfonso Cuarón & Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus & HawkOstby
• "The Departed" - Screenplay by William Monahan
• "Little Children" - Screenplay by Todd Field & Tom Perrotta
• "Notes on a Scandal" - Screenplay by Patrick Marber

Best Animated Feature Film Of The Year

• "Cars" John Lasseter
• "Happy Feet" George Miller
• "Monster House" Gil Kenan

Achievement In Art Direction

• "Dreamgirls" - Art Direction: John Myhre, Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
• "The Good Shepherd" - Art Direction: Jeannine Oppewal, Set Decoration: Gretchen Rau and Leslie E. Rollins
• "Pan's Labyrinth" - Art Direction: Eugenio Caballer, Set Decoration: Pilar Revuelta
• "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" - Art Direction: Rick Heinrich, Set Decoration: Cheryl A. Carasik
• "The Prestige" - Art Direction: Nathan Crowle, Set Decoration: Julie Ochipinti

Achievement In Cinematography

• "The Black Dahlia" Vilmos Zsigmond
• "The Illusionist" Dick Pope
• "Pan's Labyrinth" Guillermo Navarro
• "Children of Men" Emmanuel Lubezki
• "The Prestige" Wally Pfister

Achievement In Costume Design

• "Curse of the Golden Flower" Yee Chung Man
• "Marie Antoinette" Milena Canonero
• "The Devil Wears Prada" Patricia Field
• "Dreamgirls" Sharen Davis
• "The Queen" Consolata Boyle

Achievement In Directing

• "Babel" Alejandro González Iñárritu
• "The Departed" Martin Scorsese
• "Letters from Iwo Jima" Clint Eastwood
• "The Queen" Stephen Frears
• "United 93" Paul Greengrass

Best Documentary Feature

• "Deliver Us from Evil" - Amy Berg and Frank Donner
• "An Inconvenient Truth" - Davis Guggenheim *sigh*
• "Iraq in Fragments" - James Longley and John Sinno
• "My Country, My Country" - Laura Poitras and Jocelyn Glatzer
• "Jesus Camp" - Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Achievement In Film Editing

• "Babel" - Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise
• "Blood Diamond" - Steven Rosenblum
• "The Departed" - Thelma Schoonmaker
• "United 93" - Clare Douglas, Christopher Rouse and Richard Pearson
• "Children of Men" - Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Cuaron

Best Foreign Language Film Of The Year

• "After the Wedding - Denmark
• "Days of Glory " - Algeria
• "The Lives of Others" - Germany
• "Pan's Labyrinth" - Mexico
• "Water" - Canada

Achievement In Makeup

• "Apocalypto" Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
• "Click" Kazuhiro Tsuji and Bill Corso
• "Pan's Labyrinth" David Marti and Montse Ribe

Achievement In Sound Editing

• "Apocalypto" - Sean McCormack and Kami Asgar
• "Blood Diamond" - Lon Bender
• "Flags of Our Fathers" - Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
• "Letters from Iwo Jima" - Alan Robert Murray
• "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" - Christopher Boyes and George Watters II

Achievement In Sound Mixing

• "Blood Diamond" - Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Ivan Sharrock
• "Apocalypto" - Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Fernando Camara
• "Dreamgirls" - Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer and Willie Burton
• "Flags of Our Fathers" - John Reitz, Dave Campbell, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin
• "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" - Paul Massey, Christopher Boyes and Lee Orloff

Achievement In Visual Effects

• "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" - John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall
• "Poseidon" - Boyd Shermis, Kim Libreri, Chaz Jarrett and John Frazier
• "Superman Returns" - Mark Stetson, Neil Corbould, Richard R. Hoover and Jon Thum

I am really would have liked to see Superman Returns take it for Visual effects, but even with that $200+ million budget, they didn't do that much that we haven't seen before. Pirate won it with the character of Davey Jones alone.

As for movies in both the Razzies and the Oscars, it looks like Superman Returns, Poseiden and Click all are the best and worst of the 2006.