2009 Oscar Preview

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature Film, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Screenplay, Other Categories Home / Review List A-Z / Top Ten Lists / Upcoming Potential / About Andrew

-----The 82nd Oscar Nominees were announced Tuesday morning, highlighting what the final word on Film Awards deemed the best of 2009. As always with this time of year comes many unjust snubs, credit where it’s due, and some bizarre surprises too. Below you’ll find the direct listings of all the Nominees, many with my predicted winners and my preference of who should win cited below each category, preceded by some analysis in the next few paragraphs. The Oscars, to be hosted by “It’s Complicated” costars Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, are to be held on March 7th, over a month after the Nominations were announced. For more Oscar Analysis aside from individual categories, see the bottom of the page.

Best Picture Nominees

-----My Take: It’s a pretty close draw for my vote between “Inglourious Basterds” and “District 9,” but I see the award actually going to “Avatar.” The Academy will give in to its universal Box Office power, and the new voting system should work to its advantage, as long as sci-fi enthusiast voters aren’t split too much between it and “District 9” which would leave the door open for “The Hurt Locker” or even “Up in the Air.” Regardless, “Avatar” would satisfy me (I haven’t yet seen “Up in the Air”), though I still really liked and could appreciate the award going to “The Hurt Locker.” But once again, I ultimately see it going to “Avatar.”

Best Director Nominees

James Cameron

Kathryn Bigelow

Quentin Tarantino

Lee Daniels

Jason Reitman

-----My Take: This category seems a sure fire for Kathryn Bigelow. While Cameron has a shot with his impressive technical masterpiece, I see Bigelow taking the personal award and “Avatar” taking the Best Picture. My pick; Tarantino, for his brilliant and hilarious “Basterds,” though I’ll be content enough if it goes to either of the favorites.

Best Actor Nominees

Colin Firth

Jeff Bridges

Jeremy Renner

Morgan Freeman

George Clooney

-----My Take: The Award will definitely go to Jeff Bridges, in a performance I sadly have yet to see. As for my preference (I’ve only seen “Invictus” and “The Hurt Locker” of the five), I’d give it to Morgan Freeman over Jeremy Renner, though both were great in their roles.

Best Actress Nominees

Carey Mulligan

Sandra Bullock

Meryl Streep

Helen Mirren

Gabourey Sidibe

-----My Take: A while ago I’d have thought Streep or Mulligan to be the winner, though now, with wins at the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards, it seems Bullock will be triumphant. There’s still a chance Mulligan could steal it, but it’s a slim one. I currently have no real preference, having only seen Bullock and Streep’s equally strong performances.

Best Supporting Actor Nominees

Cristoph Waltz

Matt Damon

Cristopher Plummer

Stanley Tucci

Woody Harrelson

-----My Take: It’s as much a lock for Cristoph Waltz’s “Jew Hunter” as it was last year for Heath Ledger’s “Joker,” and I couldn’t agree more; with my number two preference currently being Matt Damon’s excellent portrayal of Francois Pienaar in “Invictus.”

Best Supporting Actress Nominees

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Penelope Cruz

Mo'nique

Anna Kendrick

Vera Farmiga

-----My Take: This is another presumed lock, this time for Mo’Nique’s dastardly mother in “Precious.” Unfortunately, none of these films had large wide releases, so I haven’t seen any of them yet.

Best Animated Feature Film Nominees

-----My Take: I can promise you “Up” is going to win, though I found it to be an average outing, save the animation itself. This mirrors my sentiments for most of the films included, though I haven’t seen “The Secret of Kells.” It does come as a surprise that Japanese Director Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ponyo” was left out of the pool, given his general acclaim. As for me, I’d have preferred it go to “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” but since it was left out I’m going to side with Wes Anderson’s bizarre yet intriguing and reasonably funny “Fantastic Mr. Fox.”

Best Cinematography Nominees

-----My Take: Another great category full of worthy Nominees. It’s a bit surprising to see the German Foreign Film “The White Ribbon” in there, which won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film and is likewise Nominated for the Oscar. For me, it’s a close tie between the masterfully framed “Inglourious Basterds” and the gorgeously captured mood of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” As for the award itself, I see it going to “The Hurt Locker,” for its gritty and real take on action and drama. But don’t rule out “Avatar,” where they filmed a whole world, and “Basterds” may have a shot as far as style goes. This will also be an interesting category as far as who ends up with the Best Picture Award, seeing as last year “Slumdog Millionaire” won Cinematography over runner-up competitor “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” and then went on to oust it in the Best Picture category as well.

Best Visual Effects Nominees

-----My Take: All are worthy and diverse Nominees, but “Avatar” basically invented a new realm for special effects. Consider that James Cameron effectively made you believe you could travel to Pandora, and you’ll begin to understand not only why it’s guaranteed the Oscar, but also why there’s a twenty-minute letdown upon leaving the theater and heading back into the real world. In fact, as I left the IMAX I realized that James Cameron had just robbed “District 9” of the Oscar.

Best Art Direction Nominees

-----My Take: “Avatar” has it in the bag, mailed home, and sitting on the mantle; deservedly so.

Best Adapted Screenplay Nominees

-----My Take: I’ve only seen “District 9” but it’d be my choice for winner. In reality, this is a fairly close category, which will likely end up going to Jason Reitman for “Up in the Air.”

Best Original Screenplay Nominees

-----My Take: “Inglourious Basterds” has my full support here, especially given the despicable ousting of “(500) Days of Summer” from the category. Ultimately, the award will probably go to “The Hurt Locker,” but “Basterds” and “Up” have a vague shot.

Other Categories

Best Foreign-Language Film “Ajami” Israel “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina “The Milk of Sorrow” Peru “Un Prophete” France “The White Ribbon” Germany	Best Sound Mixing “Avatar” “The Hurt Locker” “Inglourious Basterds” “Star Trek” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”	Best Sound Editing “Avatar” “The Hurt Locker” “Inglourious Basterds” “Star Trek” “Up”
Best Original Score “Avatar,” James Horner “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Alexandre Desplat “The Hurt Locker,” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders “Sherlock Holmes,” Hans Zimmer “Up,” Michael Giacchino	Best Original Song “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog,” Randy Newman “Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog,” Randy Newman “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36,” Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas “Take It All” from “Nine,” Maury Yeston “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart,” Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett	Best Costume Design “Bright Star” “Coco Before Chanel” “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” “Nine” “The Young Victoria”
Best Documentary Feature “Burma VJ” “The Cove” “Food, Inc.” “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” “Which Way Home”	Best Documentary Short “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” “The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” “Music by Prudence” “Rabbit a la Berlin”	Best Film Editing “Avatar” “District 9" “The Hurt Locker” “Inglourious Basterds” “Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Best Makeup “Il Divo” “Star Trek” “The Young Victoria”	Best Animated Short Film “French Roast” “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” “Logorama” “A Matter of Loaf and Death”	Best Live-Action Short Film “The Door” “Instead of Abracadabra” “Kavi” “Miracle Fish” “The New Tenants”

-----While “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” are the clear frontrunners for Best Picture (holding nine Nominations each), there are always chances of an upset by others like the third most likely winner, “Up in the Air.” Thanks to the Academy’s unscrupulous snub of “The Dark Knight” in last year’s category, there are now Ten Best Picture Nominations. This proved both good and bad. Sci-fi epic “District 9” earned a much deserved Nomination to complement its three other nods, making me very happy. Unfortunately “The Blind Side,” a movie too lovable to be disliked but too typical to earn my complete enthusiasm, also earned a Best picture Nomination in an apparent attempt to get TV ratings. I would have been more satisfied had its place been held by the shafted “Invictus,” a film about a nation rather than a family, and one that rightfully earned two acting nods. Granted I liked “The Blind Side,” but it hardly seems worthy of the prestigious Nomination. Then again, naïve and supremely overrated super-melodrama “Crash” actually won the award a few years back. The Coen Brothers (Directors of 2007 Best Picture Winner “No Country for Old Men”) film “A Serious Man” also earned a surprise Nomination in the category. In other news, “Up” became the second animated film of all time (along with “Beauty and the Beast”) to earn a Best Picture nomination. Gee, who do think is gonna win the Best Animated Feature award? On that note, the popular “Cloudy With a chance of Meatballs” was wrongly left out of the Best Animated feature category, giving way to “The Princess and the Frog,” which also received two Original Song Nominations for Randy Newman. This is all irrelevant however; as “Up” is as sure a lock as there ever has been for a category.

-----Tobey Maguire couldn’t relive his Golden Globe Nomination for “Brothers,” but it’s a tough argument when you consider the loaded categories’ fellow Nominees. On a personal rant, I was upset-though not surprised, to see the comic book epic “Watchmen” left out entirely. Even with its mixed reviews, I felt it was worthy of an Art Direction and Visual Effects Nod, not to mention Jackie Earle Haley’s gripping performance as a violent vigilante. After all, “Sherlock Holmes” earned a surprise Art Direction Nomination, reasonably deservedly but agreeably less worthy than “Watchmen” would have been, in my opinion. It’s also a bit surprising to see the adult children’s film “Where the Wild Things Are” left out of the Art Direction and Musical Score Departments.

-----“Star Trek” happily received a few technical nods, filling out a strong category for Visual effects (despite the absence of “Watchmen”), a category which also includes “District 9” and “Avatar.” It’s also good to see '”Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” get a Cinematography nod, though it probably deserved more than that (it well could have taken the Best picture slot of “The Blind Side”). And finally, perhaps the most shocking and disappointing snub of all, the supremely likable and endlessly original script for “(500) Days of Summer” was left out, in what may be the biggest travesty of the Oscar year; its place was stolen by the categories’ lesser entrants of “A Serious Man” and “The Messenger.”