And the award goes to…
Oscar and Razzie nominations announced this week

By Jeff Eason

Hollywood movies tend to be released in certain annual cycles. You are most likely to find the big blockbuster movies like Spider-Man, Batman and Pirates of the Caribbean arriving during the summer. December is when Hollywood traditionally releases its Oscar contenders.

Strangely, just when Hollywood is getting ready for its annual Academy Awards party is when you are most likely to find films such as My Bloody Valentine, The Uninvited and The Unborn in theaters.

Last week Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its nominations for awards going to movies released in 2008. Although most of the picks mirrored those going to last month’s Golden Globes, there were some noticeable omissions such as Academy favorite Clint Eastwood and his film Gran Torino.
The nominees for Best Picture are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire.

The nominees for Best Actor are Richard Jenkins in The Visitor, Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon, Sean Penn in Milk, Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler.

The nominees for Best Actress are Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married, Angelina Jolie in Changeling, Melissa Leo in Frozen River, Meryl Streep in Doubt and Kate Winslet in The Reader.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are Josh Brolin in Milk, Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight and Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actress are Amy Adams in Doubt, Penelope Cruz in Vicky Christina Barcelona, Viola Davis in Doubt, Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler.

The nominees for Best Director are David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon, Gus Van Sant for Milk, Stephen Daldry for The Reader and Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire.
The nominees for Best Foreign Film are The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany), The Class (France), Departures (Japan), Revanche (Austria) and Waltz with Bashir (Israel).

The nominees for Best Documentary Feature are The Betrayal (Nerakhoon), Encounters at the End of the World, The Garden, Man on a Wire and Trouble the Water.

With a few notable exceptions, the list of Academy Award nominees is exactly like the Golden Globe nominations this year. Kate Winslet received the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in the drama The Reader, while the Academy correctly has her nominated for the same performance in the leading Actress category.

Strangely, the Golden Globe for Best Original Song went to Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wrestler” from the film of the same name, but it is not even nominated for an Oscar for Best Song. The three Academy nominees in that category are “Down to Earth” from WALL-E, and “Jai Ho” and “O Saya,” both from Slumdog Millionaire.
The other obvious question that arises from the Oscar nominations is how can you nominate four actors from the same movie but not nominate the movie itself for Best Picture? That’s exactly what happened with Doubt, as Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Viola Davis and Philip Seymour Hoffman all got nods but the film itself was left out in the cold.

2009 Razzie Nominees

You may have missed it, but the 2009 Razzie Award nominees were announced a day before the Oscar nominees were named. Since 1981 the Razzies have been given to the worst films and performances of the year. While some actors are loath to appear on the Razzie list, some see any publicity as good publicity. In 2002 writer-director-actor Tom Green won an astounding five Razzies for his participation in the film Freddie Got Fingered. Green appeared at the awards ceremony and cheerfully accepted all five statuettes, saying, “I’d just like to say to all the other nominees in the audience, I don’t think that I deserve it anymore than the rest of you. I’d like to say that, I don’t think that it would be true though.”

This year Michael Myers has a real chance to go “Green” as his stinker The Love Guru is up for multiple Razzies.

The Razzie nominees for Worst Picture are Disaster Movie, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Meet the Spartans, The Happening and The Hottie and the Nottie.

The nominees for Worst Actor are Mike Myers in The Love Guru, Eddie Murphy in Meet Dave, Al Pacino in 88 Minutes and Righteous Kill, Mark Wahlberg in The Happening and Max Payne and Larry the Cable Guy in Witless Protection.

The nominees for Worst Actress are Jessica Alba for The Love Guru and The Eye, Cameron Diaz of What Happens in Vegas, Paris Hilton for The Hottie and the Nottie, Kate Hudson for Fool’s Gold and My Best Friend’s Girl, and the entire cast of The Women (Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Meg Ryan).

The nominees for Worst Supporting Actor are Uwe Boll in Postal, Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia!, Ben Kingsley in The Love Guru, War, Inc. and The Wackness, Burt Reynolds for Deal and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, and Verne Troyer in The Love Guru and Postal.

The nominees for Worst Supporting Actress are Carmen Electra for Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans, Paris Hilton for Repo! The Genetic Opera, Kim Kardashian for Disaster Movie, Jenny McCarthy for Witless Protection, Leelee Sobieski for 88 Minutes and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.

The nominees for Worst Screen Couple are Uwe Boll and Any Actor, Camera or Screenplay, Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher in What Happens in Vegas, Paris Hilton and either Christine Larkin or Jorel David Moore in The Hottie and the Nottie, Larry the Cable Guy and Jenny McCarthy in Witless Protection, and Eddie Murphy and Eddie Murphy in Meet Dave.

The nominees for Worst Prequel, Sequel, Remake or Rip-Off are The Day the Earth Stood Still, Disaster Movie, Meet the Spartans, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Speed Racer and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

As you can see, the Razzie nominations pull no punches. Several of these nominees such as Ben Kingsley and Al Pacino already have Oscars in their trophy cases. I wonder how a Razzie looks sitting next to an Oscar?