Oscar Nominations 2004

Ah here it is again, that glorious time of year filled with more movie people giving other movie people more awards than you can shake a stick at. We are already much of the way through the awards season and the granddaddy of the award shows, the Oscars, has announced their nominations. Of course there were some surprises, and some omissions, but for the most part the Academy stayed the course and nominated the safe choices that everyone expected them to make.

Now the politics of the Oscar’s is disturbing, though it is nothing new. The award is not given to an actor or a movie based solely on its own merit, it is given based on the actor or the filmmaker or the studio’s history. Awards have been given that way for years: for instance in 1940 James Stewart won for The Philadelphia Story it was more of an award for 1939 when he starred in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but 1939 was one of the strongest Oscar years in history, so he had to wait for his award. The same games apply every year. Recently it seems that Best Supporting Actress is the consolation prize for movies with multiple nods that win almost nothing. Look for Renee Zellweger to be a solo winner for Cold Mountain.

This year could be called the year of the complex titles with multiple nods for The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King, Master and Commander: The Far Side of The World, and The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Of course it could also be called the year of the sea since in categories like Sound Editing all of the nominations are about ocean stories.

Best Picture
Happily this year the Academy voters have gotten tired of the Weinsteins buying the best picture award and refused to even nominate Cold Mountain for the Best Picture Oscar. This leaves a clear field for The Lord of The Rings: Return of the Kind which should have little trouble with Lost in Translation, Mystic River, Seabiscuit, or Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Of course that means that with New Line Cinema helming the project the Harvey and Bob will still be up there accepting the award. Damn. At least the picture is better than Shakespeare in Love which was a decent film, but not one deserving of the Best Picture Oscar. Of course this is an award not just for this film but for the entire undertaking of the three films at once, the incredible amount of work that went into that, and to acknowledge the gamble that New Line took in funding these films and the payoff that they receives.

Best Director
Not sure I know the film City of God, but I don’t really think that matters. Clint Eastwood already has an Oscar for directing, Minghella wasn’t nominated, fine with me since I fell asleep during The English Patient, Peter Weir is always a bridesmaid never a bride. Soffia Coppola might have some aficionados for a family affair, but I think there is still time to find out what she can do, plus there are those still don’t forgive her for her performance in Godfather Part III. Again, for helming three super movies all in sequence, a Herculean task if ever there was one, Peter Jackson will get the acknowledgement that the industry knows he deserves for such an undertaking.

Best Actor in a Leading Role
There are some fairly strong performances here but I think that Bill Murray will edge Sean Penn for the Oscar. Johnny Depp’s character in Pirates of the Caribbean was so hilarious and over the top that it probably won’t get the attention it deserves, though the SAG award may help in garnering serious consideration. I thought they showed some guts by even nominating him since comedies have done notoriously badly at the Oscars lately. Ben Kingsley has won before and Cold Mountain will most likely get the cold shoulder except for the consolation prize Best Supporting Actress award, see LA Confidential. Sean Penn’s performance was rife with Oscar earmarked scenes of explosive anger and grief, but the performance comes across as more of a ‘been there done that’ sort of nomination so I will give it to the more understated Murray for his magnificent portrayal of a nearly washed up actor.

Best Actress in a Leading Role
This seems to be the category I never know what to do with and the major category I most often get wrong. That said, with her Golden Globe win Charlize Theron is the frontrunner for her magnificent portrayal of prostitute/serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster. It seems like any movie that makes a beautiful woman ugly gets a few nods every year (how about the nose in The Hours last year or Frida’s eyebrow beating out a sea of Orcs for best makeup the year before). The nomination of 13 year old Keisha Castle-Hughes for The Whale Rider was the surprise nod of the year being the youngest nominated for a best actress Oscar. (This is odd because the studio was stumping for a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her.) Diane Keaton is a perennial favorite, but she has won for comedy before and if they are going to give Best Actor to a comedy, they will probably go for drama for Best Actress.

Best Supporting Actor
There were a couple of surprising nominations in this category as well as a few notable performances overlooked. The heart wrenching journey of Samwise Gamgee in The Return of the King as he follows Frodo to the heart of Mount Doom, and the brink of madness, did not earn Sean Astin a nomination. But Djimon Hounsou got a nod as a neighbor with AIDS. For me this one is a tossup so I will do this by process of elimination. Benicio Del Toro has won in this category recently and it was for a drug movie so he probably won’t win again. But Tim Robbins and Ken Watanabe played not the outspoken role in their respective films, but the lynchpin role that held the film together. I think I will pick Tim Robbins to win. Let me just add that I think it a shame that Jeff Bridges did not get nominated for his role in Seabiscuit.

Best Supporting Actress
This seems to be the consolation prize category of late and I think this year will be no exception. Expect to see Renee Zellweger, nominated for Best Actress the past two years, to be one of the only Cold Mountain party to take home a statuette.

Best Animated Feature
This one doesn’t seem like much of a contest this year. Give the award to the well done Finding Nemo.

Best Cinematography

I’m surprised Return of the King didn’t show up here as well. I thought Seabiscuit was beautifully filmed but I expect this to go to Master and Commander.

Costume Design
The question about Return of the King is how many of these costumes were seen in previous movies? Not that I think it really matters, in introducing us to an entire world of beings they certainly surpassed any of the other nominees for the number of different outfits. Give this one to The Last Samurai and their amazing variety of samurai costumes. Either way the award would go to the same person Ngila Dickson.

Film Editing
I would have to select Return of the King because the editing with the Shelob scene and the Battle of Pelennor Fields was impressive. Of course so were the race scenes in Seabiscuit and the sea battles in Master and Commander so this one could be a tossup.

Sound Editing
My pick here is Master and Commander. It is interesting that all of the nominees have to do with the ocean in this category. But the battle scenes in Master and Commander put this one over the top.

Sound Mixing
What exactly is sound mixing anyway? I thought the mix in Mystic River was bad, so it is noticeable when it is wrong, but do you really notice the sound mix when it is good? I have no complaints about any of the nominees, which mostly contain battle sequences. So I would be happy with any of them. I think that Master and Commander may take this one as well; they did a splendid job of both the battle sequences and the more quiet duets between the doctor and the captain.

Makeup
As much as I liked Johnny Depp’s eyeliner in Pirates of the Caribbean I have to go with Return of the King on this one. With the improvements in CGI it is getting harder and harder to tell the computer work from the makeup and set decoration. But the work they did with Orks and Urukai and other monsters is just great.

Visual Effects
Another one I am torn on because the nominees are all so good. I will choose Pirates of the Caribbean here for their stunning scenes of the skeletal pirates walking underwater. But the final battle scenes of Middle Earth cannot be forgotten so do not count them out.

Screenplay