Kris, I don't know if we can conclude that The Departed didn't have support from the actors.

My reading is that Leo split The Departed's votes between leading and supporting and perhaps people who voted for Leo and /or Mark in The Departed simply didn't want to put down three actors from the same list and excluded Jack. Maybe.

I don't know. I don't see it as that simple at all. He showed up at the SAG, after all, where the film, again, had only ONE acting nomination.

here's a fun stat Kris, in 1967 cinematography became a single category for the first time since the thirties, this year is the first year since then there is NO overlap between the cinematography and best picture categories.

Well, perhaps yes. In any case, it seems like support for Jack was definitely over-estimated by everyone. He's an AMPAS favorite and everyone misses a nom every now and then which we didn't take into consideration.

69 out of 99 is ok. But I'm thrilled for Iwo Jima. I hope they dont fucking hand Scorcese the Oscar for the sake of it. Iwo Jima should win both.

I was hoping Babel would miss. Children Of Men and Little Children were definitely worthier than Babel.

And Babel is up for that horrible piece of shit, its absolutely ridiculous score that I think was compoased in one day. But the Academy has gone nuts in recent years in the Score category. Gustavo even won for Brokeback Mountain last year.

Man....Dave Poland gave another movie the kiss of death....I remember him doing it with Phantom and Munich....

OK, but Letters, your favorite, got how many acting nominations? What other oscars will Letters take? Not original screenplay, probably not Director - sound editing? You think Letters will win Best Picture with only Sound Editing under its belt? If it does, AMPAS' CLint Worship is way out of control. (Yes, I saw Letters and thought it to be ok, but slow and pretentious)

The record has set. Dreangirls is the first picture which leads the most nominations but is snubbed in the biggest category.
What a year of the Oscar.
- The only actor nominated for (almost) all male cast; The Departed, is Mark Wahlberg
- Leonardo DiCarprio is nominated for Blood Diamond
- The list goes on & on
& on

I just can't see the Academy choosing a downbeat foreign-language movie with no stars as Best Picture.

I just hope that Babel, which is this year's equivalent to Crash (albeit much better) doesn't pull off a win. I woulc call it the weakest of the 5 nominees, with LMS a close second.

The Oscarwatch reaction thread is too long, so I'll post here...

Although I know that Oscars don't really MEAN anything, I'm still so happy that Dreamgirls missed both BP and BD. I knew that Condon would get snubbed in favor of Eastwood and Greengrass -- Dreamgirls really is more the kind of movie that people would think "directed itself." Plus, with so much buzz around Letters and U93, I had a hard believing that they would get denied at least in BD. The nominees match my predictions 5/5The Oscarwatch reaction thread is too long, so I'll post here...

Although I know that Oscars don't really MEAN anything, I'm still so happy that Dreamgirls missed both BP and BD. I knew that Condon would get snubbed in favor of Eastwood and Greengrass -- Dreamgirls really is more the kind of movie that people would think "directed itself." Plus, with so much buzz around Letters and U93, I had a hard believing that they would get denied at least in BD. The nominees match my predictions 5/5 -- if only I had posted them somewhere...

The Dreamgirls snub makes me happy not only because I personally think that it's unworthy but because it means an end to a year of nonsense about the preordained "steamroller," despite how it's kept missing. Now people will FINALLY pay more attention to The Departed, a movie that I've been predicting to win since November.

And I'm especially glad that Letters pulled off a greater miracle than Munich, scoring nearly the same nominations in the Big Eight, but without the guild support. Its nominations not only personally satisfy, as it is my favorite movie of the year, but it finally injects more life in into an already maddeningly, simultaneously unpredictable and predictable year. This is the stuff we Oscarwatchers relish. -- if only I had posted them somewhere...

And I'm especially glad that Letters pulled off a greater miracle than Munich, scoring nearly the same nominations in the Big Eight, but without the guild support.

the only movies that are nominated for both BP and film editing are Babel and The Departed. somehow, I can't see either gettin BP. is it going to be the first year since 1980 that the BP does not get a nod for film editing?

what a strange year!

I got only 65 of 99 right.

I'm thinking Babel and Scorsese for the wins, Hudson, Mirren, Murphy and tossup (smith, Otoole, whitaker) so long as Otoole doesn't die in the next three weeks.

I don't think Letters can pull out a win any more than Munich could last year. the race is down to Babel, Little Miss Sunshine and Departed, and I think Babel will get the most support.

This is a pretty crazy morning. Some nods make me happy; others don't but such is the ase with the Academy Awards. I've long since learned to not let it worry me.

Ultimately, however, they proved they can think for themselves and provide us with some excitement (despite the 19/20 SAG crossover). And that's a good thing.

As for the race for the wins? We're just getting started.

I'm speechless but I'm tossing my Dreamgirls support 110% behind Little Miss Sunshine.

With only four nominations and no acting nominations (the largest branch of the Academy), I would be surprised if Letters wins Best Picture, even if it deserved it. But stranger things have happened.

People, people. It might be wise, considering the morning's events, to take "history" out of it. All this talk of "but 'Letters' has no acting nods," "but only two best picture nominees have an editing nod," just throw it out the window.

Anything...can...happen.

Also, interesting stat passed along by a reader, Robert: this is the first year since 1927 that none of the Best Picture nominees were represented in the Best Actor category.

Shocking.

But 3 of Dreamgirls noms were for original song, which, of all the categories, has the least to do with actual film making, hence it's "real" noms tally was only 5.

I've never understood teh point of the Best Song category (especially when Mick Jagger was snubbed as badly as he was for Alfie.)

Kris, what happened to Nicholson? I'm glad Walhberg received a nom but I think we can all agree that Jack's role had a little more meat. Plus, it's Jack Nilcholson after all, I would think the Academy would love him.

Just to pick up on the Dreamgirls noms, I think it's actually even weaker than it looks. Yes, it got 8 nominations, but it can only win 6 awards, and that's if it runs the table. And one might imagine that the votes will be split on Best Song so it's possible that none of those songs will win.

What about this morning's other surprising omissions?

In addition to "Dreamgirls" not getting into Best Pic, there's...

- NO "Cars" for Best Sound Effects Editing. (I would have handily awarded that the trophy.)

- NO "The Painted Veil" for Best Original Score. I thought this was the score to beat, but I guess it lost out to the score from Desplat's more popular movie.

- NO "Bobby" for Best Original Song. I haven't seen the movie, but I listened to the song, and thought it was one of the better candidates (maybe even the best). And I was sure that, if anything, Harvey would have managed a nod here.

- Speaking of Song, NO "Song of the Heart" from "Happy Feet." This didn't shock me that much, since Globe wins don't always translate into Oscar noms (see Mick Jagger's "Aflie" song two years ago) - and I thought the song was kinda lame - but they do love their Prince...

- NO "Curse of the Golden Flower" for Best Art Direction. Was anything this year more eye-poppingly beautiful?

- As already mentioned, NO "Volver" for Best Foreign Language Film. (Almodovar and Nicholson are two longtime Academy darlings who didn't make the cut this year...Are we witnessing a real changing of the guard this time?)

- And to end where we started (with "Dreamgirls"), NO Virginia Katz for Best Film Editing. The movie's ALL editing; and while that doesn't necessarily mean it's GOOD editiing, I didn't think the Academy knew the difference.

If Eastwood wins another Best Director award at the expense of Martin Scorsese I don't know what I'll do.

12 Nominations for Mexicans.... historic!

If Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy take home the Best Supporting Actress and Actor awards, it will be only the second time in Oscar history that a film possessed two acting
winners while not being nominated for best picture. The other time? 1963 when Patricia Neal and Melvyn Douglas won Actress and Supporting Actor for Hud, which was left off the
nominees list. Keep this in mind when making your final predictions!

Fer, what a horrible thing to say about one of our greatest actors: Peter O'Toole, who should have at least 3 Oscars already. Did you even see VENUS? He is better than most of his nominees and if he does win (and I hope he does) he will have won deservedly.

Kris, do you think this means Murphy and Hudson's chances are now hurt by the obvious lack of DREAMGIRLS love or will it help them?

I think Arkin will win supporting actor, something I've suspected for a long time now.

Someone pointed out to me that Bancroft and Duke both won for the Miracle Worker, which was not nominated for Best Pic in 1962 (the year before Hud, interstingly). Still, this obviously would be very rare and, I agree, Arkin has to be considered the favorite to win.

If Forest Whitaker takes home the Best Actor Oscar, it will be only the fourth time in Oscar history that the film possessing the year's Best Actor was not nominated for any other award. The other three times were 1987 when Michael Douglas won for Wall Street,1968 when Cliff Robertson won for Charly, and 1950 when Jose Ferrer won for Cyrano de
Bergerac.

My scores were 67/99, 23/30 for top 6 categories and 30/40 for top 8 categories.

Perfect categories were Actress, Supporting Actress and Makeup (meaning that I also picked Click).

AWARDS HEAVEN

And Phil, it would be the same for O'Toole, Smith, or Gosling.

Great point, cd! Your point sparked my interest actually. I just found out that this is the FIRST year in Oscar history that 4 actors were the only nod for their films. How crazy is that?!!!

One more thing that I just thought of!

DiCaprio's The Departed turn not showing up in the list doesn't mean that it wasn't one of the top 5 vote getters. It just means that his perf in Blood Diamond received more votes in this category - which is a scary thought - but regardless, the Academy nominates the performance that has the larger number of votes, if there are multiple citations for the same actor. For all we know, his perf in The Departed could've had the 3rd or 4th highest number of votes.