Ghost
27 Jan 2004, 09:18 AM
Generally, I was fairly pleased. I've generally hated the Best Picture winner for each year since about the 1999 films (and Shakespeare in Love, the 1998 winner, is merely a decent toffee-swirl of a movie that should've lost to Private Ryan or The Thin Red Line.) Granted if that totalitarian monstrosity Return of the King wins, I will be once again disappointed. But at least two films that I like a lot --- Mystic River and Lost in Translation -- are both up for Best Picture, so I have rooting interests, and LIT could win. And City of God wound up with more noms than Cold Mountain. Scarlett Johansen got snubbed, probably because her votes were split both between LIT and the Girl with the Pearl Earring and between lead and supporitng. (I think she was clearly the lead.) But she'll get the Naomi Watts/Jennifer Connelly makeup calls in coming years, so that's fine.
On the whole, not bad.
obie
27 Jan 2004, 10:20 AM
Here's what got snubbed:
Cold Mountain -- Very big budget and Globes hype but only the two acting noms among the major categories.
The Last Samurai -- I don't see this as up for anything other than Supporting Actor and 1-2 technical categories.
American Splendor -- It was never going to be up for BP but it got nothing except for adapted screenplay. Paul Giamatti's Best Actor place was stolen by Jude Law.
House Of Sand And Fog -- Noms for Ben Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo, but no BP or director.
In America - Almost nothing (original screenplay, actress for Samantha Morton), which considering Jim Sheridan's luck in the past with the Academy is surprising.
Big Fish -- Shut out of all major categories.
Finding Nemo -- Only a darkhorse for BP and it did get a best screenplay nom, but nothing more. The Best Animated category has killed any future chance of an animated picture winning a BP nom.
21 Grams -- Got all of the acting noms it deserved but no BP. Didn't even get a Best Editing nom, which I thought would have been a lock.
Something's Gotta Give -- Diane Keaton gets her nom but no BP, and nothing for Jack.
Now on to the good stuff...
City of God - 4 noms including Best Director and Best Orig Screenplay. Wow. But it's not up for best foreign language film, I assume because Brazil didn't submit it.
Keisha Castle-Hughes getting a best actress nom for Whale Rider.
"A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow" from A Mighty Wind and the exceptionally catchy theme from The Triplets of Belleville are both up for Best Song. How cool is that?
The Best Doc category is about as strong as it's been in years -- Capturing The Friedmans, The Fog of War, My Architect, and The Weather Underground are all worthy. Looks like the Academy is finally catching on about this category.
About the only "you're kidding" thing for me is Seabiscuit up for BP. The "American Experience" PBS documentary was much better than the feature film, and the book was better than both. And Foreign Language looks really weak but I don't know enough about what was submitted by each country to say what would be better.
Ghost
27 Jan 2004, 10:37 AM
Originally posted by obie
The Best Doc category is about as strong as it's been in years -- Capturing The Friedmans, The Fog of War, My Architect, and The Weather Underground are all worthy. Looks like the Academy is finally catching on about this category.
This may secretly be the strongest category. Only Bus 174 may be missing.
About the only "you're kidding" thing for me is Seabiscuit up for BP. The "American Experience" PBS documentary was much better than the feature film, and the book was better than both. And Foreign Language looks really weak but I don't know enough about what was submitted by each country to say what would be better.
I watched the whole announcement thinking "Thank Goodness that Seabiscuit is getting shut out." Then all of a sudden, on the last thing announced, there it is for best picture. Ugh.
At a time when the best foreign films have been coming out of the middle east, far east and recently latin america for at least a decade, four (I think) of the best foreign film nominees are European.A colossal misjudgment.
DoctorJones24
27 Jan 2004, 10:52 AM
Originally posted by obie
City of God - 4 noms including Best Director and Best Orig Screenplay. Wow. But it's not up for best foreign language film, I assume because Brazil didn't submit it.
List of foreign language submissions:
http://www.moviecitynews.com/awards/2004/oscars/foreign_language.html
Afghanistan, "Osama," Siddiq Barmak, director;
Argentina, "Valentine," Alejandro Agresti, director;
Austria, "Free Radicals," Barbara Albert, director;
Belgium, "Sea of Silence," Stijn Coninx, director;
Bolivia, "Dependencia Sexual," Rodrigo Bellott, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, "Fuse," Pjer Zalica, director;
Brazil, "Carandiru," Hector Babenco, director;
Bulgaria, "Journey to Jerusalem," Ivan Nichev, director;
Canada, "The Barbarian Invasions," Denys Arcand, director;
Chile, "Los Debutantes," Andres Waissbluth, director;
China, "Warriors of Heaven and Earth," He Ping, director;
Colombia, "The First Night," Luis Alberto Restrepo, director;
Croatia, "Witnesses," Vinko Bresan, director;
Cuba, "Suite Habana," Fernando Perez, director;
Czech Republic, "Zelary," Ondrej Trojan, director;
Denmark, "Reconstruction," Christoffer Boe, director;
Egypt, "Sleepless Nights," Hany Khalifa, director;
Finland, "Elina," Klaus Haro, director;
France, "Bon Voyage," Jean-Paul Rappeneau, director;
Germany, "Good Bye, Lenin!," Wolfgang Becker, director;
Greece, "Think It Over," Katerina Evangelakou, director;
Hong Kong, "Infernal Affairs," Andrew Lau & Alan Mak, directors;
Hungary, "Forest," Benedek Fliegauf, director;
Iceland, "Noi the Albino," Dagur Kari Petursson, director;
Indonesia, "The Stringless Violin," Sekar Ayu Asmara, director;
Iran, "Deep Breath," Parviz Shahbazi, director;
Israel, "Nina's Tragedies," Savi Gavison, director;
Italy, "I'm Not Scared," Gabriele Salvatores, director;
Japan, "The Twilight Samurai," Yoji Yamada, director;
Korea, "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring," Kim Ki-duk, director;
Lebanon, "The Kite," Randa Chahal Sabbag, director;
Luxembourg, "I Always Wanted to Be a Saint," Genevieve Mersch, director;
Mexico, "Aro Tolbukhin (In the Mind of a Killer)," Agustín Villaronga, Lydia Zimmermann, Isaac P. Racine, directors;
Mongolia, "The Story of the Weeping Camel," Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni, directors;
Nepal, "Muna Madan," Gyanendra Bahadur Deuja, director;
Netherlands, "Twin Sisters," Ben Sombogaart, director;
Norway, "Kitchen Stories," Bent Hamer, director;
Palestine, "Divine Intervention," Elia Suleiman, director;
Peru, "Paper Dove," Fabrizio Aguilar, director;
Philippines, "Dekada ‘70," Chito S. Rono, director;
Poland, "Pornografia," Jan Jakub Kolski, director;
Portugal, "Um Filme Falado," Manoel De Oliveira, director;
Russia, "The Return," Andrei Zvyagintsev, director;
Serbia and Montenegro, "The Professional," Dusan Kovacevic, director;
Slovakia, "King of Thieves," Ivan Fíla, director;
Slovenia, "Spare Parts," Damjan Kozole, director;
Spain, "Soldados de Salamina," David Trueba, director;
Sri Lanka, "Mansion by the Lake," Lester James Peries, director;
Sweden, "Evil," Mikael Hafstrom, director;
Taiwan, "Goodbye, Dragon Inn," Tsai Ming-Liang, director;
Thailand, "Last Life in the Universe," Pen-ek Ratanaruang, director;
Turkey, "Distant," Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director;
Ukraine, "Mamay," Oles Sanin, director;
Uruguay, "Seawards Journey," Guillermo Casanova, director;
Venezuela, "Sangrador," Leonardo Henriquez, director.
skipshady
27 Jan 2004, 11:38 AM
Originally posted by obie
American Splendor -- It was never going to be up for BP but it got nothing except for adapted screenplay. Paul Giamatti's Best Actor place was stolen by Jude Law.Now that y'all mention it, Giamatti is probably the biggest snub, though he had the misfortune of having to act alongside the real life Harvey Pekar.
House Of Sand And Fog -- Noms for Ben Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo, but no BP or director.I agree with the Academy here. The acting was fantastic but the actual filmmaking and script were weak. If it weren't for Gandhi and Aghdashloo (and Connelly to a lesser extent) this would have been unwatchable.
Something's Gotta Give -- Diane Keaton gets her nom but no BP, and nothing for Jack.That's because Nicholson is the most overrated actor of his generation, About Schmidt not withstanding.
The Best Doc category is about as strong as it's been in years -- Capturing The Friedmans, The Fog of War, My Architect, and The Weather Underground are all worthy. Looks like the Academy is finally catching on about this category.Indeed, and 2003 was a great year for documentaries, especially when you include spillovers from 2002 like Spellbound, Winged Migration and Bowling For Columbine.
DoctorJones24
27 Jan 2004, 03:32 PM
Seeing the list of foreign submissions made me think about how the 5 get chosen. I know that for nominations, only Academy members from each specific category vote.
That's 6k members, with half of them being actors. So that's 3k divided between directors and cinematographers and screenwriters and composers, etc. Is there a small group of "foreign language directors" who have joined the American Academy, and who have to be counted on to see ALL 55 films submitted to that category?
Perhaps Best Foreign Film is like Best Picture: all members get to vote for the nominations...
In any case, with such a long list of films, I'd bet even money that not a SINGLE voter saw any more than say, ten of those films.