The 2013 Oscar Nominations the Good and the Rude

I have a true love/hate relationship with the Oscars. They have upset me so often with their snubs to the brilliant, and awards to the bland, that I pretty much have abandoned watching the actual live telecast to spare my blood pressure. But I do live for nomination day because like many Oscarholics, I want to know who AMPAS felt justified in bestowing a nomination upon. Here is the full list first, then my praise or criticism beneath each category.

But first off, the snubs that irk me the most is the rude absence of Ben Affleck for Best Director for Argo, and actor John Hawkes for The Sessions. I am also peeved that Skyfall did not garner even a token Best Picture nomination - and to add salt to the wound, the were nine nominated films... not ten like of the past two years. Seriously, what.the.fuck? And no love and appreciation for at least the technical brilliance of Cloud Atlas (hello? makeup bitches?) or Looper (hello? Original Screenplay bitches?).

(List copy and pasted from Awards Daily) http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2013/01/10/85th-oscar-nominations-tba/#comment-1307840


Best motion picture of the year

• “Amour” Nominees to be determined
• “Argo” Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers
• “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers
• “Django Unchained” Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers
• “Les Misérables” Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers
• “Life of Pi” Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers
• “Lincoln” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
• “Silver Linings Playbook” Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers
• “Zero Dark Thirty” Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers

Come on, they could not squeeze in one more for Skyfall to make it a perfect 10 film list?!

Achievement in directing

• “Amour” Michael Haneke
• “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Benh Zeitlin
• “Life of Pi” Ang Lee
• “Lincoln” Steven Spielberg
• “Silver Linings Playbook” David O. Russell

Where the hell is Ben Affleck? Others that people are pissed off about being snubbed are Katherine Bigelow for 'Zero Dark Thirty', and Quentin Tarantino for 'Django Unchained'.

Performance by an actor in a leading role

• Bradley Cooper in “Silver Linings Playbook”
• Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln”
• Hugh Jackman in “Les Misérables”
• Joaquin Phoenix in “The Master”
• Denzel Washington in “Flight”

Too bad Dwight Henry of 'Beast of the Southern Wild' was not nominated, but my main gripe is the exclusion of John Hawkes of 'The Sessions'.  I know DDL is going to win, but it would nice to see Joaquin pull this out, he deserves it.

Performance by an actress in a leading role

• Jessica Chastain in “Zero Dark Thirty”
• Jennifer Lawrence in “Silver Linings Playbook”
• Emmanuelle Riva in “Amour”
• Quvenzhané Wallis in “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
• Naomi Watts in “The Impossible”

Nice to see Quvenzhane, Naomi Watts nominated. I haven't seen Amour, yet.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

• Alan Arkin in “Argo”
• Robert De Niro in “Silver Linings Playbook”
• Philip Seymour Hoffman in “The Master”
• Tommy Lee Jones in “Lincoln”
• Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained”

The most boring category - everyone here won already. This is silly!

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

• Amy Adams in “The Master”
• Sally Field in “Lincoln”
• Anne Hathaway in “Les Misérables”
• Helen Hunt in “The Sessions”
• Jacki Weaver in “Silver Linings Playbook”

I think Sally has this, but won't be shocked if Jacki won, or Anne 'I really, really, really want an Oscar' Hathaway.

Best animated feature film of the year

• “Brave” Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
• “Frankenweenie” Tim Burton
• “ParaNorman” Sam Fell and Chris Butler
• “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” Peter Lord
• “Wreck-It Ralph” Rich Moore

Best foreign language film of the year

• “Amour” Austria
• “Kon-Tiki” Norway
• “No” Chile
• “A Royal Affair” Denmark
• “War Witch” Canada

Adapted screenplay

• “Argo” Screenplay by Chris Terrio
• “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
• “Life of Pi” Screenplay by David Magee
• “Lincoln” Screenplay by Tony Kushner
• “Silver Linings Playbook” Screenplay by David O. Russell

Original screenplay

• “Amour” Written by Michael Haneke
• “Django Unchained” Written by Quentin Tarantino
• “Flight” Written by John Gatins
• “Moonrise Kingdom” Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
• “Zero Dark Thirty” Written by Mark Boal

This is where Looper should have been nominated!

Achievement in cinematography

• “Anna Karenina” Seamus McGarvey
• “Django Unchained” Robert Richardson
• “Life of Pi” Claudio Miranda
• “Lincoln” Janusz Kaminski
• “Skyfall” Roger Deakins

Glad to see Skyfall here, but Cloud Atlas should have been nominated as well.

Achievement in film editing

• “Argo” William Goldenberg
• “Life of Pi” Tim Squyres
• “Lincoln” Michael Kahn
• “Silver Linings Playbook” Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
• “Zero Dark Thirty” Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg

Another for Cloud Atlas 'should have been'

Achievement in costume design

• “Anna Karenina” Jacqueline Durran
• “Les Misérables” Paco Delgado
• “Lincoln” Joanna Johnston
• “Mirror Mirror” Eiko Ishioka
• “Snow White and the Huntsman” Colleen Atwood

Best documentary feature

• “5 Broken Cameras”, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
• “The Gatekeepers”, Nominees to be determined
• “How to Survive a Plague”, Nominees to be determined
• “The Invisible War”, Nominees to be determined
• “Searching for Sugar Man”, Nominees to be determined

I saw The Gatekeepers at TIFF, it's excellent!

Best documentary short subject

• “Inocente” Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
• “Kings Point” Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
• “Mondays at Racine” Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
• “Open Heart” Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
• “Redemption” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling

• “Hitchcock” Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
• “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
• “Les Misérables” Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

For the love of Christ... 'Cloud Atlas' again should have been considered. Hell, even Lincoln!

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

• “Anna Karenina” Dario Marianelli
• “Argo” Alexandre Desplat
• “Life of Pi” Mychael Danna
• “Lincoln” John Williams
• “Skyfall” Thomas Newman

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

• “Before My Time” from “Chasing Ice” Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
• “Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from “Ted” Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane
• “Pi’s Lullaby” from “Life of Pi” Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
• “Skyfall” from “Skyfall” Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
• “Suddenly” from “Les Misérables” Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Achievement in production design

• “Anna Karenina” Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
• “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
• “Les Misérables” Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson
• “Life of Pi” Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
• “Lincoln” Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Best animated short film

• “Adam and Dog” Minkyu Lee
• “Fresh Guacamole” PES
• “Head over Heels” Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly
• “Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”" David Silverman
• “Paperman” John Kahrs

Best live action short film

• “Asad” Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
• “Buzkashi Boys” Sam French and Ariel Nasr
• “Curfew” Shawn Christensen
• “Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)” Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
• “Henry” Yan England

Achievement in sound editing

• “Argo” Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
• “Django Unchained” Wylie Stateman
• “Life of Pi” Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
• “Skyfall” Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
• “Zero Dark Thirty” Paul N.J. Ottosson

Achievement in sound mixing

• “Argo” John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
• “Les Misérables” Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
• “Life of Pi” Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
• “Lincoln” Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
• “Skyfall” Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

Achievement in visual effects

• “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
• “Life of Pi” Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
• “Marvel’s The Avengers” Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
• “Prometheus” Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
• “Snow White and the Huntsman” Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson

Nice to see Prometheus nominated for something. But Looper and Cloud Atlas should have been here too.

I watched this morning's nomination presentation with Seth McFarlane and Emma Stone. I thought they were cute and funny. I'm sure he's going to be a great host! But I have "issues" with Oscar, and I'm not going to watch it. Here is a selection of some of my colorful commentary this morning at Twitter:

Simone Cromer ‏@FassFass

Damn, no Ben Affleck... that hit me like an after shock, I was like...hey...HEY,... wait a minute! This pisses me off.

Simone Cromer ‏@FassFass

OH no! No Bigelow either... they are setting this up for a Spielberg or Haneke win. Scandal!

Simone Cromer ‏@FassFass

Sorry Ben Affleck apparently you still have something to prove to Hollywood to win Best Director Oscar nomination respect. One day you will!

Simone Cromer ‏@FassFass

I knew the Oscars didn't have the true respect to toss a token Best Pic nomination to Skyfall. smh

Simone Cromer ‏@FassFass

I live in a world where Bradley Cooper got a Best Actor nomination before Michael Fassbender. Can't wait for Hangover 4 or is that 5?

Simone Cromer ‏@FassFass

@DavidPoland the Oscars jumped the shark years ago. McFarlane will do fine. I still ain't watching it, but the Oscars are MTV for 35+ demo.

Simone Cromer ‏@FassFass

John Hawkes SHOULD have been nominated for The Sessions. Just plain ridiculous, he went full method for that role!