The 2007 Oscar nominations are set to be announced tomorrow morning. The Internet is full of speculation concerning who will be nomination. You can check out the Awardsdaily site for a good run down of what the experts are predicting.
Me, I'm not going to make predictions. Instead, I'm going to list who and what would be nominated if I was the only person doing the nominating. Obviously, quite a few of the films and actors listed below will be nominated tomorrow. Probably even more will not.
Since these are my own personal choices, I'm only considering the eligible films that I actually saw last year. As such, it should be understood that I have not seen a few of the films that are currently being honored by the various Oscar precursors. I did not see Away From Her, Enchanted, A Mighty Heart, or La Vie En Rose, for example.
Which of the eligible films did I see? Amongst other films, I saw Alpha Dog, Zodiac, The Look-Out, Grindhouse, Hoax, The TV Set, Once, The Simpsons Movie, The Brave One, 3:10 To Yuma, Eastern Promises, Ira and Abby, Into The Wild, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford; Gone, Baby, Gone; Michael Clayton, Hostel Part Two, American Gangster, No Country For Old Men, Lars and the Real Girl, Knocked Up, Superbad, Waitress, The Savages, I'm Not There, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead, The Darjeeling Limited, Margot At The Wedding, Atonement, Juno, Walk Hard, Sweeney Todd, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and There Will Be Blood.
It is from the above list that my nominees are being selected.
And now, Jeff's nominees --
Best Picture
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
There Will Be Blood
Out of those five films, No Country and There Will Be Blood are sure bets to be nominated tomorrow and the Diving Bell seems to have a good shot as well. Sadly, it appears that 3:10 To Yuma and Once will be overlooked. However, I think there is a place for an extremely well-made piece of entertainment like Yuma and Once remains my personal choice for best picture of the year. Narrowly missing out on making my top five: Into The Wild, Gone, Baby, Gone; Grindhouse, and Juno. (What about Michael Clayton? Honestly, that film simply did not impress me as much as it did everyone else.)
Best Actor
Mathieu Amalric for The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
Joseph Gordon-Levitt for The Look-Out
Ryan Gosling for Lars and the Real Girl
Viggo Mortensen for Eastern Promises
John C. Reilly for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Yes, yes...I know what you're thinking. John C Reilly!? Over DANIEL DAY-LEWIS!? ARE YOU NUTS!? Well, no, I'm not. Not really. I thought There Will Be Blood was an intriguing film. I also thought that Day-Lewis had some very strong moments that almost made up for the all the times that he went totally and completely over the top. Almost being the term to remember. It takes skill to create a character as absurd as Dewey Cox and still make him come across as human as opposed to a one-note joke. The other left-field nomination here is probably Gordon-Levitt. The Look-Out definitely came out too early in the year to be remembered by the Academy but, at the time, I thought that Gordon-Levitt gave an award-worthy performance and I continue to believe that. That said, I'd probably end up giving the actual Oscar to Gosling.
Best Actress
Helena Bonham Carter for Sweeney Todd
Nicole Kidman for Margot at the Wedding
Laura Linney for The Savages
Ellen Page for Juno
Kerri Russell for Waitress
Ellen Page, of course, will get an actual nomination. The rest of these actresses are dark horses at best and, as I said earlier, I have yet to see the widely acclaimed performances of Julie Christie, Angelina Jolie, and Marion Cotillard. That said, I think that Linney is one of the best (and most underrated) actresses around today and Bonham Carter brought an earthy grace to her macabre role in Sweeney Todd. Kerri Russell's performance in Waitress has been somewhat overshadowed by another young actress playing pregnant, Ellen Page. Still, Russell is a wonderfully natural actress who has never quite overcome her reputation as "the girl who cut her hair and, hence, destroyed the WB." Kidman would be my eventual winner if just because she gave a performance I loved in a film that I absolutely hated.
Best Supporting Actor
Javier Bardem for No Country For Old Men
Paul Dano for There Will Be Blood
Ben Foster for 3:10 To Yuma
Hal Holbrook for Into The Wild
Tommy Lee Jones for No Country For Old Men
Let's get one thing straight. Jones is a leading actor in No Country For Old Men. The story is, largely, told through his weary viewpoint. The story is about him. However, he's currently being listed as a supporting actor in No Country's Oscar ads which is why I'm listing him here as opposed to where he actually belongs. Who, of these five, would win the actual award in my perfect world? All five of them who were brilliant in their respective films. What? I can't have a tie? Oh, alright -- give it to Holbrook then. Into the Wild was a flawed film but it deserves to be honored in some way. So does Holbrook who, amazingly, was not nominated for his brilliant turn in All the President's Men back in '76. Just missing the top five in this category: Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James), Vincent Cassel and Armin Mueller-Stahl (Eastern Promises), Michael Cerra (Juno), Jeff Daniels (The Look-Out), Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris (Gone, Baby, Gone), Marcus Carl Franklin (I'm Not There), Kurt Russell (Grindhouse), Justin Timberlake (Alpha Dog), Vince Vaughn (Into the Wild), and Clarence Williams III (American Gangster).
Best Supporting Actress
Marketa Irglova for Once
Jennifer Jason Leigh for Margot at the Wedding
Jena Malone for Into The Wild
Kelly McDonald for No Country For Old Men
Amy Ryan for Gone, Baby, Gone
Five great performances but for me, it would clearly be a three-way race between Irglova, McDonald, and Ryan. In the end, I'll give the award to Amy Ryan as a way of appreciating the criminally underrated Gone, Baby, Gone. Just missing making the top five: Zoe Bell (Grindhouse), Marie-Josee Croze (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Ruby Dee (American Gangster), Catherine Keener (Into The Wild), Samantha Morton (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton), and Maria Tomei (Before The Devil Knows Your Dead). And yes, I did not give that much consideration to Cate Blanchett's overrated work in I'm Not There. Once you get past the novelty of Cate Blanchett playing Bob Dylan, there's not much there.
Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood
John Carney for Once
Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country For Old Men
James Mangold for 3:10 To Yuma
Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
And the imaginary Oscar goes to... Julian Schnabel.
How many of my personal choices will actually be nominated tomorrow? Hopefully, less than too many and more than none.
Lastly, allow me to give one more award. For worst film of the year, the imaginary Oscar goes to ... The Brave One, a vigiliante film with a message so confused and compromised that it made the original Death Wish look like a subtle and meditative work.
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