Academy Awards - Live Thread 79th Oscar Awards

25 February 2007 | DollyCali

[DollyCali]

The Queen

Peter Morgan's "The Queen" is nominated for six Academy Awards, including one for best picture.

The Departed

Under Martin Scorsese's directing, "The Departed" is nominated for five Oscars.

Babel

"Babel" is nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture and director.

Letters From Iwo Jima

"Letters" is nominated for four Academy Awards, including best director and best picture.

Little Miss Sunshine

"Sunshine" is nominated for four Academy Awards, including best picture

Leonardo DiCaprio

Nominated for his role in "Blood Diamond," this is Dicaprio's third nomination.

Ryan Gosling

Nominated for "Half Nelson," this is Gosling's first Oscar nod.

Peter O'Toole

This is veteran actor Peter O'Toole's eighth Academy Award nomination.

Forest Whitaker

Whitaker is nominated for playing the brutal dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland."

Will Smith

Smith is nominated for an Oscar for the second time for his roll in the film "The Pursuit of Happyness."

Penelope Cruz

Cruz, nominated for "Volver," plays a woman whose life is thrown into chaos.

Kate Winslet

Winslet plays a discontented wife in "Little Children," earning her fifth nomination.

Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren played royalty in "The Queen," earning her third Orcar nomination.

Judi Dench

No stranger to the Academy, this is Dench's sixth nomination.

Meryl Streep

Streep played a well-dressed, outrageously demanding editor in "The Devil Wears Prada."

Mark Wahlberg

In "The Departed," Wahlberg explores the underbelly of the Boston police force.

Alan Arkin

No one plays a heroin-addicted Grandpa like Alan Arkin, nominated for "Little Miss Sunshine."

Eddie Murphy

"Dreamgirls" was a box office hit, and earned Eddie Murphy his first Oscar nomination.

Jackie Earle Haley

Nominated for "Little Children," this is Haley's first Oscar nod.

Djimon Huonsou

This is Huonou's second nomination -- this time, for "Blood Diamond."

Rinko Kikuchi

Kikuchi, up for "Babel" in which she plays a deaf teenager in Tokyo.

Jennifer Hudson

Nominated for "Dreamgirls," this is Jennifer Hudson's first Oscar nod.

Abigail Breslin

This is young Breslin's first nod, for "Little Miss Sunshine."

Cate Blanchett

This is Blanchett's third Oscar nod -- this time, for "Notes on a Scandal."

Adriana Barraza

This is Barraza's first nomination, for Amelia in "Babel."

Clint Eastwood

Eastwood is also nominated for Best Picture for "Letters From Iwo Jima."

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Inarritu is nominated for directing "Babel."

Martin Scorsese

Scorsese is a familiar face at the Oscars -- this is his eight nomination.

Stephen Frears

Frears got the nod in 1990. This time, it's for directing "The Queen."

Paul Greengrass

Greengrass is up for "United 93," his first nomination.

[Borges]

No one is telling the public what to like. It's what the artists feel is their best work. Take it for whatever that's worth. It would be like all the Victorian novelists getting together once a year to choose their best work. Inherently fascinating. If you want to know what the 'common man' likes look at the People's Choice Awards which celebrate dreck year after year.

[DollyCali]

Its all in the genes.. some can life hard lives & seemingly are unaffected

[DeerfieldObserver]

At the Oscar Ceremonies, it is forbidden to refer to someone as an "actress" . The pc term is "female actor".

That has always grated on me.

Maybe that's why I so seldom go to the movies these days.

[DeerfieldObserver]

John Wayne was great in The Searchers.

[antceecee]

Many actors would much rather have the dreadful People's Choice award than the stodgy political academy choice.
True success is measured by your audience.

[DollyCali]

I think early in many careers they look at the money & the fame.. later they think legacy & chose better roles.

They realize their limitations/competition & go for more quality & less work.

Some of them are wise investors.. some of them spend every cent that they get (just like we "regular" people)

Be back shortly....My furnace went out just before the awards went on. 3rd time in a few weeks. Fortunately it is 30 degrees here.. not sub zero like the first time w were w/o furnace for 3 days & the house got down to 38!

[durasell]

True success is measured by your audience.







Are you quoting the cast of Police Academy here?

[Borges]

The Academy Award is the most prestigious award for film artisans by far. No one remembers who wins the People's Choice Awards but even a modest success like Driving Miss Daisy is remembered because it won the Oscar. Just because something is popular doesn't mean it's good.

[Bender2]

Re: Its all in the genes.. some can life hard lives & seemingly are unaffected

All in the genes?

That's a laugh... as I did do most of my drinking wearing Levi button fly jeans!

[durasell]

No one remembers who wins the People's Choice Awards but even a modest success like Driving Miss Daisy is remembered because it won the Oscar.






No, it's remembered because it was good and continues to be good as the years go by.

[ReignOfError]

At the Oscar Ceremonies, it is forbidden to refer to someone as an "actress" . The pc term is "female actor".

I don't know what Oscar ceremonies you've been watching. The official categories are best actress in a starring role and best actress in a supporting role, and that's how the winners are announced.

[ReignOfError]

Many actors would much rather have the dreadful People's Choice award than the stodgy political academy choice.

I seriously doubt it.

True success is measured by your audience.

Yes. But the measure of that success isn't the People's Choice award -- it's the $20 million paycheck.

[antceecee]

"Just because something is popular doesn't mean it's good."

Just because the Academy Award is the self-proclaimed 'most' prestigious award for film artisans, does not necessarily mean they award the "best" of what was presented for the year. They award what is "popular" in the sphere in which they live/experience film.
When they do consider indy films it is with a "grande largesse" and given only in the instance that it makes them look magnanimous to all the other "little" people in film (include here foreign films). Great exception here are anyfor any indy or foreign films which help to emphasize a political/social statement they are trying to convey in the awards ceremony.

[Bender2]

Re: The pc term is "female actor"

Well...

as I said in My Favorite Year... "So's this...

But I have to run a little water through it once in a while!"

[ReignOfError]

Eddie Murphy, from what I've heard, is fantastic. It's too bad he got detoured into b-grade Disney movies.

From what I've heard, that was his decision -- once he had kids, he wanted to make movies he could watch with them. And while the Nutty Professor and Dr. Doolittle movies were mediocre, I can find very little to dislike about either Shrek.

[Borges]

Oh I can quarrel with their choices most years. Just stating that it is what people who work in the movies all hope for at some point in their careers and anyone who says otherwise is probably lying. As foreign films being chosen on the basis of political statements, this year's winner "The Lives of Others" is about how brutal East Germany was.

[Borges]

Murphy had been holding his legendary concert film 'Delirious' off of DVD for a long time because he is embarrased about the language and gay bashing. It just came out with an apology from Murphy on the disc.

[antceecee]

Nice talking/debating with you. Off to get a bit'o sleep so that I can achieve success in my chosen endeavour tomorrow!

; ~ )

[durasell]

Would it help if I told you that the Academy was originally a union busting ploy and the Awards a publicity gimmick?

[Bender2]

Re: As foreign films being chosen on the basis of political statements, this year's winner "The Lives of Others" is about how brutal East Germany was.

Put up yer dukes! I'll have you know... East Germany was a paradise before the evil Republicans polluted the Earth with their selfish ways!