Oscars!

The Oscars nominations were just released yesterday! Here goes:

1. Best Picture:

"Babel," "The Departed," "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Queen."

2. Actor:

Leonardo DiCaprio, "Blood Diamond"; Ryan Gosling, "Half Nelson"; Peter O'Toole, "Venus"; Will Smith, "The Pursuit of Happyness"; Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland."

3. Actress:

Penelope Cruz, "Volver"; Judi Dench, "Notes on a Scandal"; Helen Mirren, "The Queen"; Meryl Streep, "The Devil Wears Prada"; Kate Winslet, "Little Children."

4. Supporting Actor:

Alan Arkin, "Little Miss Sunshine"; Jackie Earle Haley, "Little Children"; Djimon Hounsou, "Blood Diamond"; Eddie Murphy, "Dreamgirls"; Mark Wahlberg, "The Departed."

5. Supporting Actress:

Adriana Barraza, "Babel"; Cate Blanchett, "Notes on a Scandal"; Abigail Breslin, "Little Miss Sunshine"; Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"; Rinko Kikuchi, "Babel."

6. Directing:

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, "Babel"; Martin Scorsese, "The Departed"; Clint Eastwood, "Letters From Iwo Jima"; Stephen Frears, "The Queen"; Paul Greengrass, "United 93."

7. Foreign Language Film:

"After the Wedding," Denmark; "Days of Glory (Indigenes)," Algeria; "The Lives of Others," Germany; Pan's Labyrinth," Mexico; "Water," Canada.

Judging from the list, personally I think some categories like Best Picture, Actor, Director can be quite widely contested. I have not watched all the films but the Academy can be biased towards certain type of movies and may award the winners based on that.

For Best Picture, I think it will be a toss between Babel and Letters From Iwo Jima. The Departed is adapted from Hong Kong Infernal Affairs, so to me, it lacks credibility. Doubt a movie on The Queen will get the votes from the American for Best Picture, was surprised that they select it as one of the nominees, maybe just give face to show they are netural, must surely give The Queen some face :) Little Miss Sunshine is a light hearted indie film, won a number of film festivals awards last year, usually Best Picture they give to some heavy weight films so doubt it will get the nods from the panels of judges.

My take on the Best Actress category: Helen Mirren, without a doubt!

I enjoyed Little Miss Sunshine and if you have watched it, you will agree with me the 10 year old girl gave a jolly good performance! Not surprised to see her in the nomination list cos there isn't many strong contenders. For the Best Supporting Actress category, other than Jennifer Hudson who won the recent Golden Globes, this 10 year old Abigail Breslin may give Hudson a run for the little statue.

As for Best Actor, Forest Whitaker won in the Golden Globes, so he may be the favourite to win again. Not sure if the Academy will give a nod to Peter O'Toole, after all he is quite old and he did not win for Lawerence of Arabia back then.