Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Spoilers...Oscars for 2004: Nominations list and YOUR predictions and Winners

Nominees List - 77th Annual Academy Awards, 27 February 2005

Actor in a Leading Role
Don Cheadle - Hotel Rwanda
Johnny Depp - Finding Neverland
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Aviator
Clint Eastwood - Million Dollar Baby
Jamie Foxx - Ray

Actor in a Supporting Role
Alan Alda - The Aviator
Thomas Haden Church - Sideways
Jamie Foxx - Collateral
Morgan Freeman - Million Dollar Baby
Clive Owen - Closer

Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening - Being Julia
Catalina Sandino Moreno - Maria Full of Grace
Imelda Staunton - Vera Drake
Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby
Kate Winslet - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Actress in a Supporting Role
Cate Blanchett - The Aviator
Laura Linney - Kinsey
Virginia Madsen - Sideways
Sophie Okonedo - Hotel Rwanda
Natalie Portman - Closer

Animated Feature Film
The Incredibles
Shark Tale
Shrek 2

Art Direction
The Aviator
Finding Neverland
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Phantom of the Opera
A Very Long Engagement

Cinematography
The Aviator
House of Flying Daggers
The Passion of the Christ
The Phantom of the Opera
A Very Long Engagement

Costume Design
The Aviator
Finding Neverland
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Ray
Troy

Directing
The Aviator
Million Dollar Baby
Ray
Sideways
Vera Drake

Documentary Feature
Born Into Brothels
The Story of the Weeping Camel
Super Size Me
Tupac: Resurrection
Twist of Faith

Documentary Short Subject
Autism Is a World
The Children of Leningradsky
Hardwood
Mighty Times: The Children's March
Sister Rose's Passion

Film Editing
The Aviator
Collateral
Finding Neverland
Million Dollar Baby
Ray

Foreign Language Film
As It Is In Heaven
The Chorus
Downfall
The Sea Inside
Yesterday

Makeup
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Passion of the Christ
The Sea Inside

Music (Score)
Finding Neverland
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Passion of the Christ
The Village

Music (Song)
"Accidentally In Love" - Shrek 2
"Al Otro Lado Del Río" - The Motorcycle Diaries
"Believe" - The Polar Express
"Learn to Be Lonely" - The Phantom of the Opera
"Look to Your Path (Vois Sur Ton Chemin)" - The Chorus

Best Picture
The Aviator
Finding Neverland
Million Dollar Baby
Ray
Sideways

Short Film (Animated)
Birthday Boy
Gopher Broke
Guard Dog
Lorenzo
Ryan

Short Film (Live Action)
Everything In This Country Must
Little Terrorist
7:35 In the Morning
Two Cars, One Night
Wasp

Sound Editing
The Incredibles
The Polar Express
Spider-Man 2

Sound Mixing
The Aviator
The Incredibles
The Polar Express
Ray
Spider-Man 2

Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
I, Robot
Spider-Man 2

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Before Sunset
Finding Neverland
Million Dollar Baby
The Motorcycle Diaries
Sideways

Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Aviator
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Hotel Rwanda
The Incredibles
Vera Drake

Multiple nominations
The Aviator - 11
Finding Neverland - 7
Million Dollar Baby - 7
Ray - 6
Sideways - 5
The Incredibles - 4
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - 4
Hotel Rwanda - 3
The Passion of the Christ - 3
The Phantom of the Opera - 3
The Polar Express - 3
Spider-Man 2 - 3
Vera Drake - 3
The Chorus - 2
Closer - 2
Collateral - 2
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - 2
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - 2
The Motorcycle Diaries - 2
The Sea Inside - 2
Shrek 2 - 2
A Very Long Engagement - 2

One nomination (features only)
As It Is In Heaven
Before Sunset
Being Julia
Born Into Brothels
Downfall
House of Flying Daggers
I, Robot
Kinsey
Maria Full of Grace
Shark Tale
The Story of the Weeping Camel
Super Size Me
Troy
Tupac: Resurrection
Twist of Faith
The Village
Yesterday

Printable ballot here ... okay, have at it, folks!

BIG FAN of the Academy Awards! Its such a fun show to watch!

I've always got an opinon on who I'd like to see win and lose but I'm the first to admit that its a completely uninformed one since I rarely get to see all the films in contention. The only films I've seen this year that are nominated in any of the "big" categories are 'The Aviator' and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' - both of which I very much enjoyed (especially ESOTSM!). I'm definitely hoping to see 'Million Dollar Baby', 'Sideways' and 'Closer' sometime before Oscar night though. They look great!

Thank God that there're no actors/actresses that I out-and-out hate nominated this year though and so risk a repeat of my disgust and outrage when Renee Zellwegger won Best Supporting Actress last year. That was ugly!

Nominees List - 77th Annual Academy Awards, 27 February 2005

Actor in a Leading Role
Johnny Depp - Finding Neverland

Actor in a Supporting Role
Jamie Foxx - Collateral

Actress in a Leading Role
Imelda Staunton - Vera Drake

Actress in a Supporting Role
Cate Blanchett - The Aviator

Animated Feature Film
The Incredibles

Art Direction
The Phantom of the Opera

Cinematography
House of Flying Daggers

Costume Design
Finding Neverland

Directing
The Aviator

Documentary Feature
Super Size Me

Documentary Short Subject
Mighty Times: The Children's March

Film Editing
The Aviator

Foreign Language Film
The Sea Inside

Makeup
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Music (Score)
Finding Neverland

Music (Song)
"Learn to Be Lonely" - The Phantom of the Opera

Best Picture
The Aviator

Short Film (Animated)
Gopher Broke

Short Film (Live Action)
Two Cars, One Night

Sound Editing
The Polar Express

Sound Mixing
The Polar Express

Visual Effects
Spider-Man 2

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Finding Neverland

Writing (Original Screenplay)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I have been lame this year and haven't been able to watch any of these films. (Except for Incredibles & Spidey2)

I DID see Troy and Alexander the Great. While I can't compare I am not suprised they didn't make it in except for Eric Bana for supporting actor...he played an amazing Hector.

I don't care for DiCaprio...he keeps getting cast in studly roles and I see him as a kid. And no offense to the guy but Brad Pitt and the other baby faces didn't get cast in these type of roles into their late thirties. DiCaprio I think would look like a man at 38...not now. Playing Howard Hughes a "man's man" just doesn't seem to be DiCaprio for me.

I am rooting for Johnny Depp who has certainly paid his dues and I love pretty much every one of his films. Out of that list Finding Neverland was the only film I was planning to watch but never got around to it.

I can't recall seeing so few films in first release as I did in 2004. It's been DVDs -- and their increasing wealth of features -- that has made me far more reluctant to get out amidst the mewling kids, the ringing cell phones, and the $7.00 buckets of stale popcorn.

Actor in a Leading Role
I regret missing "Ray," which I'll rent on Tuesday. I'm pulling for the talented Foxx to get a trophy. Here, though, either the Scorsese "It's About Time" camp will elect DiCaprio (who looks and emotes almost nothing like Howard Hughes) or Eastwood will win on sentiment. Jim Carrey, as usual, wuz robbed.

Actor in a Supporting Role
Church or Foxx, plee-uz! Frankly, I don't see Foxx's turn in "Collateral" as "supporting," in any way, as he drives the well-crafted plot, but it obviously was studio strategy to put him there, and it paid off.

Actress in a Leading Role
Bening or Winslet, either one is deserving.

Actress in a Supporting Role
Nobody can truly imitate Katharine Hepburn -- I'm sorry, Cate. Madsen had such instinctual, un-self-conscious sensuousness in "Sideways" that the Academy will never reward her for it -- it'd make too much sense. They should, though. And Portman irritates the hell outta me, and I can't fathom why. She just does.

Animated Feature Film
"The Incredibles," by a mile. The "Shrek" sequel was fun, but nearly instantly forgettable.

Art Direction
"The Phantom of the Opera," probably. A tour de force even without having seen it in full yet.

Cinematography
"The Aviator" probably did earn this one.

Directing
This is the last solid chance, methinks, to award Scorsese something in competition, so "The Aviator" will probably get it, and it doesn't deserve it, but that's how the friggin' Oscars too often operate. Richard Eyre deserved a nod for "Stage Beauty." I'm hoping the quirky "Sideways" gets it.

Documentary Feature
"Fahrenheit 9/11" deserved a nomination, and the award that Moore didn't earn for his gun-control opus, but he had terminal hubris in not entering his film here. The preposterous "Super Size Me" will probably win, as it bashes the same productive business types that write the Academy members' paychecks.

Film Editing
"Collateral," I know, was awesome in this department.

Makeup
The "Lemony Snicket" opus deserves this even with only seeing extended previews thus far (as I did at San Diego ComicCon).

Best Picture
"The Aviator" probably will get it, but "Sideways" should have it. Comedies are criminally underrepresented in Oscar annals anyway.

Sound Editing
"Spider-Man 2" had better win this or I'm gonna be really POed.

Sound Mixing
Ditto.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
The Academy is stupid enough, at its worst, to give this to Che Guevara, but I suspect this is a lock for the deserving "Sideways."

Writing (Original Screenplay)
"Eternal Sunshine." Please. It has to win something, for how it tweaked time and space, or the karmic balance of the movies will be upset.

He certainly has. He chooses great projects to take part in and I'm sure he'll be up there some day.

But Jamie Foxx in "Ray" was genius. Better than the actual movie, I thought. I would be incredibly surprised if he doesn't pick up Best Actor this year.

Finally saw a couple more of the films in contention for some of the "bigger" awards - 'Collateral' and 'Sideways'.

'Collateral' I really enjoyed but while I thought all of the acting was very good I didn't sit up and think "Foxx deserves a 'Best Supporting Actor' Oscar for this role!" (Not that his was the supporting role anyway, but I digress.) Well done to him for getting nominated though.

'Sideways' - what is all the fuss about this movie? Sure its OK, a pleasant little distraction with some good acting and writing, but that's about it. The way all the critics go on about it I was expecting it to be The Second Coming of American comedy. That was probably the first problem - this film is really not that funny. Sure, it's a sweet little road movie with some interesting insights into the mid-life psyche but all the humour is of the 'slight smirk across the lips' kind rather than the 'laugh out loud' kind. Now usually that's my favourite kind of comedy but here I was just left wanting more. Maybe I need to see this film again when I'm not expecting so much but at the moment I'm not really rooting for it to win any of the "big" awards except 'Best Supporting Actress' - Virgina Madsen was very good.

for tonight is the big night.

Winners (in red) as they are announced:

Nominees List - 77th Annual Academy Awards, 27 February 2005

Actor in a Leading Role
Don Cheadle - Hotel Rwanda
Johnny Depp - Finding Neverland
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Aviator
Clint Eastwood - Million Dollar Baby
Jamie Foxx - Ray

Actor in a Supporting Role
Alan Alda - The Aviator
Thomas Haden Church - Sideways
Jamie Foxx - Collateral
Morgan Freeman - Million Dollar Baby
Clive Owen - Closer

Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening - Being Julia
Catalina Sandino Moreno - Maria Full of Grace
Imelda Staunton - Vera Drake
Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby
Kate Winslet - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Actress in a Supporting Role
Cate Blanchett - The Aviator
Laura Linney - Kinsey
Virginia Madsen - Sideways
Sophie Okonedo - Hotel Rwanda
Natalie Portman - Closer

Animated Feature Film
The Incredibles
Shark Tale
Shrek 2

Art Direction
The Aviator
Finding Neverland
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Phantom of the Opera
A Very Long Engagement

Cinematography
The Aviator
House of Flying Daggers
The Passion of the Christ
The Phantom of the Opera
A Very Long Engagement

Costume Design
The Aviator
Finding Neverland
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Ray
Troy

Directing
The Aviator
Million Dollar Baby
Ray
Sideways
Vera Drake

Documentary Feature
Born Into Brothels
The Story of the Weeping Camel
Super Size Me
Tupac: Resurrection
Twist of Faith

Documentary Short Subject
Autism Is a World
The Children of Leningradsky
Hardwood
Mighty Times: The Children's March
Sister Rose's Passion

Film Editing
The Aviator
Collateral
Finding Neverland
Million Dollar Baby
Ray

Foreign Language Film
As It Is In Heaven
The Chorus
Downfall
The Sea Inside
Yesterday

Makeup
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Passion of the Christ
The Sea Inside

Music (Score)
Finding Neverland
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Passion of the Christ
The Village

Music (Song)
"Accidentally In Love" - Shrek 2
"Al Otro Lado Del Río" - The Motorcycle Diaries
"Believe" - The Polar Express
"Learn to Be Lonely" - The Phantom of the Opera
"Look to Your Path (Vois Sur Ton Chemin)" - The Chorus

Best Picture
The Aviator
Finding Neverland
Million Dollar Baby
Ray
Sideways

Short Film (Animated)
Birthday Boy
Gopher Broke
Guard Dog
Lorenzo
Ryan

Short Film (Live Action)
Everything In This Country Must
Little Terrorist
7:35 In the Morning
Two Cars, One Night
Wasp

Sound Editing
The Incredibles
The Polar Express
Spider-Man 2

Sound Mixing
The Aviator
The Incredibles
The Polar Express
Ray
Spider-Man 2

Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
I, Robot
Spider-Man 2

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Before Sunset
Finding Neverland
Million Dollar Baby
The Motorcycle Diaries
Sideways

Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Aviator
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Hotel Rwanda
The Incredibles
Vera Drake

And deservedly so, box office winner or not.

YAY, Spoilers!! Now I can completely ignore the Oscars!

Yeah, I figured I'd suffer for all of us.

Honestly, worst produced Oscars I've seen so far. Poor presentations and Chris Rock should never be asked back.

And what the hell is up with presenting awards while standing in the audience? Very tacky.

I too appreciate your keeping up with this, Scott. I can take the Oscars for only several minutes at a time, so I miss some of the big awards.

Morgan Freeman finally won, huh? Good.

I'm glad Freeman won. Rock is doing an ok job, but he doesn't bring the gravitas that the Oscars requires (because it takes itself SO goddamn seriously!). I think Billy Crytal worked because he's a movie actor and you're not used to seeing him do standup all the time so his once a year thing seemed more special (just a guess - I was never that taken with him anyway, but he seemed to fit). I didn't see it when Johnny was host so I don't know if seeing him every night diluted the event or if he fit as well because he was so much a part of Hollywood.

And I agree that handing the awards into the audience is a tacky move. We all know they want to cut down the running time, but this award is either *special* or it's not.

Btw, did anyone see the "Independent Spirit Awards" yesterday? All I can think is that someone needs to finally muzzle Robin Williams!!! It's sad for a man of that age to still be so friggin' desperate for attention (and with the same lame gags and accents )

I'll have to admit Rock's remark that next year they'll be setting up a drive-thru for handing out the Oscars was funny. Made me laugh. He at least realized that the audience hand-out wasn't a good move.

I remember Johnny hosting. I like his shows but really can't remember much beyond the one they replayed tonight where he made a joke about the length and compared it to the Iran hostage crisis. I'll admit Crystal is my favorite recent host although the best host of all was probably Bob Hope.

Someone needs to knock the bottle out of Sean Penn's hand at least a couple of hours before he presents an award.

And Hillary Swank is now the actress who'll be known for winning for portraying firsts: First woman to win an Oscar for a woman portraying a man (Boys Don't Cry) and now as the first Oscar for portraying a female boxer (Million Dollar Baby).

I predict the next time Swank is up for an Oscar she'll actually have gone through transgendered surgery and will be the first actor to have also won for best actress!

They usually do the awards in March. This year it's in Feb (black history month) and Foxx and Freeman win -- coincidence??

Yeah, probably

No, they moved the awards two years ago to the last Sunday in February, instead of the third Sunday in March. The excuse for it was that the award campaigning was getting too protracted. If you lived in L.A., you'd know that three weeks less of the advertising does help.

I've been watching this show every year, with two large pizzas being delivered, since 1972, so I'm addicted, but this was one of the less stellar events. The host, by the way, matters little after the opening monologue / comedy bit / schtick. Bob Hope and Johnny Carson just had better writers. Chris Rock was irreverent and fairly entertaining. (He doesn't have to shout, though.)

Except for the opening Chuck Workman montage, always a highlight for me, and the Honorary Award tributes, the clips of past films were fractured into 26 mirrors on the Kodak Theater ceiling, making them nearly impossible to see. Bit of a bad night for cinema history buffs.

Awards being given in the audience were just as absurd and un-classy as I expected. They had the side effect of depriving us of the 10-to-15-second clips of the short-films, makeup, and other winners. Trips to the stage thus had their benefits, along with seeing the all-too-human reactions of the winners.

The bloat has been cut back. This show was only 3:15, 15 minutes over plan, a far cry from the four-hour-plus marathons of too much of the past. Couldn't they get someone in addition to Beyonce (who did quite well) to sing the nominated songs, though? They were hardly that short on the ability to handle many such performers.

And none of the awards (except Cate Blanchett) was a outrage, with the two for writing being exactly on target. Jamie Foxx did a tour de force to earn his statue, but "Ray" deserved nothing else. I still haven't made up my mind about "Million Dollar Baby," especially in light of the ending, but Eastwood knows his craft.

One of the things I missed most. I enjoyed seeing those quick clips of the shorts and others. It at least gave you a small insight to the look and feel of the nominees.

While I won't agree with you on her singing ability (over-rated in my book) I do agree they could have had more performers there besides Beyonce. I miss the day when the person who actually performed the nominated song in the movie performed it at the ceremony.

So why don't they finally admit the truth, the thing won't be done in three hours, and plan for it?

I don't watch the thing, but thats just me. Still, they know its like the superbowl for movies, and it is gonna last longer than 3 hours. They should quit being a buncha whiney babies about it and just say.."Yeah, its gonna go long, whatcha gonna do?" and be done with it. Same arguement every year and nothing fixes it.

Nobody really "whines" about the show's length, though it's often been the butt of jokes.

They're jinxed, or so they think, by a year when Jerry Lewis hosted it (1963) and it ran 20 minutes short, against all plans. Lewis told the Oscar winners who'd come on stage at the end to sing "There's No Business Like Show Business" to "Repeat it 100 times!" He'd descended to his face-distorting mugging schtick when NBC mercifully pulled the plug and aired a short film about pistols, of all things.

So since then they've always deliberately run past the planned time slot, their own form of superstition at the Academy. I remember the show running as long as 4:35 in recent years, so 3:15 almost felt a bit short for once.

The "minor"-awards-in-the-aisles and all-nominees-on-stage ploys probably only saved ten minutes, and those weren't at all worth the cost in class and finesse.

Agreed. Best Animated Film is one of those awards that Oscar folks have been getting consistently "right" in my view. Of course, the category's only a few years old, so they haven't had much opportunity to screw things up.

Now, if they would just expand it to five nominees instead of three....