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CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio review for the doc series “Charlie Hustle & the Matter of Pete Rose,” about the rise and bitter fall of the major league legend, the MLB’s all-time hits leader, only to be banned from the sport because of gambling. Streaming on MAX and on HBO since July 24th.
The 10 Biggest Oscar Snubs of 2009
Submitted by BrianTT on January 23, 2009 - 10:31am
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Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Photo credit: The Weinstein Company
Director Christopher Nolan on the set
Photo credit: Stephen Vaughan
Rosemarie DeWitt
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics
James Franco
Photo credit: Dale Robinette
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Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Photo credit: The Weinstein Company
7. “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” by Woody Allen for Best Original Screenplay
“VCB” is Allen’s best script in years, a breezy, easy-going examination of love, sex, and cultural clashes during a summer in Spain. Like the Springsteen snub, this one just doesn’t make sense. The Academy clearly loves Woody Allen. They’ve nominated him fourteen times before. And this work was better than half of those choices. The WGA nominated him, which almost always means an equivalent one here. Did someone mis-count the votes? Honestly, this category ended up the most random. “Happy-Go-Lucky” was excluded from several categories, indicating perhaps the Academy didn’t like the movie, but they nominated it here. And I like “In Bruges” and “Frozen River” but the screenplays are not as good as “The Visitor,” “Rachel Getting Married,” or “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”. Maybe too many quality choices made this one too difficult for Academy members and they did make some good choices here, just not the right ones.
Director Christopher Nolan on the set
Photo credit: Stephen Vaughan
6. Christopher Nolan for Best Director for “The Dark Knight”
I’m angry that Darren Aronofsky was excluded for his excellent work on “The Wrestler” in favor of dull, boring choices like Ron Howard for “Frost/Nixon” or Stephen Daldry for “The Reader,” but the exclusion of Nolan hurts the most. I would like to talk to the voting body as a whole for a minute. How can a film be worthy of eight nominations, most of them technical, but not Best Director? Do you think editors, cinematographers, etc. act of their own volition? That they’re not guided by the director? Or were you merely prejudiced against what you saw as a superhero movie? Nixon and the Holocaust are more important subjects, so they have to be better directed films, right? It’s just sad.
Rosemarie DeWitt
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics
5. Rosemarie DeWitt for Best Supporting Actress for “Rachel Getting Married”
Many, many people are predicting Anne Hathaway to win for “Rachel Getting Married” and you’ll get no argument from me there (especially with Sally Hawkins out of the running…more on that later), but her counterpart in the film, the performance that truly supported the lead and made it great, was snubbed. Hathaway does incredible work but it is largely in part because of how she is balanced by DeWitt’s complex portrayal of the bride-to-be. It’s hard to say who shouldn’t have been nominated in this category - it’s one of the top fives that feels the most correct - but I would probably axe Amy Adams for either DeWitt or Hiam Abbass’ great work in “The Visitor,” and if I had to pick one it would be the former.
James Franco
Photo credit: Dale Robinette
4. James Franco for Best Supporting Actor for “Milk” or “Pineapple Express”
One of the acting stories of 2008 was ignored by the Academy. James Franco is no longer “that guy from Freaks and Geeks and the Spider-Man movies”. He gave two of the best performances of the year in his vastly different roles in “Milk” and “Pineapple Express” and he should have been nominated for one of them. I feel like the Academy decided they could nominate only one performance from “Milk” and they, correctly, went with Josh Brolin and they decided they could only nominate only one comedic performance and they went with Robert Downey Jr. from “Tropic Thunder”. Of course, someone should have told them that they could nominate two performances from “Milk” or two funny characters, but that would have been too easy. Eddie Marsan’s great and truly supporting work in “Happy-Go-Lucky” being shown the door in favor of what should have been a role that competed in lead actor from Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Doubt” was nearly as annoying.
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
It may not have been a snub but the Oscar rules are wrong. Sweden had a tuff choice last year and Troell’s “Everlastng Moment” is a very good movie and went up on Short list Top 9.
Now, if the americans think LTROI is a better movie, it should be eligible (especially if it had a US release during 2008). Oscars is after all a US award, not a Swedish one. If you blame Sweden and refuse to change the rules this will happen again. If it isn’t possible to nominate several movies from the same country something is wrong. It’s as if Paramount or Warner just could submit 1 movie each year.
Sally Hawkins totally
Sally Hawkins totally deserved a nomination, she was brilliant!
Oh, Beauty and the Beast got a nomination for Best Picture, so it isn’t so hard for an animation feature to get a nomination…
Best Animated Feature
Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture before the existence of Best Animated Feature. Since then, no animated film has, arguably because voters feel that recognizing the work in the Best Animated category is recognition enough, even if it is one of the best pictures of year as well.
my thoughts
I think a lot of people feel that the academy existst to please them by awarding their favorite movies of the year all the awards. The Dark Knight was a good movie, no doubt, but for the academy and for a lot of critics (national and international) it did not ascend to the level of a masterpiece that everybode believes it to be. Wall-E was a very good movie, as was Rattatouille, which won best animated film last year. Pixar makes the best hollywood animations nowadays and get rewarded for it year for year. The Dark Knight was the best superhero movie in a long time (arguably even of all time)and it got nominated for 8 oscars. 8!!! thus, it ranks third on the list of most nominated films, sharing that place with milk.
Why do people want categories formerly perceived as not-serious or purely entertaining to not only be awarded, by rise up into the highest categories?
The Return of the King won 11 oscars, and nobody (!) complained about the academy not awarding popular movies then, and that was five years ago. The Departed won (I disagreed but that doesnt matter) and the public was happy.
Now, only because a movie that won more than 500 million, people are starting to accuse the academy of not liking popular films.
firstly, they don’t have to. the filmmakers are getting the awards, not you and your viewing pleasures. the academy awards the movies it thinks are best.
secondly, it does sometimes award popular movies, which has been proven in the past.
is it because last year no country for old men got the oscar and nobody had even heard of it? well, it was the right decision. would people have preferred spiderman 3? probably. but, honestly, who cares?
the oscars are hollywood’s most prestigious awards for a reason: they are granted by an academy of filmmakers that evaluate the movie differently than the general public.
but it does sound as if i was on a pro-oscar campaign, whereas i have to agree with you on a lot of points:
The Wrestler got snubbed - director. movie. screenplay. song.
especially song. it was my favorite movie of the year and this was just depressing…
Let the right one in should have nominated.
The voting process is screwed up.
The Reader is terrible, pretentious oscar bait, well deserving the cinematography and acting noms though.
benicio del toro got snubbed.
finally i just have to disagree with you on Frost/Nixon, which is an excellent movie and deserved almost every nomination it got. I probably would have picked other ones, but nevertheless it was a good choice. howards direction was excellent, the movie wasgripping and definetely NOT boring!
I just hope for Slumdog Millionaire/Benjamin Button (by the way, both pretty popular movies, if you wish, compared to there will be blood or no country…)
Thank you.
I’m glad I’m not the only one outraged that WALL·E didn’t get a nomination for best picture. I really wish the Academy hadn’t created the “Best Animated Feature” category. It really does an injustice to the medium as a whole.
I’m sorry, but I disagree
I’m sorry, but I disagree with you in many of your snub picks. I see you have chosen your favourites for the year (and the ones you dislike), and you determined whether the academy is right or wrong in its nominations based on your choices.
I have to disagree about The Reader which I think is a very good movie. I will also have to disagree about The Dark Knight being voted for best picture.
I believe the academy awards for achievements done in making a movie. The Dark Knight was a good movie and it was nominated for most of its achievements (cinematography, editing, sound, visual effects, etc…). But I don’t see it as a great achievement in the history of cinema. At least not as great as the five nominees.
best song? not the wrestler anyway...
no offense, but “the wrestler,” the song that is, is kinda boring. The acoustic style, the metaphors, the gravelly grit….it’s all been done and it tries too hard for that oscar. I frankly would have headed straight for the bathroom if I had to see this performed because I heard it enough already in the previews. Its an ok song that is fitting for the movie, but seriously… it won a golden globe and springsteen has an oscar anyway.
I’m gonna go ahead and
I’m gonna go ahead and agree with the fellow that posted above me. I won’t trouble myself for his name…but he was the guy with the big long section. There are people that are angry about WallE being snubbed, and about the Dark Knight being Snubbed.
I know the Academy is always blamed for not picking the “popular” films and instead going for the one that is deemed “artistic” or relatively high brow to make them seem more intelligent.
This is an illusion folks. There is a reason why they pick those films, and it is because it is what THEY perceive are the best films of the year! It is the Academy’s awards, and no one else’s. If you want to see the Best Film nominations be “Dark Knight” “Iron Man” and “Indie Jones IV” then watch the people’s choice awards and get your fill. Don’t forget a coloring book. You may want something to keep you busy during the commercials.
Also, the nominations for Best Film also happened to be my favorite films of the year (although if it were up to me, I would have slammed the Wrestler into Frost/Nixons place…although Frost/Nixon was also a DAMN good picture)
Best picture
The Batman movie was a fantastic thoroughly engaging movie with a fantastic screenplay. I completely agree with the article that the voters must be out of their minds. Just because it is a superhero movie it wasn’t fair to be eliminated.When Slumdog could be nominated with a simple rags to richs theme that has been seen many a time before, how can a complex storyline could be ignored.Shame that Chris Nolan has been ignored , i’m just furious.James Franco deserved a Best supp nod too.Songs in slumdog are overrated and probably flicked from some english songwriter, i know i’m from India we specialise in plaigrism.
The worst snub
BY FAR the most heartbreaking omission was the exclusion of Kristin Scott Thomas for “I’ve Loved You So Long”; the best work of her career.