Oscar Nominations, Bruce Out, M.I.A. In + Other Surprises and Snubs

Slumdog Millionaire OST Wall-E OST

The 2009 Oscar Nominations were announced this morning and there were more than a few surprises, including the exclusion of Bruce Springsteen‘s Golden Globe Award winning song “The Wrestler”, and the inclusion of “O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam. Here’s a rundown of the music categories and the major awards categories (Benjamin Button lead the way with a total of 13 nominations):

Best Original Score
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Alexandre Desplat
Defiance, James Newton Howard
Milk, Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman
WALL-E, Thomas Newman

Best Original Song
“Down to Earth” from WALL-E, Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman
“Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman and Gulzar
“O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam.

Best Motion Picture of the Year
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Richard Jenkins for The Visitor
Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn for Milk
Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie for Changeling
Melissa Leo for Frozen River
Meryl Streep for Doubt
Kate Winslet for The Reader

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Josh Brolin for Milk
Robert Downey Jr. for Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt
Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon for Revolutionary Road

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams for Doubt
Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis for Doubt
Taraji P. Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler

Best Achievement in Directing
Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry for The Reader
David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon

Some of the other big surprises and snubs included:

Robert Downey Jr. for Best Supporting Actor for Tropic Thunder
Richard Jenkins for Best Actor for The Visitor
No Best Score nomination for The Dark Knight
No Best Picture nomination for The Wrestler
No Best Picture nomination for Wall-E
No Best Director nomination for Darren Aronovsky

3 Comments

  1. bill p says:

    Bruce is a snub/surprise but I’m not sure the Wrestler/Aronofsky so much is. Nobody woulda cared about this movie if it wasn’t for Rourke’s performance. He’ll win the Oscar.

    I don’t think anyone *really* expected Wall-E to be nominated for Best Picture when there’s a separate Animation category, though it was the best movie of 2008.

    Richard Jenkins was a surprise, and a welcome one at that. And Kate Winslet getting nominated for the Reader, which many thought would get her a Supporting nom (just like GGs) is surprising, as is it getting a BP nom and not Revolutionary Road.

    For me, not many surprises at all this year.

  2. bumpershine says:

    Agreed, Jenkins was a welcome surprise and I guess I never really thought Wall-E would get a best picture nod until I saw so many critics placing it on their “best of” lists. A fine example of how the Best Animated Feature category cuts both ways, but I suppose people knew that when they lobbied to have it created. I still think Downey Jr. was a pretty big surprise in Best Supporting, I mean he was hilarious in Thunder, but did anyone really think he would get an Oscar nod (which he will most likely lose to Ledger). Mickey will probably win for “The Wrestler” and you might be right about the Aronovsky BD/BP thing, but at least this movie makes up for “The Fountain” debacle. I was also kind of surprised to see “The Reader” nominated for BP as I’ve heard mixed reviews.

  3. bill p says:

    Blame The Reader on two rules: Holocaust Movies ALWAYS Get Nominated; and Harvey Weinstein Can Get Anything Nominated for Best Picture.

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