Oscar Nominations

Well, they're here. (There'd be a link if I wasn't on a Mac. But, dude, you should be able to find them.)

Yesterday, I'd been thinking I'd have to go out and see more movies, as I'd figured I'd only seen two of the Best Picture nominees, but with "Cold Mountain" getting virtually shut out, all of a sudden I've seen three of five. Not like I think "Master and Commander" or "Seabiscuit" really stand a snowball's chance in hell of taking home the big one. Given the results of the Golden Globes, it's the two I haven't seen ("Mystic River" and "Lost in Translation") that look to be the potential roadblocks for "Lord of the Rings" -- not to mention they might seriously be slugging it out for Best Actor.

Yeah, wasn't Best Actor a surprise? Yay for Johnny Depp. And Jude Law gets nominated for "Cold Mountain" but not Nicole Kidman. Surprising -- I would've thought Nicole Kidman was one of those actresses who the Academy likes so much she just gets nominated whatever she does. Nicole's probably muttering something nasty about that "Whale Rider" girl as we speak. Not that it really matters -- I think we're just talking about nominations that are their own reward -- my money is on Bill Murray and Charlize Theron at this point. (Theron, particularly, is a lock, as far as I'm concerned.)

Now, you know how I feel about Best Director. The only one I see possibly standing in Peter Jackson's way on this is Peter Weir. Not so much because I thought "Master and Commander" was particularly well-directed, but because Peter Weir's never won one yet, he certainly deserves to have one on his shelf, and the Academy has a tendency to give out Oscars on a "lifetime achievement" basis. (I mean, hell, when you get right down to it, I'm pulling for Peter Jackson on the strength of his last three pictures.)

And -- even with the relatively weak field that LOTR is facing for Best Picture -- I still wonder if the Academy has the cajones to give it the award. I pose the following question -- how often does the Academy give "Best Picture" and "Best Director" to something that doesn't take home any acting awards? Only ones I can think of in semi-recent memory are "Platoon" and "Rocky." And (oscar.com oddly lacks this information), weren't those at least NOMINATED for acting awards?