Oscar Nomination Aftermath

As Christmas morning was for me when I was a child, now Oscar nomination day is for me as an adult. I still get excited with the suspense, poring over the nominations, pondering who the favorites will be. Why, I’m not exactly sure, since I have no chance at being nominated. My simplest explanation is that it combines a love of movies with that of sports.

Yesterday’s nominations were a bit different than usual, in that the Best Picture nominations did not dominate the rest of the categories. The five Best Pictures got a total of 26 nominations, the lowest since the 1930s, and did not have a Best Actor or Cinematography nomination, also a rarity. This was facilitated mostly by the lack of an appearance by Dreamgirls in the top five. The putative front-runner for Best Picture, Dreamgirls did get 8 nominations to lead all comers, but did not get the expected Picture or Director nomination. It thus becomes the first film to lead a year in nominations without getting a Picture nomination.

After getting over the shock (which I’m sure is profoundly felt in the corridors of Paramount and Dreamworks—David Geffen probably did not have a good day), what reasons can we come up with for this snub? Supporters of the film may cry racism. Tom O’Neill, the mincing Oscar expert who seemingly never met a song-and-dance extravaganza he didn’t like, puts it this way:

“Those straight ole white geezers in the academy just don't "get" the wow-pow of what's going on between all those hip black folk singing, loving, dancing, dreaming, hearts breaking up on screen. Yes, voters admire their performances, the songs, art direction, costume design, even sound mixing, but they're not doing their fundamental job as filmgoers, they're not projecting themselves into the characters on that screen, thus experiencing what they feel. Why? Because they can't break out of their white skins, that's why.”

Well! I would counter to Tom, perhaps the straight ole white geezers, like me, just didn’t think the film was very good. It’s been compared a lot to Chicago, which I thought was far superior, and didn’t begrudge it it’s Oscar win four years ago. As for any racism, a record five black performers were nominated, as well as two Latinas and one Asian, which seems pretty Rainbow Coalition to me. I think the basic reason for all of this is that the pundits who dabble in Oscar prognostication got behind Dreamgirls early, and the Academy members, who are a small and exclusive bunch, just weren’t that impressed.

If it was a bad day for Dreamgirls, it was a good day for Mexican cinema. The “Three Amigos,” Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Alfonso Cuaron, and Guillermo Del Toro, friends and Mexican filmmakers, had their films well represented at during the morning’s announcement. Innaritu’s Babel picked up 7 nominations, with two (directing and producing) for the man himself, while Del Toro got a screenwriting nod for Pan’s Labyrinth, with the film getting five more nominations. Cuaron got two of the three nominations for Children of Men, writing and editing.

The acting categories went pretty much to form, with no major surprises. They range from the 10-year-old Abigail Breslin of Little Miss Sunshine to Venus’ Peter O’Toole, 73 and with his eighth nomination. If he loses, he will be all alone with the record for futility among acting performances. Meryl Streep bested her own record, getting her 14th nomination, while Kate Winslet, at 31, becomes the youngest performer to notch her fifth nomination.

The record for futility in all categories is held by Kevin O’Connell, who just picked up his 19th nomination, for Sound Mixing for Apocalypto. He now has 19 nominations, but has never won. If he does win this year, I will make a small, yet forceful, “Wahoo!” in his honor.

Predictions as to the winners will come shortly before the awards, which will be presented February 25th.