I don't think so. The Star Trek makeup, along with practically everything else technical in that movie, was piss-poor.

As for TTT, this has to do with certain academy "rules" which state that 'previously seen material' disqualifies a nomination. Hence also why Howard Shore didn't receive a nod for his music. Same thing may happen next year, but he got his for FOTR already.

The one solid thing I truly despise about the Oscars is that they only honor films released from the fall, and in minor exceptions, the summer ("Forrest Gump" in 1994 is a good example of that).

What about films released in January, March, or May?

Everyone of the Best Picture nominees was released since the fall.

Also, Gladiator came out in the summer.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Adrien Brody the same guy who was in the Highlander series? If so and he wins, it should be no problem whatsoever getting the next Highlander isntallment greenlit!!!


I really wish people would quit trying to call the 2003 Awards (for this current year) right now.

IMO, GONY getting close to a sweep at the oscars is the ONLY way for it to make bakc any of its money. I currently live in a major city, and many multiplexes dropped it after last week.

And look only back to last year. I think Russell Crowe was a best actor lock on nomination day, but Denzel slowly and steadily whittled down the margin, and he took his second statue.

And I think Salma Hayek is the name to watch in the actress category. Frida got many more nominations than I ever expected(a shame Molina got overlooked, however) and it could pick up some Monsters Ball like steam and maybe carry her to the top of the heap. And, if I recall correctly, we've never had a Latina win best actress, supporting or otherwise.

disappointed to see that City of God didn't get a nod for Foreign Film.....I thought for sure that'd be in there.....

This is a little overly critical of the Academy since it's more of a human nature kind of trend. We have a tendency to remember the last thing we've seen more clearly than something released 8-12 months ago.

Studios realize this and they save their Oscar contenders for release later in the year so they're fresh in the hearts and minds of the voters.

What difference does it make when the film comes out? How many noteworthy films come out in January and February? Have you taken a look at your local multiplex lately?

Are you going to complain, come next March, when none of these choice selections get nominated? Just Married? Darkness Falls? So far the year's leading Oscar contender is Shanghai Knights... let's just see if that one hangs on.

Do we know why this got left out? Surely, Brazil couldn't have pulled a Spain on this one... could they?

Actually, Nicole should have been nominated and won for "The Others". Now that was a performance!!

What was the Academy smoking? Nominatiing a young whippersnapper like Eminem!

I'm dissapointed that One Hour Photo was overlooked. But what really pisses me off is no Minority Report for best SFX. I mean come on!

I am glad to see Adaptation and Road to Perdition on there.

Does anyone else feel that Adaptation is more of an Original screenplay, and Gangs of New York is more of an Adapted screenplay?

My Predictions:

Best Picture: Chicago

Best Director: Martin Scorcese

Best Actor: Daniel-Day Lewis

Best Actress: Diane Lane

Best Supporting Actor: Paul Newman

Best Supporting Actress: Meryl Streep

I'm surprised Chicago got so many noms - now I might have to actually see it, just so I can make my picks here.

ooops! I didn't realize that - thanks for mentioning it. Why can Nicole Kidman do no wrong since she and Tom Cruise split up? or is she finally making better career decisions? or both?

I will agree w/ several of you though that the Oscars have been a damn joke for several years and loses more of its luster each year. They need to go w/ a Golden Globe format and cut the crap and just handout awards. AND for crying out loud, if they can create a category for animated features, then do so for comedic features you nitwits!

Their grand-kids must have told them he was cool

Harvey pwns j0000!

People gave other exceptions, but the major one was a little movie that came out in February 1991 called...Silence of the Lambs. Everyone thought the Academy would forget about it when nominations were announced...look how much that movie cleaned up!

Two things I will comment on...way back when 8 Mile was gaining steam in the press I said Eminem would be nominated for Original Song because "Lose Yourself" gives a good overview of what the movie is about. I have a feeling it may just win because it has the most in common with the movie it is on. Everyone laughed at me...

Animated Show...the only major category (and it probably isn't considered major) I have seen all the movies for. Treasure Planet never should have been nominated...if they wanted to give it to something they should have pushed another anime movie out there...although I am not sure if any of them would fill the requirements (Escaflowne was shown in 2001 at an anime expo in the US for example). This category should be a two horse race: Spirited Away and Lilo and Stitch. Ice Age may win, but that would be wrong on so many levels. It is time Miyazaki gets the American credit he deserves, but I would not be bummed if L&S wins, even though I do not think it is as great as SA. I would hope if SA wins that people who haven't seen it will wonder what it is all about and either pick it up or rent it on April 15 when it comes out on DVD.

As for "Mike's New Car"...Pixar has won many an animated short Oscar (Luxo Jr., Chess, the bird one from Monsters Inc. theatrical release). That's all...later.

I'm hoping he'll do a duet with Barry Manilow or Barbra Streisand. You?

Wow! Peter Jackson wasn't nominated for Best Director? What gives?

The nominees for best picture were all very good, even though i haven't seen The Hours.If you ask me it'll be a long shot for The Two Towers or Gangs of New York to win.I'd be very surprised if they did.

Eminem may indeed win for best song. I can see the Oscars wanting to "spice it up" and imitate the MTV movie awards. They may not like the song, but they'll want to get close to him in hopes he draws vital "bad boy" publicity to the show.

Well i don't know if the Academy likes the song or not, but it definitely deserves to win in my opinion.

If he doesn't show, can we get Steve Martin (the host right), to do his best Eminem impersonation for the song, since the song has to be performed.

I think that U2 has the song in the bag. I was surprised they let eminem join the little party. But I don't see him taking home the gold.

Just a few points.

To understand why some of the nominations panned out the way they did you need to understand the nomination process. Every Academy member is eligible to submit nominations for Best Picture. After that, each "branch" of the Academy submits their own nominations. The directors nominate the directors, the actors nominate the actors. The visual effects people nominate the visual effects teams. The makeup artists nominate the makeup contenders. And so on.

Each "branch" has its own rules. Makeup, Score and possibly Costume Design have rules that say the majority or all of the work in question must be original. That's what eliminated The Two Towers from those categories. While it contained outstanding examples of work in these categories, the same work was featured in last year's Fellowship of the Ring, where it was nominated and won. So it's not eligible for this year's awards. Let that be the end of the whining on that subject.

As for cinematography, I'm not sure if they have a similar rule, but since only cinematographers can nominate in this category, they probably felt we saw it all last year in FOTR and chose something different.

That brings up my next point. All this bashing of the nominations every year with the general sentiments of the Academy is stupid gives me the impression that many people think a bunch of stuffy old men in suits sat around and came up with these nominations. Granted, we, myself included, often disagree with their picks, but as stated above, each branch choose their own nominees. I think I trust some established cinematographers' opinions on cinematography over a bunch of people on an internet message board.

And as for Peter Jackson, the reason Two Towers was nominated for Best Picture while he was left out of the Director race is simple. Directors are nominated only by Academy member directors. Obviously, they didn't feel he was worthy. But Picture is nominated by all members of the Academy, so enough members in other branches felt the film was worthy. Also, the nominees for the DGA awards (Directors Guild of America) don't always match with the Academy nominees because not all DGA members, which is basically every director who's ever made a film that saw some distribution, are members of the Academy as well.

I'm not saying not to disagree with the nominees. Hell, I agree that Minority Report should have gotten a Visual Effects nom over Spiderman, but obviously the Visual Effects people who create the effects thought otherwise.

Finally, you have to remember that it's a big popularity contest. The studios have spent and will spend millions attempting to influence the Academy voters to pick their film. Voting on the actual awards is open to all members of the Academy, not just the nominating branches, except for documentary, short subject and foreign films. For those categories, members who wish to vote on them must attend special screenings arranged by the Academy, this way it is known that they saw them all. This could hurt Bowling for Columbine, because many members may have already seen it and choose to skip the screening. If they miss the screening, they can't vote in that category.

Now for my opinons:

Anyone who says Nicolas Cage doesn't deserve his nomination hasn't seen Adaptation and is basing their judgment on some of the crap he's been in recently.

You may not realize it, but I loved Two Towers as much as most of you, but I just don't think it was among the 5 best films of the year. 10 best, maybe, but not 5 best.

Chicago will win Best Picture. It's a musical, which, until Baz Luhrmann last year, was a near dead artform that is distinctly American. The Academy will honor Chicago for bringing back the musical genre, since we all know given its success, that we'll be seeing plenty more musicals in the near future.

That is all for now.

My Predictions

Best Picture : Chicago*

Best Director : Martin Scorsece

Best Actor : Adrien Brody

Best Supporting Actor : Paul Newman

Best Actress : Diane Lane

Best Supporting Actress : Kathy Bates

*LOTR should win.