Giamatti should have gotten a nomination, if only to make up for the year he was snubbed when he was painted blue by Malcolm in the Middle.

"Passion of the Christ" with 3 noms. Interesting. Albeit, they're all in tech categories: Score, Cinematography, Makeup. Still...

I'm not surprised about the Cinematography award - there has been a lot of talk about if the movie were to receive one nomination, it would be in that area. The nom for Score is a surprise to me, though.

I remember earlier in the year when many forum members were predicting that this and F911 were "locks" for Best Picture noms.

Wow. Now those are some predictable, boring nominations.

Way to go Academy!

I guess people deserve what they deserve though.. Would have been nice to have some slightly more varied noms though.

I am happy Kate Winslet got nominated for Eternal Sunshine though, she was flat out terrific. And Shark Tale getting a nomination.. well I'm just confused by that one.

IMO, the biggest oversights are the omission of Paul Giamatti ("Sideways") for Best Actor. It was a terrific performance and a memorable character. Also, "Million Voices" ("Hotel Rwanda") for Best Original Song. A beautiful, exotic tune that acts as an appropriately solemn coda for the film. Very surprised that "Old Habits Die Hard" ("Alfie") also failed to get a nom for Song. It was the favorite to win going in. And I also agree that "Polar Express" should have been nominated for Animated Feature, over the pedestrian "Shark Tale." "Polar" was something never before seen in the animation process. A truly groundbreaking new process. Although the story was kinda slight, the film itself was impressive. And what the hell is Alan Alda ("The Aviator") doing with a Supporting Actor nomination? He was just okay, but hardly made enough of an impression to warrant such an honor. I thought Peter Sarsgaard ("Kinsey") and Freddie Highmore ("Finding Neverland") deserved his spot much more. Ah, well, like they say, THAT'S HOLLYWOOD...........

How many animated films were released this year? Shark Tale was such an awful movie, was there really no other films that qualified so they were forced to stick that one on there just to have 3 nominations. Did Polar Express not count since it was "performance capture"? Granted, the only nominees that really matter are Shrek 2 and Incredibles, but it still annoys me that Shark Tale was nominated. Now they get to trumpet on their dvd "Academy Award Nominee." It really shouldn't matter that much to me, but I just thought that was the most insipid film I saw in all of 2004.

I don't care what your politicals are, F911 getting any awards would turn the show into a total joke.

I agree with pretty much all the nods though. Good choices. Heres to another Clive/Natalie win!

I think that Million dollar baby will be walking away pretty light this year to all the make up awards. Benning for actress, Martin for director and Jaime Foxx is just more deserving of it then either leo or clint. Picture will be what it will walk away with.

The fact that Ray is in the running already makes it a joke. This show has been a joke for a long time.

to Kate and Catalina getting Best Actress noms.

to the snubbing of Maria Full of Grace for Best Foreign Film.

to Jamie Foxx being nominated in the supporting category for Collateral. He was good, but it wasn't anything worthy of a nomination.

to the snub of Eternal Sunshine in the Best Picture category.

Clint Eastwood is the only nominee for Best Actor playing a fictional character.

Although I haven't seen the respective films yet, glad to see some of my favorites get nominated - Blanchett, Linney and Cheadle.

First off - I haven't seen the film yet, but everything I have read says that The Aviator is good, but not really anything special. Is it safe to say that if it was directed by somebody not named Scorcese it wouldn't be getting all of this love from the Academy and the like?

Sad, ain't it? We reward people who play other people more than someone who creates a character within a 2 hour time frame. Damn shame.

From what I've seen, the film is very ambitious - you got acting, you got drama, you got history (very important for Oscar), and you got special effects.

"That's gold, Jerry! Gold!!"

Or when he was Pig Virus!

Only Million Dollar Baby has the chance to win the five majors (Actor, Actress, Picture, Director, Screenplay).

I'd like to see Jamie Foxx lose for Ray just to see what evil-white-man jokes are made by Chris Rock.

The Academy could play it safe and give it to Don Cheadle instead (whom I want to win).

No way Cheadle will win.

Handicapped Dude ownz ALL! ++3 points for having died in the last year.

Paul Giamatti is just like Philip Seymour Hoffman - underlooked by the Academy.

*cough*Pig Vomit*cough*

The Best Actor nominations... isn't it odd that Clint is the only one who WASN'T playing a real guy from history? (EDIT: Guess I wasn't first to spot that...)

KATE WINSLET everybody! (ClapClapClap)
If there was any film she deserved it for... it was Eternal Sunshine, which has her best, most varied, most touching performance.

Clive Owen... man oh man.. he DESERVES this, but I'm worried (see the Jamie Foxx bit below)

Very surprised Giamatti didn't get his due. He didn't feel like a long shot and he didn't seem undeserving.The Polar Express wasn't technically animated, but motion capture (sorry Mr. Zemeckis, PERFORMANCE capture), so technically it's ineleigible. Same thing for Waking Life all those years ago.
But yeah, fucking SHARK TALE?

Glad Alfie's "Old Habits Die Hard" didn't nominated for best song! Shameless, transparent attempt to recapture old oscar glory... though "Believe" got nominated for The Polar Express, so there's a song that did it's job; get a nomination. It's a terrible song. Josh Groban sings a Christmas Song, and it's the worst, most joyless Christmas song ever. He sounds like he's frowning.

Tupac: Resurrection for best documentary? Are they mental?

A little disappointed with the rules for nomainating foreign films. I would have loved The Motorcycle Diaries to get more notice.

I didn't think Hackford should have been nominated for Ray. As a director, he's not that spectacular - more of a perfunctory director who understands that the story's important, so I do respect him for that. I just don't think he deserved the director nom. Also, the film didn't really need teh editing nod.

It's kinda sad that people are taking this opportunity to bash Fahrenheit 9/11 once more. (For the record, I simply think there were a lot of better films.) Let's bash films that were nominated, people!
Still, it's odd; I expected there to be uproar from some folk over The Passion Of The Christ not sweeping it... (braces himself for the inevitable poster who says "Hollywood's run by corrupt jews")

Jamie Foxx. After today, he can't get arrested in this town. I worry, though, that the supporting nod (don't get me wrong, he was very good - he made Collateral's script almost believable) is a consolation prize, as if there's a disappointment expected for Best Actor. In case Leo gets it, for instance, then Jamie'll get the best supporting actor award.

What's up with score? Was the music in the first Harry Potter films so drastically diferent? I'm told that The Passion's score was great, but for the life of me I can't remember it.

And finally, and I do mean this with utmost sincerity...
... while it was very unlikely that Shaun Of The Dead would have ever received a Best Original Screenplay nod (an award that, if there was justice, it would have received), I was surprised that it did not receive a best makeup nod. Same for the remake of Dawn Of The Dead. Say what you will about the films, but the makeup was not child's play. These people deserve acclaim for their work.

How is neither House of Flying Daggers nor Maria Full of Grace nominated for best foriegn picture?

HOTFD not getting nominated for best foreign film doesn't upset me since the story and acting was average at best however, Maria Full of Grace not getting nominated is another story...

Blame the Columbian government, not the Academy: Columbia submitted El Rey as their official entry into the Foreign Language category.