MoviePage

The word "overrated" is vastly overrated. It's terribly flawed and suffers greatly from repeated usage. It doesn't deserve its place on the list of Best Word to Use When Talking About Movies on the Internet. "Subjective" was robbed.

fumanstan

It's easily one of the most memorable, and certainly better then Brolin's nomination for Milk.

Daytripper

No shit! I bet most people commenting haven't even seen "The Reader".
You're never going to make everyone happy. Both "TDK" and "The Reader"
were on my 10 Best List this year. So I'm mostly happy with the nominations.

Trevor

I never knew the voting was tabulated this way.

The results make much more sense now. I can easily see 7-8 films making more top 2 lists than TDK.

Goat3001

Agree completely. After watching TDK multiple times the one thing that blows my mind every time is Ledger. Meanwhile, as good of a film as Milk was, Brolins performance was just 'good' and certainly nothing memorable.

Aegean2007

It didn't kill it's chances.

...You're talking about Benjamin Button, right?

PopcornTreeCt

I think what stings the most about The Dark Knight's snub is that this may have one of the weakest years in the decade. Mediocrity dominates the Best Picture category.

B5Erik

If I had seen Benjamin Button I might have said some of those things about it. But I have no interest in it, so I haven't seen it.

But I really don't believe for a second that TDK was an Oscar worthy movie. For my money Iron Man was a better movie, but I wouldn't say that it is Oscar worthy, either.

The thing about Oscar nominations (and winners on many occasions) is that there are always going to be people who strongly disagree with the choices.

Shannon Nutt

Have you SEEN Benjamin Button? It has all of your complaints in spades. We can agree to disagree, but it seems as if you apply a set of rules to some films, but don't use the same criteria for others. If ANY movie of 2008 was an overlong, overblown lesson in excess, it's Benjamin Button, NOT The Dark Knight.

EDIT: Seeing your above post, I can see that you haven't seen it.

zekeburger1979

The Dark Knight is only the 4th film in Oscar history to earn 8 nominations without one for Picture, Director, or Screenplay. The other 3: Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Poseidon Adventure, and Dreamgirls.

Doubt is only the 3rd film in Oscar history to earn 4 acting nominations without a Picture or Director nomination. The other 2: I Remember Mama and Othello.

WALL-E is the first animated film to compete in 6 different categories.

Slumdog Millionaire is only the second Best Picture nominee to receive two song nominations, the other one being Beauty and the Beast.

First time since 1991 more men than women are nominated for Costume Design.

Meryl Streep tied Katharine Hepburn for her 12 nominations in the leading category.

Kate Winslet, 33, is the youngest performer to receive six Oscar nominations over the course of her career. The record was previously held by actress Bette Davis, who was 34 when she received her sixth nomination for "Now, Voyager" in 1942.

Marisa Tomei is now one of only ten supporting actress winners that have been nominated more than once after their wins; the others were:

Fay Bainter.
Celeste Holm.
Shelley Winters.
Maggie Smith.
Meryl Streep.
Jessica Lange.
Anjelica Huston.
Dianne Wiest.
Judi Dench.
Cate Blanchett.

9 of the twenty acting nominees are first-timers:

- Richard Jenkins, The Visitor.
- Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon.
- Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler.
- Josh Brolin, Milk.
- Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road.
- Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married.
- Melissa Leo, Frozen River.
- Viola Davis, Doubt.
- Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

After 1997, 1998 and 2007 this is only the 4th time that SAG matched 5/5 with Oscars in Best Actor.

Stephen Daldry has now directed five actors to nominations and films by him have received 17 nominations in total including three for him.

Wall-E is the most nominated Pixar movie.

First time since 2000 that both Actors in Comedy categories failed to get nominated.

First time since 1994 that no Comedy winner at the Globes (Actor, Actress, Film) got nominated.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the first film ever shot on digital to be nominated for Cinematography.

Brad Pitt's first nomination in 13 years, and the first time in a Best Leading Actor category.

Tom Stern's cinematography nomination for Changeling is his first.

Wally Pfister is 3/3 for his last three Nolan pictures (Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight) for his cinematography!

For the 5th year in a row, Golden Globe best song winner was snubbed at the Oscars.

VCB is the 17th Woody Allen film to get an Oscar nomination, but only the 3rd to not get a writing nod.

First nomination for Werner Herzog.

First time ever that both winners of Lead Actress Globe have been snubbed at the Oscars.

Meryl Streep extends her record of most nominations for acting to 15.

Each of the five best-pic contenders saw its director nominated -- which, incredibly, is only the fifth time that’s ever happened.

“Button’s” Kathleen Kennedy earned her sixth producing bid, tieing her with Stanley Kramer and Steven Spielberg for the record for individual producers.

Stephen Daldry makes Oscar history by going three for three: With this year’s “The Reader,” he has scored a directing bid for the trio of films he’s helmed.

Lora Hirschberg (“Dark Knight”) becomes the third woman nominated in the sound mixing category.

Viola Davis and Michael Shannon are supporting contenders (for “Doubt” and “Revolutionary Road,” respectively) though each has only about 10 minutes of screen time.

“Waltz With Bashir” is the first animated feature nominated for a foreign-language Oscar (though it’s the 13th toon to be submitted in that race; last year’s “Persepolis” didn't even make the short list).

A.R. Rahman (“Slumdog”) is a triple nominee, for his music score and two songs: “Jai Ho” and “O Saya,” which rep the third and fourth bids for songs not in the English language.

France maintains its lead in the foreign-language race, with its 35th bid for “The Class.”

Andrew Stanton (“Wall-E”) is only the fourth person to score a second bid in the animated feature category(The other three: John Lasseter, Hiyao Mizaki and Brad Bird). He also earned a citation in original screenplay as one of the scribes on the film.

Two best-pic contenders center around real-life TV shows: “Frost/Nixon” (the 1977 interviews) and “Slumdog Millionaire” (India’s version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”).

Seven of the 10 lead actors are aged 45 or older.

Robert Downey Jr.’s nom (“Tropic Thunder”) marks the first time since Laurence Olivier’s 1965 “Othello” that an actor has been nommed for playing a role in blackface.

Kate Winslet was nommed as leading actress in “Reader,” though she won a Golden Globe as supporting actress for the same film.

Heath Ledger scored a supporting actor nom for “The Dark Knight” on the first anniversary of his death. This marks the seventh posthumous acting nomination, including the sole winner so far, Peter Finch (“Network”).

LosingMyMind

It would be great if Michael Shannon would win, but he won't. He's been excellent in everything I've seen of his, although I haven't seen Kangaroo Jack.

MoviePage

Thanks for the trivia, zekeburger! Although:

While technically true, it's a bit misleading.

OldBoy

1st post updated to reflect DonnachaOne's great list of nominees!

NiCK Crush

I'm happy with the nominations. I would have liked to seen The Dark Knight get a nomination over Frost/Nixon for Best Picture. But I'm happy nonetheless. I'm not saying The Dark Knight would have or should have won Best Picture if nominated... but I do think it was worthy of a nod. Ah well.

I think Slumdog Millionaire is a brilliant film, and worthy of all the attention. I hope it sweeps, honestly. Although I love Fincher and think he is just as deserving of the Oscar as Boyle.

A.R Rahman is the man.

The Wall-E love

edytwinky

Benjamin Button did not deserve that many noms.

Upset to not see The Dark Knight on Best Picture list.

Gamelore

2008 Acacemy Awards = FAIL.

Skimmed the list, saw nothing for Gran Torino. Yet somehow cookie-cutter Hollywood crap like The Dark Knight, The Reader, Tropic Thunder and Wall-E are in there.

Overall, 2008 was a bad year. Gran Torino barely made the finish line, but totally redeemed the year for me. I still have not seen Benjamin Button, but Gran Torino was the best movie I saw by far. Lasting impact for weeks. How can that masterpiece be so easily disregarded?

Oh right, this is the same academy of the past 10 years. I think they need to be replaced.

MoviePage

There would be just as many gripes if Gran Torino was nominated.

Mr. Cinema

Random Oscar Wins Count:

Halle Berry: 1
Roberto Benigni: 1
Three 6 Mafia: 1
Ian McKellen: 0

fumanstan

Yeah, I can think of one vocal fellow here that sure would be upset.

I think the reason folks are griping about The Dark Knight is because it had a huge box office take and also critically praised across the board, not to mention it had numerous nominations from other groups and award shows. I think most everyone knew it probably wouldn't win or picked it themselves, but that it deserved the distinction of being nominated.

wm lopez

I was shocked that THE DARK KNIGHT didn't get a nod for score.
After I read about how everybody here likes the score.
I myself couldn't remember a note.
Although I think by having Pitt & Jolie nominated they insure a good ratings turnout this year.

PopcornTreeCt

There would be more. Gran Torino is like 2008 version of Crash.

movielib

My opinion: Gran Torino seemed cookie cutter to me. A decent but pedestrian movie we've seen a hundred times before. Clint Eastwood's growly noises were symptomatic of the unsubtle and obvious shortcuts taken instead of actual development made throughout the movie. This isn't even in the middle of the pack for Eastwood films.

tucker

LickTheABCs

Gran Torino wasn't terrible.. but pretty close to it.

The Fall was robbed. I mean seriously? Changeling gets a Cinematography nod but The Fall doesn't? I wasn't the biggest fan of the film, but that means jack shit. The film is beautiful to behold.

TDK had no chance to win BP, but deserved to be there ahead of the other tripe that did get a nom. Oh yeah, and Michael Shannon getting a nod over Colin Farrell is hilarious. He's in "Revolution Road" for 7 minutes and was really bad. Plus, it seemed like he was just channeling his character from Bug.

Gah! It's the Oscars, I don't know why after all these years it still gets me worked up.

Daytripper