81st Academy Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 81st Academy Awards were announced this morning. I always find this day very exciting, with tea and highlighter handy to make predictions. The noms came in high for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button leading with 13, Slumdog Millionaire has 10, Milk & The Dark Knight tie for 8 a piece. I'm thrilled to see Richard Jenkins nominated for The Visitor, I was worried it would be too early in the year to be nominated. Another well deserved nod goes to Michael Shannon for Revolutionary Road. There were more than a few surprizes this year, including Kate Winslet in The Reader as Lead but no nomination for Revolutionary Road. Many people are surprized that The Dark Knight has no nomination for picture or director but just technical awards and Heath Ledger for Supporting. I wasn't one of the surprized ones.

Now, the big question is - how many of the nominated films have you seen, and how many are you going to try to see in the brief 31 days until the Awards. I know I'm going to get at least another 5 in. Let me run some numbers for you.

Total films nominated: 50
Total feature films nominated: 36
Total not including either foreign or feature docs: 31
Total not including foreign or feature docs: 26

In terms of films that had a regular release, we are looking in the 30 film range. The shorts, with the exception of Presto which was screened with WALL-E didn't have a regular release. Out of the Foreign and Documentaries, each category had a few that came out in regular release. For documentaries it was Man on Wire, Encounters at the End of the World and The Trouble with Water. For Foreign, only Waltz with Bashir and The Class / Entre les murs hit the regular theatres.

The Academy Awards will be announced live Sunday February 22, 2009 starting at 8pm on ABC.

Here is the full list of nominees for the 81st Academy Awards:
See also film lists by number of nominations: detailed or list format

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Richard Jenkins in The Visitor
Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn in Milk
Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

Performance by an actor in a Supporting Role
Josh Brolin in Milk
Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie in Changeling
Melissa Leo in Frozen River
Meryl Streep in Doubt
Kate Winslet in The Reader

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams in Doubt
Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis in Doubt
Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Bolt Chris Williams and Byron Howard
Kung Fu Panda John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
WALL-E Andrew Stanton

Achievement in Art Direction
Changeling , Art Direction: James J. Murakami, Set Decoration: Gary Fettis
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt, Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo
The Dark Knight , Art Direction: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Peter Lando
The Duchess , Art Direction: Michael Carlin, Set Decoration: Rebecca Alleway
Revolutionary Road , Art Direction: Kristi Zea, Set Decoration: Debra Schutt

Achievement in Cinematography
Changeling , Tom Stern
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , Claudio Miranda
The Dark Knight , Wally Pfister
The Reader , Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
Slumdog Millionaire , Anthony Dod Mantle

Achievement in Costume Design
Australia , Catherine Martin
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , Jacqueline West
The Duchess, Michael O’Connor
Milk , Danny Glicker
Revolutionary Road , Albert Wolsky

Achievement in Directing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , David Fincher
Frost/Nixon , Ron Howard
Milk, Gus Van Sant
The Reader , Stephen Daldry
Slumdog Millionaire , Danny Boyle

Best Documentary Feature
The Betrayal, Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
Encounters at the End of the World, Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser
The Garden, Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Man on Wire, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
Trouble the Water, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

Best Documentary Short Subject
The Conscience of Nhem En A Farallon Films Production, Steven Okazaki
The Final Inch A Vermilion Films Production, Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant
Smile Pinki A Principe Production, Megan Mylan
The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306, Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde

Achievement in Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
The Dark Knight , Lee Smith
Frost/Nixon , Mike Hill and Dan Hanley
Milk, Elliot Graham
Slumdog Millionaire , Chris Dickens

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
The Baader Meinhof Complex, Germany
The Class, France
Departures, Japan
Revanche, Austria
Waltz with Bashir, Israel

Achievement in Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , Greg Cannom
The Dark Knight , John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O’Sullivan
Hellboy II: The Golden Army , Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original Score)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Alexandre Desplat
Defiance, James Newton Howard
Milk, Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire , A.R. Rahman
WALL-E, Thomas Newman

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original Song)
Down to Earth from WALL-E, Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire , Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar
O Saya from Slumdog Millionaire , Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman andMaya Arulpragasam

Best Motion Picture of the Year
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
Frost/Nixon, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fellner, Producers
Milk, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers
The Reader, Nominees to be determined
Slumdog Millionaire, Christian Colson, Producer

Best Animated Short Film
La Maison en Petits Cubes, Kunio Kato
Lavatory - Lovestory, Konstantin Bronzit
Oktapodi, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
Presto, Doug Sweetland
This Way Up, Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

Best Live Action Short Film
Auf der Strecke, Reto Caffi
Manon on the Asphalt, Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont
New Boy, Steph Green and Tamara Anghie
The Pig An, Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh
Spielzeugland, Jochen Alexander Freydank

Achievement in Sound Editing
The Dark Knight , Richard King
Iron Man, Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
Slumdog Millionaire , Tom Sayers
WALL-E, Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
Wanted ,Wylie Stateman

Achievement in Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
The Dark Knight , Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
Slumdog Millionaire , Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
WALL-E,Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt
Wanted , Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt

Achievement in Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron
The Dark Knight , Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin
Iron Man, John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan

Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , Screenplay by Eric Roth, Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Doubt , Written by John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon , Screenplay by Peter Morgan
The Reader , Screenplay by David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire , Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

Original Screenplay
Frozen River, Written by Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky , Written by Mike Leigh
In Bruges, Written by Martin McDonagh
Milk, Written by Dustin Lance Black
WALL-E, Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter