Movies
And the nominees are...
2005 OSCAR NOMINEES
Best Picture The Aviator Finding Neverland Million Dollar Baby Ray Sideways
Best Director
Martin Scorcese - The Aviator
Clint Eastwood - Million Dollar Baby
Taylor Hackford - Ray
Alexander Payne - Sideways
Mike Leigh - Vera Drake
Best Actor
Don Cheadle - Hotel Rwanda Johnny Depp - Finding Neverland Leonardo DiCaprio - The Aviator Clint Eastwood - Million Dollar Baby
Best Actress
Jamie Foxx-Ray
Battle for Oscar 2005
Annette Bening - Being Julia Catalina Sandino Moreno- Maria Full of Grace Imelda Staunton-Vera Drake Hilary Swank-Million Dollar Baby
Best Supporting Actor
Kate Winslet--Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Alan Alda - The Aviator Thomas Haden Church Sideways Jamie Foxx - Collateral Morgan Freeman - Million Dollar Baby Clive Owen - Closer
Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett - The Aviator
Laura Linney - Kinsey
Virginia Madsen - Sideways
Sophie Okonodo - Hotel Rwanda
Natalie Portman - Closer
Source: www.oscar.com
[Shupe's picks]
BEST PICTURE
Should win: Million Dollar Baby
Will win: The Aviator
Only two films here are worthy of the top prize. The Aviator is a dazzling portrait of Howard Hughes, with a glamorous Leonardo DiCaprio descending into a private, decadent hell. Million Dollar Baby is an unapologetic downer guided by the classically trained hand of director Clint Eastwood. Aviator should soar above Baby.
BEST DIRECTOR Should win: Martin Scorsese Will win: Martin Scorsese
The Aviator is one of the best-directed films of the decade. Martin Scorsese's aerial sequences define visionary filmmaking, and the film's romance between Howard Hughes and Katharine Hepburn resonates with the stuff of Hollywood legend and tragedy. Scorsese desperately wants to win an Academy Award. For the first time since 1990's Goodfellas, he actually deserves to.
BEST ACTOR
Should win: Don Cheadle Will win: Jamie Foxx
In the year's most crowded category, Jim Carrey from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Tom Hanks from The Ladykillers and Liam Neeson from Kinsey are all criminally absent. Jamie Foxx gives the showiest performance, but Don Cheadle moved me to tears in Hotel Rwanda, the year's most important film.
BEST ACTRESS
Should win: Kate Winslet Will win: Hilary Swank
As a needy book clerk whose emotions shine brighter than the colors of her ever-changing hair, Kate Winslet delivers the performance of the year in Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. She faces formidable competition - especially from Hilary Swank, who's already earned one Oscar for blurring masculine-feminine lines in 1999's Boys Don't Cry.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Should win: Clive Owen Will win: Morgan Freeman
This is a race between two old pros, unless Thomas Haden Church rides Sideways' huge critical wave to a surprise win. Alan Alda brilliantly portrays pre-McCarthy Era hubris as The Aviator's corrupt senator, and Morgan Freeman gives moody presence to Million Dollar Baby's most devastating plotlines. But neither is as indelible as Clive Owen in his role as Closer's venomous surgeon.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Should win: Laura Linney Will win: Cate Blanchett
Natalie Portman looks gorgeous in Closer, but I thought the Academy had moved beyond voting for physical attributes. (Tell that to Paul Giamatti, snubbed twice for Sideways and 2003's American Splendor.) The rest of the actresses in this field give credible performances, especially Cate Blanchett as a complex movie star in The Aviator and
Laura Linney as a sexologist's experimental wife in Kinsey.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Should win: Paul Haggis
Will win: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor
Despite all the remakes, sequels and comic-book adaptations, 2004 featured some exceptionally fine writing. José Rivera produced a lyrical road odyssey from the diaries of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor are fast becoming a legendary screenwriting team. And nobody beats Paul Haggis' screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, a work of flawless genre storytelling.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Should win: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The No. 1 original screenplay of the year is on this list, though No. 2 and No. 3 are MIA - Kill Bill, Vol. 2, by Quentin Tarantino, and I Heart Huckabees, by David O. Russell and Jeff Baena. Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind blends sci-fi, romance and philosophy into a singular cinematic experience.
Will win: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
—Stephen Shupe