The Academy Award nominations were released today. Here are some of the major categories:

Best Picture:

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Lost in Translation
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Mystic River
Seabiscuit

Best Actor:

Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Ben Kingsley, House of Sand and Fog
Jude Law, Cold Mountain
Bill Murray, Lost in Translation
Sean Penn, Mystic River

Best Actress:

Keisha Castle-Hughes, Whale Rider
Diane Keaton, Something's Gotta Give
Samantha Morton, In America
Charlize Theron, Monster
Naomi Watts, 21 Grams

Best Supporting Actor:

Alec Baldwin, The Cooler
Benicio Del Toro, 21 Grams
Djimon Hounsou (news), In America
Tim Robbins, Mystic River
Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai

Best Supporting Actress:

Shohreh Aghdashloo, House of Sand and Fog
Patrica Clarkson, Pieces of April
Marcia Gay Harden, Mystic River
Holly Hunter, Thirteen
Renée Zellweger, Cold Mountain

Best Director:

Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation
Clint Eastwood, Mystic River
Peter Jackson (news), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Fernando Meirelles, City of God
Peter Weir, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Best Original Screenplay:

The Barbarian Invasions, Denys Arcand (news)
Dirty Pretty Things, Steven Knight
Finding Nemo, Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds
In America, Jim Sheridan & Naomi Sheridan & Kirsten Sheridan
Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola

Best Adapted Screenplay:

American Splendor, Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman
City of God, Braulio Mantovani
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson
Mystic River, Brian Helgeland Seabiscuit, Gary Ross

Best Animated Feature:

Brother Bear
Finding Nemo
The Triplets of Belleville

Best Foreign-Language Film:

The Barbarian Invasions, Canada
Evil, Sweden
The Twilight Samurai, Japan
Twin Sisters, The Netherlands
Zelary, Czech Republic

_____________

A few things that surprised me:

- Tom Cruise, who I thought would win Best Actor for The Last Samuri, wasn't even nominated for the award
- Russel Crowe is yet again in a movie that gets nominated for Best Picture, yet, for once, he is nowhere to be found on the Best Actor list
- Nicole Kidman, who seemingly is at least nominated every year for Best Actress, fails to get nominated for her "amazing" role in Cold Mountain
- Seabiscuit and Master and Commander both get nominated for Best Picture. I have seen both of these movies, and thought they were quite good, they just didn't strike me as the type of films that get nominated for Best Picture

Should be pretty interesting to see who wins what. I've got my money on Lord of the Rings finally winning a Best Picture. Not so much because this one was better than the other two, but more because the competition is pretty lax this year. It wasn't the best year for movies.

Finally, I hope to high-Christ that Johnny Depp wins Best Actor for Pirates of the Caribbean. That is one of the most amazing roles I have ever seen. It's cool that he got nominated at the very least, something I wasn't too sure would happen due to the playful nature of the movie.

-Ugly Bastard

This is not a very strong year...

Were there any nominations for "The Last Samurai"? I thought that was a wonderfully well done movie.

While LotR will probably win best picture, I really don't think it deserves it. Of the list, I'd have to say the Mystic River was the better film. I'm a little disappointed that The Last Samurai only appears once and Big Fish is nowhere to be found. These movies really deserve to be on here somewhere.

Oh, one other thing, Kill Bill Vol. 1, which was the best movie I saw in 2003, failed to get nominated for shit.

I suppose I can rationalize why, but it still pisses me off.

-Ugly Bastard

Wow. Yeah, I completely forgot about Kill Bill Vol. 1. I guess we can hold out for Vol. 2 to get nominated.

Yeah, Kill Bill volume 1 was a great movie. Unfortunately, it probably falls outside of what the Oscar people consider a movie should be. I also think it's a croc that The Last Samurai isn't up for more awards, like best picture. I mean, has anyone on Nubblies even seen Master and Commander? I saw a preview and thought it looked like the dumbest movie ever. And was Seabiscuit really that good?

Personally, I hope that Mystic River wins best picture
A. because it's the best of those movies
B. Just so I can hear Tolkien fans complain

And I hope, Tonguegina, that Big Fish would be a nomination possibility for next years Oscars and not this ones. I hope.

Well, I wasn't sure what the Oscars' year consists of. Big Fish was released the weekend before Christmas, that's all I know.

This thread would be nice in poll form.

NOT ME!

Not me!

nnnnnnnnnn-NOT ME!!!

Okay me.

But only the awards people care about.

-Ugly Bastard

Has anyone seen the foreign films up for awards? They have interesting names, but are they good?