Top 8 Oscar Mistakes of 2008
The Awards People Love to Hate and the Latest Blunders
Every year millions of fans watch the Oscars, and every year just as many are disappointed with the nominees or results. The results aren't in yet, but the nominees are.
No award is more coveted than the Oscar, and no award matters more to people. While awards are rather inconsequential in the grand scheme of life on this planet, that doesn't stop people from getting up at the crack of dawn to watch the Oscar nominations live, or to spend weeks and months on end speculating, praying, and nail-biting.
Oscar is King...or is He?
The Oscar is the Holy Grail of cinema, and people flock to it accordingly. It's great to honor outstanding achievements, but awards ultimately don't matter because so much greatness goes unrecognized, and it's all subjective. That's why people get so furious every year about the perceived injustices. So, in that spirit, here are the top 8 Oscar nominee errors of 2008, in no particular order.
Drumroll, Please
1. Best Actress: Julie Christie is wonderful in Away from Her, but it's not a leading role. She doesn't belong in this category, and she doesn't deserve to win, as it looks like she might, over Ellen Page, and most certainly not over the true best of the year, Marion Cotillard. Equally irritating, but not surprising, is the absence of Keri Russell (Waitress) and Amy Adams (Enchanted), both brilliant and both worthy.
2. Casey Affleck: This is the same problem with Christie but in reverse. Not to take anything away from him, because Casey Affleck is great in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, but he and Brad Pitt are both leads. He doesn't belong in the Best Supporting Actor category.
3. Best Original Score: This category is laughably ridiculous. Dario Marianelli for Atonement is the only deserving nominee. Certainly the scores for Once, There Will Be Blood, Into the Wild, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford are better than the four other forgettable choices.
4. Best Foreign Film: The system for determining the applicable year for foreign entries is incomprehensible. Since this is a Hollywood-sponsored ceremony, the foreign films should be nominated according to U.S. release dates. At the time of nomination, none of the five foreign films had seen the light of day in the U.S., and some never will.
For starters, Once and La Vie en Rose (they apparently count because they got other nominations) should be nominated. Films like Black Book, After the Wedding (it got wrongly nominated last year), and L'Iceberg should be eligible for the 2008 awards because of 2007 U.S. release dates. Also, where are long-considered front-runners The Diving Bell and the Butterly and 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days?
5. Best Documentary: No End in Sight and Sicko are amazing, but The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is the best documentary of the year, and it didn't even get nominated.
6. Best Song: How can they nominate three songs from Enchanted and only one from Once and also totally ignore Eddie Vedder for Into the Wild?
7. Best Supporting Actress: Ruby Dee's nomination is just a lifetime achievement courtesy. Jennifer Garner's heartbreaking, beautiful performance in Juno deserves a spot.
8. Best Actor: With so many great male performances in 2007 (obviously Day-Lewis will win, and should), it's a shame to see George Clooney and Viggo Mortensen here when Emile Hirsch is so astonishing in Into the Wild. Hirsch is the real tragic snub, but Brad Pitt in Assassination could also substitute.
Until February 24, and until 2009, when the cycle begins again.
