I've voiced my opinions on the Academy before and although I started losing respect for them when Forest Gump won over Shawshank, the final straw was when Sean Astin didn't get a supporting actor nomination for any of the LOTR movies.
I don't think ROTS was worthy of a nomination in any of the top categories except for supporting actor for Ian...so I definitely agree with Anton on that!
But costume, make up and sound editing were all great for ROTS and I thought they should have been nominated for those. A lot of the CGI stuff was innovated for TPM and AOTC, and they were both nominated, but neither won. As with LOTR getting thrown a bone on Return of the King I thought maybe Lucas and Co. would get a nod this time around for stuff they didn't win on TPM and AOTC...guess not.
I think that Sin City getting locked out probably had to do with Rodriguez not being in the Directors Guild anymore...can a film even get nominated if it's not associated anymore? Or maybe everyone was just bitter. I don't know. But it was probably payback for him being a "maverick" or whatever. That film did a lot to advance digital filmmaking, the costumes and makeup were incredible and am I the only one that thought Mickey Rourke should have been nominated for a supporting actor?
I also agree with pmundheim about not nominating movies that opened in limited release over Christmas weekend. If 100 people saw it in L.A. and NY before January 1st of 2006 can it really be considered a 2005 movie? Better yet, can it really be considered that great? Eh...
The only film that was nominated for best picture that I saw was Crash and I really liked it and I'm glad it won. I definitely have to see Good Night, and Good Luck and Capote but I'm not that interested in Munich. I'll probably see Brokeback Mountain but it's not high on my list. And I just have to comment on that film...I'm sure it was good, I don't doubt that, but I look at it this way; if it was a similar film with all the production, direction, music and costume, and the story was about a man and a woman, it probably wouldn't even be on the list...anywhere. I use Pride & Prejudice as an example to back that claim up...love story with high production quality and directing but other than Keira's nomination for supporting actress the only other nominations were technical (costume and art).
Most of the acting awards were a toss-up, I guess, but I'm psyched that Hoffman won best actor. That guy is a genius! I didn't really have a horse in any of the other races.
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