Oscar Nominations

The Oscar nominations have been announced.

Best Picture
Babel
Little Miss Sunshine
Letters From Iwo Jima
The Queen
The Departed

Best Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu - Babel
Martin Scorsese - The Departed
Clint Eastwood - Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears - The Queen
Paul Greengrass - United 93

Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling - Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole - Venus
Will Smith - The Pursuit Of Happyness
Forest Whitaker -The Last King Of Scotland

Best Actress
Penélope Cruz - Volver
Judi Dench - Notes On A Scandal
Helen Mirren - The Queen
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet - Little Children

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley - Little Children
Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg - The Departed

Best Supporting Actress
Adriana Barraza - Babel
Cate Blanchett - Notes On A Scandal
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi – Babel

Best Original Screenplay
Babel
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen

Best Adapted Screenplay
Borat Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
Children Of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes On A Scandal

Personally I’d like to see Little Miss Sunshine take most awards going. I think Arkin should be a lock for Best Supporting Actor. I cannot understand why Mark Whalberg got a nomination for The Departed. All he does in it is shout and push Leonardo DiCaprio about.

You’d think that this would be Scorsese’s year, but that’s said every time he takes another nomination. You could also say the same about Best Actor nominee Peter O’Toole. This will be his 8th nomination, though his first in 25 years. He won an honorary award in 2003.

O'Toole initially wanted to refuse that award and wrote the academy a letter saying he was "still in the game" and would like more time to "win the lovely bugger outright". After being told he was getting it whether he liked it or not, he opted to receive it.

None of the Best Actor nominees have won before although DiCaprio and Smith have also both been nominated previously.

This is Scorsese’s 6th Oscar nomination as a director. He also has two nods as a writer.

Dreamgirls has the most nominations with 8.

His nomination for writing The Queen continues the rise of Britain’s hottest new screenwriter Peter Morgan. He also wrote the screenplay for The Last King of Scotland and his play Frost/Nixon is just about to transfer from London to Broadway.