Tomorrow we’ll know who the Academy has decided will be ‘honoured to just be nominated’.  Jett and I both now know the sweet aroma of such feeling, due to the vastly generous person or people who have favoured us with an Irish Blog Award nomination.  My feeling about awards shows is that, for the audience at least, like top ten lists, they serve two purposes: 1) they can be fun, 2) they allow the possibility that some underseen films will come to the public’s attention and might actually get watched.  For the participants, I guess there are two similar purposes: 1) it’s fun to see your friends and have a party, 2) they allow the possibility that talented people can get more work.

Of course there are always exclusions – the Oscars are, understandably, US-centric; and movies released between January and October are often entirely forgotten by the time the ballots go out.  For what it’s worth, here’s a list of films and people that I suspect won’t be nominated tomorrow, but should be, alongside some that I think will be nominated, and deserve it.  (NB: I’m not attempting to be comprehensive – 2 names for each of the main categories already seems like I’m biting off more than I can chew).

BEST FILM

Slumdog Millionaire will be nominated and might actually win

The Visitor and Heartbeat Detector/La Question Humaine won’t be.

BEST DIRECTOR

Danny Boyle will be recognised and deserves it.

Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington, directors of the astonishing U2 concert documentary – one of the best mounted concert films ever made – will be ignored.

BEST ACTOR

Sean Penn makes himself look physically smaller in ‘Milk’ than he is in real life; I kept trying to remember what he was like as the monstrous and broken gangster in ‘Mystic River’ and it was as if his twin brother was playing the San Francisco councilor.

Mathieu Amalric will be forgotten – but deserves to be nominated for everything he’s been in this year – ‘A Christmas Tale’, ‘Quantum of Solace’, and especially ‘Heartbeat Detector’.

BEST ACTRESS

Kate Winslet could cancel herself out given that she’s in two films with showcase central performances – ‘The Reader’ and ‘Revolutionary Road’

I know this will be an unpopular choice, but I genuinely think Nicole Kidman did a perfect job of fusing Katherine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell in ‘Australia’.

We’ll check back in later in the week with predictions of what might actually happen when the statues are given away on February 22nd.

(Photo above by Jett)