Yay, I get to post a critics thread!!

Winners in ********:

BEST PICTURE
“The Departed” (Warner Bros.)
******“The Queen” (Alliance Atlantis)**********
“United 93″ (Universal Pictures)

BEST PERFORMANCE, MALE
******Sacha Baron Cohen, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America*******
for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”
Ryan Gosling, “Half Nelson”
Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”

BEST PERFORMANCE, FEMALE
Penelope Cruz, “Volver”
Judi Dench, “Notes on a Scandal”
********Helen Mirren, “The Queen”*******

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE, MALE
Danny Huston, “The Proposition”
*******Michael Sheen, “The Queen”*********
Mark Wahlberg, “The Departed”

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE, FEMALE
*****Cate Blanchett, “Notes on a Scandal”*******
Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”
Rinko Kikuchi, “Babel”

BEST DIRECTOR
******Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, “L’Enfant”********
******Stephen Frears, “The Queen”*******
Paul Greengrass, “United 93″
Martin Scorsese, “The Departed”

BEST SCREENPLAY
Guillermo Arriaga, “Babel”
William Monahan, “The Departed”
******Peter Morgan, “The Queen”*********

BEST CANADIAN FILM
“The Journals of Knud Rasmussen” (Alliance Atlantis)
“Manufactured Landscapes” (Mongrel Media)
“Monkey Warfare” (Odeon Films)
“Six Figures” (Seville Pictures)

BEST FIRST FEATURE
“Brick”, directed by Rian Johnson
“Little Miss Sunshine”, directed by Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris
******“Thank You for Smoking”, directed by Jason Reitman********

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“******Happy Feet” (Warner Bros.)*******
“Over the Hedge” (DreamWorks/Paramount)
“A Scanner Darkly” (Warner Independent Pictures)

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
******“L’Enfant” (Mongrel Media)********
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Odeon Films)
“Volver” (Mongrel Media)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“Deliver Us from Evil” (Maple Pictures)
“An Inconvenient Truth” (Paramount Classics)
“Manufactured Landscapes” (Mongrel Media)

Another win for Cohen and another mention for Wahlberg. Critics REALLY want them to get nommed!

And Volver is looking increasingly shaky for a Oscar win. Could Pan's or Lives of Others really beat it?

And the L'Enfant love is different, as is The Proposition mention. I really like these.

Canadians love The Queen. And Cate is certainly emerging as the other choice for supporting actress.

Man, O'Toole isn't even showing up in top 3s. I'm almost caving in to say he isn't the top dog anymore, almost.

Go Wahlberg!

Blanchett is certainly giving it a go, if Dreamgirls misses out on BP/BD, it's a fair game for sure. Cate also has Babel support on her side, and the fact remains that Jennifer Hudson is Jennifer Hudson, still potentially one of the the most out there and mind-baffling Oscar winners ever. If Dreamgirls gets shut out at BP/BD, I'd actually at this point give the edge to Blanchett, though everything depends on the rest of the precursor race.

Cate Blanchett has something that may work in her favour: the fact that she has 3 talked about performances this year, all 3 of which have been mentioned highly by some critic or another. The Academy may want to reward her for an impressive year as a whole, with performances in Babel, The Good German and Notes on a Scandal.

Then again, Blanchett has won just recently (2 years ago), so that could work against her at the same time.

Peace,
Mike.

*loyal mode on*

Canadians hate black people

*loyal mode off*


When will people finally realize that Dreamgirls is only a mediocre movie that doesn't deserve the big awards. Don't be fooled by the hype.

I agree with loyal. Dreamgirls could continue to do crappy with the critics (awards and lists), but ultimately it doesn't matter. With likely wins at the Globes and a slew of nominations with the various Guilds Awards, it doesn't need the critics awards. This year it's really the one film in the lineup that doesn't need it, because of the type of film it is. That's just the way it is.

If Dreamgirls misses the Golden Globe for Best Picture, then you can start to worry about it not being nominated for the Oscars (or be glad, whatever the case is), and eventually the Guilds will decide all (or clear most things up).

Peace,
Mike.