Discuss the race for the technical categories here.

The nominees:

Achievement in art direction
“Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Art Direction: John Myhre
Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
“The Good Shepherd” (Universal)
Art Direction: Jeannine Oppewall
Set Decoration: Gretchen Rau and Leslie E. Rollins
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse)
Art Direction: Eugenio Caballero
Set Decoration: Pilar Revuelta
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Buena Vista)
Art Direction: Rick Heinrichs
Set Decoration: Cheryl A. Carasik
“The Prestige” (Buena Vista)
Art Direction: Nathan Crowley
Set Decoration: Julie Ochipinti

Achievement in cinematography
“The Black Dahlia” (Universal) Vilmos Zsigmond
“Children of Men” (Universal) Emmanuel Lubezki
“The Illusionist” (Yari Film Group) Dick Pope
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) Guillermo Navarro
“The Prestige” (Buena Vista) Wally Pfister

Achievement in costume design
“Curse of the Golden Flower” (Sony Pictures Classics) Yee Chung Man
“The Devil Wears Prada” (20th Century Fox) Patricia Field
“Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount) Sharen Davis
“Marie Antoinette” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Milena Canonero
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Consolata Boyle

Achievement in film editing
“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise
“Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)
Steven Rosenblum
“Children of Men” (Universal)
Alex Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuarón
“The Departed” (Warner Bros.)
Thelma Schoonmaker
“United 93” (Universal and StudioCanal)
Clare Douglas, Christopher Rouse and Richard Pearson

Achievement in makeup
“Apocalypto” (Buena Vista) Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
“Click” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Kazuhiro Tsuji and Bill Corso
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) David Marti and Montse Ribe

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Gustavo Santaolalla
“The Good German” (Warner Bros.) Thomas Newman
“Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight) Philip Glass
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) Javier Navarrete
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Alexandre Desplat

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth”
(Paramount Classics and Participant Productions)
Music and Lyric by Melissa Etheridge
“Listen” from “Dreamgirls”
(DreamWorks and Paramount)
Music by Henry Krieger and Scott Cutler
Lyric by Anne Preven
“Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls”
(DreamWorks and Paramount)
Music by Henry Krieger
Lyric by Siedah Garrett
“Our Town” from “Cars”
(Buena Vista)
Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Patience” from “Dreamgirls”
(DreamWorks and Paramount)
Music by Henry Krieger
Lyric by Willie Reale

Achievement in sound editing
“Apocalypto” (Buena Vista)
Sean McCormack and Kami Asgar
“Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)
Lon Bender
“Flags of Our Fathers” (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by Paramount)
Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.)
Alan Robert Murray
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Buena Vista)
Christopher Boyes and George Watters II

Achievement in sound mixing
“Apocalypto” (Buena Vista)
Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Fernando Camara
“Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)
Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Ivan Sharrock
“Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer and Willie Burton
“Flags of Our Fathers” (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by Paramount)
John Reitz, Dave Campbell, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Buena Vista)
Paul Massey, Christopher Boyes and Lee Orloff

Achievement in visual effects
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Buena Vista)
John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall
“Poseidon” (Warner Bros.)
Boyd Shermis, Kim Libreri, Chaz Jarrett and John Frazier
“Superman Returns” (Warner Bros.)
Mark Stetson, Neil Corbould, Richard R. Hoover and Jon Thum

I'm just excited that a contemporary film got nominated for Costume Design.

TWO! The Devil Wears PRrada AND The Queen.

And if the editors hadn't snubbed The Queen everyone would be calling it the frontrunner now.

Happy for Curse of the Golden Flower getting the costume nod, something House of Flying Daggers was snubbed.

Good showing by The Queen, except for that editing nom.

Pan's Labyrinth could win three of these.

Cinematography = strongest category in a long time. Trade the Illusionist for the Fountain and you have basically the five bad-assiest films of the yr (not that the Illusionist isn't a great, worthy film too. Fantastic year for pretty films.)

The Devil Wears Prada has got to be a lock to win Best Costume Design.

For editing, how likely are voters to give Thelma another Oscar so soon since 2004? Or would most of the general voting body not be aware that they already gave it to her two years ago? This could mean Babel will win Best Editing.

I always thought that perhaps the technical categories aren't exactly the same as the "big" categories like Picture, Director, Acting; those categories are lot more publicized and hyped up, and the names attached are more recognizable and such. But I don't know. For example, the Academy gave Best Visual Effects to the same visual effects team 3 years in a row from 2001 to 2003. Granted, it was the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but still, I never expected the same team to win 3 times in a row for what was essentially the same film continued. I figured they'd share the wealth.

In a totally unrelated, random question: What the heck happened to the Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards? They were going good up until 2004, and then bam, disappeared. I can't seem to find anything on why they no longer give awards. Why would a Guild Awards group break up like that? Seems weird, and it's disappointing. I like the Guild Awards.

Peace,
Mike.

I think Schoonmaker has Editing almost locked up already with all the things going for The Departed. The Departed will definitely win Adapted Screenplay and Director and I just strongly doubt these will remain the only two it'll win.

The only really strong competition here is United 93, IMO. That film had excellent editing.


Cinematography is interesting with not a single BP nominee in the race. This should be between Children of Men (would be extremely deserving) and Pan's Labyrinth which obviously has a lot of techs going for it. I am surprised Apocalypto wasn't actually nominated here.

Ya know, I think Pan's Labyrinth probably came close to snatching a Best Picture or a Best Director nom in fact with all the support it has gotten.

Costume Design will go to Dreamgirls. Don't really see much comeptition there.

Art Direction is a tough one, Pirates and Pan's will duke it out.

Make Up is Pan's.

Visual Effects will go to Pirates 2, no doubt here.

I have really no clue about the Sound awards this year, but I assume that one of them will go to Pirates and the other to Flags of Our Fathers.

Song should go to Dreamgirls with its three (!!!) noms...

Score will probably go to Babel.

Given Gustavo Santaolalla just won last year for Brokeback, and the year Alexandre Desplat had (The Queen and the GG winner The Painted Veil), I'd say Desplat is the front-runner for score, especially since the support will merge with The Painted Veil not getting a nomination.

Wrong thread, but speaking of support merged with another movie, I wonder whether the support for The Departed might help DiCaprio to a surprise win for The Blood Diamond. I mean two highly praised performances in one year...

I still somehow sense Babel as the score winner...not sure. The Queen is definitely getting Actress and has a great chance at Screenplay.

I'm still sticking with what I said before Oscar nominations were even announced: Babel will go home empty handed. Little Miss Sunshine or The Queen will win Original Screenplay (I'm actually very sure about this one: I can't see Babel winning over both of those films, that's just me). The two Babel ladies in Supporting Actress will split their votes, so neither will win. Gustavo Santaolalla just won last year for Score (it'd be different if it was two years ago, but I mean, he JUST won), and I think Score contains viable alternatives. I think United 93 or The Departed can trump Babel in Editing, Gonzalez Inarritu has no chance in Best Director, and thus with nothing else won, won't win Best Picture.

This was sorta the wrong thread for this, but it did stem off of the tech category comments.

Peace,
Mike.

I think the song from An Inconvenient Truth could surprise since it's a message song and Listen and Love You I Do could split votes (although I still think Listen is the frontrunner).

The technical categories interest me more than the acting/picture/screenplay categories do this year. I think there are some great races here, whereas all four acting categories seem to be locked up with scant room for surprise.

Children of Men seems to be the frontrunner in cinematography and rightfully so, though as I said before, all the nominees in that category are quite worthy.

I enjoyed the score for Pan's Labyrinth while watching it last Friday, but the real brilliance of it hit me when I went on the movie's official website and listened to the whole thing.........it's stunning and is easily the best of the year. A few errant strums of a guitar and some piano won't win Babel the award, Glass' score is inferior to his work on The Illusionist, The Good German is a forgotten movie and the music in the Queen seemed too sparse. I think things are working in favour of Pan's Labyrinth in this category.

We have some overlap in the sound categories and I think I'll predict a sweep for Pirates there.

Art direction is very interesting. You never know if the academy will go for insane ornamentation and decoration, expert craftsmanship or massive scale of sets. Pirates seems to cover the latter and Pan's, the expert craftsmanship and design and I think it will come down to these two, with Pan's winning.

Editing will go to United 93. I haven't seen it, but so many have said how gripping the film is, due in large part to the way it's edited. It's biggest competition is The Departed and Thelma just won two years ago, which weakens her chances a little. Children of Men could upset and it would be most deserving. Babel is horribly edited, so if that takes it on oscar night I'll flip out.

Costume is Marie Antoinette's and always has been.

I could give a shit about that pathetic song category.

98% final predictions:

Achievement in art direction
1. Pan’s Labyrinth
2. Dreamgirls
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
4. The Prestige
5. The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd = no shot. The Prestige is unfortunately lacking in support elsewhere, and will probably be overlooked. Pirates has box office in its side, and has some wonderful work from period fare to fantasy spectacles. However, unlike a certain other nominee, Pirates was critically reviled. So, this is a pretty easy 2-way battle. While Dreamgirls

Achievement in cinematography
1. Children of Men
2. Pan’s Labyrinth
3. The Illusionist
4. The Prestige
5. The Black Dahlia

This category is really odd, not just because of the no-Best-Picture thing, but also the fact that only Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men were the only films to score major nominations, and those were in the screenplay categories (Throw in The Prestige and they're the only films here to have other noms period), so the race is pretty much down to those two. While Pan's Labyrinth (And possibly The Illusionist, if enough voters actually see it) could get votes for being the prettiest film (Which is what many people judge this category in), I think enough people will realize that the category is more than that, and hopefully there are enough CoM fans that feel this'll be their way of awarding the criminally overlooked film.

Achievement in costume design
1. Dreamgirls
2. The Devil Wears Prada
3. Marie Antoinette
4. The Queen
5. Curse of the Golden Flower

Honestly, this is one of the most open categories this year. The two films most could agree were out (The Queen and Golden Flower) surprised and won the Costume Designers Guild awards for best costumes. However, I think that Golden Flower's lone nomination status (Meaning most voters probably won't bother with the screener) and The Queen's lack of focus on costumes still keeps them where I thought they'd be: last. Marie Antoinette is probably the baitiest here, but like Golden Flower, its lone nom status is probably fatal. Prada probably stands the best chance of playing spoiler, because not only will most voters see it (Thank YOU, Best Actress nom), the movie IS fashion, which could make people feel that it's the film that hinged most on its costumes, hence making it the most worthy (Not a bad way of judging, mind you). Still, Dreamgirls has an equally extensive wardrobe, and will probably walk away with the prize for being the closest to a period film with multiple noms.

Achievement in film editing
1. The Departed
2. Babel
3. United 93
4. Children of Men
5. Blood Diamond

The category almost always goes to a BP nominee, and while Babel's intertwining storylines will make it worthy in the eyes of many voters, The Departed's complicated timeline and action movie edits one ups Babel.

Achievement in makeup
1. Pan’s Labyrinth
2. Apocalypto
3. Click

I have a hard time seeing the Academy turning away the fantasy and torture make-up twofer of Pan's for a Mel Gibson or Adam Sandler pic.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
1. The Queen
2. Notes on a Scandal
3. Pan’s Labyrinth
4. Babel
5. The Good German

This category is right up there with Picture in terms of just how hard it is to pick a reasonable winner. The Good German is Thomas Newman's eighth nomination with no wins, but I doubt he'll win for a critical and commercial flop with no others noms. Babel is a Picture nominee with a very multi-cultural soundtrack that would make it a great contender - had Gustavo not won for Brokeback Mountain last year. Which brings us to probably the three big contenders. Pan's seems like an easy film to rank the lowest, seeing as it's the first nom from an otherwise unspectacular composer (His only other major film was del Toro's The Devil's Backbone), but it's also a very light, lovely score that's both fantasy and war themed. Notes is from the much-acclaimed Philip Glass, and he could get some votes from voters feeling he already deserves one (And unlike German, his film was actually good), but there are also people that feel his scores (Especially NOTS's) are too overbearing. So I think in the end it'll go to the second rookie of the bunch, Alexandre Desplat, a much acclaimed composer finally making his mark here (He won the Golden Globe for scoring The Painted Veil), and the film's Best Picture status only helps.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
1. “I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth
2. “Listen” from Dreamgirls
3. “Love You I Do” from Dreamgirls
4. “Patience” from Dreamgirls
5. “Our Town” from Cars”

Probably my riskiest prediction here, but I'm beginning to think that the Dreamgirls song might end up splitting each other, and voters might want to make a statement by awarding Etheridge's anthem to take action against global warming.

Achievement in sound editing
1. Blood Diamond
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
3. Letters from Iwo Jima
4. Flags of Our Fathers
5. Apocalypto

Could a vote for Letters really be considered a consolation prize? Can Sound editing BE a consolation prize? I think they'll end up going for the loudest film here, and with Pirates already taking Visual Effects I think they'll go for Blood Diamond...as a consolation prize.

Achievement in sound mixing
1. Dreamgirls
2. Apocalypto
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
4. Blood Diamond
5. Flags of Our Fathers

While Apocalypto could get pity votes for 19-time loser Kevin O'Connell, I don't think enough people know he's a 19-time loser to vote for him. So they'll probably go for the music-centered film, like they did with Chicago and Ray

Achievement in visual effects
1. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
2. Superman Returns
3. Poseidon

So, do you vote for the financial loser or the box-office smash here? No contest, really.

Predix...

Best Art Direction: Dreamgirls
Best Cinematography: Children of Men
Best Costume Design: The Queen
Best Film Editing: Babel
Best Makeup: Pan's Labyrinth
Best Original Score: The Queen
Best Original Song: "Listen," Dreamgirls
Best Sound Editing: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead's Man Chest
Best Sound Mixing: Dreamgirls
Best Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

I think I have the exact same predictions at Gunslinger, except for Art Direction where I think Pan's takes it and Costumes where I'll say Dreamgirls.