2008 at the Oscars

Posted

December 31, 2009

Peter J Patrick

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Although Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire proved unstoppable by the time the Oscars were given out for 2008, it was not an early favorite.

Early speculation centered around such eagerly anticipated films as David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Gus Van Sant’s Milk; Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon and John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt along with Christopher Nolan’s summertime popcorn hit, The Dark Knight, all of which received their share of nominations, but not the win.

Who can say what made Slumdog Millionaire ultimately so popular? Could it be that with the economy in a tailspin, a film celebrating a character’s rise from the slums would generate world-wide empathy? Was it the cute kids, trotted out by the film-makers at every awards show? Or was it simply that prize givers from all over felt it was time to give a nod to the Bollywood style?

The National Board of Review was the first major precursor to single Slumdog out as the year’s Best Picture, but they split the difference by giving their Best Director award to Benjamin Button’s David Fincher.

The L.A. Film Critics decided to go with animation and threw their weight behind Pixar’s WALL-E, but honored Slumdog’s Danny Boyle with their Best Director award.

The New York Film Critics were a bit more conventional in honoring Milk as Best Picture, but showed an independent streak as well in naming Mike Leigh Best Director for Happy-Go-Lucky.

The Broadcast Film Critics were the first to name both Slumdog Millionaire and its director as the year’s best. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association followed suit by giving Slumdog and Boyle their Golden Globe awards for Best Picture – Drama and Best Director as well. Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Bacelona won their award for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy.

Directors Guild of America nominations went to Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire); David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button); Gus Van Sant (Milk); Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon) and Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight). Boyle won.

Oscar’s nominated directors lined up with the DGA except for Nolan who was replaced The Reader’s Stephen Daldry.

Best Picture nominees lined up with all five Best Director selections.

The most likely beneficiaries of an expanded nominations list were The Dark Knight (eight nominations, two wins) and Doubt (five nominations, no wins). Other well liked films that might have rounded out a slate of ten include Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road (three nominations, no wins); Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler (two nominations, no wins) and Thomas McCarthy’s The Visitor (one nomination, no win).

Comments

6 responses to “2008 at the Oscars”

Peter J Patrick

January 1, 2010

I personally liked WALL-E and didn’t like Revolutionary Road, and probably should have included it, not over Revolutionary Road, which had strong support in certain quarters, but over The Visitor which would have been a more surprising nominee.

Still, I think WALL-E would have had an uphill battle. If not The Visitor, then some other nominee out of left field might have gotten in instead.

With the exception of Beauty and the Beast, there has never been an animated film nominated for Best Picture. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi couldn’t muster Best Picture nods when there were ten slots in their years (1937, 1940, 1941 and 1942, respectively). This year I think Up has a good chance of being the first to be nominated since Beauty and the Beast, not because of the expansion to ten slots, but because, like Beauty, the emphasis is on flesh and blood humans, not cute and cuddly animals and robots, which makes more appealing across the board to voters who tend to dismiss “those goddamn cartoons”.

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Nathan Donarum

January 1, 2010

I will honestly never understand how ‘Benjamin Button’ got 13 Oscar Nominations. Ok, fine, in the technical categories I could perhaps understand, but how does Eric Roth get nominated for the screenplay, where he at worst plagiarized, and at best copied most of, his own screenplay for Forrest Gump? Perhaps it’s simply that people didn’t start realizing that little issue until after nominations were mailed and/or announced, making it too late.

2008 was in so many ways a huge sham. The only time I was as upset was back in ’05, and I think we all know to what I’m referring. At least this time Hugh Jackman was able to make fun of things everyone knew to be complete BS nominees, like “The Reader.” I’ll never forget the little number where he sang about nobody seeing that movie.

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Hollywood Z

January 1, 2010

I think if Up gets nominated for Best Picture due to the 10 nominees, it’ll have a lot to do with the Academy having to answer for Wall-E as well as The Dark Knight’s exclusions. Another factor in The Reader’s nomination I felt was the final chance to nominate Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack as producers after their deaths that year. Couple that sympathy with an overwhelming sense of “it’s time to give Kate Winslet her Oscar”, which usually equates to Best Picture nomination prestige (a la Capote, The Queen, Ray, etc).

For all of the flash and panache that the Academy likes to drum up for itself, even by awarding a flashy film like Slumdog Millionaire, it was just another year of the same old crap politics and pompus nominees.

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Wesley Lovell

January 1, 2010

WALL-E was a strong contender all year, but I think the reason Peter excludes it from consideration is that since the advent of the Animated Film category, the chances of an animated feature competing in Best Picture is remote. The only reason Up is considered a fairly safe bet for a nomination is that there are ten spots open.

But, I do think that WALL-E and The Dark Knight were the two most likely fifth-slot finishers of the year. Revolutionary Road had lukewarm reviews, a pathetic Oscar campaign push and faded quickly towards the end of the year. The Visitor was never more than a Best Actor nominee kind of vehicle. It, like Revolutionary Road didn’t exactly light up the box office.

And the only reason The Reader ended up getting nominated was because Harvey Weinstein has the uncanny knack of getting things nominated that, were he not helping, wouldn’t have stood a chance.

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Terry B

January 1, 2010

I was thinking the same thing, since at the time of the nominations, it was considered an outside chance at the 5th slot if The Dark Knight faltered, which it did, followed by that “Reader” fiasco. I also see WALL-E nominated over The Visitor.

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Sabin

December 31, 2009

You really don’t think WALL-E would have been nominated over Revolutionary Road?

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