MOVIES | IN THEATERS NOW

AND THE NOMINATION GOES TO…

(BY ALI NADERZAD) The Academy Awards nominees have been announced! Excitement! Triumph! Controversy! Disappointment . . . Some names are missing from the Foreign Film category, including Cristian Mungiu’s haunting 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. In the Best Picture category, the thriller Michael Clayton shares the race with Juno, Atonement, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. Did you say Juno, for Best Picture? It’s a nice thought, but obviously that will not happen but this should give newcomer Ellen Page better films to choose from in the next year. Had The Diving Bell and the Butterfly been nominated under this category, it would have been a shoo-in. The most difficult choices this year will be for best actor, especially between Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood and Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd. Our crystal ball say Day-Lewis will win, and not by any small measure. Marion Cotillard’s performance in La Vie En Rose (or. La Mome) was equally entrancing. In the Supporting Actor category, the two most serious contenders would appear to be Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson’s War and Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton. The former stole away the spotlight in Charlie Wilson’s War whenever he was included in a scene (but that usually happens with Hoffman, doesn’t it?) and Wilkinson gave his best performance of the year in Michael Clayton–if you’ve seen Cassandra’s Dream, we hope you’ll agree with us. Supporting Actress should go to Cate Blanchett for her Bob Dylan in Todd HaynesI’m Not There. Sorry Tilda! In the Music category, the absence of Sweeney Todd’s brilliant Stephen Sondheim score shall be painfully felt, we think. Here’s a shortened version of SCREENCOMMENT.COM favorites in the remaining categories:

DIRECTOR
Julian Schnabel, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

ART DIRECTION
Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Persepolis

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Tony Gilroy, “Michael Clayton”

COSTUME DESIGN
Atonement

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
No End In Sight tie with SICKO

FILM EDITING
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Counterfeiters

SHORT FILM ANIMATED
Madame Tutli-Putli

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
No Country For Old Men

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Michael Clayton

SOUND MIXING
The Bourne Ultimatum

SOUND EDITING
The Bourne Ultimatum

(pictured: George Clooney in Michael Clayton)