Reactions to the Nominations

Best Actor
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

How I Did: 5/5

Hell yes! This is the first time I have aced Best Actor. I was nervous about picking Jenkins over Eastwood, but so glad I did. Eastwood has more awards and nominations than he can even keep track of, while Jenkins will get a huge career boost from this, so I'm most pleased.

Best Actress
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader

How I Did: 3/5 (Hawkins and Winslet in Revolutionary instead of Leo and Winslet in Reader)

Biggest shock of the morning! Hugest gasp! The rug was pulled out from under the female acting races when Kate Winslet was left off the Supporting Actress list, but then her bid for The Reader bumped out her bid for Revolutionary Road. Shocking. Absolutely stunning. On the plus side, this does clear up the problem of which nomination she should push for ultimately winning her first Oscar. Elsewhere, I was sorry to see Sally Hawkins left off but very excited for Melissa Leo.

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

How I Did: 4/5 (Franco instead of Shannon)

Here was the second biggest surprise of the morning: Revolutionary Road was favored to ultimately win Best Actress, but was snubbed from the nomination list, and instead its only major nomination showed up here, in the left-field choice of Michael Shannon. I didn't even include him on my discussion for this award, his candidacy was so obscure. Of course Heath Ledger was nominated, but strangely, this posthumous nomination was bestowed on the one-year anniversary of his death.

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Hensen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

How I Did: 4/5 (Winslet instead of Tomei)

Actually, I like how this works out. Winslet can't split her own vote between categories, and 10 different women are honored instead of nine. All the better when that other nomination goes to Marisa Tomei; I love her.

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

How I Did: 5/5

Score! No surprises here.

Best Original Screenplay
Frozen River
Happy Go Lucky
In Bruges
Milk
Wall-E

How I Did: 2/5 (Rachel, Vicky, and Wrestler instead of Frozen, Happy, and In)

Whoa. I knew this category would be crazy, but wow! In Bruges? Really? I groaned through the trailer for that about 10 times because it was in front of every single one of last year's Oscar contenders in the theatres. It looks like Milk has already won this award, because it is the only one here with a Writers' Guild nomination.

Best Director
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

How I Did: 4/5 (Dark instead of Reader)

Oh, come on, Academy, you suck! Now, I was not the biggest fan of The Dark Knight, but even I was hoping for Christopher Nolan on this. You guys screwed him for Memento and you screwed him for this. And instead you picked Stephen Daldry? Lame, lame, lame.

Best Picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

How I Did: 4/5 (Dark instead of Reader)

I'm not as disappointed about The Dark Knight coming up short in this race, but I still think it's an incredibly weak choice to snub it for The Reader. You folks are just suckers for the Nazi movies. For only the fourth time in Oscar history, all five Picture and Director nominees match up (1964, 1981, 2005, and now 2008), and for only the third time, those five films are all nominated for screenplay awards too.

And those were the nominations. Until later...