Nominations announced for 2006 Oscars

How do you spell that again?

by John P. Meyer

The live broadcast of the annual Academy Awards will take place on February 25; this morning the nominees were announced, and here are the selections for the "Big 4" categories:

Actor:

Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond)

Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson)

Peter O'Toole (Venus)

Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness)

Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

Actress:

Penelope Cruz (Volver)

Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal)

Helen Mirren (The Queen)

Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada)

Kate Winslet (Little Children)

Movie:

Babel

The Departed

Letters from Iwo Jima

Little Miss Sunshine

The Queen

Director:

Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel)

Martin Scorsese (The Departed)

Clint Eastwood (Letters from Iwo Jima)

Stephen Frears (The Queen)

Paul Greengrass (United 93)

The entire list can be found here.

Although it garnered a slew of noms in lesser categories (3 of the 5 original song slots, for instance), Dreamgirls was snubbed in regard to best picture.

Hey, I'm just glad I was able to cut and paste Iñárritu's name from IMDB; the Oscar folks dodged the issue by listing the "Achievement in Directing" category by film name, instead of director. Cowards.