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BEST DIRECTOR
1. David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2. Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
3. Gus Van Sant, Milk
4. Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
5. Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road
Strong Contenders: Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino; Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler; Stephen Daldry, The Reader; Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Longshots: Jonathan Demme, Rachel Getting Married; Edward Zwick, Defiance; Baz Luhrmann, Australia
Fincher, Boyle and Nolan have all paid their dues and accumulated impressive and diverse resumes. Nolan, in particular, should still make the list regardless of whether The Dark Knight earns a best picture nomination. The time also seems right for the Academy to re-embrace Van Sant, who earned a directing nomination a decade ago for Good Will Hunting. While the directing and best picture categories rarely match up five-for five, it's tough to see Mendes (a winner for American Beauty) left out. Eastwood again lurks on the fringes. Should Gran Torino be any good, don't be surprised if he gets nominated. Again.
BEST PICTURE
1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3. Milk
4. Revolutionary Road
5. The Dark Knight
Strong Contenders: Gran Torino, The Reader, Frost/Nixon, Doubt
Longshots: Wall-E, Defiance, Rachel Getting Married, Australia
Slumdog Millionaire's already a critical darling and a crowd-pleaser. Benjamin Button has all the earmarks of a nominee: a star-studded cast, respected director, masterful cinematography and production values, and literary pedigree (it's based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story). Ditto for Revolutionary Road. The warmly-reviewed Milk is based on a real person (Harvey Milk) and the Academy often falls hard for biopics (see: A Beautiful Mind, Ray, Finding Neverland). The real wild card is The Dark Knight, the second-highest grossing film of all time. If Lord of the Rings could overcome the bias against the fantasy genre, why can't Knight do the same for the comic book genre? Elsewhere, Wall-E's chances incrementally improve as big-name films (Australia, for example) continue to disappoint critics.
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I'd love to see Richard Jenkins get a nod for Best Actor. And The Visitor surprise everyone with a Best Picture nomination.
Milk isn't an original screenplay.
Wait, why would Dev Patel be in Supporting category when you yourself acknowledge he's lead?
Ita all so contrived and predictable:
An English Actress will be nominated in both support and lead roles.
The best film will embrace a controversial topic ie Milk
Brad Pitt was criminaly underestimated in last years Jesse James so i see him getting a best actor nod and because he is working with Fincher he too will be represented in the best director category.
Clint has said that this is his last year as a actor so he could be a sentimental bet for best actor.
Hathaway will be the pretty young thing outside bet.
Keep an eye out for Hunger which is picking up indie awards left right and centre. It embracesses a controversial topic and no doubt this will influence the academy voters. However, the Director is a former artist and the lead actor Fassenbender lost alot of weight for the role. They like it when an actor does this. Both these men could pick up noms in Director and Actor categories respectively....just dont expect them to win.
Yes, Eastwood's plan to retire is a gimmick to get the Oscar he has always dreamt of: the Best Male Lead Award. Sincerely, he has been overpraised by modern voters. Giving him an Oscar in this category would be laughable.