What I Haven’t Seen

It’s Oscar season, and that means everyone starts looking at the Academy’s list to see what they already saw as well. I like to actually do the reverse; focus on the list and see what I didn’t see. There are usually one or two movies that I’ve been meaning to see by the time the list comes out, and this year is no exception. District 9 is at the top of the Netflix queue right now, and I’m hoping to catch Invictus before it leaves theatres. (My Matt Damon fandom is seriously slipping, as I managed to miss The Informant! in theatres last year as well, although I did listen to the episode of This American Life about the real-life incident.)

I’m also slightly amused that a big deal was made about how shifting the number of Best Picture nominations from five to ten would result in more populist movies to make the ballot this year, with the example as the clear lock for a nomination being Star Trek. Oops. So much for trying to predict the future, huh?

Anyway, with the understanding that plans to see those two movies are already in the works… any recommendations on what to see? (Votes for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be ignored.) Food Inc. and Coraline are the only other ones that immediately leaping to mind so far.

BEST PICTURE
The Blind Side
District 9

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
Morgan Freeman (Invictus)

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Matt Damon (Invictus)
Woody Harrelson (The Messenger)
Christopher Plummer (The Last Station)
Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Helen Mirren (The Last Station)
Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Penelope Cruz (Nine)
Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart)

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Coraline
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells

ART DIRECTION
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The White Ribbon

COSTUME DESIGN
Bright Star
Coco before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

DIRECTING
(seen all)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit a la Berlin

FILM EDITING
District 9

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Ajami
El Secreto de Sus Ojos
The Milk of Sorrow
Un Prophete
The White Ribbon

MAKEUP
Il Divo
The Young Victoria

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Sherlock Holmes

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
Almost There (The Princess and the Frog)
Down in New Orleans (The Princess and the Frog)
Loin de Paname (Paris 36)
Take It All (Nine)
The Weary Kind (Crazy Heart)

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

SHORT FILM LIVE ACTION
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

SOUND EDITING
(seen all)

SOUND MIXING
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

VISUAL EFFECTS
District 9

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell (District 9)
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche (In the Loop)

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman (The Messenger)