The Hollywood Reporter team — Anne Thompson, Gregg Goldstein, Nicole Sperling — has been wailing with the various Sundance acquisition stories that have broken within the past 36 hours or so. Goldstein claimed at last night’s Cinetic party that they’ve whipped Variety‘s ass on most (or many) of these reportings/announcements. I have no reason to doubt this until somebody argues otherwise. It’s all been appearing on Thompson’s Riskybiz Blog….scroll down and read it all. Truthfully? I’m starting to disengage from Sundance a bit. I’ve been humping it for six days straight, 18 or 19 hours a day. 36 hours to go, then I’m gone first thing Thursday.

“Hounddog is an indigestible gumbo of Southern Gothic ingredients seasoned with snake oil, Biblical hash, and thoroughly unpalatable spice,” writes Variety‘s Todd McCarthy.

“[Director] Deborah Kampmeier‘s second feature became notorious even before its premiere as the ‘Dakota Fanning rape movie.’ The problem, however, is not that pivotal scene, which is as tastefully handled as it could be under the circumstances, but the fact that, after a reasonably atmospheric, if uneventful, first hour, the picture subsequently runs right off the rails.
“Aside from Fanning and the controversy, the film has nothing going for it commercially; sales are likely due to the cast, but paying customers will be scarce.”

“Some will suggest that [Dreamgirls‘ loss] is a race thing, that an all-black cast has a hard time with the Academy, ” writes N.Y. Times Oscar guy David Carr (a.k.a., “the Bagger”), “but check out the diversity among the actor nominations and ignore that excuse.
“What happened then? Mainly, Clint Eastwood, deep into his career, innovated midstream and came up with a Japanese take on the Battle of Iwo Jima. It’s the kind of artistic and entrepreneurial performance that merits recognition and the Academy gave it.
“Dreamgirls also got skunked when it came to best director, perhaps because the voters had seen it before in Chicago. Still, the movie is an exquisite restaging of the stage musical and seemed worthy of a nomination. But the Academy, and this is just the Bagger typing in a hotel room, apparently decided that that there was not enough movie in the movie. The Bagger fell for all the stitching between songs, but others did not.”

“I think Sunshine is absolutely the front- runner. And the fact its directors didn’t get nominated is irrelevant. The best picture and best director categories are so ridiculous anyway. How can something be the best picture and not be the best directed? And the reverse.
“So yeah, give props to Sunshine. I saw it for the second time on a plane back from Panama City, and it’s really wonderful, funny, heartwarming, well performed, whatever. And the folks on the plane just loved it. You could tell the ones who weren’t watching were wondering what was going on when, on numerous occasions, half the plane erupted in insane laughter.
“Of course, I still think United 93 is really the best film of the year, but that’s a moot point now, isn’t it?” — hotshot Manhattan entertaiinment journalist Lewis Beale.

“When was the last time a film led in total nominations and got shut out of Best Picture, Director and Writing, as Dreamgirls was this morning?,” asks Hollywood Wiretap‘s Pete Hammond. “The answer, going back to the Academy’s beginnings 79 years ago is…never (at least as far as we can tell).
“‘We did everything we could (to get the Best Picture nomination),’ a truly dejected DreamWorks consultant lamented after the announcement.
“Of course those three, count `em, three Best Song nominations ballooned the total Dreamgirls noms, making composer Henry Krieger the most nominated person of the year, garnering by far the biggest number of song nods ever for an adaptation of a Broadway musical. (The original B’way musical tunes aren’t eligible — only the ones written for the film.)
“Although it was a somewhat bleak morning overall on the Dreamgirls front, it could have the last laugh by winning the most Oscars. The film has great shots for supporting actor (Eddie Murphy), supporting actress (Jennifer Hudson), Costumes, Art Direction, Sound and the aforementioned songs. It just might turn out to be the biggest winner of the evening if that’s any consolation right now to the DreamWorkers.
“The fact now remains however the Academy once again gave up it’s chance to honor a film starring all African American actors as Best Picture (ironic in a year that includes five African-American acting nominees).”

The 22nd Santa Barbara Film Festival (1.25 to 2.4) will have 32 of this morning’s announced Oscar nominees in attendance — Helen Mirren, Will Smith, Forest Whitaker, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jackie Earle Haley, Djimon Honsou, Jennifer Hudson, Queen screenwriter Peter Morgan, Babel director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, Little Children helmer Todd Field, Little Miss Sunshine screenwriter Michael Arndt, etc. The list goes on…you get the idea.

With Dreamgirls out of the running, which of the five nominated Best Picture films is the front-runner at this stage? Opinions, please. I suspect that Little Miss Sunshine is going to get dissed the most between now and ballot-closing day, even though the odds of winning don’t seem all that great because Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris weren’t jointly nominated for Best Director. LMS could win , of course. As a a big-name producer told me after last weekend’s PGA win, “Sunshine is the only [likely] Best Picture nominee without negatives — it’s a very good film and everybody likes it.”

“It’s obviously possible for a movie to get nominated for Best Picture without its lead actors getting their own nominations. But is it possible for a film to be a Best Picture contender when its lead performances were widely panned, even by people who otherwise liked the movie? I’m referring, of course, to Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx and Dreamgirls.

“Let’s face it — as much as everyone seemed to like Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson, and as much as you could legitimately call this an ensemble picture, Jamie Foxx and Beyonce Knowles were the ostensible leads. The fact that they didn’t register in their roles might not entirely be their faults; look at the script. But whoever should be blamed, those are two pretty big holes right at the center/forefront of the film.
“Can anyone remember another Best Picture nominee about which most people said, ‘Yeah, I really loved that movie, even though the two leads were no good?’ I can’t even come up with a non-nominee right now that had viewers saying that en masse.
“For me, there were lots of other reasons why Dreamgirls was a failure, but I think that one had to at least subliminally factor into the voting among people who liked it a lot more than I did.
“I’m pleased with its omission. I can remember, after one of the very first screenings, when you quoted one lone naysayer to the effect that it was possible that it wouldn’t even get a nomination. That seemed far-fetched at the time, given the love, but when I shortly thereafter caught a screening, I wrote in wanting to affirm whatever hesitations you were having, just as another reality check.
“And I’m glad you’ve been temperate on the movie all along. I don’t think it deserves major hate, and I don’t begrudge you or anyone who liked it a little more than me for having some good things to say about it. But the idea that anyone really thought this was Best Picture material still floors me. Of course, I thought that about Crash, too. Nice to see the gods of rationalism prevail this time.
“Go, Departed. Go, Peter O’Toole. I don’t hate Little Miss Sunshine but please, God, don’t let it win.” — Los Angeles based journalist, in an e-mail received around 9:30 ayem.

Once again, Warner Bros. deserves double credit as far as Leonardo DiCaprio is concerned — a plus for getting him a Best Actor nomination in Blood Diamond (!), a not-very-good film, and a minus for not putting him up for Best Actor in The Departed, which would have been the right and proper move because the guy is flat-out great in the “mole” role. Congrats also to Mark Wahlberg for his Best Supporting Actor nomination.

“Many in our office are still getting over the fact that Dreamgirls was snubbed. I say, tough luck!” — New York-based advertising executive in just-received e-mail.

The morning’s flimsiest call has to be the Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for the Borat gang — Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Peter Baynham & Dan Mazer. Adapted from “Da Ali G Show” because of very similar elements, concept, attitudes, etc.