You can get the whole Oscar nomination rundown anywhere at this point, but my two favorites are Variety and Oscar Watch. I just wish that the esteemed Sasha Stone would boldface her categories.

No Best Foreign Language Film nomination for Pedro Almodovar‘s Volver? And I was shocked, frankly, that Susanne Bier‘s After the Wedding, her weakest film ever, was nominated in this category. Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth and Florian von Henckel Donnersmarck‘s The Lives of Others were nominated….good calls. Less enthusiasm in this corner for Days of Glory and Water, but fine.

Another significant surprise (and a feather in the cap of not only Universal Oscar strategist Tony Angellotti but every impassioned, hard-pushing advocate of United 93 in the industry and press circles): Paul Greengrass, the director of United 93 — a movie that many Academy members reportedly refused to even see, has been nominated for Best Director. A significant victory, no question. Whoda thunk it?
We’ll never know the precise vote tallies, but this indicates that the vote to nominate United 93 for Best Picture was (probably) fairly sizable. A very surprising thing, and a hint that the Academy’s “deadwood” faction (geezers, reactionaries, old schoolers) isn’t as strong as presumed.

Dreamgirls, the musical that many, many people (David Poland included) said over and over would win the Oscar for Best Picture, hasn’t even been nominated for Best Picture….double, no, triple-strength shocker!…an omission that will live in the annals of Oscar nomination history.

Eight Dreamgirls noms, but not for Best Picture

The gloom clouds hanging over the Dreamgirls camp right now are extremely dark and Cecil B. DeMille-y. For what it’s worth, my sincere condolences to Bill Condon, Larry Mark, Terry Press, Nancy Kirkpatrick, David Geffen and the gang. I never hated Dreamgirls or campaigned for its demise, and while we all knew it couldn’t win the Best Picture Oscar, I honestly thought it would be nominated this morning for Best Picture.
I think it’s entirely fair to say in the wake of the Dreamgirls Best Picture wipeout that there is now a supportable cautionary assumption called the Curse of Poland. Phantom of the Opera, Munich and now Dreamgirls — if David Poland pushes your movie early and hard for Best Picture during the final months of the year, the producers and publicists behind this film will have reason for concern.

The Salt Lake City NBC channel cut off the live feed from the Academy right in the middle of the announcement of Best Adapted Screenplay nominees (I know…why am I watching television at all?), but the first early surprise (prior to the impact grenade of Dreamgirls‘ non-inclusion among the Best Picture nominees) was Little Miss Sunshine‘s Abigail Breslin getting nominated for Best Supporting Actress. That’s an indicator of general industry sentiment about this Fox Searchlight film, and a further suggestion that Sunshine might really win the Best Picture race.