The IF THERE WAS A GOD… box has been moved to the middle of the column, so as not to challenge the Oscar Balloon’s bottom-of-the-column position. The “pure” Best Picture contenders are only different from the regular Balloon-ers for the inclusion of Once and Zodiac, which absolutely deserve the toast. Nothing to say (for now) about three I haven’t seen — Charlie Wilson’s War, Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood.
The Best Director contenders follow, but the acting nominees aren’t very different at all except for Zodiac‘s Robert Downey, Jr. and Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead‘s Ethan Hawke in the Best Supporting Actor category and Stephanie Daley‘s Amber Tamblyn in a Best Supporting Actress slot. In part because I haven’t really hunkered down with this. Things are especially lean on the Best Supporting Actress front. Ideas?
The GOD box reads as follows…
BEST PICTURE (6): American Gangster (Universal Pictures); Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (ThinkFilm); No Country for Old Men (Miramax); Once (Fox Searchlight); Things We Lost in the Fire (Dreamamount); Zodiac (Paramount). TAIL-GATING: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Warner Bros.); Atonement (Focus Features); The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal); Control (Weinstein Co.); In The Valley of Elah (Warner Independent); Ratatouile (Pixar/Disney). HAVEN’T SEEN ‘EM: Charlie Wilson’s War (Universal); Sweeney Todd (Dreamamount); There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage).
BEST DIRECTOR (6): Ridley Scott (American Gangster); Sidney Lumet (Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead); Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men); John Carney (Once); David Fincher (Zodiac); Susanne Bier (Things We Lost in the Fire). RUNNERS-UP: Anton Corjbin (Control); Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford); Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum); Paul Haggis (In The Valley of Elah); Joe Wright (Atonement). UNSEEN, UNRANKED: Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood); Tim Burton (Sweeney Todd); Mike Nichols (Charlie Wilson’s War).
BEST ACTOR (9): Benicio Del Toro (Things We Lost in the Fire); Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild); Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead); Tommy Lee Jones (In The Valley of Elah); Sam Riley (Control). RUNNERS-UP: Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford); Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men); Chris Cooper (Breach); James McAvoy (Atonement); Adam Sandler (Reign Over Me); Denzel Washington (American Gangster). UNSEEN, UNRANKED: Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood); Tom Hanks (Charlie Wilson’s War);
BEST ACTRESS (8): Halle Berry (Things We Lost in the Fire); Cate Blanchett (I’m Not There); Julie Christie (Away from Her); Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose); Keira Knightley (Atonement); Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart); Ellen Page (Juno), Amber Tamblyn (Stephanie Daley). UNSEEN, UNRANKED: Amy Adams (Enchanted).
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (5): Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men); Ethan Hawke (Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead); Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood); Robert Downey, Jr. (Zodiac). RUNNERS-UP: Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards (Zodiac). UNSEEN, UNRANKED: Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood); Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson’s War); Liev Schreiber (Love in the Time of Cholera).
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (4): Vanessa Redgrave (Atonement); Marisa Tomei (Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead); Susan Sarandon (In The Valley of Elah); Saoirse Ronan (Atonement).
