“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.”