The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Photo by: Benjamin Button

The 81st Annual Academy Award nominations were announced this morning in Beverly Hills. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button received the most nominations, a total of 13! Slumdog Millionaire followed with 10 nominations. Doubt, Frost/Nixon and Milk were all nominated for multiple awards.

Heath Ledger received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Dark Knight, which is wonderful.

Best Picture
Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor nominations included Brad Pitt, for Benjamin Button as well as the following: The Visitor's Richard Jenkins, Frost/Nixon's Frank Langella, Milk's Sean Penn and The Wrestler's Mickey Rourke.

Best Actress for Angelina Joilie was nominated for The Changeling. Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married); Meryl Streep (Doubt); Kate Winslet, (The Reader); and Melissa Leo, (Frozen River).

Besides Heath Ledger, nominations for Best Supporting Actor include:  Josh Brolin (Milk), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt), underdog Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) and, pulling off the kind of populist victory that Dark Knight couldn't, Robert Downey Jr., nominated for the summer comedy Tropic Thunder.

Other nominations:

  • Amy Adams (Doubt), Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Viola Davis (Doubt), Taraji P. Henson (Benjamin Button) and Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler) are up for Best Supporting Actress.
  • The Best Director mirrored the Best Picture nominations, which was bad news for The Dark Knight's Christopher Nolan. The nominees: Benjamin Button's David Fincher, Frost/Nixon's Ron Howard, Milk's Gus Van Sant, The Reader's Stephen Daldry and Slumdog Millionaire's Danny Boyle.
  • All five Best Picture nominees also earned writing nods, with all but Milk up for Adapted Screenplay. (The Harvey Milk biopic is an Original Screenplay contender.)
  • Doubt, the period drama about a Catholic priest molestation scandal, is the lone Adapted Screenplay nominee without a corresponding Best Picture nod.
  • Aside from Milk, the Original Screenplay race is filled with off-the-beaten-path picks: Frozen River, the comedies Happy-Go-Lucky and In Bruges, and the animated hit WALL-E.
  • Denied a Best Picture nomination, WALL-E is up for Animated Feature alongside Bolt and Kung Fu Panda.