The nominations are out...is your favorite represented?

Having just watched the live nominations, I must confess a sort of overall ambivalence to the names as a whole. Partly because I've only actually seen one of the Best Picture nominees, partly because I never really felt any drive to see the rest of the films, save for 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Obviously, a lot of that comes from personal preferences/feelings towards one subject matter or a certain actor. Of course, I have some sentimental favorites and Heath Ledger's nomination is very welcomed. As is Kate Winslet's. Frankly, I'm only slightly surprised at the nomination of 'The Curious Case of Forrest Gump'. It a very big, storytelling movie that The Academy loves, but as I stated in my review, while told a bit differently it is really a retelling of the same story.

Now that we have the official list, we'll get up-to-date and have those reviews for you in the coming weeks. Following the reviews and despite being inundated with media comments and reactions, we'll have our predictions for you to pick apart. Now here is your list of nominees in the top 7 categories:

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:

Bolt

Kung Fu Panda

Wall-E

BEST DIRECTOR

David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon

Gus Van Sant - Milk

Stephen Daldry - The Reader

Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Josh Brolin - Milk

Robert Downey Jr. - Tropic Thunder

Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt

Heath Ledger - Dark Knight

Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams - Doubt

Penelope Cruz - Vicky Christina Barcelona

Viola Davis - Doubt

Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

BEST ACTOR

Richard Jenkins - The Visitor

Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon

Sean Penn - Milk

Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS

Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married

Angelina Jolie - Changeling

Melissa Leo - Frozen River

Meryl Streep - Doubt

Kate Winslet - The Reader

BEST MOTION PICTURE

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Frost/Nixon

Milk

The Reader

Slumdog Millionaire

There you go. Let the complaining and moaning begin. Likely you're going to hear from the media how the Academy continues to ignore the masses and mainstream films. A number of publications have been harping lately on the fact that "The Dark Knight" and "Iron Man", will largely go unrewarded in the more coveted categories despite being the two biggest movies of the year. As it turns out, "Iron Man" received 2 noms and "The Dark Knight" was amongst the top with 8 total. Save for Supporting Actor, the press was largely correct. In light of that fact, get ready for 31 days of bitching.

I'm just saying,

Elijah