2009 Oscar Nominations

Benjamin Buttons Down a Baker’s Dozen Nominations

With 13 nominations, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button emerged as the early favorite in the Academy Awards race, a big surprise given that the picture was recently completely shut out at the Golden Globes. Meanwhile, Slumdog Millionaire, which did sweep the Globes, garnered the second most Oscar nominations, 10, followed by Milk and The Dark Knight at 8 apiece.

The Best Picture nominees include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Reader and the directors of these five films were nominated as well.

Most of the entrants in the acting categories are repeat nominees, including Meryl Streep, Sean Penn, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Kate Winslet, Robert Downey, Jr., Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei, Amy Adams, Penelope Cruz and the late Heath Ledger. Beside those usual suspects, we have a number of newcomers, most notably, Richard Jenkins, Anne Hathaway, Taraji Henson, Melissa Leo and Viola Davis.

The 81st Annual Academy Awards will be hosted by Hugh Jackman and are set to air from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, February 22nd on ABC-TV at 8 PM.

COMPLETE LIST OF OSCAR NOMINATIONS

BEST PICTURE The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Frost/Nixon

Milk The Reader

Slumdog Millionaire

BEST DIRECTOR

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Fincher

Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard Milk, Gus Van Sant

The Reader, Stephen Daldry

Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle

BEST ACTOR

Richard Jenkins in The Visitor

Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon

Sean Penn in Milk

Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

BEST ACTRESS

Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married

Angelina Jolie in Changeling

Melissa Leo in Frozen River

Meryl Streep in Doubt

Kate Winslet in The Reader

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Josh Brolin in Milk

Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic

Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams in Doubt

Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Viola Davis in Doubt

Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Frozen River – Written by Courtney Hunt

Happy-Go-Lucky – Written by Mike Leigh

In Bruges – Written by Martin McDonagh

Milk – Written by Dustin Lance Black

WALL-E – Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Screenplay by Eric Roth, Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord

Doubt – Written by John Patrick Shanley

Frost/Nixon – Screenplay by Peter Morgan

The Reader – Screenplay by David Hare

Slumdog Millionaire – Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

The Baader Meinhof Complex – Germany

The Class – France

Departures- Japan

Revanche – Austria

Waltz with Bashir- Israel

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) – A Pandinlao Films Production, Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath

Encounters at the End of the World – A Creative Differences Production, Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser

The Garden – Scott Hamilton Kennedy

Man on Wire – A Wall to Wall Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn

Trouble the Water – An Elsewhere Films Production, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

ANIMATED FILM

Bolt – Chris Williams and Byron Howard

Kung Fu Panda – John Stevenson and Mark Osborne

WALL-E – Andrew Stanton

ART DIRECTION

Changeling – Art Direction: James J. Murakami, Set Decoration: Gary Fettis

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt, Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo

The Dark Knight- Art Direction: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Peter Lando

The Duchess – Art Direction: Michael Carlin, Set Decoration: Rebecca Alleway

Revolutionary Road – Art Direction: Kristi Zea, Set Decoration: Debra Schutt

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Changeling – Tom Stern

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Claudio Miranda

The Dark Knight – Wally Pfister

The Reader – Chris Menges and Roger Deakins

Slumdog Millionaire – Anthony Dod Mantle

COSTUME DESIGN

Australia – Catherine Martin

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Jacqueline West

The Duchess – Michael O’Connor

Milk – Danny Glicker

Revolutionary Road – Albert Wolsky

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

The Conscience of Nhem En – Steven Okazaki

The Final Inch – Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant

Smile Pinki – Megan Mylan

The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306- Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde

FILM EDITING

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

The Dark Knight – Lee Smith

Frost/Nixon – Mike Hill and Dan Hanley

Milk – Elliot Graham Slumdog Millionaire – Chris Dickens

MAKEUP

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Greg Cannom

The Dark Knight – John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O’Sullivan Hellboy II: The Golden Army – Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz

MUSIC (SCORE)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Alexandre Desplat Defiance- James Newton Howard

Milk – Danny Elfman

Slumdog Millionaire – A.R. Rahman

WALL-E – Thomas Newman

MUSIC (SONG)

Down to Earth from WALL-E – Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel

Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire – Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar

O Saya from Slumdog Millionaire – Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman andMaya Arulpragasam

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

La Maison en Petits Cubes – Kunio Kato

Lavatory – Lovestory – Konstantin Bronzit

Oktapodi- Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand

Presto – Doug Sweetland

This Way Up – Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

Auf der Strecke (On the Line) – Reto Caffi

Manon on the Asphalt – Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont

New Boy – Steph Green and Tamara Anghie

The Pig – Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Hogh

Spielzeugland (Toyland) – Jochen Alexander Freydank

SOUND EDITING

The Dark Knight – Richard King

Iron Man – Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes

Slumdog Millionaire – Tom Sayers

WALL-E – Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood

Wanted – ,Wylie Stateman

SOUND MIXING

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten The Dark Knight – Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick Slumdog Millionaire – Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty WALL-E – Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt Wanted – Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montano and Petr Forejt

VISUAL EFFECTS

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron

The Dark Knight – Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin

Iron Man – John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan

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Kam Williams is a popular and top NewsBlaze reviewer, our chief critic. Kam gives his unvarnished opinion on movies, DVDs and books, plus many in-depth and revealing celebrity interviews.

Sadly, Lloyd Kam Williams passed away in 2019, leaving behind a huge body of work focused on America’s black entertainment community. We were as sad to hear of his passing as we were overjoyed to have him as part of our team.