Academy Awards Nominations

The nominations were announced this morning. I totally forgot about them as I am currently suffering from a splendid case of Obamitis. I was very excited to hear Sean Penn was nominated for Best Actor in Milk. This movie spoke to my heart and his performance kept me spellbound. His transformation was incredible. I am always hear negative commentaries about actors. We constantly hear about their delusional lifestyles and their egocentricity. We all know that Tinseltown thrives on gossip and excess. Well, in many cases that might be true but the magic of a movie changing or at least exposing yourself to a different perspective of life is priceless. So I hope these 8 nominations for Milk (among them Best Movie, Best Director and Best Actor) get people to the movie theatres. Heath Ledger, as expected, was nominated posthumously for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, it was a scary performance different from over the top Cesar Romero and crafty Jack Nicholson. And then there is that radiant lady Kate Winslet with a powerful performance in The Reader. I have fallen in love with her acting and general demeanor ever since Heavenly Creatures (1994), I hope she wins. I still haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire or Frost/Nixon so I still haven't made up my mind about Best Picture.

One more thing, I think is a bit silly and incoherent to have actors compete for an award (how can you truly compare their performances if they are playing different roles!!!). But I must add that the Academy Awards are most of all a recognition of excellence in the field.