Shocking Academy Awards News

It looks like The Academy is trying to atone for their sins, especially after last years debacle when both The Dark Knight and Wall-E, two audience and critical favorites, failed to be nominated for best picture.  It has just been announced that starting this coming Oscars there will be 10 nominees in the Best Picture category.  Yep you read that right, 10!  Basically what this comes down to is that the Academy is desperately trying to appeal to the current generation of film goers and I'm guessing it hopes that by having ten best pic nominees, we will end up with more box office hits in the mix.  So does this mean that something like Star Trek could make it into the mix?  Or better yet could Pixar finally receive a best picture nomination for their deserving Up?  The answer is... well maybe.  I can see that this decision by the Academy could go one of two ways.  We could end up with more films that people genuinely like and actually go see... or we could end up with more "prestige" pictures that Academy voters already like, but aren't quite good enough in their eyes to merit Best Pic consideration.  That means last year films like Doubt and possibly even Australia could have made it in for a Best Pic nomination.  That is a very scary thought.  I don't think this will do anything for the independent market as if the film is really well loved it will make it in the final five.  I don't think The Wrestler or Rachel Getting Married had nearly enough votes last year to get any where near the final five, let alone the final 10.  And as for Blockbuster, I'm assuming this may only really help one or two a year.  I think possibly The Dark Knight would have made it in last year had we had this 10 nominees rule in place then... but even that seems iffy.  The Academy simply can't be trusted to nominate the films that deserve recognition because they go for the same types of movies over and over again.  And god forbid a Foreign film end up in the final 10, all hell may just break loose.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out come years end.  I think we will either end up with what will equate to a very interesting top 10 list, or a glorified prestige picture list that no one will really care about.  If the Academy truly uses this opportunity to shake things up and make the race more interesting than I am all for it.  But part of me is very scared of what the outcome will be.

So now I'm going to make a prediction and we shall see how close I am come years end.  I'm going to be optimistic about it for now and my predictions shall reflect that.  THIS YEARS BEST PICTURE NOMINEES WILL BE -

 

AVATAR

BRIGHT STAR

INVICTUS

THE HURT LOCKER

THE LOVELY BONES

NINE

PRECIOUS

SHUTTER ISLAND

STAR TREK

UP

Keep in mind nobody knows anything and this is both an optimistic and safe set of predictions.  We shall just have to see how the year pans out.  Click Here to read the press release.  One thing is for sure - The Oscar race just got really interesting.

Song of the Day: The Harry Potter Musical

Today's song of the day is simply just for fun.  I'm not going to post the whole musical on here but you can certainly head over to youtube and check it all out.  But here is the first part of the absolutely ridiculous Harry Potter musical created by a bunch of Michigan University students.  It's stupid, but also fun as long as you understand all the in-jokes and quick aside Potter references.  I cant say I've made it all the way through it yet, but I've been watching off and on today, hope you all enjoy.

Note of Interest:  Scarily enough they are working on a real Harry Potter musical for The West End and I'm sure Broadway will follow soon after.  Frankly it's surprising that it took them this long to come up with one.

The Sopranos Retrospective Part I Continued: Season 1 The Pilot

The first episode of The Sopranos, known simply as The Pilot, aired on Sunday January 10th, 1999.  No one knew it at the time, but this mafia show would soon become one of the most critically lauded and beloved TV shows of all time.  The Sopranos single handily caused HBO's subscriptions to sky rocket and their ratings to follow right along.  Few knew it at the time, but The Sopranos was almost the show that wasn't.  It had been shopped around to various networks including the likes of Fox and ABC.  Nobody had any faith in what creator David Chase was trying to pull off.  But one cable network was interested - HBO.  HBO had recently gotten into heavy drama with their prison series OZ and were also profiting nicely off of their groundbreaking sitcom - Sex and the City.  They commissioned a Pilot to be made for The Sopranos and then they would decide if they wanted to give the show a full season.  The Pilot episode sat on the shelf for nearly two years before HBO decided that they wanted to put their dollars into David Chase's risky proposition.  As a  result of this The Pilot of the Sopranos is interesting in that it's format is much different from episodes later in the series and that many characters are obviously younger than they are a full episode later, this is especially evident in Tony Soprano's children AJ and Meadow.  Many locations changed as well before they got around to filming the rest of the season.  But regardless of all of this The Pilot episode of The Sopranos is considered to be one of the best because up until that time no one had seen anything like it on television.  It was a show that was destined to break all the rules.

From the very opening titles sequence of The Pilot viewers knew they were in for something a little different.  From The Pilot on each episode would open with the now infamous song by Alabama 3 titled "Woke Up This Morning".  The camera's first person view from inside Tony Sopranos car documented his trip from New York, into New Jersey all the way into his home.  It was a way of inviting the viewer in and letting them know that this would not be a New York mob story and that we would get to see much more than just the inner workings of the mob, but also maybe even a hint of family life.  As the show progressed viewers began to realize that they were seeing a lot of the family life and that in a way The Sopranos is much more of a "family" saga with mafia overtones than it is a gangster story.  In that respect it shares much in common with The Godfather.

The Pilot's structure is different than that of following episodes.  It opens with Tony Soprano in the waiting room of a psychiatrists office staring at a naked statue.  He is there because he has been passing out from anxiety attacks and his doctor believes that a shrink could help him with his problems.  Suddenly the door opens and the viewer is introduced to Dr. Jennifer Melfi who will eventually become one of the most complex characters in The Sopranos.  Tony sits on the chair and the audience is given plot and character development through flashbacks based on what Tony is describing to his shrink.  In later episodes the show ditches the flashback formula and has a much more in the now hands on approach, but viewers will still become very familiar with that psychiatrists office and the multiple breakdowns Tony will have there.  The first twenty minutes of The Pilot is ingeniously structured and it introduces us to almost every single important character that the viewer will be focusing on throughout the length of the first season and beyond.  And while the first episode shows us the inner workings of Tony's mob life and his personal family home, it also introduces us to the main antagonist of the first season - Tony's own mother Livia Soprano.  Their dynamic is what makes much of the show so fascinating and it serves as the jumping point for most if not all of Tony's problems.  Throughout the season Tony will have to deal with his mother refusing to enter a nursing home, blaming him for her problems, potentially faking Alzheimer's and a stroke, and the most horrible offense - collaborating with her brother in law to have her own son whacked.   Livia is brilliantly portrayed by Nancy Marchand.

What makes the dynamic between Tony and Livia so interesting is that Livia is noticeably opposite from the stereotype of most Italian mothers.  She isn't the loving mother who wants nothing more than to see her son married and make him eat.  On the contrary she gets her kicks from torturing him with her own misery.  She is a woman incapable of feeling joy (according to Dr. Melfi) and as a result she is willing to go to great lengths to make others suffer.  But the thing that makes her more than just a one dimensional villain is that underneath it all she really does believe that she loves her family.  Livia is a complicated person and as the season progresses the viewer begins to realize that Livia may not be aware of exactly what she is capable of.  

But Tony has his plenty of problems within his own house as well.  His wife Carmella is a loyal wife, but is also incredibly jealous of the Russian mistress that Tony keeps on the side.  Tony's daughter Meadow is busy working trying to get into the best college possible, while his son AJ is experiencing the beginning of adolescence and all that goes with it.  There is plenty of love in that house, but there are also a lot of secrets and family dysfunction.

The Sopranos makes a point of focusing a great deal of its time and attention to psychiatry and the inner workings of the mind.  Tony's anxiety attacks begin when a group of mallards that have been living in his pool for several months raising their babies suddenly fly away.  A great deal of his time in the chair is spent talking about these ducks and what exactly they mean to him and how they relate to his work and family problems.  The idea of a psychiatrist treating a mobster is an intriguing one and The Sopranos doesn't just use the idea as a gimmick, but rather as a full fledged and essential part of almost every single episode.  The Pilot ends with a shot of the swimming pool that the mallards abandoned as a family BBQ is taking place.  It's a poetic ending to a great beginning and  foreshadows both the comedy and the tragedy that is sure to come.

Song of the Day: The Glamorous Life

I just recently finished a production of A Little Night Music at Light Opera Works here in Chicago. I played Bertrand (a servant) and also understudied the role of Henrik. It was a good experience and it marked my first professional show in Chicago post graduation. I will be doing The Pirates of Penzance with them at the end of the year and I look forward to working with the company once again. It's no secret that Sondheim is my favorite composer and his work on A Little Night Music is some of his best (I think it would be impossible for me to rank his scores). But strangely enough one of the best songs from the show was cut early in the process. It was titled The Glamorous Life and was to be sung by Fredrika, Desiree's somewhat abandoned daughter. The song is a pretty emotional one expressing feelings of abandonment and depression, laced with sympathy and Sondheim's characteristic wit. The song was obviously cut for pacing purposes, as it doesn’t fit with the flow of the show. It also would have given Fredrika and Desiree's relationship a much darker edge that would not have necessarily fit with the broad comedic strokes already at play. Regardless of that though, the song is a beauty and lucky for everyone that Audra McDonald has made it a staple of her concert career singing it quite frequently. Here is her beautiful rendition of the song that she sang at a concert on New Years Eve a couple years ago. Enjoy.

Note of Interest:  The song WAS included in the dreadful 1977 film version of A Little Night Music.

The Sopranos Retrospective Part I: An Introduction

I have never been a fan of television.  I cannot name one sitcom or drama show on regular networks that I have ever even considered mildly amusing.  For a long time when I was younger I considered TV to be a wasteland of bad people pleasing commercial crap.  The biggest problem with television (and this still exists to a large extent) is that I was never able to identify with anyone on TV because they were all caricatures.  There was no such thing as character development on TV for a very long time.  Most shows were either about one liners or plot procedural.  Even acclaimed dramas such as Law and Order never really explored the people trying to solve the case or the victims.  It was all just a bunch of situations with no real drama and you knew that everything would be solved by the end of the episode.  There were no carry over plots from previous episodes.  In short there was never much to care about on standard television.  Shows were made to be pleasing in short little segments that you would soon forget about by the following episode and be amused by the situations anew again.  This all still goes on, but to a lesser extant than in the past.  TV is still playing it safe, but there are some cable networks like FX, Showtime, and even TNT that are taking chances and refusing to play it safe.  But there is still one cable network that reigns above the rest and has been consistently taking chances since the moment it decided to produce original material for television - HBO.  HBO has had such huge hits such as Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Big Love, and now True Blood.  Each of these shows has been daring in their own right and broken new ground for television.  But there is one show that broke all the rules and in my mind changed television forever - The Sopranos.

The Sopranos premiered in January of 1999.  I was 13 years old and going through the second half of eighth grade when the show came out.  I remember seeing the previews on HBO for The Sopranos and thinking to myself that I absolutely had to see this show the very first night.  I already had a thing for mob movies.  My dad had introduced me to The Godfather a few years earlier and I had stayed up late and watched Goodfellas by myself one night.  The Sopranos looked to be covering similar ground so of course I was interested.  I will never forget watching that first episode on January 10th 1999.  My parents were already in bed watching the news.  I was upstairs in my loft curled up in a blanket with the sound down low awaiting what I knew would be an interesting and fun night of television.  I wasn't prepared for just how good the show would be though.  I found myself laughing hysterically through the pilot, but at times being completely silent and astonished by what I was watching.  The productions values, the plot, the acting, the writing, and the direction were all Hollywood level.  I was floored.  I had never seen anything like this on TV.  And not only that but the amount of profanity and violence was definitely shocking.  But what kept me hooked from that first episode and on was the sense of character and family.  I could connect with these people.  I would watch Tony Soprano fight with his wife and joke with his kids and yell and get depressed.  And it was then that I realized that I wasn't just watching a mob show.  I was watching the life of a family and even for all their differences they were a lot like me.

My boyfriend recently bought me the complete series of The Sopranos on DVD as a graduation gift.  I've wanted to have the series for a while now, but could never manage to scrap together to cash to obtain it.  Now that I have it I can't stop watching again.  I'm like that thirteen year old boy sitting under a blanket upstairs in his loft sneaking episodes all over again.  And now that I am older I can appreciate what exactly the show accomplished even more than when I was that age.  I've always known how groundbreaking and important it was.  I watched from day one all the way up until the controversial series finale in the summer of 2007.  The Sopranos has been a big part of my life and now I am getting the opportunity to relive it all over again.  It's an exhilarating experience and because of this I have decided to put together a retrospective that will cover all of the seasons.  What you are reading is the first part of that retrospective.  And introduction if you will.  I plan on talking about the shape of the show, the different directions it took from season to season, not to mention specific episodes and characters.  It's going to be a rather large project, but I figure what better way to get this blog up and running again?  So sit back, read, and enjoy.  There will be much more to follow shortly.

SEASON I: CAST OF MAJOR CHARACTERS

Tony Soprano - James Gandolfini 

Carmella Soprano - Edie Falco

Meadow Soprano - Jamie-Lynn Sigler

Anthony Soprano Jr. - Robert Iler

Corrado Junior Soprano - Dominic Chianese

Livia Soprano - Nancy Marchand

Dr. Jennifer Melfi - Lorraine Bracco 

Christopher Moltisanti - Michael Imperioli 

Paulie Walnuts Gualtieri - Tony Sirico

Steve Van Zandt - Silvio Dante

Big Pussy Bonpensiero - Vincent Pastore

Artie Bucco - John Ventimiglia

Adriana Le Cerva - Drea De Matteo

SEASON I: EPISODE GUIDE

(source: http://www.sopranosseason.com/sopranos_season_1_episode_guide.htm)

January 10, 1999: Sopranos: Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) sees a therapist (Lorraine Bracco) about panic attacks, and tries to move his mom (Nancy Marchand) to a retirement home; and Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) plans to conduct business in a restaurant owned by Tony's friend. Meanwhile, Carmela (Edie Falco) and her daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) butt heads.

January 17, 1999: 46 Long: Christopher (Michael Imperioli) and Brendan hijack a truck owned by a company Uncle Junior is paid to protect; Livia nearly loses her home to fire, but still refuses to move into a retirement facility; Tony's pals search for a car once owned by Anthony Jr.'s (Robert Iler) teacher.

January 24, 1999: Denial, Anger, Acceptance: Hesh (Jerry Adler) helps Tony convince a Hasidic man to sign divorce papers; and Meadow and Hunter (Michele DeCesare) ask Christopher for drugs to help them study. Also: Arty (John Ventimiglia) has trouble getting insurance money for the fire; and Charmaine (Kathrine Narducci) has surprising news for Carmela.

January 31, 1999: Meadowlands: In an attempt to ease his fears about seeing a shrink Tony looks into Dr. Melfi's personal life. After some comments made at school Anthony Jr. discovers his father's other family. Also: Mob boss Jackie Aprile (Michael Rispoli) dies and Tony helps put Uncle Junior in charge.

Feb 7, 1999: College: When Tony and Meadow visit colleges in Maine, they discuss his business; and he runs into a former colleague. Also: Father Phil (Paul Schulze) keeps an ill Carmela company, and she confesses her guilt about Tony's line of work after learning his therapist is a woman.

February 14, 1999: Pax Soprana: Carmela's jealousy of Dr. Melfi continues — and with good reason — despite Tony's decreased libido; and Uncle Junior flexes his muscle and makes some changes, including taxing Hesh's business and disposing of one captain's biggest earners.

February 21, 1999: Down Neck: After Anthony Jr. misbehaves and is tested for attention deficit disorder, Tony recalls his own childhood — and wonders how much the boy is affected by his line of work. Also: Livia learns that Tony's in therapy.

February 28, 1999: The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti: The gang does some "spring cleaning" in preparation for indictments that are expected to fall on everyone; Christopher is haunted by one of his victims; Dr. Melfi's family worries about her association with a mobster.

March 7, 1999: Boca: Tony and other dads try to strong-arm a lame-duck soccer coach (Kevin O'Rourke) to stay, but plot to get rid of him after they learn he's been having an affair with a player. Also: news of Junior's sex life spreads after a trip with his lover (Robyn Peterson).

March 14, 1999: A Hit Is a Hit: A rapper (Bokeem Woodbine) whose aunt is owed music royalties by Hesh asks Christopher to arrange a sit-down, and he does — in exchange for a career opportunity for Adriana (Drea de Matteo). Also: Tony and Carmela hobnob with country-club types, who later grill Tony about mob life.

March 21, 1999: Nobody Knows Anything: Tony considers taking grave measures when Vin (John Heard) tells him Pussy (Vincent Pastore) is wearing a wire for the Feds; and Junior learns Tony's crew has meetings in Livia's retirement community. Also: personal problems take their toll on Vin; and Carmela confronts Livia.

March 28, 1999: Isabella: A deeply depressed Tony finds it hard to get out of bed, but when he does he's targeted by Junior's hired guns. Also: Tony fantasizes about his neighbor's exchange student (Maria Grazia Cucinotta); and Dr. Melfi increases his medication.

April 4, 1999: I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano: Dr. Melfi suggests Livia was involved in the hit on Tony, but he doesn't believe it until he hears the Feds' tapes of conversations between Livia and Junior. Meanwhile, Livia tells Artie about the restaurant fire; and Carmela learns she's not Father Phil's only close friend.

Song of the Day: Good Thing Going

Here is the great George Hearn singing Good Thing Going from Merrily We Roll Along.  Merrily is one of Sondheim most underrated works and its a shame they really never figured out a way to make the show itself work. It's a heartbreaking work, but also a tough sit because you meet these character when they are already miserable and work backwards to a more optimistic time.  Funny enough as much as I love Merrily, it's not a dream show for me.  I mean I'd do it in a heartbeat, but its one of the few Sondheim works I'm not dying to do.  I have this song in my rep funny enough though.  It's one of my favorites to sing.  Enjoy!!!

Song of the Day: Someone in a Tree

I know I've been absent for a long time.  Things have been crazy.  I just got done with a production of Hello Again at school, which hopefully I will be posting video of very soon.  I'm also going to graduate in about four weeks, so I'm desperately trying to get my life in order.  The good news is I just got a job as a server at a major restaurant and I've been cast in two productions for Light Opera Works here in Chicago.  The first is the small role of Bertrand in A Little Night Music which opens in June at the Cahn Auditorium. Later in the year I will be doing Pirates of Penzance again and it is set to open in December.  Needless to say I am so glad that I have so much work lined up already before graduation.  Things are going well.  Let's hope I continue to have such good fortune.

I saw a production of Pacific Overtures here in Chicago yesterday.  To be honest it was pretty dreadful, but it did remind me of how much I love this often overlooked Sondheim work.  It's one of his most complex and best scores.  Sondheim himself considers Someone in a Tree and A Bowler hat as two of the best songs he has ever written.  The artistry behind Pacific Overtures is staggering.  I wish that it could find an audience that would appreciate it.  And I also wish that when people took on the show that they hired people competent enough to tackle its difficult themes, melodies, and its political and artistic ideas.  I have a feeling I'll be waiting a long time.  Here is Someone in a Tree, the best song in the show.

The Films I Love: The Godfather

Mario Puzo's and Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.  It has the distinction of being loved by film scholars, critics and the public alike. It ranks number 2 on the American Film Institutes list of the 100 Greatest Movies just behind Citizen Kane and ahead of Casablanca.  It ranks number 2 on the Internet Movie Database showcasing the public's ongoing fascination with the mythology of the movies greatest crime saga.  The Godfather wasn't supposed to be great art.  It was supposed to be a violent B gangster film that would make the studio a ton of money (it did make a ton of money as The Godfather was also the highest grossing film of all time until Jaws took its throne in 1975).  The book itself was a pop culture phenomenon, but was far from high art.  It was a page turner designed to keep the reader engaged and on that front it succeeded wildly.  But the production of the film itself was plagued with problems.  Francis Ford Coppola was under scrutiny every day onset with the threat of being fired not far behind.  The studio hated his choices for both Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) and the Don himself Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) and were constantly looking for reasons to replace them.  The studio wanted the film set in present day rather than period... and the list went on and on.  Yet somehow Coppola kept his job and kept his casting choices.  The director even turned in a two hour version of the film, which the studio rejected citing that more scenes with the family had to be added.  Coppola complied and as a result he made what is perhaps the most sympathetic portrayal of Gangsters ever put on the screen.

The gangster genre is not original.  There were plenty of mafia pictures before The Godfather came out, but none quite like it.  The Godfather did not look down upon it's characters.  There are no good guys or bad guys in the story, instead their are only shades of gray.  The portrayal of the films various characters are not stereotypes, but instead fully fleshed human beings who deal with complex moral issues.  Killing is not glorified, but is simply a way of life.  "It's not personal, it's business".  The film doesn't pass judgement on the crimes committed by these men of power and almost never shows their direct influence on the civilian world.  The world of The Godfather exists entirely within the five families and the outside world is of little or no consequence.  But most baffling of all is that The Godfather is about the importance of family and the ties that bind us together.  This is all very strange for a mafia movie and that is part of the reason why The Godfather rises above every other film in the genre.  

But the main reason why The Godfather is such a sensation is because of the integrity of the cast and its superb direction.  If there has ever been a better cast put on the screen I cannot name it.  Here in this film we see the beginnings of Al Pacino's career in an understated and complex performance.  We also see early work from the great Diane Keaton in a dramatic role as Michael's lover, not to mention uniformly brilliant supporting work from Robert Duvall, James Caan and John Cazale.  And then, of course, there is the unforgettable turn by legendary Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone.  Brando plays the Don as a symbol of integrity and all that is good in this world.  Here is a man of principles who believes in the bond of family and the belief that hard work can give you a rich and fulfilling life.  But he is also a criminal, but it is his wisdom that is the guiding hand of his family and when they diverge from his path that is when they begin to crumble.  Brando has probably never been better than he is here.  It's a performance for the ages.  From his opening moments until his improvised death onscreen once cannot help but be completely transfixed by his presence.  

Much can also be said of The Godfather's behind the scenes work included Gordon Willis's dark and foreboding cinematography.  Willis's camera work on the film is unique in it's execution with strong shadows and deep yellows giving the film an interesting period feel that has been copied numerous times since.  Willis is known as the Prince of Darkness as he has long experimented with darkness in films and as The Godfather gets deeper into the plot the darker the picture becomes both visually and metaphorically.  And who could ever forget Nina Rota's haunting love theme that accompanies the film and modulates steadily throughout it's dark tale.  

The Godfather is not a perfect film technically... there are sound and picture issues and some curious takes left in that clearly don't work well - such as the scene in which Sonny beats the shit out of Connie's husband Carlo and several punches miss... yet strangely the sound is still present.  But in my book The Godfather is the closest to perfection that any film has possibly ever come to.  From a structural, acting, directing, and writing point of view it is absolutely flawless.  And even it's technical shortcomings are so far overlooked because of the films pure emotional power.  The Godfather is the gift that keeps on giving to film lovers the world over.  It is an unforgettable motion picture that has yet to be matched by almost any other studio film of it's type.  And to think that it is the movie that almost never was is startling.  I cannot imagine a world without The Godfather.  It belongs beside Citizen Kane and Casablanca as not only one of the greatest films ever made, but also one of the most influential.  As long as there are movies, there will always be The Godfather.

The Godfather (1972)

175 mins. 

Dir. Francis Ford Coppola 

Academy Award Wins: Best Picture, Best Actor Marlon Brando, Best Adapted Screenplay

Academy Award Nominations: Best Director Francis Ford Coppola, Best Supporting Actor Al Pacino, Best Supporting Actor Robert Duvall, Best Supporting Actor James Caan, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Original Dramatic Score (nomination withdrawn)

Song of the Day: Don't Cry for Me Argentina

Today's song of the day is the show-stopping (literally if you've watched her latest youtube video... she is one scary bitch) Patti LuPone singing the song that made her famous - Don't Cry for Me Argentina from Evita.  This is a video from the 1980 Grammy Awards where Evita would win the award for Best Cast Album.  I love Patti, I think her talent is tremendous. I personally dont think very much of her as a person.  Her diva attitude is off putting and her most recent youtube video definitely exemplifies this.  I've met her a couple times as well and it's always been the same experience... DIVA!!!!!  Taking a look at this video reminds you that at one point in time she was humble and actually honored to be where she was in her career.  I have a feeling she probably takes it for granted now...

Note of Interest:  I got to see the opening night performance of Gypsy and Patti LuPone was definitely mind blowing in that role.

Knight Awards 2008 Continued: Best Original and Adapted Screenplay

Best Original Screenplay

Joel and Ethan Coen - Burn After Reading

Martin McDonagh - In Bruges

Dustin Lance Black - Milk

Jenny Lumet - Rachel Getting Married

Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon - Wall-E

Woody Allen - Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Adapted Screenplay

Eric Roth - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan - The Dark Knight

Peter Morgan - Frost/Nixon

David Hare - The Reader

Justin Haythe - Revolutionary Road

Simon Beaufoy - Slumdog Millionaire

Knight Awards 2008 Continued: Tech Nominations Part II

Tech Nominations Part II

Best Make-Up Design

Simon Wajon, Martina Byrne, Anita Morgan - Australia

Greg Cannom - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Peter Rob King, John Caglione Jr. - The Dark Knight

Mike Elizalde, Lesley Smith - Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Edouard F. Henriques - Frost/Nixon

Mathew W. Mungle - W.

Best Costume Design

Catherine Martin - Australia

Jacqueline West - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Lindy Hemming - The Dark Knight

Michael O'Connor - The Duchess
 

Albert Wolsky - Revolutionary Road

Patricia Field - Sex and the City

Best Art Direction/Production Design

Catherine Martin, Ian Gracie, Karen Murphy, Beverly Dunn - Australia

Donald Graham Burt, Kelly Curley, Victor J. Zolfo -  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Nathan Crowley, Peter Lando - The Dark Knight

Stephen Scott, Peter Francis, Elli Griff, Zsuzsa Mihalek - Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Owen Paterson, Hugh Bateup, Peter Walpole - Speed Racer

Ralph Eggleston - Wall-E

Best Cinematography

Mandy Walker - Australia

Claudio Miranda - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Wally Pfsiter - The Dark Knight

Eduardo Serra - Defiance

Roger Deakins - Revolutionary Road

Anthony Dod Mantle - Slumdog Millionaire

Knight Awards 2008 Continued: Tech Nominations Part I

Tech Nominations Part I

Best Musical  Score

Australia - David Hirschfelder

Alandre Desplat - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard - The Dark Knight

Danny Elfman - Milk

Thomas Newman - Revolutionary Road

Thomas Newman - Wall-E

Best Sound Editing

Will Files - Cloverfield

Richard King - The Dark Knight

Frank E. Eulner - Iron Man

Glen Freemantle - Slumdog Millionaire

Ben Burtt - Wall-E

Eddy Joseph - Quantum of Solace

Best Sound Mixing

Wayne Pashley - Australia

Richard King, Ed Novick - The Dark Knight

Christopher Boyes - Iron Man

Steve Cantamessa - Tropic Thunder

Martin Cantwell - Quantum of Solace

Ben Burtt - Wall-E

Best Editing

Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Lee Smith - The Dark Knight

Elliot Graham - Milk

Tariq Anwar - Revolutionary Road

Christ Dickens - Slumdog Millionaire 

Andrew Weisblum - The Wrestler

2008 Knight Awards Continued: Best Ensemble and Best Director

Best Ensemble

Burn After Reading

The Dark Knight

Milk

Rachel Getting Married

Tropic Thunder

W.

Best Director

Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

David Fincher The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Sam Mendes - Revolutionary Road

Christopher Nolan - The Dark Knight

Gus Van Sant - Milk

Andrew Stanton - Wall-E