Further comments on the Oscar nominations from Jon...
I saw Slumdog Millionaire last night and that's where my money's going: one of the most vibrant, atmospheric and gripping films of the last 10 years - overcoming a thin main storyline through great framing and superb cinematography. Danny Boyle's masterpiece.
In the directors category it's the same again, though David Fincher would be an acceptable second choice from where we're sitting.
As far as Best Actor goes, this is difficult, but I'd hope it would go to the underdog, Mickey Rourke, for coming from nowhere with such a unstated performance. Otherwise, Brad Pitt deserves one for holding The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button together so well.
It's hard to believe that Meryl Streep won't win in the Best Actress category. One of the finest - perhaps the finest - actress of the current generation of stars, it's impossible not to be captivated by everything she does.
I'd love to see Robert Downey Jr take the Best Supporting Actor nod. (If you haven't seen Tropic Thunder, now's the time to enter our giveaway ). But let's be honest, it's going to be Heath Ledger (and fans must be gritting their teeth that he didn't get "actor"...)
In Best Adapted Screenplay, Slumdog Millionaire falls down... so we're hoping for Frost/Nixon, a powerful play between two powerful characters. For Best Original Screenplay, Wall-E barely counts, having only about ten lines of dialogue the whole way through! Milk should be the clear winner here, although it's nice to see Mike Leigh's film in the running.
As for the winners, they'll find out along with the rest of us in a months' time, on the 22nd February.
