OSCAR NOMINATIONS REACTION
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Written By: John H. Foote
     Where the hell is Paul Giamatti for best actor in Sideways?
 
  Not only was that the best performance by an actor in 2004 it was the heart and soul of a film nominated for best picture?

   How could the Directors branch overlook the artistry and courage Mel Gibson brought to The Passion of the Christ?
  
Finding Neverland for best film? Seven nominations in all?
    
While there were few surprises at yesterday’s announcement of the nominations for the 2004 Academy Awards, there were enough to keep grouchy film critics pouring over the list and finding omissions galore. For me, the gripe is usually not about what or who was nominated, but what or who was not.
  
Of the five nominees for best picture, The Aviator, Sideways, Million Dollar Baby and Ray are hardly surprises. Finding Neverland as a nominee is an act of sheer idiocy. I take issues with Ray being a best picture nominee as well, however, I understand it. Finding Neverland I simply do not understand. It was an average film at best, and yet is there in place of The Passion of the Christ or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
 
  The omission of Paul Giamatti for best actor left me stunned beyond belief, particularly when one considers his performance was superior to any of the nominees. Why is Johnny Depp nominated for Finding Neverland? Because he handled a Scottish brogue? This is not even one of Depp’s best performances? And God love Don Cheadle and Hotel Rwanda, but I simply will not get sucked into the goodwill for that film when it is merely an average work. Cheadle is remarkable in the film, but superior to Giamatti? I think not.
  
Julia Roberts is beloved in the industry and has an Oscar to prove it. This year she did the best work of her career in Closer, yet was snubbed. Does that make sense to anyone out there?
 
  Mike Leigh made a solid film with Vera Drake, but to nominate him for best director is insane. Mel Gibson deserved a nomination here as did Michel Gondry for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, not the esteemed Mr. Leigh.
  
And where is Meryl Streep?
  
The greatest actress in the history of the cinema gave an astonishing performance in The Manchurian Candidate yet is no where to be found on the nominee list…how come?
  
And Shark Tale for best animated film? SHARK TALE?
 
  Instead of The Polar Express? Are they out of their minds?
  
And tell me someone please where is Mick Jagger’s song from Alfie which won the Golden Globe last week and seemed a shoo-in for a nomination?
 
  The Academy, for the most part, did reasonably well this year honouring the films and artists deserving of attention, however, when they refuse to honour films such as The Passion of the Christ, or performances like that of Mr. Giamatti, they appear to be out of touch with cinema as an art form, the very aspect of moviemaking they are celebrating. It angers me. It always has and always will. Just because a film warms your heart does not make it a great film, and by the same token, while a film distances and repels you does not make it a bad film if that was the point In fairness to the Academy there are years they get things exactly right, yet there are also those years when everything is radically wrong. This year, for the most part, they are bang on, but those omissions hurt.
  
Those omissions make me want to boycott the whole thing…almost.










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