Heath honoured but Dev snubbed at Oscars

Posted by Charles on Thursday 22 Jan 2009

Filed under: Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway, Brad Pitt, Danny Boyle, Dev Patel, Heath Ledger, Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep, Mickey Rourke, Robert Downey Jr, Sean Penn

After Dev Patel was awarded a Best Actor BAFTA nomination, the 18-year-old Slumdog Millionaire star was no doubt hoping for similar luck at Oscar. But that was too much to hope for: despite multiple nominations for Slumdog Millionaire, both Dev and co-star Freida Pinto were shut out of the acting nominations. And Kate Winslet, who many assumed would receive double nods for Revolutionary Road and The Reader, was nominated just for the latter. Like many, we had assumed the Academy would list her as Best Actress for Revolutionary Road, and Supporting Actress for The Reader – even though her role in the latter is a lead performance. That’s exactly what happened in the Golden Globes, after all. But sanity has prevented that from occurring with Oscar. Heath Ledger, on the first anniversary of his death, receives his expected Supporting Actor nomination for playing The Joker in The Dark Knight. Many of us thought The Dark Knight might just squeak a Best Picture nomination, joining Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, Frost/Nixon and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. But it missed out – the fifth spot in fact went to The Reader. For any film-geeks out there (hello, Dawson Leery) here are the main nominations in full:

Best motion picture of the year:
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Performance by an actor in a leading role:
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

Performance by an actress in a leading role:
Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie in Changeling
Melissa Leo in Frozen River
Meryl Streep in Doubt
Kate Winslet in The Reader

Performance by an actor in a supporting role:
Josh Brolin in Milk
Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road

Performance by an actress in a supporting role:
Amy Adams in Doubt
Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis in Doubt
Taraji P Henson in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler

Achievement in directing
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 animated feature film of the year:
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

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

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