So now I have a question. I saw both Training Day w/Denzel Washington & A Beautiful Mind w/Russell Crowe. I had an argument with my future mother-in-law about this. She claims that the only reason that Denzel & Halle won their awards that year was b/c they were black. I thought they both gave great performances & deserved the Oscar. What do you guys think? She claims they were given to them based on race rather than on actual performance. She still believes that Russell Crowe & Nicole Kidman should have won (her for Moulin Rouge I think)

If Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary didn't win Best Doc, there's no reason F911 should.

Denzel didn't win for Training Day, he won for it and Malcolm X and pretty much every movie he's ever done. "Cumulative" Oscars are quite common - the movies that Paul Newman & Al Pacino won their awards for are far from their best performances. But they were both loooooong overdue. And I'm sure Newman & Pacino themselves would agree.

I have NO idea why Nicole K got nominated for that movie. I loved the movie but shoot, pretending you're in love w/ Ewan McGregor really isn't too hard to do. :D

Which is why I'm baffled as to why Martin Scorcese has never won a best director oscar.........even those uppity voters know he deserves one.....shit, he deserved it for Gangs of New York.

But once again, the Academy has it's head up it's money grubbing ass....

Some people will come up with conspiracy theories about anything. I've also heard it said about Halle and Denzel's Oscars were because they were black, but I think that's just speculation from angry rivals or fans of those who didn't win. I think Halle and Denzel both did excellent jobs, and they both won several other awards for their roles they won Oscar's for. I personally would have given Sissy Spacek the Best Actress Oscar for her role in "In the Bedroom," but I don't think race had anything to do with the Academy picking who won.

I would also love to see The Passion be nominated and win. The acting was INCREDIBLE. The fact that the actors were speaking an ancient language made it all the more incredible. I would love to see Maya Morgenstern, the actress who played Mother Mary be nominated, as well as Gibson and Jim Cavizal, but I'm not holding my breath knowing how liberal Hollywood is and all the controversy surrounding the film.

or have the best studio publicity campaign. I'm STILL SMH about Shakespeare in Love.

True, but I really think that Murray deserved it over Penn last year. That is why I was hoping Murray would win something for Life Aquatic. Comedys usually don't do it though, but this might be that good. I bet Foxx gets it though, he was quite the Ray...

I am not so sure about the passion here...it didn't even get nomed at the golden globes....

I hope things like Finding Neverland, Closer, or the Incredibles get recognized....

Hotel Rwanda
 

There's a thread discussing it here: http://GreekChat.com/gcforums/showth...threadid=59755

The movie's web site is here: http://www.HotelRwanda.com/

I saw it yesterday. It is an amazing movie. It definitely won't win any awards for cinematography, but the story is absoultely compelling (and tragically true.) The acting is superb, and there should (in my opinion) be three nominations for acting:
Don Cheadle for Best Actor
Sophie Okonedo for Best Supporting Actress
Nick Nolte for Best Supporting Actor

The reason it didn't get nominated at the Globes is b/c under the rules for Golden Globes, it has to be a picture shot in English for it to be a best pic nomination + the movie is NOT foreign so it couldn't go in as that either.

I say Phantom today & it was amazing. I think it will be nominated for many Oscars.

Or "Titanic," which was an extremely mediocre film.

I agree on Oscars being given sometimes to someone for a body of work rather than one performance (although I'd argue Al Pacino was excellent in "Scent of a Woman.") It will be this principle that may end up getting Tom Cruise an Oscar (he was screwed for "Magnolia" and "Rain Man").

It would be great to see a movie like "Hotel Rwanda" win the big awards.

I didn't particularly care for "Monster's Ball", but I was happy Halle won. Denzel, on the other hand was good in "Training Day." Oscar voters love when usually good-guy type actors plays bad guy roles. They may never admit this, but Oscar voters also reward for career achivement. Denzel has played good roles in all of his movies. He deserved the Oscar for "Malcolm X", but that had more to do with punishing Spike Lee than anything else. He played a convicing character in "The Hurricane", but the family of the victim wrote letters and threatened to protest.

This year my vote would go to Jamie Foxx for best actor. Foxx had a wonderful year as a leading man (Ray) and supporting actor (Collateral).