Oscars. Nominations.

What a fine day for Cate Blanchett. So the Academy's announced its nominations for this year's round of Oscars. Of course, it's still up in the air as to what sort of show there'll be on February 24.

Meantime, as commentary rolls out, I'll gather pointers here.

Updated through 1/24.

Updates: "Whether the eight nominations for both PT Anderson's There Will Be Blood and the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men lead to Oscar night payoffs is another thing altogether, but for today the two best films of 2007 received their just deserts," writes Ted Z.

A "lot of prognosticators had left Paul Thomas Anderson off the list of director nominees until fairly recently. I can't say enough good things about how well Paramount Vantage and Miramax have handled this release," writes Karina Longworth at the SpoutBlog. Blood "is as least as difficult a film as Jesse James, but they've truly managed to sell it as must-see for grown-ups."

"The noms yielded a bunch of surprises, some pleasant (Viggo Mortensen for Eastern Promises - awesome; Tamara Jenkins for The Savages in original screenplay, well done) others not so much (Lars and the Real Girl for original screenplay wins, hands down, my 'Are You F**kin' Kidding Me' award, especially given that I was hoping for a Darjeeling Limited nod in screenplay)." And Premiere's Glenn Kenny has a few other angles as well.

Joe Leydon is "especially happy to see Ellen Page among the Best Actress finalists - shameless plug: I have an interview with her in the new issue of MovieMaker - and Tommy Lee Jones getting the attention he deserves for the criminally under-rated In the Valley of Elah."

Vulture explains why Jonny Greenwood's Blood soundtrack was kept out of the running - and notes who else got snubbed. More commentary.

"How did my picks fare?" Gabriel Shanks runs down the list.

Nathaniel R's "Tues Top Ten" this week: "Oscar Nomination Talking Points."

More commentary from Alonso Duralde at MSNBC.

For Jim Emerson, the best nomination's the one for Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland - "and un-nominated co-conspirator, Carter Burwell - for sound in No Country for Old Men."

Dennis Cozzalio comments on the list.

More from Nick Davis.

"Seriously, Atonement?" asks Kim Masters at Slate.

The Boston Globe's Wesley Morris assesses the races.

Updates, 1/23: "Why not just change the name, from the Oscars to the Independent Spirit Awards?" asks Time's Richard Corliss.

More thoughts: Ray Bennett, Peter Chattaway, Aaron Dobbs and Bob Turnbull.

Updates, 1/24: Ross Douthat weighs in on "The Good," "The Bad" and, yes, "The Ugly."

"Let's take a moment to honor some of the people who will have to content themselves with asking Marty how it feels to hold one." An annotated list from Phil Nugent at ScreenGrab.

"The announcement of the Academy Award nominations is always the saddest day of the year, not because the voters' choices are lousy (although they tend to be) but because so many worthy movies suddenly lose their luster," writes David Edelstein. "The biggest omission is Frank Langella for Starting Out in the Evening - proof, if any were needed, that the Academy Awards is not a meritocracy."

Posted by dwhudson at January 22, 2008 5:52 AM