The 4th Annual LION Awards: Best Actor

We're getting close to the finish line! Today's award goes to Best Actor. With 43 participating voters, here are the Top 5:

5. Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception) - 40 points

4. Jeff Bridges (True Grit) - 60 points

3. James Franco (127 Hours) - 68 points

2. Colin Firth (The King's Speech) - 94 points

1. Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) - 100 points

Come back tomorrow for Best Director...

The 4th Annual LION Awards: Best Actress

Today's LION Award goes to Best Actress, in what's probably the biggest landslide vote so far. With 42 participating voters, here are the LAMBs Top 5 Actresses of 2010:

5. Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine) - 34 points

4. Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right) - 41 points

3. Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) - 44 points

2. Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) - 82 points

1. Natalie Portman (Black Swan) - 160 points

Comeback tomorrow for the Best Actor award...

The LAMB Devours the Oscars - Best Actor

Editor's note: Welcome to the thirteenth of a 33-part series dissecting the 83rd Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!

by Univarn from A Life in Equinox: A Movie Lover's Journal

Hi and welcome to LAMBS Devour the Oscars: Best Actor. I'm Univarn. Over the next series of paragraphs I will be breaking down the upcoming Oscar nominees for the category of Best Actor. I am doing this because I said I would and because it seemed like a good idea at the time. So, before we begin, I feel the need to help you out by defining some of the above terms. It is my belief that by defining them, you will gain a better understanding of the importance of this category. Then, by gaining said understanding you will read this entire article and worship me as your new god. If that fails, you can make this article more bearable by substituting every fifth word with 'shit' and every definite article with 'crabs.' If the fifth word turns out to also be a definite article then you better begin weeping because you're about to be attacked by a Hispanic ninja from Africa (it's complicated).

Let's begin, shall we?

Best: Numero uno. Supreme master. Those deemed 'best' gain the right to refer to themselves in the third person, and kiss the nearest female celebrity. Practically, this works better if you're near Halle Berry and not Kathy Bates. Though I'm sure she's a lovely lady... *cough*

Actor: In ancient times actors were those individuals willing to crossdress on stage and act like females, falling passionately in love with men who had not drawn the short straw that evening. These days, they're men with a wide variety of insecurities who find escape from their physical selves by pretending to be other people.... they leave the crossdressing at home.

LAMB: An ancient baby species of animal that has survived five mass extinctions, three rather bad wars with pigeons, and the humiliation of being bossed around by a pig... heart of gold my ass. When a LAMB matures it turns into a SHEEP (Spirited Human for Entertainment Excitation and Prominence - that's right I came up with a perfectly acceptable acronym for sheep - take that Dylan!).

Devour: What I do when in the presence of a cheeseburger. You'll just have to trust me on this one.

Oscar: A nude male that makes most other men rather self conscious about how thin, and in turn tall, they actually are.

Now that you've been privy to such definitions you should be able to see a pattern. It's not very often an ancient species if offered the opportunity to do what I do to cheeseburgers with a nude man who will inevitably be given to a crossdresser just after they make out with a female celebrity. And in such honored times only one viable form of criticism will do: the LAMB scale. In the early days of humanity, men and sheep would love and frolic in the meadow lands. Their passion would produce LAMB-Human hybrids which would spread throughout the world. As LAMBs, we must seek out our own kind and champion them rightly so. It is, after all, the natural order of things.

Candidate #1: Javier Bardem (Biutiful) - 

Besides already owning one nude golden male (I am referring to his Oscar and not his recent child), Bardem has one glaring advantage over the other candidates: The face. Long and round, with the schnoz to match, Bardem's face has all the characteristics of a lamb all grown up. Unfortunately, he has one other major flaw: the hair. Wavy and black, if he's a lamb somewhere along the lines raven blood found its way into the mix and that we can not allow. It is well known that pigeons and ravens are among the same species. You start letting one into your heart and pretty soon they'll infiltrate your camps and destroy everything you love! Will that really happen? Who knows... but are you willing to take the risk?

I mean, come on... look what he did to Robert Duvall.

Candidate #2: James Franco (127 Hours) -

First we have to put up with the raven-lamb abomination (yeah, I said it), and now something I can only call a Mountain Goat *spits*. A lamb on a Bicycle in mountains and canyons? Inconceivable. Not to mention the whole cutting off of the limb. Every lamb knows that if you get trapped underneath a boulder the only thing to do is wail repeatedly and eventually Anthony Hopkins will come along.This Mountain Goat is stomping on the graves of our forefathers! In fairness he is stomping in place, and only on one grave, but the message is clear! The heathen shall not receive our love.

Candidate #3: Jeff Bridges (True Grit) -

To be quite honest, I haven't the fainest idea as to what species of animal Jeff Bridges is. The beard alone suggests some sort of bastardization of a Billy Goat, but his presence is far more like that of a bull or bear. With that aside we have only one thing to go on... his character name. Rooster Cogburn. ROOSTER!? More like Pigeon Cogburn! We see what games you're trying to play here. And to that we say a right BAAAAAAAAAH HUMBUG. Lambster Cogburn, now there's an intimidating name. Rooster? Might as well just be called Pickled Radish Cogburn and charge into combat with a beet in one hand and a white flag in the other.

Candidate #4: Colin Firth (The King's Speech) -

Now, here's a promising specimen. Promising indeed. LAMBs and SHEEP are known for having a bit of a stutter (a sign of our superiority over all other species) and here's a man who played a role about them. That's something we can get behind. Also, he's a British monarch which means the likelihood of him having been involved in pheasant hunting (another pigeon spy!) is rather high. Also something we can get behind. Very fine indeed. The hair is a bit of a misstep though. Looks more like a Horse with a comb-over than a LAMB. Yet, horses are our fellow four legged creatures so we shouldn't begrudge them too much (I mean, they're not goats after all). With that long waving hair, firm muscular thighs, and those long, thick, grithy... faces. *cough cough* I need a moment alone.

Candidate #5: Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) -

My my my, what have we here? Oh, that succulent pasty white. The nose, long, but not too imposing. And the hair. Oh my word, the hair. Just look at those curls. I could nibble on them for hours! I believe folks, at long last, we have found our long lost brethren. The intellect alone is something we can get behind. You add the rest together and I think our champion is clear.

WE, the LAMBs would like to formally throw our support fully and wholeheartedly behind......

*drum roll*

*don't stop drum rolling, I didn't tell you to stop, get back there.. NOW!*

*are you crying? crying? There's no crying in LAMB! Jimmy Dugan would pee on your grave... for a very long time I'll add*

And so, our chosen winner is.........

COLIN FIRTH! 

What? Did you see Eisenberg typing? TYPING!? LAMBs have HOOVES, we don't *bleeping* type.

The 3rd Annual LION Awards: Best Actor

I don't know about you, but I can feel the excitement. We're two days away from the unveiling of the Top 10 Films of 2009, which drops the same day as the final LAMB Devours the Oscars article...all a day before the Academy Awards themselves. In the meantime, we had an interesting race for Best Actor, with the top three going 9-7-5 in terms of votes (out of 46). Here's the final acting award.

The runner-up, with seven votes, Sam Rockwell in Moon:


The winner, with nine votes, Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker:


Next up... The Five Worst Films of the Year. Stay tuned to the LAMB for more of the LIONs, culminating with our Top 10 Films of 2009.

The LAMB Devours the Oscars - Best Actor

Editor's note: Welcome to the fourteenth of a 33-part series dissecting the 82st Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!










By Erik Beck of Nighthawk News.

The Nominees:
Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
George Clooney (Up in the Air)
Colin Firth (A Single Man)
Morgan Freeman (Invictus)
Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)

The Nominees History:
Jeff Bridges (b.1949):
Four times a best man, never a Best Actor. Bridges, of course, grew up in the industry and his four nominations are the entirety of a family that has a combined 130 years of film acting between them. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for The Last Picture Show in 1971 but lost to his co-star Ben Johnson. He was nominated again for a mostly forgotten film, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot in 1974, losing this time to Robert De Niro. His third nomination and only lead was for Starman in 1984, this time losing to F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus. His most recent nomination was for playing the President who nominated Joan Allen as his Vice-President in The Contender in 2000, but he lost that time to Benicio Del Toro. He was Golden Globe nominated for The Fisher King but lost out on the Oscar nomination. His reputation has grown over the last decade with the cult embracing of his role in The Big Lebowski, on my list of one of the 100 Greatest Films to Not Receive Any Academy Award Nominations. He is widely considered a nice guy in Hollywood and most of the industry seems to be pulling for him.

George Clooney (b. 1961)
Clooney has established himself as one of the best guys around, most recently with the Haiti Telethon, but that was a natural extension of other charity work he has done. He became a star on E.R. before moving into films, first as a big failure as Batman, but then bouncing back with his critically acclaimed work in Out of Sight. He was acclaimed again for Three Kings and O Brother Where Art Thou (for which he won a Golden Globe), but didn't find Oscar love until 2005 when he was nominated for Best Director for Good Night and Good Luck (losing to Ang Lee) and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Syriana. He was also nominated two years ago for Michael Clayton, losing to Daniel Day-Lewis.

Colin Firth (b. 1960)
Revered by Jane Austen fans for his portrayal of Darcy in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, for a long time he was better known as the cuckolded husband in two Best Picture winners: The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love. Though very popular in Britain, he has never really received any awards attention until this year.

Morgan Freeman (b. 1937)
Born in the greatest year for actors ever (also born in 1937: Anthony Hopkins, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford), Freeman was long known (especially in my household) for being Easy Reader on The Electric Company. He first got the Academy's attention with the role of the brutal pimp in Street Smart, earning a Best Supporting Actor nomination, but losing to Sean Connery. Two years later he was nominated for Best Actor for Driving Miss Daisy (for which he won the Golden Globe), but lost to Daniel Day-Lewis and missed out on a nomination for his role in Glory. In 1994 he was again nominated for Best Actor for The Shawshank Redemption, this time losing to Tom Hanks. His fourth nomination came with an Oscar attached, winning Best Supporting Actor for Million Dollar Baby in 2004. I just have to say I've never met someone who didn't like Morgan Freeman and in Deep Impact, he played the President, named Thomas Beck, which is the name of both my son and my father.

Jeremy Renner (b. 1971)
Renner has appeared as if out of nowhere this year with his performance in The Hurt Locker, but like many actors who do that, he has been steadily working in film and television for years. He's even had smaller roles in other films that have received Oscar nominations, such as North Country and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Awards Attention So Far:
Jeff Bridges - SAG, Golden Globe (Drama), Broadcast Film Critics, LA Film Critics, nominated by BAFTA
George Clooney - NY Film Critics, National Board of Review, nominated by SAG, Globes (Drama), BAFTA and Broadcast Film Critics
Colin Firth - nominated by SAG, Globes (Drama), BAFTA and Broadcast Film Critics
Morgan Freeman - National Board of Review, nominated by SAG, Globes (Drama) and Broadcast Film Critics
Jeremy Renner - National Society of Film Critics, Boston Film Critics, Chicago Film Critics, nominated by SAG, BAFTA and Broadcast Film Critics

The Race:
George Clooney and Morgan Freeman took the early lead, with both winning the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor. Then the New York Film Critics gave their award to Clooney, cementing him as the frontrunner. Nothing much changed with the nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics or the Golden Globes, as Clooney, Bridges, Freeman and Firth were all nominated for both, though the nomination for Renner from the BFCA was the start of his good luck. From there, the LA Film Critics chimed in, giving their award to Bridges and seeming to sway the momentum. But then the rest of the major critics groups gave their awards and Renner won all of them as part of the major Hurt Locker sweeps. Then came the SAG nominations and all five were again nominated. But then came the actual awards ceremonies and Bridges started taking home awards, first the BFCA, then the Globe and then the SAG and suddenly everyone was talking about how he was set to finally win an Oscar. The BAFTA nominations omitted Morgan Freeman, but otherwise really cemented the five positions of the nominees (so much so that I could write this whole thing before the nominations were announced).

The Possibilities:
Bridges can look at the fact that the last four actors to win SAG, the BFCA and the Globe all won the Oscar. But those four were Daniel Day-Lewis, Forest Whitaker, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jamie Foxx and all four had won multiple critics awards. Bridges doesn't have that much support from the critics awards. Russell Crowe won all three of those in 2001 and then lost to Oscar to Denzel Washington. Of course, Bridges is widely admired and Crowe at the time had been acting badly in public and that might have influenced things. But Daniel Day-Lewis in 2002 had won the SAG, the BFCA and the BAFTA and three critics groups (including New York and LA) and still lost to Adrian Brody. Even if Bridges wins, it will be the least convincing win since 2003 when Sean Penn won over Bill Murray who had dominated the critics awards. The SAG seems to be the biggest tip-off should Bridges win. The SAG awards began in 1994 and except for a four year stretch from 2000-2003, they have always agree with the Oscar.

The Brody and Washington wins should give hope to Clooney and Renner. Brody and Washington both had some major critics wins and had lost the Globe and SAG and both had failed to even be nominated by the BFCA. Washington is also the last person to win Best Actor without a BAFTA nomination, so that gives some hope to Morgan Freeman. As for Colin Firth? Well, the last person to win Best Actor without winning any of the six major critics groups was Russell Crowe in 2000, but he won the BFCA. Before that it was Tom Hanks, but he won the Golden Globe. The last person to win Best Actor at the Oscars without winning any of those major pre-cursors? You have to go all the way back to Jack Lemmon for Save the Tiger in 1973, when he won the Oscar with only a Golden Globe nomination to show for it before hand. And before that, it was Charlton Heston in 1959.

So don't rule out Clooney or Renner, but the betting odds go to Jeff Bridges finally winning an Oscar.

Finally, in the past I've written some posts on the Best Actor category as part of my History of the Academy Awards series that I did last year - they can be found here and here.

The LAMB Devours the Oscars - Best Actor

Editor's note: Welcome to the fifth of a 24-part series dissecting the 81st Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!










By Joseph of Black Sheep Reviews.

This past spring, I caught Thomas McCarthy’s THE VISITOR and found myself unexpectedly taken with Richard Jenkins. I had only known him as the infamous Nathaniel Fisher on Six Feet Under and suddenly felt as though I had never seen him before. In October, I caught a press screening of FROST/NIXON and thought Frank Langella had it locked after his pitch perfect incarnation of Richard Nixon. Then I saw Sean Penn in MILK. I’m not a huge Penn fan but, as soon as I was through weeping, I was consumed with how transformative his performance was. I couldn’t imagine it getting any better but then I saw THE WRESTLER. Aside from being completely floored by Mickey Rourke’s comeback performance, I was most excited to know that the Best Actor race at the Oscars would be the most exciting race around. Oh wait, I forgot about Brad. This is probably because I found him and THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON fairly forgettable.

Richard Jenkins in THE VISITOR
For five years, all anyone knew of Richard Jenkins was that he was one of the coolest dead guys around and that he certainly did a number on his adopted television family. In THE VISITOR, Jenkins plays Walter Vale, a widow who hasn’t lived a day since his wife passed. It isn’t until he meets visitors from foreign lands in a home that is supposed to be his own, that he realizes that he is a visitor in his own life.

Jenkins was always a dark horse to get the nomination in this category and this is certainly a case where the nomination will be the ultimate honour. The nod will open plenty of doors though and Jenkins will walk right through them. We may hear his name here again before very long.

Frank Langella in FROST/NIXON
Langella’s Nixon is a tricky one indeed. He is always on top of whatever game is being played. He always has his sights on a grand return to the public eye, one that he never doubts he is fully entitled to. It is the moments where he finds himself alone though that reveal the most surprising aspects of a very guarded personality – fear and uncertainty. Langella makes Nixon human.

Langella originated this role on the stage and has been in Nixon’s skin long enough to make everything look so easy. He was the early favorite this year, with the added sympathy bonus for missing out last year on a nod for STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING, but this race comes down to only two horses really.

Sean Penn in MILK
Penn is considered to be one of the most prolific living actors of his generation. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not always sold on this. As Harvey Milk though, he embodies the spirit of progress, equality and life, all of which made the real Harvey Milk so incredibly charismatic and convincing. Penn’s portrayal of the first openly gay man elected to American public office is no caricature; it is tender and human.

Unfortunately, Penn won the Oscar a few years ago for MYSTIC RIVER, a performance I never felt was that impressive in a film that I always felt was horribly overrated. Having one statue already on his mantle or his toilet (I don’t know where he keeps these things), puts him at a disadvantage here as voters might choose to reward someone who has never won before. That said, he just picked up the SAG award and that has a lot of sway.

Brad Pitt in THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Pitt is hit or miss most of the time. He definitely hit it in David Fincher’s 13 times nominated epic but was it really him who hit it? Pitt’s facial expressions were captured using CG and subsequently graphed onto a number of other actors’ faces and bodies to show the character’s transition from old and dying to young and new. Personally, I never felt like I truly ever came to know Benjamin Button despite the technical marvel.

Pitt may have gotten swept up in Benjamin Button buzz here because he is way out of his league considering the competition. That’s saying a lot considering the gravitas of this particular superstar. Still, many have argued that Pitt’s performance is a collective collaboration with a handful of other actors, all of which had Pitt’s face pasted on theirs.

Mickey Rourke in THE WRESTLER
It only takes about five minutes of watching Darren Aronofsky’s return to form, THE WRESTLER, before you are amazed by how perfect Rourke is as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, an aging professional wrestler who still has to play in order to pay for his lackluster life. Rourke’s performance inspires such intense sympathy but remains authentic and realistic. It is no exaggeration when people say Rourke was born to play this part.

After picking up the Golden Globe for this performance, it pretty much comes down, in my opinion, to a final death match between Rourke and Penn. Rourke’s recent announcement that he will be fighting in a legitimate WWE wrestling match a few months from now is a little odd but Rourke still has one major advantage over Penn, the comeback vote. Who doesn’t love a comeback … especially when it is this damn good?

All in all, this a very hard one to call. I’m going to have to flip a coin now and make the big decision at the last second. Heads, it’s Penn; tails, it’s Rourke … And Rourke it is!

The 2nd Annual LION Awards...Best Actor

The votes have been cast, the independent accounting firm of Fletch & Fletch has been consulted, and the time has come for the LIONs to be handed out.

Before we get started, I just want to say that I highly recommend clicking on the Lion-O picture and reading his intro for full comedic effect. Thanks.

Our seventh award for presentation is for Best Actor. There were a total of 55 votes, and what resulted was a dead heat between our top two vote-getters. Coming in second, with 13 votes, Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler:



Your winner, with 14 votes, is Sean Penn for Milk:



Meanwhile, the bonus award for Best Out-there Vote swung back to Scott of Mendelson's Memos. Scott chose Jason Bateman's career-defining performance in Hancock as his winner. Congrats, Scott..

Next up...The LAMB's Top 10 Films of the Year. Can you guess what they are? How about just the top 5? Stay tuned to the LAMB for more of the LIONs and for our Academy Awards series, The LAMB Devours the Oscars, as tomorrow we'll segue from one event right into the next.

The LAMB Devours the Oscars - Best Actor

Editor's note: Welcome to the sixth of a multi-part series dissecting the 2008 Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every weekday leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category (or more) of the Oscars (there are 24 in all). To read any other posts regarding this event, please just click on the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!









By Jed Medina from The Movie-Fanatic

THE RACE FOR THE OSCAR BEST ACTOR: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Depending on one's perspective, the majority of the winners of the Oscar Best Actor award are either deserving or just plain hype. While I don't think it's relevant at this point to get into the politics of voting, it would seem alright to get into a bit of history, and then take a look at this year's nominees.

How was it then?

It was exactly 80 years since Emil Jannings won the best actor trophy for the film The Last Command. The Swiss born German actor actually won for 2 films, as it was possible in those days to receive multiple nominations in one category. When the talkies were later introduced, the actor eventually lost his job due to his thick German accent. He went back to Germany and became an ardent supporter of the Nazis.

Since then more than 50 have been awarded best actors. Multiple winners include Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe, Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman. Sydney Poitier won in 1964, the first for an African-American. Two others joined him on the roster - Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker. Adrien Brody is the youngest to win for Polanski’s The Pianist in 2002. He was 29. At 76, Henry Fonda is the oldest; he won for the film On Golden Pond.

Perhaps the most controversial winner was Marlon Brando who returned his1973 Oscar best actor trophy, protesting the plight of American Indians. He’s definitely an exception as most nominees would relish the chance to go on stage and collect their trophies.

In recent years, big studios and a number of cutting edge film producers see to it that their actors get their share of buzz- campaigning for their talents via mainstream media outlets and thru popular movie sites.

This year's nominees: Best Leading Actor

George Clooney -- Michael Clayton
Daniel Day Lewis -- There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp -- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones - In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen -- Eastern Promises

No surprise on Daniel Day-Lewis and George Clooney. A big thrill to see Viggo Mortensen finally getting the recognition he deserves. A bit of a surprise for Tommy Lee Jones- not because he's not good, but because of the film where he was nominated. A big surprise (even a shock) to see Johnny Depp- for there are a number of other actors who should have been there.

Mr. Clooney, actor, producer, social activist, gentleman extraordinaire is regarded as representing the cream of the crop of today's Hollywood elite. Known for his penchant in producing movies that deal with political and social issues, the actor has been getting his share of Oscar nods of late. As Michael Clayton, he's a fixer (a 'janitor' he says). He works for a large law firm that represents mostly corrupt corporate clients. Much more than a John Grisham thriller, with hints of brilliance in the league of Scott Turows', Michael Clayton deals with a rather heavy theme but delivers with the right punches- many thanks to Clooney (and director Tony Gilroy) for keeping it tight. The film also makes a power showing- taking in nominations in many of the top categories.

Just like Clayton and actually getting more Oscar nods, P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood is a showcase for Daniel Day Lewis. While Paul Dano was superb in playing the supporting role, Lewis, as usual overwhelms his co-stars and delivers a tour-de-force performance. From the moment he starred as Johnny, the gay teen/activist who had an affair with Omar, a Pakistani immigrant in My Beautiful Launderette to his first Oscar in My Left Foot, the English born, Irish citizen has been admired not only by the moviegoing public, but by the most talented actors in the industry. Considered as this year's frontrunner, it would be a big disappointment if he loses this one.

For Viggo Mortensen, playing the lead in three Lord of the Rings and David Cronenberg's A History of Violence is not enough. He needs to get naked to be considered for the Oscars. In Eastern Promises, Viggo is a member of the Russian mafia but is actually someone else…

I have always pictured Tommy Lee Jones as a U.S. Marshall, or better yet as the assistant district attorney who hunted down Harrison Ford in The Fugitive. In the underrated and mostly unheard of In The Valley of Elah, Jones plays the father of a missing soldier who just finished his tour of duty in Iraq. It's another side of Tommy's acting- a more sensitive type. I think its one of the most powerful performances of the year. Lee Jones was equally impressive in No Country for Old Men, but it's Javier Bardem's territory, albeit a supporting one says the members of the Academy.

Finally, a vengeful and deadly Johnny Depp (who also sings) in Burton’s Sweeney Todd. Winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor (Comedy or Musical) certainly boosted his claim to the Lead Actor category. His fans are definitely rejoicing, while some moviegoers lament the fact that some actors, who have performed even better were snubbed…

In the case of Frank Langella, he was overlooked for Starting Out in the Evening, another quite unheard of film, except for the few but ecstatic movie fanatics who have seen the film and are still in awe.

For young James McAvoy, this would be the second time he got snubbed by the Academy. His first was in The Last King of Scotland where his co-star Forest Whitaker eventually won the award. Another young and talented actor was equally unlucky. In Sean Penn’s Into the Wild, Emile Hirsch emerges as one of Hollywood’s most promising young talent, and it’s sad he was not recognized for his sensitive performance.

Brad Pitt, who already won the Best Actor at this year’s Venice, also failed to get the nomination. He won for the long-winded The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It’s equally depressing to learn his co-star, Casey Affleck not getting a nom for another good film, Gone Baby Gone…

Who’ll win? Place your bets…From all indications, unless someone pulled a miracle, it’s Daniel Day-Lewis’ turn to grab his second Oscar.