All about Oscar!

So, the Academy Awards nominations have been announced, and now we can begin the countdown to February 22.

I would have posted this earlier, but an old friend was due to drop by this afternoon and I spent much of the morning tidying up... I mean, you don't want your friends — even the ones you've known forever — to think you're living in Collyer Brothers squalor, right?

And as fate and the confluence of interests that made us friends in the first place would have it, we spent most of the day talking about the Academy Awards nominations.

So, first off: I am so thrilled that Richard Jenkins got a best actor nomination for The Visitor, as was my friend, who just worked with him on the Lasse Halstrom film Dear John. Jenkins has been making movies since 1985 and works regularly, which is more than a lot of actors can say — in 2008 alone, he was in Burn Without Reading and the Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly comedy Stepbrothers as well as The Visitor. But he's spent his career in supporting roles, which makes The Visitor is a real breakthrough for him: it's a great movie, he's great in it and he's the lead. Odds are he's going to lose best actor to comeback kid Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler), but if ever the nomination was its own reward, here it is.

Second, I'm surprised but not upset by how under-represented Revolutionary Road is: The only major nomination it scored was Michael Shannon in the supporting actor category; its other nominations are for art direction and costume design. For my money, Revolutionary Road is the most over-rated film of the year. It's not a bad movie: It's well acted, sensitively directected and carefully adapted from Richard Yates' novel. But to me it's a waxwork diorama: The themes are relevent, but they're preserved in amber, exquisite but lifeless.

I'm delighted that Slumdog Millionaire has garnered ten nominations (including best picture, best director for Danny Boyle and best adapted screenplay for Simon Beaufoy, as well as three for Bollywood legend A. R. Rahman, two for best song and one for best score), and that Melissa Leo scored a best actress nomination for Frozen River. I doubt that she'll win, but the nomination puts her on a map she should have been on years ago.

I think Heath Ledger is the best thing to a lock for best supporting actor for The Dark Knight, because this is the last chance to recognize him for years of good, difficult and unpredictable work. And I'm sorry Michael Sheen didn't get a best supporting actor nomination for Frost/Nixon, because it's his chemistry with Frank Langella that makes the movie crackle.

But that's life, right? Scroll down for the full nominations:

BEST PICTURE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader

BEST ACTOR
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant, Milk

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Dustin Lance Black, Milk
Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
Marttin McDonagh, In Bruges
Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, WALL-E

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
David Hare, The Reader
Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
John Patrick Shanley, Doubt
Eric Roth, Robin Swicord, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Baader-Meinhof Complex (Germany)
The Class (France)
Departures (Japan)
Revanche (Austria)
Waltz with Bashir (Israel)

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

BEST ART DIRECTION
Changeling
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Changeling , Tom Stern
Slumdog Millionaire, Anthony Dod Mantle
The Reader, Chris Menges
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Claudio Miranda
The Dark Knight, Wally Pfister,

BEST FILM EDITING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall
The Dark Knight, Lee Smith
Frost/Nixon, Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill
Milk, Elliot Graham
Slumdog Millionaire, Chris Dickens

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Australia, Catherine Martin
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Jacqueline West
The Duchess, Michael O'Conner
Milk, Danny Glicker
Revolutionary Road, Albert Wolsky

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Slumdog Millionaire, "Jai Ho," A.R. Rahman
Slumdog Millionaire, "O Saya," A.R. Rahman & M.I.A.
Wall-E, "Down To Earth," Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Alexandre Desplat
Defiance, James Newton Howard
Milk, Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman
WALL-E, Thomas Newman

BEST MAKEUP
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Colleen Callaghan, Fionagh Cush
The Dark Knight, Peter Robb-King, John Caglione Jr.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Mike Elizalde, Thom Floutz

BEST SOUND EDITING
The Dark Knight, Richard King
Iron Man, Frank Eulner, Christopher Boyes
Slumdog Millionaire, Tom Sayers
Wall-E, Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood
Wanted, Wylie Stateman

BEST SOUND MIXING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Mark Weingarten, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce
The Dark Knight, Ed Novick, Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo
Slumdog Millionaire, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
Wall-E, Ben Burtt, Tom Myers, Michael Semanick
Wanted, Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Barba
The Dark Knight, Chris Corbould, Nick Davis, Paul Franklin, Tim Webber
Iron Man, John Nelson

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory — Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306