10 strange things about the Oscar nominations

1) Philip Seymour Hoffman nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 'Doubt'? What do you have to do to get nominated for Best Actor these days? Worse still, Hoffman will be up against Heath Ledger, the sentimental favourite.

2) Kate Winslet nominated for Best Actress for 'The Reader'? Really? For most uneven performance perhaps. For overcoming silly ageing make-up, for sure. For least compelling love scenes, OK. And certainly for a terrific performance in the courtroom scenes.

3) Usually there is one film which gets bagfuls of nominations. This year it's all spread around; half a dozen films have four or more nominations in the bigger categories.

4) Nothing for Baz Luhrmann's 'Australia' (tee hee).

5) What about the old guys? Given that the average voter for the Oscars is in their 80s, what about Clint Eastwood (director of 'Changeling')? Or Peter O'Toole's fantastic performance in 'Dean Spanley'?



6) On the other hand, let's ignore the young guys... The directors of the five films chosen for Best Film are all between 47-57. The five nominees for Best Director ditto. The five nominees for Best Actor are 46-69.

7) ... But let's not forget the babes. Three of the five nominees for Best Actress and two of the five nominees for Best Supporting Actress are under 35.

8) The Colin Welland 'British Are Coming Award' goes to... Kate Winslet, Stephen Daldry, Danny Boyle, Stephen Beaufoy, Peter Morgan and David Hare (all Best Adapted Screenplay), Martin McDonagh and Mike Leigh (both Best Oringinal Screenplay), Chris Menges, Roger Deakins and Anthony Dod Mantle (Best Cinematography). But sadly not Michael Sheen ('Frost/Nixon'), Raph Fiennes ('The Reader') or Peter O'Toole ('Dean Spanley').

9) How literary are these nominations? Nominations for playwrights David Hare, Martin McDonagh and Peter Morgan. 'The Reader' is based on a successful novel, 'Benjamin Button' is based on a Scott Fitzgerald story and 'Doubt' is based on a Pulitzer-winning Broadway play.

10) Don't mention the war.

Nothing about Iraq or the Bush Years. Indeed, the only film set in the here and now which has done well is 'Slumdog Millionaire'. 'Doubt' is set in 1964, 'Milk' and 'Frost/Nixon' are set in the 1970s, 'The Reader' between the 1950s and the 1990s and 'Benjamin Button' traverses the 20th century.