Oscar to NYC: Let's Just Be Friends

"It's a long ceremony; you'll need these." Tom Wilkinson and George Clooney in the NYC Oscar bait Michael Clayton (Photo: Warner Bros.)

By S.T. VanAirsdale

The nominations for the 80th Academy Awards were announced this morning, with New York films and filmmakers faring admirably if not blindingly well. Michael Clayton was easily the biggest local success story, nabbing seven nominations including best picture, best director (Tony Gilroy) and acting nods for its Clooney/Wilkinson/Swinton troika. Laura Linney and Tamara Jenkins pulled out acting and screenwriting nominations for The Savages, while Julian Schnabel made the final five among directors for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. There's nothing tremendously shocking about any of this; the most notable oversight might be Sidney Lumet's omission for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, which bit the dust to the resurgent Juno campaign and young buck Jason Reitman.

A browse down the list reveals more pleasant news: Best Documentary Short nominations for Cynthia Wade's wrenching Freeheld (covered last year before The Reeler's trip to Sundance) and Tim Sternberg's Salim Baba, a Sundance '08 selection that also, conveniently enough, is today the subject of a Reeler Q&A. Charles Ferguson and Alex Gibney -- the latter of whom was featured here as recently as yesterday -- also picked up nominations for their respective documentary features No End in Sight and Taxi to the Dark Side. Congrats to all, and long live Reeler Karma!

I have my own Oscar season announcement to make here later today; I might be a little scarcer than usual around these parts in the month ahead. Stand by...

Posted at January 22, 2008 9:19 AM