THE WORLD PORTAL

81st ACADEMY AWARDS NOMINEES

Oscars, this is one of the most honorary award in the world for the film industry. This day is considered to be the “big day” of all the movie crews. Oscar award winners gets a huge respect all over the world. The winners will be at cloud 9 after receiving this. Academy award winning movies will be marketed all around the world. Oscar being the highly reputed movie awards is the main national film award in U.S.A. Lots of supporters view this award ceremony lively and through medias. This is the prestigious moment of all the country and all the people are eagerly waiting for their country to win. Annually the Awards are given by the academy of motion picture arts and science academy of America. The jury or selecting panel are highly confidential and no results will be leaked before the ceremony. Each and every shots will be analyzed and a final result will be through the majority of voting in jury members. It is one of the most prominent film award ceremonies in the world. It will be held on on Sunday, February 22, 2009 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. This is the 81st academy awards.

LIST OF NOMINATION FOR THE 81ST ACADEMY AWARDS

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR

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

BEST DIRECTOR

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

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

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Josh Brolin, for (”Milk”)
Robert Downey Jr.,for (”Tropic Thunder”)
Philip Seymour Hoffman, for (”Doubt”)
Late Heath Ledger, for (”The Dark Knight”)
Michael Shannon, for (”Revolutionary Road”)

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Anne Hathaway, for (”Rachel Getting Married”)
Angelina Jolie, for (”Changeling”)
Melissa Leo, for (”Frozen River”)
Kate Winslet. for (”The Reader”)
Meryl Streep, for (” Doubt”)

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Amy Adams,for (”Doubt”)
Penélope Cruz, for (”Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
Viola Davis, for (”Doubt”)
Taraji P. Henson,for (”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”)
Marisa Tomei, for (”The Wrestler”)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Dustin Lance Black, for (”Milk”)
Courtney Hunt, for (”Frozen River”)
Mike Leigh, for (”Happy-Go-Lucky”)
Martin McDonagh, for (”In Bruges”)
Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon, for (”WALL-E”)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Eric Roth and Robin Swicord, for (”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”)
John Patrick Shanley, for (”Doubt”)
Peter Morgan, for (”Frost/Nixon”)
David Hare, for (”The Reader”)
Simon Beaufoy, for (”Slumdog Millionaire”)

MULTIPLE NOMINATION HOLDERS

* 13 nominations, for (” The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”)

* 10 nominations , for (”Slumdog Millionaire”)

* 8 nominations , for (”The Dark Knight”) and , for (”Milk)

* 6 nominations , for (”WALL-E”)

* 5 nominations , for (”Doubt, Frost/Nixon and The Reader”)

* 3 nominations, for (”Changeling”) and or (”Revolutionary Road”)

* 2 nominations for (”The Duchess, Frozen River, Iron Man,wanted and the wrestler”)

MILK

Director            : Gus Van Sant
Producer           : Michael London, Bruna Papandrea, William Horberg
Genres              : Drama, Biopic and Politics/Religion
Starring            : Sean Penn, Allison Pill, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, James Franco and others
Running Time   : 2 hrs. 8 min.
Release Date     : November 26th, 2008

SYNOPSIS

“Milk” is adapted from a true life history. The story of this movie, “Milk” is based on the life of California’s first openly gay elected official as a San Francisco supervisor, “Harvey Milk”. He was assassinated along with San Francisco’s Mayor George Moscone by another supervisor Dan White. This film is really a celebration of  culture and a neighborhood. It is valentine to the early days of gay’s rights activism and it is mostly more conventional than compelling. Also this film is a honest revelation of that American politician and the actor Sean Penn make his role as Harvey Milk as excellent.  The roles are Josh Brolin as Dan White , Victor Garber as Mayor George Moscone,  James Franco as Scott Smith etc are also appeared in this movie.

ABOUT THE MOVIE

“Milk” tells the story of an American politician Harvey Milk, who became the first openly gay to be elected to public office in California as a supervisor. This film reveals the last eight years of Harvey Milk’s life. Harvey was living in New York city and he is always found unhappy in his life and is very thirsty to change his work and follow new changes. Harvey was a gay in nature and he had a boyfriend named Scott Smith. For making new changes in his life Harvey and Scott moved to San Francisco and later they started a small business named “Castro Camera store”. He opened that shop in the heart of working-class neighborhood. This camera store became the center of the neighborhood’s growing gay community, as well as campaign headquarters for Milk’s various election campaigns. With the help of this neighborhood, he became a strong  gay activist and an outspoken agent for change.  He grows in strong politician with the support of his friends like Cleve Jones. His lover Scott smith did not tolerate his strong devotion to politics, and he leaves him. Then “Milk” meet a sweet-nature but restless young man Jack Lir. He cannot tolerate Milk’s devotion to political activism and he hanged himself. In 1977, Milk was elected as supervisor in California for the zone of District 5 and he became the first openly gay man to be voted into major public office in America. When he was elected as supervisor, he tries to co-ordinate his efforts with another supervisor Dan White. But sometimes his political agenda upsets the supervisor Dan White and he resigns his seat on the Board. But White’s supporters desired him to alter his decision and he approached Mayor George Moscone for re-appointment as supervisor. But the mayor denies his request in the favor of Milk. In another meeting with Moscone for reappointment request, Dan White shoots Moscone who refused his request and then Milk. This movie is really a powerful movie and it reveals the true life of that famous politician Harvey Milk. The actor Sean Penn did his role as “Milk” very brillaintly. This film got many awards. That is 8 ‘Critic’s Choice Award’ nominations including Best Picture and Best Director and also got nominations from ‘Screen Actors Guild’ on three categories and that is the best actor, best supporting actor and best cast in a motion picture. It won Best Original Screenplay at the 62nd ‘Writers Guild of America Awards’ and received four ‘BAFTA award’ nominations, including Best Film, for the 62nd British Academy Film Awards. Actor Sean Penn received one Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor and director Gus Van Sant received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for the 61st Directors Guild of America Awards.This movie recieved 8 nominations for Academy awards and had won 2 Oscars including best actor in a leading role for “Sean Penn”.

REVIEW

“Milk” received good reviews from many famous people all around the world. People commented that it tells an inspiring story of one man’s quest to justify his identity, to give hope to his community. Screenwriter and journalist Richard David Boyle, commented that film made a creditable effort of recreating the era. He also states that Penn reveals Milk’s sense of humor about his homosexuality. This film inspires a sense of intimacy with its subjects. The performance of all actors especially Sean Penn is really good. The quality of the writing, acting and directing  of this film is very good . From this film, we get the feel of real life and credible personal interchange rather than the scripts.

RATING

“Milk”is a powerful movie released after the successful passage of law Proposition 8 in California. Proposition 8 is a Californian law in which one section is that “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”This movie really reveals the real life of Harvey Milk, the first gay supervisor who opposed this Proposition 8. So this film made top 10 box office list on its opening weekend with earnings of $1.4 million in 36 theaters. Rotten Tomatoes, the best website of movie reviews had given the film a 93% rating with a 184 fresh and fourteen rotten reviews. They give average score  8/10. At Metacritic, another website which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 84, based on 38 reviews. This film also appeared on many critics’ top ten lists of the best films of 2008. We give a rating of 4/5 for this powerful movie ‘Milk’.

MILK IN OSCAR AWARD

When nominees for the 81st Academy Awards were announced on January 22, 2009, Gus Van Sant’s powerful movie “Milk” won eight Academy Award nominations, including best picture and best actor along with ‘The Dark Knight’  another Hollywood movie. When winners of that awards are announced in February 22, people believes that this movie “Milk” should won these awards.