By Erica Balanc

Staff Writer

Tonight we can temporarily forget that the nation is in an economic recession. The red carpet will be rolled out, the most beautiful gowns and expensive suits will be worn, and golden statuettes will be handed out to honor the outstanding film achievements of 2008. The first Academy Award was awarded in 1929, the year of the Wall Street Crash, and the tradition will continue in 2009.
The nominees for Best Motion Picture of the Year are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire. As interesting and diverse as the selection of films is, there isn’t much competition against the front-runner, Slumdog Millionaire. This film about a poor young teen who becomes a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire won the Golden Globe Best Picture-Drama award, as well as the top awards from the Director’s Guild, Screen Actors Guild, and Producers Guild. Despite The Curious Case of Benjamin Button being the biggest nominee with thirteen total nominations, Milk, the film about California’s first openly gay elected official, is probably Slumdog Millionaire’s only competition. However, any film other than Slumdog Millionaire–the Chariots of Fire of this award season–would come as a surprise (Benjamin Button winning would be a pleasant surprise).
The award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is also between two people: Sean Penn for Milk and Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler. The other nominees are Richard Jenkins for The Visitor, Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon, and Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Rourke’s performance in the low-budget film The Wrestler has received immense critical acclaim and what’s more, he didn’t even get paid to do it. Penn’s role on paper sounds like it has Oscar written all over it, but Rourke is the comeback kid of the year, and it feels like he just has to win.
The nominees for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role are Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married, Angelina Jolie for Changeling, Melissa Leo for Frozen River, Meryl Streep for Doubt, and Kate Winslet for The Reader. Winslet won both the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress (Drama) and Best Actress (Drama) in a leading role. But then her performance in The Reader was labeled as a supporting role, and her win as a leading actress was for Revolutionary Road. Now that she is up for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for The Reader, all other competition in the category has been weakened. Anne Hathaway and Streep are the two actresses who stand a fair chance, but Winslet is definitely the front-runner.
The Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is easy: Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight. He won the Screen Actors Guild award, the Golden Globe (drama), and the posthumous Oscar is his. Who wins the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role should be interesting. When Winslet was up for The Reader, there was no competition. Now it’s between Amy Adams for Doubt, Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Viola Davis for Doubt, Taraji P. Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler. The speculation is that Davis will win, for her very brief but powerful part in Doubt. It’s a fair bet, but Amy Adams or Penélope Cruz winning wouldn’t be a shock.
The nominees for the Best Achievement in Directing are Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire, Stephen Daldry for The Reader, David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon, and Gus Van Sant for Milk. Surprise, surpise; it’s all the directors for the Best Motion Picture of the Year nominees. And like that category, only one film needs to be considered: Slumdog Millionaire. The winner of the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures was Danny Boyle. That sounds about right.
And then there are our screenwriters. The award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen will probably be handed to the winner of the Writers Guild of America award, Dustin Lance Black for Milk. But lets not forget the worthy opponents Andrew Standon, Pete Docter, and Jim Reardon for the film that will surely win Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, WALL·E. For Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published, we have all the Best Motion Picture of the Year nominees, minus Milk, plus Doubt. And so with Simon Beaufoy’s adapted screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire as a nominee, is there need for speculation?
If 2009 makes the 81st Annual Academy Awards the year of the underdog, Slumdog Millionaire will reign supreme, and Mickey Rourke will be the comeback kid. A few categories seem certain; Kate Winslet will most likely be able to place her Oscar in between her two newly-won Golden Globes, and The Dark Knight’s Joker will be paid his respects. Despite some shoe-ins, one shouldn’t get too comfortable. You never know when the spotlight could suddenly flash on the unexpected. 80 years of tradition, in and out of economic crisis, have prepared us for that.