I don’t think that it will get nominated for Best Picture, but I certainly hope so. I know its early, but as of now, the only true competition it has is In Bruges. I think The Dark Knight deserves multiple nominations. If it was up to me, I would nominate it for the following:

Best Picture
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor - Heath Ledger
Best Supporting Actor- Aaron Eckhart
Best Director
Best Cinematography
And definitely Visual Effects and Sound nominations

Now, is that going to happen? Probably not. Heath Ledger will get nominated and it will most likely get the Cinematography award and some other technical nominations. I really hope the academy recognizes how good of a film this is.

I am looking forward to watching those other films you mentioned above to see what the competition will be like. I can’t wait to see The Road.

I actually think The Dark Knight will get a best picture nomination. I think this film will buck the trend. You can just look at last years award. The Bourne Ultimatum was nominated for three oscars and won three and was the film with the second highest win for the night. But all in technical catagories. Nothing in the major awards. The academy doesn’t nominate action films. They do like the big hits (Titanic, Return of the King. Two film that didn’t deserve nearly so many awards), but action films, and especially films based on comics probably won’t be nominated in major awards. I do hope The Dark Knight will get nominated for Best Actor or Sup. Actor for Heath Ledger, script nod for the Nolans, best director for Chris Nolan and Best Film. It is a good film. Forget the fact that its an action film based on a comic. It’s so much more then that. It’s a fantastic film and hopefully the Academy will see it as such and not as a comic film.

Roger Ebert said he would be surprised if it didn’t.

I am 100% with you on WALL-E being the better movie. If only one major studio summer movie was going to get an Oscar nomination, it should be the one.

That said, while I think that one is going to get shafted I do feel THE DARK KNIGHT is going to be the first superhero film to break through for a nod. The bottom line is that Oscar likes money, loves it, in fact, and if a movie is seen as doing something special or extraordinary than it usually responds accordingly. This one is poised to become the second highest grossing film of all time with also an outside shot (not going to happen - but it could) at being number one. That is major dollars and Oscar can’t help but take notice.

So, why didn’t SPIDER-MAN 2 or SUPERMAN break through, then, while they were also extremely popular. That’s just it, they were extremely popular and that was really all. They didn’t break through to stratospheric numbers like THE DARK KNIGHT has. If anything, this should be compared more to the first STAR WARS than anything else. Like this, that was a highly entertaining popcorn entertainment aimed squarely at mass audiences. Like this, it crossed over into becoming part of the zeigest to be something more.

With that in mind, it think this gives THE DARK KNIGHT something of an edge no other superhero film has had before. Add in the tragedy surrounding Heath Ledger, and I almost feel like this film getting a nod is close to a forgone conclusion.

It’s simply too early, we need to see the competition before making that call. However if the Oscars wanna improve their ratings this is their golden chance, nominate tdk! That’s sure to lure in more of an audience.

The supporting nomination should be a certainty for Ledger (otherwise we can pretty much say goodbye to Oscar credibility). It also has a chance at cinamatography, best director, & other technical awards. I also hope to see a few nominations for Wall-E, besides best animated movie, and maybe a surprise one in anything for In Bruges (won’t happen though).

Nominations for TDK & Wall-E will be enough to make next year’s Oscars exciting.

1978 Academy Awards - Star Wars IV: A New Hope was nominated for Best Picture (among a slew of other above-the-line and technical nominations). It picked up Oscars for the technical nods.

1983 Academy Awards - E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial was nominated for Best Picture (among other above-the-line and technical nominations). Same as SW4:ANH, E.T. picked up Oscars for the technical awards.

And the above is just what are considered Sci-Fi films. Broaden the genre to fantasy and we see many more films nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

If we’re bold and daring or, really, the Warner Bros. marketing department is smart, we can peg the last two Batman films as Crime Thrillers, which I believe they are, more than Comic Book adaptations. (BTW, I don’t want to belabor my commentary re: most of the other Batman adaptations - particularly those that Joel Schumacher directed - mostly because there’s not an officially recognized Excrement genre. If ever there is, they could honor Joel and name that genre after him. ‘Hey, Honey, let’s go see that new Joel film starring Vin Diesel. I’m really in the mood to watch some crap.’).

About flerk’s comments on Return of the King: there was a general feeling in the Academy that the LOTR trilogy itself should be honored. I think the entire trilogy’s nominations and awards, critical and public acclaim, and box office rewards were entirely warranted. I don’t know what everyone else thinks, but I’ve never seen such a monumental film achievement.

Here are my predictions for The Dark Knight Academy Awards:

Picture - nomination
Director - nomination
Screenplay Adaptation or Original (not sure where the WGA falls on this and I’m too lazy to research) - nomination
Actor in a Supporting Role for Heath Ledger - win
Original Score - nomination
Cinematography - win
Editing, Sound and VFX categories - noms and wins across the board

Brad, great blog and really got me thinking. There are so few watershed film events, but the Dark Knight surely qualifies as one of them. By the way, there are four and a half months left in the year, unless I’ve been Rip Van Winkled.

To answer your question, yes, The Dark Knight should absolutely be nominated for Best Picture, as well as other categories. As countless critics, fans, and moviegoers have pointed out, it is well on its way to becoming the second-highest domestic grossing film of all time. Add to this the picture’s record-breaking run and raving reviews from critics and average Joe’s alike, and the Academy would be foolish not to.

The thing is, The Dark Knight’s claim is legitimate. If the movie weren’t actually good, it would never have garnered such a ridiculous amount of success. Not only was it a good film, but it remains the best picture of the year so far. I am sure many people will rally behind WALL-E and say that it’s the better choice, but the simple truth is, no way. The Dark Knight was a spectacular film, whether you are a comics fan or not. Those who would prefer WALL-E for Best Picture belong to a scant minority at best.

But the real issue here is Heath Ledger’s performance. Will he get the nomination? Undoubtedly, if anything for the promise of viewership. Now, will he win? I, for one, hope so. Ledger’s performance was a work of art, and an original and groundbreaking one at that. Akin to Picasso in the world of painting or Gaudi in architecture, Ledger created something unforgettable, a performance that broke the mold of the genre and the art form of acting itself. If the Academy fails to recognize this, they can consider my viewership indefinitely forfeit.

I like how Adu said it above: "The supporting nomination should be a certainty for Ledger (otherwise we can pretty much say goodbye to Oscar credibility)." Though I’ll go so far as to replace "nomination" with "win". I mean, what other potential nominees for Best Supporting really deserve to beat Ledger? None so far.

Also, I think the Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Cinematography categories will definitely see the nominations. Christopher Nolan has proven to be a great writer as well as a great director, and the cinematography in TDK was superb.

That’s my take. I only hope that all goes well at the Awards. Whether or not you agree, The Dark Knight does deserve all the nominations (and wins) it can get. It was an immense feat of film-making and a spectacular flick. You’d have to be out of your mind not to see that.

darkblueink said:

About flerk’s comments on Return of the King: there was a general feeling in the Academy that the LOTR trilogy itself should be honored. I think the entire trilogy’s nominations and awards, critical and public acclaim, and box office rewards were entirely warranted. I don’t know what everyone else thinks, but I’ve never seen such a monumental film achievement.

Fair enough but that in itself is wrong. Honoring a trilogy is unfair towards the other films. I am not a fan of LOTR but those who are fans and I have spoken to, almost everyone says the first film is the best but the third got honored because it was the end of the trilogy. Because of that Fernando Meirelles lost out on Jackson for Best Director for City of God (a far superior film) etc. And Titanic winning Best Film and Best Director is just f***ed up. But again, this is a futile discussion. If you’re a fan, those films deserved all the oscars it got, if you’re not, like me, you’re gonna bitch that other films deserved the oscar.

A Ledger win is given. It’s a lock just as Javier Bardem was a lock for Best Sup. last year and when Philip Seymour Hoffman and Forest Whitaker won for best actor. I could bet all my life savings that Ledger will win. The Oscar’s are usualy quite predictable and it can’t get easier then this. Luckily no one will remember this post next year in case he doesn’t win, but if he does, I have it written and this post will be bumped :)

A best film, director and script noms for TDK are less sure-fire but a Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay is probably going to happen but a win is not guaranteed. Beside. whenever Clint Eastwood releases a film you can throw all your bets out. There is something about Clint that the Academy cannot resist, so Changeling and maybe even Gran Torino can get the noms and wins instead.

It will be interesting. I just hope this doesn’t start the trend of nominating only the biggest film again at the Academy. The last couple of years thay have managed to nominate good films regardless of box office. And I hope this continues. And since TDK is one of the best films so far this year, it deserves all the love it gets. Now just give In Bruges a best script nom and this years Oscars will be perfect.