Roman de Gare = Novel of Station

One misprint to point out in your recount of the nbr awards. The foreign film listed in the top 5 foreign films is not "Roman de Guerre" -Novel of War. but "Roman de Gare," – Novel of a Train Station. At first I thought it referred to the first and last scenes whihc take place in a gas station, but the translation of "gare" does not seem to fit. The best guess is on imdb where one comment translates it as a trashy novel such as found in train stations. It is a strange bird of a film, a tumutuous and quirky romantic, mystery thriller, well worth seeing for its twists and turns.
Are there any other interpretations of the title?

Anyway, EW and several other sites constantly put his take on the Joker up there with Lector, Vader, and the most memorable villains in cinema history (don't ask me to find the articles/sites lol, I've seen plenty, but not in the mood to go article hunting). So, therefore, I think it does rank up there with the memorable classics that have come before this; and will stay that way once the hype dies down in a few years.

And it's not like anyone's saying he's better than anyone you named, just that he's on the same level. Sheesh.

"In this, the last performance he completed before his death, Ledger had a maniacal gusto inspired enough to suggest that he might have lived to be as audacious an actor as Marlon Brando, and maybe as great."

Can I see some proof, do you have a link?

Chuck

And I'm sure Brolin will be a heavy competitor against Ledger this year and that's fine too. No fair race can have just one actor dominating and Ledger needs someone to be up against him. I still want him to win, but there should be some equally worthy nominees beside him.

Heath Ledger is still the one to beat, although perhaps this mean Josh Brolin has an even better chance at make the shortlist for Supporting Actor.

"While NBR is not always right picking the winners (none of the actors last year won), they always seem to pick the ones that will eventually become *nominees*"

As for why "Slumdog Millionaire" is not on the list, it's because it was the winner. This is the same as the other years of NBR, as the winner is number one and the others are the next ten best. Take last year for example. "No Country for Old Men" won Best Film but wasn't on the list. That's because there is no reason to repeat it's name on the list. So while it's not on the list, it doesn't mean they forgot to put it on.

I'm pleasantly surprised with this list. While NBR is not always right picking the winners (none of the actors last year won), they always seem to pick the ones that will eventually become the winners. All of last year's "losers" made it to their respective shortlists. As for picture, while I'm not sure "Slumdog Millionaire" will win this year, it will surely make it's shortlist.

And yes, I was surprised that Heath lost too. However, Javier lost last year and look how Oscars turned out for him. NBR is usually pretty picky about their winners, picking favorites rather than the popular winners. However, the voters at the Oscars are a bit less jaded so I'm sure Heath will, if not win, be considered a tight competitor for Supporting Actor.