The only reason I care about the Oscar nominees announced this morning is because it's the only awards ceremony I watch, both for traditional reasons and to keep up with the zeitgeist. I've seen three of the five Best Picture nominees (Babel, The Departed, and Little Miss Sunshine) and felt that all three were flawed for various reasons (contrivance, Jack Nicholson, and conventionality, respectively). I'd really like to see The Queen and I guess I'll see Letters from Iwo Jima despite the recent manipulations of Clint Eastwood and Paul Haggis.

Here are a list of my favorite nominations: Mark Wahlberg for The Departed, Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi for Babel, Children of Men for Cinematography and Adapted Screenplay, The Departed for film editing, Borat for original screenplay, Pan's Labyrinth for Art Direction, and because it's funny, An Inconvenient Truth for Best Song. Admittedly, I still haven't seen Little Children, Half Nelson, Dreamgirls, Water, and several others of the nominees.