Oscar Nominations

80th Academy Awards - Nominations

Performance by an actor in a leading role
George Clooney in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)
Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah" (Warner Independent)
Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises" (Focus Features)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Warner Bros.)
Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War" (Universal)
Hal Holbrook in "Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment)
Tom Wilkinson in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal)
Julie Christie in "Away from Her" (Lionsgate)
Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney in "The Savages" (Fox Searchlight)
Ellen Page in "Juno" (A Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There" (The Weinstein Company)
Ruby Dee in "American Gangster" (Universal)
Saoirse Ronan in "Atonement" (Focus Features)
Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone" (Miramax)
Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

Best animated feature film of the year
"Persepolis" (Sony Pictures Classics): Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney): Brad Bird
"Surf's Up" (Sony Pictures Releasing): Ash Brannon and Chris Buck

Achievement in art direction
"American Gangster" (Universal): Art Direction: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino
"Atonement" (Focus Features): Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
"The Golden Compass" (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners): Art Direction: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
"Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount): Art Direction: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Art Direction: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Achievement in cinematography
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Warner Bros.): Roger Deakins
"Atonement" (Focus Features): Seamus McGarvey
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn): Janusz Kaminski
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Roger Deakins
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Robert Elswit

Achievement in costume design
"Across the Universe" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Albert Wolsky
"Atonement" (Focus Features) Jacqueline Durran
"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal) Alexandra Byrne
"La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse) Marit Allen
"Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount) Colleen Atwood

Achievement in directing
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn), Julian Schnabel
"Juno" (A Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production), Jason Reitman
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.), Tony Gilroy
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Paul Thomas Anderson

Best documentary feature
"No End in Sight" (Magnolia Pictures) A Representational Pictures Production: Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
"Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience" (The Documentary Group) A Documentary Group Production: Richard E. Robbins
"Sicko" (Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company) A Dog Eat Dog Films Production: Michael Moore and Meghan O'Hara
"Taxi to the Dark Side" (THINKFilm) An X-Ray Production: Alex Gibney and Eva Orner
"War/Dance" (THINKFilm) A Shine Global and Fine Films Production: Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine

Best documentary short subject
"Freeheld" A Lieutenant Films Production: Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
"La Corona (The Crown)" A Runaway Films and Vega Films Production: Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
"Salim Baba" A Ropa Vieja Films and Paradox Smoke Production: Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello
"Sari's Mother" (Cinema Guild) A Daylight Factory Production: James Longley

Achievement in film editing
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal): Christopher Rouse
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn): Juliette Welfling
"Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment): Jay Cassidy
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roderick Jaynes
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Dylan Tichenor

Best foreign language film of the year
"Beaufort" Israel
"The Counterfeiters" Austria
"Katyn" Poland
"Mongol" Kazakhstan
"12" Russia

Achievement in makeup
"La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse) Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald
"Norbit" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount): Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Walt Disney): Ve Neill and Martin Samuel

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
"Atonement" (Focus Features) Dario Marianelli
"The Kite Runner" (DreamWorks, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Participant Productions, Distributed by Paramount Classics): Alberto Iglesias
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.) James Newton Howard
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney) Michael Giacchino
"3:10 to Yuma" (Lionsgate) Marco Beltrami

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
"Falling Slowly" from "Once" (Fox Searchlight) Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova
"Happy Working Song" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"Raise It Up" from "August Rush" (Warner Bros.): Music and Lyric by Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas
"So Close" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"That's How You Know" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

Best motion picture of the year
"Atonement" (Focus Features) A Working Title Production: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers
"Juno" (A Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production) A Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production: Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.) A Clayton Productions, LLC Production: Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production: Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production: JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers

Best animated short film
"I Met the Walrus" A Kids & Explosions Production: Josh Raskin
"Madame Tutli-Putli" (National Film Board of Canada) A National Film Board of Canada Production Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
"Même les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)" (Premium Films) A BUF Compagnie Production Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
"My Love (Moya Lyubov)" (Channel One Russia) A Dago-Film Studio, Channel One Russia and Dentsu Tec Production Alexander Petrov
"Peter & the Wolf" (BreakThru Films) A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman

Best live action short film
"At Night" A Zentropa Entertainments 10 Production: Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth
"Il Supplente (The Substitute)" (Sky Cinema Italia) A Frame by Frame Italia Production: Andrea Jublin
"Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)" (Premium Films) A Karé Production: Philippe Pollet-Villard
"Tanghi Argentini" (Premium Films) An Another Dimension of an Idea Production: Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans
"The Tonto Woman" A Knucklehead, Little Mo and Rose Hackney Barber Production: Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown

Achievement in sound editing
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal): Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Skip Lievsay
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney): Randy Thom and Michael Silvers
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Christopher Scarabosio and Matthew Wood
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins

Achievement in sound mixing
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal) Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney): Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane
"3:10 to Yuma" (Lionsgate): Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin

Achievement in visual effects
"The Golden Compass" (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners): Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Walt Disney): John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier

Adapted screenplay
"Atonement" (Focus Features), Screenplay by Christopher Hampton
"Away from Her" (Lionsgate), Written by Sarah Polley
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn), Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage), Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson

Original screenplay
"Juno" (A Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production), Written by Diablo Cody
"Lars and the Real Girl" (MGM), Written by Nancy Oliver
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.), Written by Tony Gilroy
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Brad Bird; Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird
"The Savages" (Fox Searchlight), Written by Tamara Jenkins

Quotes from Gandhi

clipped from: www.quotiki.com

"Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

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"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

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"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."

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"An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."

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"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

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"Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

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"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

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"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."

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"An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."

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"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

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"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems."

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"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes."

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"A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble."

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"Where there is love there is life."

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"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"

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"The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles."

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"God has no religion."

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"Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our very being."

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"Even If I am a minority of one, truth is still the truth"

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"To run away from danger, instead of facing it, is to deny one's faith in man and God, even one's own self. It were better for one to drown oneself than live to declare such bankruptcy of faith."

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"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."

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"My life is my message."

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"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

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"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love."

Watch unlimited videos in iPhone

A great feature in iPhone is the Youtube widget. But as with the other functions this too has its limitations. I was not happy to see that the player did not play all the movies in you tube and the search results showed only a small list of 'compatible' videos.

Accidentally I discovered a better way of viewing more videos than just from Youtube.

In the iPhone Safari browser go to video.google.com. Click on 'Advance Video Search'. In the next window look for 'Domain' leave the default 'Only' option as it is, and in the box type 'video.google.com'. This would restrict your searches to the videos from video.google.com domain.

Now enter your search criteria in the 4 boxes on the top as you would normally search. The results are listed. Click on the video that you want to watch. A page loads up but the video does not play yet.

On the right side you would see the 'Download' button. Next to it you would see options - for 'Windows/Mac' in that dropdown choose the other option to download for 'Video iPod/Sony PSP' and click on 'Download' button.

Viola! iPhone opens up the video in Quicktime and plays the video.

Add the link to your browser bookmarks. This way you would have instant access to your favorite videos instantly without having to load them on to your iphone. Saves a lot of memory for your audio songs and other stuff.

Post to Del.icio.us

The Sign

clipped from lee.org

Sivaji Review

Rajini enters meekly compared to other openings he has had in some movies, but it strikes harder than before, well, he looks younger.

Sivaji is a Shankar movie through and through. The Super star’s image and style has fed the grand imagination of Shankar and his team to the fullest.

The story is like any other Shankar story. A social issue, a love interest, a worthy villain and dreamy songs to fill in.

NRI Rajini wants to build educational institutes and hospitals that offer free services. Imagine that. There are unexpected hurdles that make this dream a nightmare. Sivaji passes them one by one compromising on his ‘I-will-sign-a-zillion–papers-if-needed’ vow. But falls to ground when the all-powerful Educationist cum Hospital owner villain hits him hard, leaving Sivaji with just one rupee. Sivaji tosses the coin in the air to determine if he needs to be a good guy or a smart guy, and that also decides how the second half goes.

In the end he becomes modern day Robin hood amidst difficulties, even overcoming death.

If you have seen enough Shankar movies all the sequences are familiar to you. Arjun’s visits to Manisha’s village in Mudhalvan is extended in Sivaji when his family makes visits to Shreya’s house to be ‘Familiarized’. The sequences in Indian about how at each level corruption prevails is presented as it is. As usual the relationship with the villain starts smoothly before getting stormy. And there are more Shankar trademarks to pick from.

If you have forgotten how Rajini used to act, with his innocent reactions, and funny facial expressions, Sivaji would remind you of that. The youthfulness that was missing in the past two movies, in looks and action has come back for the good. Some close ups make you feel sorry for him, but then he is known for his style and not for the looks. So Sivaji is all about style for Rajini. A chewing gum replaces the cigarette, but the style remains. (Chewing gum too causes Cancer Mr. Anbumani)

The movie stands out for one thing, the grand presentation of the songs and some sequences, but for them Sivaji is any other Shankar movie you have seen. The sets are mind blowing to say the least. They are mostly modeled after Las Vegas casinos. And Shankar’s sense for details shines from cobblestones to the colored hair. ‘Athiradik kara machan’ has been shot like no other songs that we have ever seen. Even some Hollywood musicals won’t match up to it.

Shreya looks apt for the roll. Nianthara has slimmed down for the first song. Vivek replaces Vadivelu and makes his debut as all too familiar hero’s aide in Shankar’s movies. He delivers some of the ‘punch dialogues’ for the Superstar. Suman plays excellently as the worthy adversary. The dothy suits him better than the erstwhile bell-bottoms we are used to see him in.

Sivaji is grand. Does Shankar make an impact with his message? No. He might even be trivializing these great social causes by presenting them in a cinematic style. Shankar’s thirst for a societal change is only as real as Rajini’s youthful looks. Spending so much money on presenting a message about poverty makes no big sense.

At the end we have seen yet another Shankar movie with Rajini in it. Could anyone else other than Rajini have handled such grandeur is the question waiting to be answered in the next Shankar movie I guess.

0 Rupee Note to fight corruption

clipped from maricair.blogspot.com

A NGO called 5th Pillar, founded by the well-known Exnora founder MB. Nirmal, is issuing 0 rupee note with Anti-corruption statements for use when asked for a bribe.

Such people's salaries should be paid with these notes...

Poor Paris! or Not

clipped from homepage.ntlworld.com