The International Press Academy yesterday announced the nominations for this year’s Satellite Awards, with nominees shortlisted in twenty-two film categories, plus a number of TV and DVD categories. The late Heath Ledger is nominated in the Actor in a Supporting Role category for his powerhouse turn as the Joker in The Dark Knight, while Chris Nolan has a nod for the film in the Director category; The Dark Knight also receives nominations in the Visual Effects, Film Editing and Sound Mixing and Editing cateogories.
(Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Dark Knight Returns, (c) Warners/DC)
The Motion Picture (Animated or Mixed Media) sees Tale of Desperaux, Horton Hears a Who, Wall-E, Bolt, Sky Crawlers and Waltz With Bashir fighting it out. Waltz With Bashir also receives a nomination in Documentary category, being that unusual film, an animated documentary. And, I have to say, an exceedingly powerful one; I caught it recently (its on general release after a long tour of the film festival circuit) and the use of animation was perfect for capturing the dreamlike (or often nightmarish) quality of the memories of the Israeli conscripts in the war in the Lebanon in the early 80s in a way that live action could never have matched. Tough to watch in places (especially when it deals with the deaths of innocents caught up in the war), but given the subject matter it should be hard to take and its well worth a little bit of your time.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has picked up several noms too, including Original Screenplay and Cinematography, while the box-office conquering Quantum of Solace garners several nominations, among them Visual Effects, Film Editing, Sound Editing and Mixing, Original Score and Original Song. Iron Man picks up a couple in the Visual Effects and Film Editing categories as well as the Sound Editing category; fantasy flick City of Ember and the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still also both feature in the more technical awards categories.
(Catherine Tate as Donna with David Tennant as the Doctor and a Dalek chum in Doctor Who, (c) BBC)
Its not bad for the fantastic genres in the TV nominations either, despite being dominated, as many other US-based TV awards have been this year, by the historical drama/biopic John Adams. Still a few wave the flag – Life on Mars again among them, although this time the US remake, not the original BBC version as Harvey Keitel gets a nod for Actor in a Supporting Role for his US version of Gene Hunt (I love Harvey’s film work, but again, surely he is just physically not right for Gene??). Fringe’s John Noble is also nominated in the same category and Pushing Daisies Kristin Chenoweth is nominated in the Actress in a Supporting Role category. The US version of Life on Mars is also nominated for the Drama category, as is Primeval. David Tennant and his sexy hair make the nominations for Actor in a Drama Series. The full list of nominations (which also include other media such as DVD and games – with Dead Space, Fallout 3 and Civilisation: Revolution among them) can be found on the official site; the awards are announced on December 14th.
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