I am not at all surprised by the snub. Fantasy, science fiction, comedy, animated movies. What do they all have in common. The academy are hard pressed to believe a movie in this genre could be worthy of best picture. Simple as that. But the viewing public knows better.

here here to that

I agree completely. Movies are works of art. It doesn't matter what kind of paint you use(genre),what matters is the final "picture".

It's like the Emmy's and BSG. How can you win a PEABODY, but can't get an Emmy.

Hollywood is filled with close minded morons.

Good Lord! When are people going to stop looking at derivative forms of the original as being art? I'm sure The Dark Knight was a fun movie, but what about it deserves Oscar notice? I've been having this argument with a hack writer on the forums at The Chronic Rift. He thinks he's as good as Shakespeare and wants the recognition that goes with his writing in other people's universes.

Good Lord! When are people going to stop looking at derivative forms of the original as being art? I'm sure The Dark Knight was a fun movie, but what about it deserves Oscar notice? I've been having this argument with a hack writer on the forums at The Chronic Rift. He thinks he's as good as Shakespeare and wants the recognition that goes with his writing in other people's universes.

Nickel - go watch The Dark Knight first. It transcends the fact that it was a "comic book movie". Seriously. Usually i'd be with you... but.... you have to see this movie.

Trust me, its Oscar worthy.

Ledger deserves it, and i really hope he wins, though, IMO, he should have been Best Actor - he stole every scene he was in and the entire movie.

Tetsuya...the quality of the performance has nothing to do with which catagory an actor is nominated in. It has to do with the role his/her character played in the story. Bale had the lead role in this particular movie. Ledger's character was a supporting character, hence the catogory he is nominated in. The Oscar his family will recieves will bre the same size as the one the "BEST ACTOR" winner recieves.

NickelNDime: The source material, in this case comic books, has nothing to do with the relative quality of any movie. How good is the movie? In this case, there was much that was Oscar worthy. More than that for which the film was nominated.

NickelNDime: I have some question for you. Do you create anything for a living or for fun? Do you even find inspiration from anything and make something new from it? Did you know, "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done there is nothing new under the sun"? (ECC 1:9 RSV)
So, why keep over this and media tie-in writers?

lostbeauty86: Clearly you're either one of the fangirls of said author or from the Rift forum, which is fine. I don't make a living being creative, but I do enjoy the creative process. I have no problem with media tie-ins, but said author tries to elevate them to something more than what they are. Media tie-ins are like Wendy's or Burger King. Either one of my examples hasn't created anything new, they just offer their version of the burger. They make money off it. It's not new, it's not original, and oftentimes, it's not even that good. Said writer is Burger King or to use a musical term, Brittany Spears. Taking elements from where ever and mashing it together and getting paid for it. And the public eats it up like they eat the crap at Wendys. And there's nothing wrong with that, provided you don't delude yourself into thinking it's something great, like he does. That's all I've said, it's all I've been saying, and he can't seem to acknowledge it.

The same holds true with this movie. Sure Ledger may have given a great performance, but he had fifty years of material on the Joker to pull from. This doesn't require an award. It's the same thing, elevating Wendys as though it were making a culinary masterpiece.

NickelNDime, the same thing could be said about the movie "Frost/Nixon." Langella has had 30 someodd years of Nixon material to work from, yet he got a nomination too. What Ledger did with the role is NOTHING like what ANYONE else has done with the Joker.

So what about "Frost/Nixon" deserves Oscar notice? It is just "derivative" of history.

The Oscar's have a history of giving awards to "derivative" works (hmm... The Ten Commandments is just one example), yet I don't see you claiming all of this other stuff isn't art.

How DO you define art? Something completely in every way original? If so, show me ANYTHING that can fit that, without being derivative of ANYTHING else.

The Oscar's and the Emmy's suffer the same delusion that most "literature" critics have, that SF/F material isn't worth considering as being any good. Hell, very rarely is ANY SF/F even taught in any sort of Lit class, and often it is just super-ancient stuff like Jules Verne and HG Wells. Important works like "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Dune" tend to get ignored, while pieces of crap like "The Great Gatsby" gets taught over and over in our junior high and senior high schools across America.

Sure, Peter Jackson got recognition for the Lord of the Rings, but how many years did it take for the Oscars to even recognize the work Spielberg did (most his stuff prior to Schindler's List was SF/F in one way or another).

And then look at television. Shows with no important relevance to the world today get Emmy attention all the time (Desperate Housewives), while shows that actually delve into themes like what it means to be human, forgiveness, and the differences between right and wrong get ignored (Battlestar Galactica).