Annie Award Nominations

So, the Annie Award nominations (for animated films) were announced today and I'm ecstatic that they didn't give any love to Ponyo in the Best Animated Feature category. Sure, I had my problems with Up and Coraline, but I realize I'm (nearly) alone in that consensus.

Here's their major categories:

Best Animated Feature:

• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
• Coraline
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Princess and the Frog
• The Secret of Kelis
• Up

Directing nods go to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Ponyo, and Up.

Writing nods go to Astro Boy, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Up.

I'm quite happy with the love shown to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Fantastic Mr. Fox and am slightly disappointed that A Christmas Carol didn't get nominated for a darn thing. Obviously, I haven't seen The Princess and the Frog yet, and I've never even heard of The Secret of Kelis.

Nevertheless, take the Annies with a grain of salt. Last year there was some big controversy that if you pay enough, you'll get nominated (Dreamworks was apparently the culprit of the big payouts), so they've lost a bit of their luster.

Big Academy Awards Change

The big news today is that apparently the Motion Picture Academy has changed the Best Picture category to include ten nominees this year, rather than five.  On one hand, it's kind of interesting in that movies like Up (undeservedly) and Star Trek (also probably undeservedly, although more deserving than Up) might get an opportunity to vie for the big prize this year.  On the other hand, it kind of dilutes the honor of being a Best Picture nominee.  

Long ago, at the start of the Academy Awards, I believe there were ten nominees, but they dropped that after a few years.

I don't know...thoughts?  One of you might care and have an opinion.