2007 - The year of the modern western

2007 the 80th anniversary of the academy awards themselves for me marked a rare change for this long standing academy and the film world in general where the dark and gritty stories where the films being fully embraced by audiences of all kinds. This is especially reflected in the top choices at the 80th academy awards where the race came down to two films so interconnected that they even filmed in close proximity to one another around the same time. Those two film were the Coen Brothers No Country for Old Men and Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood The final choice by the academy was the long overdue Coen brothers and their great film No Country for Old Men. Other films nominated alongside these two for the top picture prize were Atonement, Juno and Michael Clayton. All great films in opinion and completely different ones which is why the fact the race came down to the top two seems so surprising because they are not typical choices for how dark and dreary they are. Of the two I would've gone with There Will Be Blood which also happens to be my favourite film of the entire year outside of the race. The film I feel has reached a level of iconic status for it's epic scale and dynamic leading performance given by Daniel Day-Lewis. Daniel had gone places no actor has gone before this performance but he truly outdid himself with this performance fully committing himself to such a deplorable character like no other actor could. The film is epic for it's grandeous story of a many achieving oil. It also is spectacular for it being a change of pace for PTA from Altman inspired director to John Huston inspired with this joint. I haven't rewatched the film nearly enough times but I know that the film is as great as I believed to be on my first viewing because PTA and DDL are so in sync with one another they make the film as brilliant as it is. 

While I do think the lineup chosen is pretty good there are however some needed changes I would make to it. My runner up for favourite film of the year is John Carney's Once. Carney in the films he has made since Once (Begin Again, Sing Street) has tried to capture the magic he did with Once and really he has been unable to do that with me but that never takes away from the love I have for Once. It's the great modern romance of two people who belong to one another. The music is great and music I know I'll listen to forever. Next in what I feel was overlooked is Todd Haynes spralling semi biopic on the life and music of Bob Dylan. It's quite the experimental film like all Haynes film are where in the most unconventional way Haynes has multiple actors male and female play personas of the Bob Dyland myth. Only Haynes the visual stylist he is could've crafted this inventive biopic and delivered an exceptional film to boot. My fourth favourite film is No Country For Old Men. The Coen Brothers are themselves exceptional talents and I do not mind them winning for this feature because it is itself a great film. It's more western then Blood featuring many of the western tropes and delivering on the promise to craft a visually and aurally exciting feature. While I see three films better then this I have to again mention how I do not protest their wins because they deserved at least one win throughout their career. My fifth choice is Sidney Lumet's final film Before the Devil Knows Your Dead. It's difficult for many film makers to say they departed on a film considered high with the rest of their films. Lumet is a proven rare case because Devil is for me at least in my top 5 favourite of his. Lumet is a director like no other where he can film this ever shifting film of time in equal ways where you respect his control of film as he can blend scenes all together to create griping work. When I look at my top 5 for the year they are very director driven which is the case for what I consider to be great art as film is most commonly known as the director's medium.

I've seen far too many films from 2007 as like most recent years I see just about everything and this isn't as much a revisit as annoucing what I had chosen during my awards back in 2007. Below were the winners and nominees I would've chosen.

OUTSTANDING PICTURE:

01. There Will Be Blood (Produced by Paul Thomas Anderson, Daniel Lupi & JoAnne Sellar)

02. Once (Produced by Martina Niland)

03. I'm Not There (Produced by John Goldwyn, John Sloss, James D. Stern & Christine Vachon)

04. No Country for Old Men (Produced by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen & Scott Rudin)

05. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Produced by Paul Parmar, Michael Cerenzie, Brian Linse &  William S. Gilmore)

06. The Wind that Shakes the Barley

07. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days

08. Zodiac

09. Into the Wild

10. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:

Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood

John Carney for Once

Joel Coen & Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men

Todd Haynes for I'm Not There

Ken Loach for The Wind that Shakes the Barley

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:

Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview in "THERE WILL BE BLOOD"

Emile Hirsch as Christopher McCandless / Alexander Supertramp in "INTO THE WILD"

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Andy in "BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD"

Cillian Murphy as Damien O'Donovan in "THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY"

Ulrich Muhle as Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler in "THE LIVES OF OTHERS"

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:

Amy Adams as Giselle in "ENCHANTED"

Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in "LA VIE EN ROSE"

Markéta Irglová as Girl in "ONCE"

Angelina Jolie as Marlane Pearl in "A MIGHTY HEART"

Anamaria Marinca as Otilia in "4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS"

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in "NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN"

Liam Cunningham as Dan in "THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY"

Robert Downey Jr. as Paul Avery in "ZODIAC"

Albert Finney as Charles in "BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD"

Hal Holbrook as Ron Franz in "INTO THE WILD"

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Cate Blanchett as Jude in "I'M NOT THERE"

Allison Janney as Bren MacGuff in "JUNO"

Saoirse Ronan as Briony Tallis (Aged 13) in "ATONEMENT"

Tilda Swinton as Karen Crowder in "MICHAEL CLAYTON"

Marisa Tomei as Gina in "BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD"

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Cristian Mungiu for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Kelly Masterson for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Todd Hayes & Oren Moverman for I'm Not There

Diablo Cody for Juno

John Carney for Once

OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Screenplay by Andrew Dominik; Based on The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford by Ron Hanse, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Screenplay by Sarah Polley; Based on "The Bear Came over the Mountain" by Alice Munro, Away From Her

Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen; Based on No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson; Based on Oil! by Upton Sinclair, There Will Be Blood

Screenplay by James Vanderbilt; Based on Zodiac by Robert Graysmith, Zodiac

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:

Meet the Robinsons (Directed by Stephen J. Anderson)

Persepolis (Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud)

Ratatouille (Directed by Brad Bird)

The Simpsons Movie (Directed by David Silverman)

Surf's Up (Directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck)

OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION:

Production Design by Sarah Greenwood; Set Design by Katie Spencer for Atonement

Production Design by Stuart Craig; Set Design by Stephenie McMillan for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoneix

Production Design by Judy Becker; Set Design by Ann Smart & Louise Tremblay for I'm Not There

Production Design by Jack Fisk; Set Design by Jim Erickson for There Will Be Blood

Production Design by Donald Graham Burt; Set Design by Victor J. Zolfo for Zodiac

OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:

Padraic Delaney (The Wind That Shakes the Barley)

Ellen Page (Juno)

Sam Riley (Control)

Saoirse Ronan (Atonement)

Emma Stone (Superbad)

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Roger Deakins for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Edward Lachman for I'm Not There

Roger Deakins for No Country for Old Men

Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:

Albert Wolsky for Across the Universe

Jacqueline Durran for Atonement

Mona May for Enchanted

John A. Dunn for I'm Not There

Marit Allen for La Vie en Rose

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR:

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Rosemary Harris, Brian F. O'Byrne, Aleksa Palladino, Michael Shannon, Amy Ryan, Sarah Livingston, Jordan Gelber, Anita Sklar, Josh Mowery, Diane Bradley, Richard K. Lublin)

Hairspray (Nikki Blonsky, John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Marsden, Christopher Walken, Amanda Byne, Queen Latifah, Brittany Snow, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Allison Janney, Paul Dooley, Jayne Eastwood, Jerry Stiller, Taylor Parks, George King)

I'm Not There (Marcus Carl Franklin, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Charlotte Gainsbourg, David Cross, Eugene Brotto, Bruce Greenwood, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Mark Camacho, Benz Antoine, Craig Thomas, Richie Havens, Kim Roberts, Kris Kristofferson, Don Francks, Vito DeFilippo, Paul Spence)

Juno (Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, J. K. Simmons, Olivia Thirlby, Candice Accola, Rainn Wilson)

No Country for Old Men (Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Kelly Macdonald, Woody Harrelson, Garret Dillahunt, Tess Harper, Barry Corbin, Beth Grant, Stephen Root, Gene Jones, Brandon Smith)

OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING:

Jay Rabinowitz for I'm Not There

Jay Cassidy for Into the Wild

Roderick Jaynes for No Country for Old Men

Dylan Tichenor for There Will Be Blood

Angus Wall for Zodiac

OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Directed by Cristian Mungiu)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Directed byJulian Schnabel)

The Lives of Others (Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)

OUTSTANDING MAKEUP:

Jenny Shircore for Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Rick Findlater, Jessica Heeren, Peter Swords King & Colleen Quinton for I'm Not There

Didier Lavergne & Jan Archibald for La Vie en Rose

Peter Owen & Ivana Primorac for Sweeney Todd and the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Kimberly Ayers, John Blake & Catherine Conrad for There Will Be Blood

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE:

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Dario Marianelli for Atonement

Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová for Once

Michael Giacchino for Ratatouille

Jonny Greenwood for There Will Be Blood

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:

"So Long", Enchanted (Music by Alan Menken; Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz)

"That's How You Know", Enchanted (Music by Alan Menken; Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz)

"Guaranteed", Into the Wild (Music and Lyrics by Eddie Vedder)

"Falling Slowly", Once (Music and Lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová)

"The Hill", Once (Music and Lyrics by Markéta Irglová)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR:

Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Robert Ford, Gone Baby Gone, Ocean's Thirteen)

Josh Brolin (American Gangster, Grindhouse, In the Valley of Elah, No Country for Old Men)

Philip Seymour Hoffman (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Charlie Wilson's War, The Savages)

Ellen Page (Juno, The Stone Angel, The Tracey Fragments)

Susan Sarandon (Emotional Arithmetic, Enchanted, In the Valley of Elah, Mr. Woodcock)

OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING:

Karen Baker Landers & Per Hallberg for The Bourne Ultimatum

Christopher Barnett, Martín Hernández & Arturo Zarate for Into the Wild

Skip Lievsay for No Country For Old Men

Matthew Wood & Christopher Scarabosio for There Will Be Blood

David C. Hughes,  Richard Hymns, Ren Klyce, Addison Teague & Gwendolyn Yates Whittle for Zodiac

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING:

Scott Millan, David Parker & Kirk Francis for The Bourne Ultimatum

Paul Massey, David Giammarco & Jim Stuebe for 3:10 to Yuma

Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff & Peter Kurland for No Country for Old Men

Tom Johnson, Juan Peralta, Christopher Scarabosio & Michael Semanick for There Will Be Blood

Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell & Peter J. Devlin for Transformers

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS:

Chris Watts, Grant Freckelton, Derek Wentworth & Daniel Leduc for 300

Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris & Trevor Wood for The Golden Compass

Tim Burke, John Richardson, Emma Norton & Chris Shaw for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoneix

Richard Conway, Kieron Helsdon, Marian Mavrovic & Tom Wood for Sunshine

Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl & John Frazier for Transformers

Now having covered a year only 9 years ago I will next return to the 50's. 1953 in fact the year where Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity won. Was this loving romance worthy tune in a week's time and see if I consider it worthy.

1967 - The year cinema as we know it changed forever

Cinema is an ever changing medium but like most changes they can be clearly pin pointed to particular moments and 1967 is one of the many moments in cinema when the public at large witnessed a gigantic change. America was suffering during this period and usually in this decade of the 60's the choices by the academy would not really reflect poltical movements rather trying to sofen peoples feelings leaving them with fun filled films rather then the hard hitting relevant to the times films. 1967 was the rare year where the academy's choice was has hard hitting as you would get during this period. The film was Norman Jewison's In the Heat of the Night which reflected the times due to it's race relation subject matter. The film as I see it is more of an important achievement rather than something I consider a worthwhile achievement because the film feels rather then tame from my personal perspective. The lineup at this year's academy awards was easily one of the most relevant lineups aside from one outlier reflecting political movements and cinema changes. The other nominees were Arthur Penn's Bonnie & Clyde, Doctor Doolittle, Mike Nichols' The Graduate and Stanley Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. B&C and Graduate hold up extremely well and are no question two of the quintessential films of this cinematic change. Doolittle is the outlier for me and I despise the film greatly. Dinner is another film about race relations but not as long lasting as Heat of the Night and rather bland through a modern eye's perspective.

Really 1967 is so much more then the pillars of B&C and Graduate and this revisit allowed me to discover many pleasurable film experiences. My favourite film of the year and one of the greatest film achievements is Ingmar Bergman's landmark film Persona. The film was first seen in 66 but didn't actually arrive in the states (I judge my revisit on films US release date) until 67 making it eligible and without question my number one choice. Bergman is an unmatched filmmaker who with each film I see of his I grow more and more in love with his unique talent for capturing the speciality in the mundane. The film is the best film I've seen to capture the psychotic experience. The film is about these two women and how each reacts to the other while also underlined with the fact one of them is caring for the other. Bibi Andersson is beyond iconic in this film and is a marvel to watch through many closeups where her face is laid bare for all to see and it's exquisite. Next behind Persona is another film to touch on themes of the psychy. That film is Marat/Sade which clearly is about peoples madness being set in a mental institution . The film follows these inmates as they perform a play about the french revolution, Many may consider this film and the play itself hard to follow but I was just so boiled over by it and found every moment captivating. It's a film presentation like no other and that's one of the main reasons I find everything of this film so special. While it's hard for me to talk about films to well regarded as Bonnie & Clyde because they've been talked about to death. However the film is well regarded for a reason because it's just so good. Penn has never done better then this film for me. He rangeled together a singular cast and they fully commit to make this instantly great film. The Battle of Algiers like Persona is one of the defining foreign films ever made. It so puts you into the location that is this war film. You feel all the wins and loses of every section even without really getting to know these characters as the film goes to show horror of situation rather than it's characters. The final film that would complete my top 5 is another standout 67 film discussed as much as the two previous seminal films. The film is Cool Hand Luke which stars the unmatched Paul Newman who from his introduction to cinema to his end in cinema was one of the greatest actors ever to grace the screen. No actor can make his charisma or his masculine energy. The film is a great prison drama of men surving time with one another and includes some truly incredible performances.

35 is the amount of films I've seen released in America in 67 and it is almost too good a list because I could go on forever with what I consider great cinema because there is just too much goodness to watch. Below is my list of prefered winners and nominees.

OUTSTANDING PICTURE:

1. Persona (Produced by Ingmar Bergman)

2. Marat/Sade (Produced by Michael Birkett)

3. Bonnie and Clyde (Produced by Warren Beatty)

4. The Battle of Algiers (Produced by Antonio Musu & Yacef Saadi)

5. Cool Hand Luke (Produced by Gordon Carroll)

6. The Graduate

7. Two for the Road

8. Closely Watched Trains

9. Point Blank

10. Chimes at Midnight

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:

Ingmar Bergman for Persona

Peter Brook for Marat/Sade

Mike Nichols for The Graduate

Arthur Penn for Bonnie and Clyde

Gillo Pontecorvo for The Battle of Algiers

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:

Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow in "BONNIE AND CLYDE"

Albert Finney as Mark Wallace in "TWO FOR THE ROAD"

Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock in "THE GRADUATE"

Paul Newman as Lucas "Luke" Jackson in "COOL HAND LUKE"

Ian Richardson as Jean-Paul Marat in "MARAT/SADE"

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:

Bibi Andersson as Alma, the Nurse in "PERSONA"

Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson in "THE GRADUATE"

Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parkerin "BONNIE AND CLYDE"

Audrey Hepburn as Joanna 'Jo' Wallace in "TWO FOR THE ROAD

Shirley Knight as Lula in "DUTCHMAN"

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:

John Cassavetes as Victor R. Franko in "THE DIRTY DOZEN"

Gene Hackman as Buck Barrow in "BONNIE AND CLYDE"

George Kennedy as Dragline in COOL HAND LUKE"

Patrick Macgee as Marquis de Sade in "MARAT/SADE"

Michael J. Pollard as C.W. Moss in "BONNIE AND CLYDE"

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Carol Channing as Muzzy in "THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE"

Glenda Jackason as Charlotte Corday in "MARAT/SADE"

Beah Richards as Mary Prentice in "GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER"

Marjorie Rhodes as Lucy Fitton in "THE FAMILY WAY"

Jo Van Fleet as Luke's mother, Arletta in "COOL HAND LUKE"

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Gillo Pontecorvo & Franco Solinas for The Battle of Algiers

David Newman & Robert Benton for Bonnie and Clyde

Bill Naughton, Roy Boulting & Jeffrey Dell for The Family Way

Ingmar Bergman for Persona

Frederic Raphael for Two for the Road

OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Screenplay by Orson Welles; Based on Five plays by William Shakespeare, Holinshed's Chronicles by Raphael Holinshed, Chimes at Midnight

Screenplay by Donn Pearce & Frank R. Pierson; Based on Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce, Cool Hand Luke

Screenplay by Calder Willingham & Buck HenryL Based on The Graduate by Charles Webb, The Graduate

Screenplay by Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr.; Based on Hombre by Elmore Leonard, Hombre

Screenplay by Adrian Mitchell; Based on Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss, Marat/Sade

OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION:

Production Design & Set Design  by Sergio Canevari for The Battle of Algiers

Art Direction by Dean Tavoularis; Set Design by Raymond Paul for Bonnie and Clyde

Production Design by Sally Jacobs; Art Direction by Ted Marshall for Marat/Sade

Art Direction by Alexander Golitzen & George C. Webb; Set Design by Howard Bristol for Thoroughly Modern Millie

Production Design by Ken Adam; Art Direction by Harry Pottle; Set Design by David Ffolkes for You Only Live Twice

OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:

Faye Dunaway (Bonnie and Clyde)

Gene Hackman (Bonnie and Clyde)

Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate)

Glenda Jackson (Marat/Sade)

Liv Ullmann (Persona)

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Marcello Gatti for The Battle of Algiers

Burnett Guffey for Bonnie and Clyde

Robert Surtees for The Graduate

Conrad Hall for In Cold Blood

Sven Nykvist for Persona

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:

Theadora van Runkle for Bonnie and Clyde

Alan Barrett for Far From the Madding Crowd

Patricia Zipprodt for The Graduate

John Hales, Lynn Hope & Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss for Marat/Sade

Jean Louis for Thoroughly Modern Millie

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR:

Bonnie and Clyde (Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, Denver Pyle, Dub Taylor, Gene Wilder, Evans Evans, Mabel Cavitt)

Cool Hand Luke (Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, Jo Van Fleet, Joy Harmon, Morgan Woodward, Luke Askew, Robert Donner, Clifton James, John McLiam, Andre Trottier, Charles Tyner, J.D. Cannon, Lou Antonio, Robert Drivas, Marc Cavell, Richard Davalos, Warren Finnerty, Dennis Hopper, Wayne Rogers, Harry Dean Stanton, Ralph Waite, Anthony Zerbe, Buck Kartalian, Joe Don Baker)

The Dirty Dozen (Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Clint Walker, Trini Lopez, Robert Webber, Al Mancini, Tom Busby, Ben Carruthers, Stuart Cooper, Colin Maitland, Robert Phillips)

The Graduate (Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels, Murray Hamilton, Elizabeth Wilson, Buck Henry, Walter Brooke, Brian Avery, Norman Fell, Marion Lorne, Alice Ghostley, Eddra Gale)

Marat/Sade (Patrick Magee, Ian Richardson, Michael Williams, Clifford Rose, Glenda Jackson, Freddie Jones, Hugh Sullivan, John Hussey, W. Morgan Sheppard, John Steiner, Henry Woolf)

OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING:

Dede Allen for Bonnie and Clyde

Sam O'Steen for Cool Hand Luke

Sam O'Steen for The Graduate

Ulla Ryghe for Persona

Henry Berman for Point Blank

OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:

The Battle of Algiers (Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo)

The Burmese Harp (Directed by Kon Ichikawa)

Closely Watched Trains (Directed by Jirí Menzel)

Persona (Directed by Ingmar Bergman)

Vivre pour vivre (Directed by Claude Lelouch)

OUTSTANDING MAKEUP:

Robert Jiras for Bonnie and Clyde

Alan Boyle, Ken Lintott & Bunty Philips for Marat/Sade

Bud Westmore for Thoroughly Modern Millie

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL/ADAPTATION SCORE:

Ennio Morricone & Gillo Pontecorvo for The Battle of Algiers

Charles Strouse for Bonnie and Clyde

Dave Grusin for The Graduate

Lars johan Werle for Persona

André Previn & Joseph Gershenson for Thoroughly Modern Millie

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:

In the Heat of the Night, "In the Heat of the Night" (Music by Quincy Jones; Lyrics by Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman)

The Jungle Book, "The Bare Necessities" (Music and Lyrics by Terry Gilkyson)

Thoroughly Modern Millie, "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (Music by James Van Heusen; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn)

Two for the Road, "Two for the Road" (Music and Lyrics by Henry Mancini)

You Only Live Twice, "You Only Live Twice" (Music by John Barry; Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR:

Audrey Hepburn (Two for the Road, Wait Until Dark)

George Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke, The Dirty Dozen, Hurry Sundown)

Sidney Poitier (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night)

Beah Richards (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Hurry Sundown, In the Heat of the Night)

OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING:

Francis E. Stahl for Bonnie and Clyde

Larry Jost for Cool Hand Luke

John Poyner for The Dirty Dozen

Van Allen James for Point Blank

Harry Miller for You Only Live Twice

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING:

Dan Wallin for Bonnie and Clyde

Dan Wallin for Cool Hand Luke

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Sound Department for The Dirty Dozen

Samuel Goldwyn Studios for In the Heat of the Night

Larry Jost for Point Blank

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS:

Cliff Richardson for The Dirty Dozen

L. B. Abbott for Doctor Dolittle

J. McMilan Johnson for Point Blank

Albert Whitlock for Thoroughly Modern Millie

Now having done some deep dives into very early cinema I'm going 40 years later from 67 to 2007. The year was dominated by the modern western where the oscar race came down to a close race of two strong era defining western's. The one that won was the Coen Brothers No Country for Old Men which won slightly over PTA's There Will Be Blood. Come back and see what I consider best.

1955 - The year everyone must've felt sorry for Marty

I consider the 50's the greatest decade for film so every time I revisited a year from this decade I knew I was in for an exceptional year of cinema. I had previously seen 5 movies (Rebel, Eden, Tramp, Rose, Seven Year) and it was already an impressive amount of movies. Then when I researched into films around the 28th academy awards I was knew to many of them. These new visits included Marty the big winner of the year. Sure Marty has it's moments of greatness when we follow Borgnine and and Blair and see them act strongly againist one another. Then the film is rather flat and silted at other moments that I can't support the win in retrospective. The other nominees go further not to represent what I consider the best films of the year. The others where Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Mister Roberts, Picnic and The Rose Tattoo. They all are rather dated and included Marty the winner is my choice of the nominees but the fact Marty ranks #17 on my list of the years best goes to show how weak these nominees were.

The fact that these picture nominees upset me greatly due to the lackluster quality is making me move quickly from them because there are all time great films from 1955 that the academy embraced in the smallest amounts. However while some of my favourites where embraced with minimal nominations the biggest oversight of the year and what many including myself consider the greatest film achievement of the year Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter. The film a debut feature and only directed film by the actor Charles Laughton is something so singular and special that when I saw it on this revisit I was easily blown away. The film is first and foremost a direction achievement as Laughton experiments with just about every frame of the film never apologizing for his clear influences from early silent pictures mixing it in tune with sound pictures of the day. Robert Mitchum shines in the leading role as the villianess preacher and Lilian Gish the greatest silent actress both are beyond words amazing. I could talk about Night of Hunter all the time now that it's in my life after having watched it. My runner up is Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause. One of the two James Dean led pictures from 1955. It's one of the truest films to capture the teenage experience in America which is why Dean became so known for this type of anti-adult role due to his iconic performance in Rebel. The film is a deep diving drama on growing up and all the trauma that comes with that. Next would be Douglas Sirk's All that Heaven Allows. Sirk is one of the many directors associated with the 50s is the master of melodrama and his 55 feature is the beginning for me of his dive into melodrama at it's highest. Everything about the film is perfectly pitched and some Sirk would achieve in nearly all his 50's films. It's a gorgeous film to behold and because it's so well itched the time of the film flies by. Night and Fog the famous 30 minute photo documentary about the death and tradegy of the nazi war. The film is one of the most haunting and personally effecting film related events I've seen. Nothing will ever be like this achievement as nothing will ever approach the war in this way again. The final film to fill out my top 5 is Journey to Italy. The film is a trip shared by Bergman and Sanders in Italy. It's one of Rossellini's films from this time and just perfectly captures what it's like to go to a different land you are so unasociated from. Seeing all these films for the most part be overlooked by the academy makes me so down hearted.

39 is the amount of films I saw from this year and while the ones of the top of my list are lasting and all time greats many of the films are dated and just didn't make a lasting impression on me.

OUTSTANDING PICTURE:

1. The Night of the Hunter (Produced by Paul Gregory)

2. Rebel Without a Cause (Produced by David Weisbart)

3. All That Heaven Allows (Produced by Ross Hunter)

4. Night and Fog (Produced by Anatole Dauman)

5. Journey to Italy (Produced by Adolfo Fossataro, Alfredo Guarini & Roberto Rossellini)

6. East of Eden

7. To Catch a Thief

8. The Wages of Fear

9. Les diaboliques

10. I'll Cry Tomorrow

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:

Alfred Hitchcock for To Catch a Thief

Elia Kazan for East of Eden

Charles Laughton for The Night of the Hunter

Nicholas Ray for Rebel Without a Cause

Douglas Sirk for All That Heaven Allows

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:

James Dean as Jim Stark in "REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE"

Robert Mitchum as Reverend Harry Powell in "THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER"

George Sanders as Alexander 'Alex' Joyce in "JOURNEY TO ITALY"

Spencer Tracy as John J. Macreedy in "BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK"

Charles Vanel as Jo in "THE WAGES OF FEAR"

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:

Ingrid Bergman as Katherine Joyce in "JOURNEY TO ITALY"

Véra Clouzot as Christina Delassalle in "LES DIABOLIQUES"

Julie Harris as Abra Bacon in "EAST OF EDEN"

Susan Hayward as Lillian Roth in "I'LL CRY TOMORROW"

Anna Magnani as Serafina Delle Rose in "THE ROSE TATTOO"

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Jack Lemmon as Ensign Frank Thurlowe Pulver in "MISTER ROBERTS"

Sal Mineo as John "Plato" Crawford in "REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE"

Sidney Poitier as Gregory Miller in "BLACKBOARD JUNGLE"

Robert Ryan as Reno Smith in "BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK"

Charles Vanel as Alfred Fichet in "LES DIABOLIQUES"

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Lillian Gish as Rachel Cooper in "THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER"

Agnes Moorehead as Sara Warren in "ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS"

Jo Van Fleet as Katie Silverman Roth in "I'LL CRY TOMORROW"

Shelley Winters as Willa Harper in "THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER"

Natalie Wood as Judy in "REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE"

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Milton Sperling & Emmet Lavery for The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell

Howard Sackler & Stanley Kubrick for Killer's Kiss

William Rose for The Ladykillers

Stewart Stern, Irving Shulman & Nicholas Ray for Rebel Without a Cause

Cesare Zavattini for Umberto D.

OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Screenplay by Peg Fenwick Based upon a story by Edna L. Lee and Harry Lee, All That Heaven Allows

Screenplay by Paul Osborn; Based on East of Eden by John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Screenplay by Vitaliano Brancati & Roberto Rossellini; Based on Duo by Colette, Journey to Italy

Screenplay by James Agee & Charles Laughton; Based on The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb, The Night of the Hunter

Screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot & Jérome Geronimi; Based on Le Salaire de la Peur by Georges Arnaud, The Wages of Fear

OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION:

Art Direction by Alexander Golitzen & Eric Orbom; Set Design by Russell A. Gausman & Julia Heron for All That Heaven Allows

Art Direction by James Basevi; Set Design by George James Hopkins for East of Eden

Production Design by Jo Mielziner; Art Direction by William Flannery; Set Design by Robert Priestley for Picnic

Production Design by Malcolm C. Bert; Art Direction by Malcolm Bert; Set Design by William Wallace for Rebel Without a Cause

Art Direction by Joseph MacMillan Johnson & Hal Pereira; Set Decoration by Sam Comer & Arthur Krams for To Catch a Thief

OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:

Betsy Blair (Marty)

James Dean (East of Eden/Rebel Without a Cause)

Jo Van Fleet (East of Eden)

Shirley MacLaine (The Trouble with Harry)

Sal Mineo (Rebel Without a Cause)

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Russell Metty for All That Heaven Allows

Ted McCord for East of Eden

Ernest Haller for Rebel Without a Cause

Stanley Cortez for The Night of the Hunter

Robert Burks for To Catch a Thief

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:

Bill Thomas for All That Heaven Allows

Helen Rose for I'll Cry Tomorrow

Moss Mabry for Rebel Without a Cause

Edith Head for To Catch a Thief

Charles LeMaire & Mary Wills for The Virgin Queen

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR:

All That Heaven Allows (Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Conrad Nagel, Virginia Grey, Gloria Talbott, William Reynolds, Jacqueline De Wit, Charles Drake, Leigh Snowden, Merry Anders, Donald Curtis, Nestor Paiva, Hayden Rorke, Gia Scala)

Bad Day at Black Rock (Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, Russell Collins, Walter Sande)

East of Eden (Julie Harris, James Dean, Raymond Massey, Richard Davalos, Burl Ives, Jo Van Fleet, Albert Dekker, Lois Smith, Timothy Carey, Harold Gordon, Barbara Baxley, Lonny Chapman)

The Night of the Hunter (Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Don Beddoe, Peter Graves, Gloria Castillo, Paul Bryar)

Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen, William Hopper, Rochelle Hudson, Edward Platt, Frank Mazzola, Dennis Hopper, Jack Grinnage, Virginia Brissac, Marietta Canty, Ian Wolfe, Beverly Long, Nick Adams, Steffi Sidney, Jack Simmons, John Righetti)

OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING:

Frank Gross for All That Heaven Allows

Owen Marks for East of Eden

Robert Golden for The Night of the Hunter

William Ziegler for Rebel Without a Cause

George Tomasini for To Catch a Thief

OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:

Les diaboliques (Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot)

Night and Fog (Directed by Alain Resnais)

Summer With Monika (Directed by Ingmar Bergman)

Umberto D. (Directed by Vittorio De Sica)

The Wages of Fear (Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot)

OUTSTANDING MAKEUP:

Bud Westmore for All That Heaven Allows

Ben Nye for Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

Clay Campbell for Picnic

Ben Nye & Perc Westmore for The Virgin Queen

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL/MUSICAL SCORE:

Frank Skinner for All That Heaven Allows

Alex North for I'll Cry Tomorrow

Elmer Bernstein for The Man With the Golden Arm

Leonard Rosenman for Rebel Without a Cause

Lyn Murray for To Catch a Thief

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:

Lady and the Tramp, "He's a Tramp" (Music and Lyrics by Sonny Burke & Peggy Lee)

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" (Music by Sammy Fain; Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster)

Love Me of Leave Me, "I'll Never Stop Loving You" (Music by Nicholas Brodszky; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn)

The Night of the Hunter, "Once Upon a Time There Was a Pretty Fly" (Music by Walter Schumann; Lyrics by Davis Grubb)

Pete Kelly's Blues, "Pete Kelly's Blues" (Music by Ray Heindorf; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR:

James Dean (East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause)

Arthur Kennedy (The Man From Laramie, Trial)

Eleanor Parker (Interrupted Melody, The Man with the Golden Arm, Many Rivers to Cross)

Jo Van Fleet (East of Eden, I'll Cry Tomorrow, The Rose Tattoo)

Charles Vanel (Les Diaboliques, To Catch a Thief, The Wages of Fear)

OUTSTANDING SOUND RECORDING:

Dr. Wesley C. Miller for I'll Cry Tomorrow

William A. Mueller, Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department for Mister Roberts

Stanford Naughton for The Night of the Hunter

Fred Hynes, Todd-AO Sound Department for Oklahoma!

John Cope & Harold Lewis for To Catch a Thief

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS:

Rebel Without a Cause

Farciot Edouart & John P. Fulton for To Catch a Thief

Now having gone to my favourite decade I will next revisit the film year that changed it all 1967. The year was won by In the Heat of the Night but there is so much to the year that it will take some time to talk about.

1963 - The year the british invasion starting to take hold on american cinemas

It's clear that british new cinema of the 60's was starting to take hold in this year because the winning film was Tom Jones a british feature. Tom Jones is a choice that urks me greatly because while the film might've seemed fun back in 1963 having no seen it over 50 years years later I find the humor distasteful and very unappealing.  The one thing I would give the film is that it introduced us to Albert Finney an actor who is good in Tom Jones but in the decades following delivered some performances that make the promise he showed in Tom Jones worth the watch. The other nominees are certainly not as awe inspiring as Tom Jones is. The other pictures up for the top award were America America, Cleopatra, How the West Was Won and Lilies of the Field. Of those America America is the only film I consider brilliant. Based on Kazan's own novel America is the perfect coming to America tale for me. Cleopatra is a big scale production and highly publiced due to the Taylor and Burton's on set affair but really the film is an overlong and dull historic film about the women herself. How the West Was Won is a western film but in now way is it a classic western film. The final nominee Lilies of the Field is big for the Poitier win and is a sweet little film that I find even more greatness every time I watch the film.

While the academy found some name pictures that today don't hold up as strong there were some great choices the academy was so close to going for. Firstly is Fellini's 8½ which the academy heavily nominated however found no room for it in there best picture lineup. The film is the greatest film achievement about film making. It pays attention to the great effort that comes from creating film and how life altering it can be. Fellini was not afraid to show the effort that his main character Guido goes through and how his dedication to film making rocks every area of his life. It also shows the great search for inspiration that some artists must experince when creating their art. There is so much to get from this piece and I know each time I watch this film I will grow even more in love with the film. Another film heavily considered by the academy is Martin Ritt's Hud. It's a western set story that unlike some western's is not about the great landscapes of the west of the clashing ideals but more about the family life of the west. It stars Paul Newman in one of his greatest performances as the anti-hero Hud. The film delivers with it's central quartet and Ritt captures this small town life so greatly that these are the times of anti-westerns that force us to revalue the western genre. Stanley Kramer is a director that I found very problematic throughout his entire career usually coming out with a mixed opinion on his films but his film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is the one film that I find faultless. It's a magneticly staged comedy that grows larger and larger in scale being able to keep everything secure and just right. The cast is a hoot and the scale is set at a feverish pitch which I find so enjoyable with each viewing. As I mentioned above America America is the great nominee the academy actually went for which is something I take no issue with. Kazan the decade and a half before was great at getting strong performances from his actors and while America has these I find his detailed look at the immigrant experience to be directly from the heart and a very personal direction piece for Kazan. The final film I feel deserved a nomination is The Great Escape. Clearly the academy loves having a big scale film in their lineups and of all them The Great Escape is the one I would've chosen. Steve McQueen leads a long list of actors all playing captured men just trying their best to escape. The film is high action and well paced fun that even running quite a long time is a joy to watch every single minute.

35 is the amount of films I was able to see from this year and while I find some of the films exceptional overall the quality is lacking for me and I don't consider it to be an overall strong year.

OUTSTANDING PICTURE:

1. 8½ (Produced by Angelo Rizzoli)

2. Hud (Produced by Irving Ravetch & Martin Ritt)

3. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Produced by Stanley Kramer)

4. America America (Produced by Elia Kazan)

5. The Great Escape (Produced by John Sturges)

6. This Sporting Life

7. Vivre sa vie

8. High and Low

9. Billy Liar

10. The Birds

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:

Federico Fellini for 8½

Elia Kazan for America America

Stanley Kramer for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Akira Kurosawa for High and Low

Martin Ritt for Hud

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:

Stathis Giallelis as Stavros Topouzoglou in "AMERICA AMERICA"

Richard Harris as Frank Machin in "THIS SPORTING LIFE"

Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi in "8½"

Paul Newman as Hud Bannon in "HUD"

Peter Sellers as Inspector Jacques Clouseau in "THE PINK PANTHER"

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:

Julie Harris as Eleanor "Nell" Lance in "THE HAUNTING"

Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels in "THE BIRDS"

Anna Karina as Nana Kleinfrankenheim in "VIVRE SA VIE"

Patricia Neal as Alma Brown in "HUD"

Rachel Roberts as Margaret Hammond in "THIS SPORTING LIFE"

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Brandon De Wilde as Lonnie Bannon in "HUD"

Melvyn Douglas as Homer Bannon in "HUD"

Donald Pleasance as Flt. Lt. Colin Blythe in "THE GREAT ESCAPE"

Phil Silvers as Otto Meyer in "IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD"

Tsutomu Yamazaki as Ginjirô Takeuchi in "HIGH AND LOW"

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Anouk Aimée as Luisa Anselmi in "8½"

Linda Marsh as Thomna Sinnikoglou in "AMERICA AMERICA"

Ethel Merman as Mrs. Marcus in "IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD"

Suzanne Pleshette as Annie Hayworth in "THE BIRDS"

Jessica Tandy as Lydia Brenner in "THE BIRDS"

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli & Brunello Rondi for 8½

Carlo Bernari, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Massimo Franciosa. Nanni Loy & Vasco Pratolini for The Four Days of Naples

Eijiro Hisaita, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa & Hideo Oguni for High and Low

William Rose & Tania Rose for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Maurice Richlin & Blake Edwards for The Pink Panther

OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Screenplay by Elia Kazan; Based on America America by Elia Kazan America America

Screenplay by James Clavell & W. R. Burnett; Based on The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill, The Great Escape

Screenplay by Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank, Jr.; Based on Horseman, Pass By by Larry McMurtry, Hud

Screenplay by David Storey; Based on This Sporting Life by David Storey This Sporting Life

Screenplay by Jean-Luc Godard & Marcel Sacotte; Based on Où en est la prostitution by Marcel Sacotte, Vivre sa vie

OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION:

Production Design by Piero Gherardi; Set Design by Vito Anzalone for 8½

Production Design by Robert Boyle; Set Design by George Milo for The Birds

Production Design by Lyle Wheeler; Set Design by Gene Callahan for The Cardinal

Production Design by John De Cuir; Set Design by Paul S. Fox, Ray Moyer & Walter M. Scott for Cleopatra

Production Design by Rudolph Sternad; Set Design by Joseph Kish for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:

Julie Christie (Billy Liar)

Stathis Giallelis (America America)

Tippi Hedren (The Birds)

Suzanne Pleshette (The Birds)

Maggie Smith (The V.I.P's)

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Gianni Di Venanzo for 8½

Haskell Wexler for America America

Ted Moore for Dr. No

Daniel L. Fapp for The Great Escape

James Wong Howe for Hud

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:

Piero Gherardi & Leonor Fini for 8½

Edith Head for The Birds

Irene Sharaff, Vittorio Nino Novarese & Renie for Cleopatra

Piero Tosi for The Leopard

Annalisa Rocca for The Pink Panther

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR:

The Great Escape (Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Hannes Messemer, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, John Leyton, Angus Lennie, Nigel Stock, Robert Graf, Jud Taylor, Hans Reiser, Harry Riebauer, William Russell, Robert Freitag, Ulrich Beiger, George Mikell, Lawrence Montaigne, Robert Desmond, Til Kiwe, Heinz Weiss, Tom Adams, Karl-Otto Alberty)

High and Low (Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyoko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Isao Kimura, Kenjiro Ishiyama, Yutaka Sada, Takeshi Kato, Takashi Shimura, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Minoru Chiaki)

Hud (Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Brandon De Wilde, Patricia Neal, Whit Bissell, Crahan Denton, John Ashley, Val Avery, George Petrie, Curt Conway, Sheldon Allman, Pitt Herbert, Carl Low, Robert Hinkle, Don Kennedy, Sharyn Hillyer , Yvette Vickers)

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Spencer Tracy, Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Dorothy Provine, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Jim Backus, Barrie Chase, William Demarest, Jimmy Durante, Peter Falk, Paul Ford)

Lilies of the Field (Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala, Lisa Mann, Isa Crino, Francesca Jarvis, Pamela Branch, Stanley Adams, Dan Frazer)

OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING:

Leo Catozzo for 8½

Roger Cherrill for Billy Liar

Ferrris Webster for The Great Escape

Frank Bracht for Hud

Gene Fowler Jr., Robert C. Jones & Frederic Knudtson for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:

8½ (Directed by Federico Fellini)

The Four Days of Naples (Directed by Nanni Loy)

High and Low (Directed by Akira Kurosawa)

Pickpocket (Directed by Robert Bresson)

Vivre sa vie (Directed by Jean-Luc Godard)

OUTSTANDING MAKEUP:

Otello Fava for 8½

Howard Smit for The Birds

Alberto de Rossi & Robert J. Schiffer for Cleopatra

Emile LaVigne for The Great Escape

Bob Lawrence for This Sporting Life

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL/ADAPTION SCORE:

Nino Rota for 8½

Monty Norman & John Barry for Dr. No

Elmer Bernstein for The Great Escape

Elmer Bernstein for Hud

Ernest Gold for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:

Bye Bye Birdie, "Bye Bye Birdie" (Music by Charles Strouse; Lyrics by Lee Adams)

Charade, "Charade" (Music by Henry Mancini; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

How the West Was Won, "Home in the Meadow" (Music by Robert Emmett Dolan; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn)

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (Music by Ernest Gold; Lyrics by Mack David)

The Pink Panther, "It Had Better Be Tonight" (Music by Henry Mancini; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR:

James Garner (The Great Escape, Move Over, Darling, The Thrill of It All, The Wheeler Dealers)

Steve McQueen (The Great Escape, Love with the Proper Stranger, Soldier in the Rain)

Gregory Peck (Captain Newman, M.D., How to West Was Won)

Thelma Ritter (For Love or Money, How the West Was Won, Move Over, Darling, A New Kind of Love)

John Wayne (Donovan's Reef, How the West Was Won, McLintock!)

OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING:

Remi Gassmann & Oskar Sala for The Birds

Archie Ludski for Dr. No

Wayne Fury for The Great Escape

Walter Elliott for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Gilbert D. Marchant for The Pink Pather

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING:

Bernard Herrmann for The Birds

James Corcoran & Fred Hynes for Cleopatra

John Dennis & Wally Milner for Dr. No

Wayne Fury for The Great Escape

Roy Granville, Clem Portman & Vinton Vernon for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS:

Lawrence A. Hampton for The Birds

Emil Kosa, Jr. for Cleopatra

Frank George for Dr. No

Paul Pollard for The Great Escape

Danny Lee & Chuck Gaspar for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Now having done another look into the 1960's I'm next going to 1955. This year was ruled by the low key choice of Marty. Did the film deserve it's wins or did something larger in scale deserve to win.