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NOMINATIONS BY CATEGORY - 79TH AWARDS The following are our picks for the 79th Annual Academy Awards: Best motion picture of the year Chuck: LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA James: LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE Performance by an actor in a leading role Chuck: Will Smith - THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS James: Peter O’Toole - VENUS (Forest Whitacker is the man to beat) Performance by an actor in a supporting role Chuck & James: Alan Arkin - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE Performance by an actress in a leading role Chuck & James: Helen Mirren - THE QUEEN Performance by an actress in a supporting role Chuck: Rinko Kikuchi – BABEL James: Adriana Barraza - BABEL Best animated feature film of the year Chuck & James: CARS Achievement in art direction Chuck: PAN'S LABYRINTH James: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST Achievement in cinematography Chuck & James: PAN'S LABYRINTH Achievement in costume design Chuck & James: THE QUEEN Achievement in directing Chuck: LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA James: THE

Two of last year’s most critically acclaimed films are structured around written accounts of the events portrayed in the films, providing voiceover narration which adds perspective to the motivations of the characters on the screen. Excellent performances mark Notes on a Scandal , a film rich in story and character about two school teachers caught up in scandal. Judi Dench delivers a chilling performance as a lonely battleaxe who blackmails her young colleague (Cate Blanchett) whom she discovers is having an affair with a student. Though Dench’s Barbara is scheming and vindictive, she is also at times sympathetic, a complex character portrayed with biting authenticity. The voiceover narration from Barbara’s diary (the "notes") allow the audience to probe the depths of Barbara’s psyche in a way sheer visuals and dialogue could not. Dench will surely give Helen Mirren ( The Queen ) a run for her money when the Oscars are handed out next week. In Letters from Iwo Jima (a compan

Venus is less a May-December romance than it is a love story: tender, often funny, sometimes shocking, and heart-wrenchingly melancholy without being overly sentimental. Peter O'Toole plays an aging actor who falls for the twenty-something great-niece of a friend, and the result is a film punctuated with an Oscar-worthy performance from one of our greatest living actors. Venus marks O'Toole's eighth Academy Award nomination. Nominated performances past, in films as diverse and memorable as Lawrence of Arabia , Becket , The Lion in Winter and My Favorite Year (one of my favorite films) have yet to see him honored as Best Actor by the Academy. Venus proves that at 74, O'Toole is at the top of his craft. One should hope that this is his year.