Cinema Mishmash

Robert Downy Jr. will be honored by the Gene Siskel Film Center at its upcoming gala on June 19. In anticipation for that event, I had a look over the broad range of roles the actor has amassed so far in his career. The order isn’t an attempt to quantify or rank the performances or the films. But these 10 films, in some order of priority, are essential viewing to appreciate Downey’s work over the last decade.

1. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
2. Tropic Thunder
3. Iron Man
4. Sherlock Holmes
5. Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
6. The Singing Detective
7. Zodiac
8. A Scanner Darkly
9. Charlie Bartlett
10. A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Here are the short format nominees for the 2010 Academy Awards:

Best Documentary Short
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit à la Berlin

Best Animated Short
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Live Action Short
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a separate post.)

Avatar (9 nominations)
Art direction, Cinematography, Directing, Film editing, Original score, Best picture, Sound editing, Sound mixing, Visual effects

The Blind Side (2 nominations)
Sandra Bullock – Performance by an actress in a leading role, Best picture

Bright Star
Costume design

Coco before Chanel
Costume design

Coraline
Best animated feature film

Crazy Heart (3 nominations)
Jeff Bridges – Performance by an actor in a leading role, Maggie Gyllenhaal – Performance by an actress in a supporting role, Original song – “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)”

District 9 (4 nominations)
Film editing, Best picture, Visual effects, Adapted screenplay

An Education (3 nominations)
Carey Mulligan – Performance by an actress in a leading role, Best picture, Adapted screenplay

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2 nominations)
Best animated feature film, Original score

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Cinematography

The Hurt Locker (9 nominations)
Jeremy Renner – Performance by an actor in a leading role, Cinematography, Directing, Film editing, Original score, Best picture, Sound editing, Sound mixing, Original screenplay

Il Divo
Makeup

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2 nominations)
Art direction, Costume design

In the Loop
Adapted screenplay

Inglourious Basterds (8 nominations)
Christoph Waltz – Performance by an actor in a supporting role, Cinematography, Directing, Film editing, Best picture, Sound editing, Sound mixing, Original screenplay

Invictus (2 nominations)
Morgan Freeman – Performance by an actor in a leading role, Matt Damon – Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Julie & Julia
Meryl Streep – Performance by an actress in a leading role

The Last Station (2 nominations)
Christopher Plummer – Performance by an actor in a supporting role, Helen Mirren – Performance by an actress in a leading role

The Lovely Bones
Stanley Tucci – Performance by an actor in a supporting role

The Messenger (2 nominations)
Woody Harrelson – Performance by an actor in a supporting role, Original screenplay

Nine (4 nominations)
Penélope Cruz – Performance by an actress in a supporting role, Art direction, Costume design, Original song – “Take It All”

Paris 36
Original song – “Loin de Paname”

Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire (6 nominations)
Gabourey Sidibe – Performance by an actress in a leading role, Mo’Nique – Performance by an actress in a supporting role, Directing, Film editing, Best picture, Adapted screenplay

The Princess and the Frog (3 nominations)
Best animated feature film, Original song – “Almost There”, Original song – “Down in New Orleans”

The Secret of Kells
Best animated feature film

A Serious Man (2 nominations)
Best picture, Original screenplay

Sherlock Holmes (2 nominations)
Art direction, Original score

A Single Man
Colin Firth – Performance by an actor in a leading role

Star Trek (4 nominations)
Makeup, Sound editing, Sound mixing, Visual effects

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Sound mixing

Up (5 nominations)
Best animated feature film, Original score, Best picture, Sound editing, Original screenplay

Up in the Air (6 nominations)
George Clooney – Performance by an actor in a leading role, Vera Farmiga – Performance by an actress in a supporting role, Anna Kendrick – Performance by an actress in a supporting role, Directing, Best picture, Adapted screenplay

The White Ribbon (2 nominations)
Cinematography, Best Foreign Language Film

The Young Victoria (3 nominations)
Art direction, Costume design, Makeup

Foreign Language Films:

Ajami (Israel)
El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
A Prophet [Un Prophète] (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)

Documentary Features:
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Get more information and watch trailers of some of the nominees at the official Oscar broadcast site.