Academy Award nominations were announced this morning: 'Dreamgirls' Picks Up Most Oscar Nods. I was actually up at 5:30am PST to watch the announcment. Some thoughts... Dreamgirls, surprisingly, was shut out of the Best Picture category after being considered a strong potential frontrunner. Could Martin Scorsese finally pick up that elusive Oscar trophy for The Departed, his remake of Hong Kong cop thriller Infernal Affairs? And it looks like moving Letters From Iwo Jima's release date to December was a good idea for Warner Brothers, because the film was nominated for several awards, including Best Picture, Clint Eastwood for Best Director, and Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis (boo) for Best Original Screenplay. Other nominees of interest include Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi for Best Supporting Actress in Babel and Deep Mehta's Water for Best Foreign Language Film. Also, Ruby Yang's The Blood of Yingzhou District was nominated for Best Documentary (Short Subject). I've seen this film, and it's extremely well done, but also extremely depressing. I guess you can't really make a feel-good movie about children in China who have lost their parents to AIDS. Anyway, read the full list of Oscar nominations here.