And the nominees are...wait, who now?

The 80th annual Oscar nominees were announced today, and while 95% of the nominations were not that strange there were a few big surprises thrown in, as well as some strange choices. The biggest surprise to me is Jason Reitman for Best Director in "Juno". He has received almost no precursors nominations and it really shows how much the Academy loved "Juno". They ate that buzz up hook, line and sinker. Like I said, "Juno" was a great film, just not Best Picture quality. Other surprises included Tommy Lee Jones for "In the Valley of Elah" which was a real shocker. When this film came out there was real Oscar buzz for him in this role, but after the precursors that all faded away. However, it looks like the Academy didn't forget his part, or at least a certain amount of people really loved him. Seeing as the votes are ranked and it is statistically better to be number one on some peoples sheets than number five on most peoples sheets (if you didn't know that).
As for the lack of surprises but strange decisions, there were a few as well. I really don't understand why Cate Blanchett was nominated for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and "I'm Not There" when "Elizabeth" was hated by so many as a film. Angelina Jolie was fantastic in "A Mighty Heart" and was snubbed because of this. A positive surprise was Laura Linney getting nominated for "The Savages" but she was really supposed to be in the race for the final slot with Amy Adams and Cate Blanchett, instead Jolie was knocked off.
Two things were clear, they love "Juno" and didn't like "Into the Wild" as much as everyone thought they would. But the picks make things extra interesting, and no one should feel like they have a win coming to them by any means.