The nominations for the 2007 Oscars have been announced, with very good results for the European filmmakers. The UK film The Queen scored six nominations including Best Picture, Best Director for Stephen Frears and Best Actress for Helen Mirren, with Mexican-Spanish co-production El laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) scoring an equal number of nominations, including mentions in the Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film categories. Two films had more nominations: the US musical Dreamgirls leads with eight, but was shut out of the Best Picture and Best Director race (three of its nominations are in the Best Original Song category alone), and the multi-language, multi-location Babel got a total of seven nominations, including Best Film and Best Director for Mexican Alejandro González Iñárritu.

 

Besides Mirren, three of the four other Best Actress nominees were also European: British veterans Judi Dench (for Notes on a Scandal) and  Kate Winslet (Little Children) and Spanish actress Penélope Cruz (Volver).  Volver was shut out of the Best Foreign Language category, however, where it represented Spain.

 

Instead, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences nominated Canada's Water; Germany's Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others); Denmark's Efter Brylluppet (After the Wedding); the Algerian submission and French co-production Indigènes (Days of Glory) and the aforementioned El laberinto del fauno in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

 

British actor Peter O'Toole got a Best Actor nomination for his role as an aging actor in the UK film Venus, while Brit director Paul Greengrass was nominated in the Best Director category for his work on the US film United 93. A full list of nominees follows. Winners will be announced in Los Angeles on February 25.

 

Best Picture
Babel
The Departed
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

Best Director
Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93
Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Actress
Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

Best Supporting Actress
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikucki, Babel

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

Best Foreign Language Film
Efter Brylluppet (aka After the Wedding), Denmark
Indigenes (aka Days of Glory), Algeria
El Laberinto del Fauno (aka Pan's Labyrinth), Mexico
Das Leben der Anderen (aka The Lives of Others), Germany
Water, Canada

Best Animated Feature Film
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

Best Adapted Screenplay
Borat
Children of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal

Best Original Screenplay
Babel
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
Pan's Labyrinth

Best Music (Score)
Babel
The Good German
Notes on a Scandal
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen

Best music (Song)
I Need to Wake Up - An Inconvenient Truth
Listen - Dreamgirls
Love You I Do - Dreamgirls
Our Town - Cars
Patience - Dreamgirls

Best Documentary Feature
Deliver Us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq In Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

Best Documentary Short Subject
The Blood of Yingzhou District
Recycled Life
Rehearsing A Dream
Two Hands

Best Visual Effects
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns

Best Cinematography
The Black Dahlia
Children of Men
The Illusionist
Pan's Labyrinth
The Prestige

Best Art Direction
Dreamgirls
The Good Shepherd
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Prestige

Best Animated Short Film
The Danish Poet
Lifted
The Little Matchgirl
Maestro
No Time for Nuts

Best Short Film
Binta and the Great Idea
Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)
Helmer & Son
The Saviour
West Bank Story

Best Costume Design
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Queen

Best Make-up
Apocalypto
Click
Pan's Labyrinth

Best Sound Mixing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Dreamgirls
Flags of our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Sound Editing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Letters from Iwo Jima
Flags of our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Best Film Editing
Babel
Blood Diamond
Children of Men
The Departed
United 93