Awards Watch: The Race Begins

Depending on which Oscar pundit you pay attention to, the "official" start of the 2008 movie award season is either tomorrow (when the Independent Spirit Award nominations are announced) or this Thursday (when the National Board of Review unveils their winners). Regardless, there are a few early entrants into this year's race, with the Annie Award nominations (for animated productions) planned for later today and the International Press Academy's nominations for their 13th Annual Satellite Awards announced yesterday.

As I mentioned last year, the Satellites are what one might call the "red-headed step child" of Hollywood awards; nobody pays that much attention to them and (as you can see in the full list in the comments section below) their nominations can be all over the place, naming movies that you may not have heard of and probably never will again. In any event, some observations:

• Australia received the most nominations, with nine, but none in any of the major categories. Baz Luhrmann will receive the vague "Auteur Award", which must be a consolation prize of some sort.
• Milk got six nominations, including Best Picture - Drama and acting nods for Sean Penn and James Franco. James Brolin was nominated (in the comedy category!) for W.
• Meryl Streep (Doubt, Mamma Mia!) and Mark Ruffalo (What Doesn't Kill You, The Brothers Bloom) were both nominated twice in the lead acting races, one each for drama and comedy or musical.
• Heath Ledger received his first of what will probably be many posthumous nominations for his Joker in The Dark Knight.
• The Quantum of Solace theme "Another Way to Die", which received mostly mixed reviews, was nevertheless nominated for Best Original Song.
• The animated documentary Waltz With Bashir was nominated in both categories.
• Four of the group's "top ten movies of 2008" were left out of their Best Picture categories, with Ballast receiving no nominations at all.

The Satellite Awards will be handed out December 14.