Another year has brought another set of nominees to mull over, with a handful of surprises mixed with what was, for the most part, a predictable slate of nominees.

I scored 5/5 in Best Cinematography, 3/3 in Best Visual Effects and 4/5 in Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Original Score, to go along with a 2/3 prediction in Makeup. The other aural categories did me in – correctly foreseeing only 3 of the 5 nominees in Best Sound Mixing and just two in each of Best Sound Editing and Best Original Score.

Oh well.

For the most part, I’ll discuss the nominees by category today, but allow me to first make a few notes.

To start, I think we need to note the performance of “The Bourne Ultimatum.” Three nominations for a third film in a series, when both of the film’s predecessors failed to score a single tip of the hat, is an impressive achievement. It should be attributed to the fact that, not only has the series become better with each installment, but director Paul Greengrass, saddled with talent, has come to an Academy with open arms. He’s one to watch in the future (as if he wasn’t already).