Sure, we always figured Wall-E was a longshot for a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars (though, Frost/Nixon? You really cared about that, huh? Go figure). However, this latest dis is just egregious. Take it away, Slashfilm:

WALL-E got completely snubbed at the 36th Annual Annie Awards. For those of you who don’t know, the Annie Awards is an all-animation award show presented by the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972. The awards range form Character Animation in a Feature Presentation to Production Design in an Animated Feature Production, the the more obvious, more prestigious Best Animated Feature award.

DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda beat WALL-E in every single category, including Best Animated Feature, Animated Effects, Character Animation, Directing in an Animated Feature, Production Design, Storyboarding, and Voice Acting categories. WALL-E didn’t even receive nominations in the Writing, Music, and Character Design categories. In Fact, Kung Fu Panda ended up taking home 15 statues in all (including the short film spin-off).

The Best Animated Feature win stunned Panda co-director John Stevenson into making an expletive-filled speech, though many of the same words were hurled at DreamWorks from online quarters, as the studio just happened to be a key sponsor of the Annies in the year its Panda pulled this upset. Others, though, are noting that the Annies tend to reward more expressive character designs; in other words, Wall-E should have been voiced by Zac Efron and had a Silly-Putty face with dynamic eyebrows. Still, that doesn't quite account for Panda's wins over Wall-E in screenplay (!), directing (!!), and production design.

Should we be worried about the little robot's chances at a Best Animated Film Oscar? Maybe briefly—though we're sure that the rest of the Academy will help even out whatever weird animator rivalry reared its head at the Annies. We're sure that the indomitable Wall-E is taking the news all right, but we've heard that EVE has reduced DreamWorks, the Annies, and UCLA's Royce Hall (where the event took place) to a steaming crater. Can't say we blame her!

• WTF: WALL-E Completely Snubbed at Annie Awards? [/film]

No Dark Knight love: Aside from Heath Ledger's inevitable nomination, The Dark Knight got thrashed around like a minor-league henchman pointlessly revealed to be Cillian Murphy. Despite its guild noms, Knight got shut out in Screenplay, Director, and Best Picture.

Kate & Leo sunk: The biggest doozy of the morning was that enough Oscar voters ignored Winslet's wishes and nominated her The Reader performance in lead instead of supporting. No doubt, things were made easier by the Academy's aborted infatuation with Revolutionary Road, which saw only Michael Shannon receive a supporting actor nomination (its other two came in costumes and art direction).

Dev Patel who?: Shannon's surge took out the category's most vulnerable player, Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel. Might Patel have pulled a Winslet—that is, he was getting votes in the much tougher lead category for a performance his studio was fruitlessly pushing for supporting?

Clint Eastwood will have to console himself with his other Oscars: Gran Torino was supposedly playing like gangbusters with the Academy's older crowd, confirming talk that Eastwood was a Best Actor frontrunner. Sadly, the Academy had to ruin things by stepping out of the Kodak Theatre, leveling a shotgun at the soon-to-retire actor, and growling, "Get off my red carpet" (we suppose the tenuous truce and racial lessons will be delayed until, like, March).

Miley and The Boss Shut Out: Only three tunes got nommed for Best Song: two from Slumdog Millionaire, and Peter Gabriel's "Down to Earth" from Wall-E. Bruce Springsteen's song from The Wrestler didn't make the grade, and the near-miss from Miley Cyrus's touted Bolt tune ensures that Cyrus won't be donning an Oscar frock she can then bite off.

Wall-E ignored in Best Picture: Sorry, little guy. Next time, kill off some people from the Holocaust and hump a teenager.

Those would be Charlie Kaufman, who made his writer/director debut on the criminally underrated Synecdoche, New York, and Jenny Lumet, whose Rachel Getting Married press tour made her this year's most-publicized young screenwriter outside of Dustin Lance Black. Black was nommed for Milk, and Woody Allen and Robert Siegel got some fairly unimpeachable nods for their respective efforts, but the Coen brothers for Burn After Reading? Really? And don't make us talk to you about The Visitor again, lest we be forced to bash a djembe into our skulls.

The full nominations:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Burn After Reading, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Milk, Written by Dustin Lance Black
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Written by Woody Allen
The Visitor, Written by Tom McCarthy
The Wrestler, Written by Robert Siegel

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Screenplay by Eric Roth; Screen Story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
The Dark Knight, Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan; Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer
Doubt, Screenplay by John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon, Screenplay by Peter Morgan
Slumdog Millionaire, Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

We'd had high expectations that no film could surpass The Spirit's unimpeachable Razzie campaign, which featured a 15% fresh Tomatometer rating, a viral "For Your Consideration" ad, and Samuel L. Jackson in a series of fur coats and Nazi costumes. And yet! MTV writer Larry Carroll got his hands on the official Razzie ballot, and The Spirit warranted nary a nom (even in the sure-lock "Most Excessive Use of Chiaroscuro" category, somehow, The Hottie and the Nottie squeaked by).

Here's a sampling of the contenders:

Worst Picture:
Speed Racer, Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans, The Day the Earth Stood Still, High School Musical 3, The Hottie & The Nottie, Dungeon Siege, The Love Guru, Postal, Rambo, The Happening, Meet Dave, Witless Protection

Worst Actor:
Zac Efron, Dane Cook, Larry the Cable Guy, Eddie Murphy, Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise (Valkyrie), Will Ferrell, Ashton Kutcher, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Mark Wahlberg

Worst Actress:
Paris Hilton, Jessica Alba, The cast of The Women, Camilla Belle, Cameron Diaz, Kate Hudson, Diane Keaton, Jennifer Connelly, Zooey Deschanel, Vanessa Hudgens, Eva Longoria-Parker, Reese Witherspoon

Worst Director:
Uwe Boll, Scott Derrickson, Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer, Tom Putnam, Marco Schnabel, Sylvester Stallone, Jon Avnet, Diane English, Roland Emmerich, Brian Robbins, Kenny Ortega, M. Night Shyamalan

Fingers crossed, Manoj!

• 2008 ‘Razzies’ Nominees Include Indy 4, Paris Hilton And Tom Cruise - How Would You Vote? [MTV]

"I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention," [Katherine Heigl] tells Gold Derby.

"In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials."

Well, isn't that rich? Just one year after her astounding Emmy win, Heigl has basically given the entire staff of Grey's a giant, nicotine-stained middle finger. While we give her publicist kudos for attempting to spin her client's disenchantment with her television career into some sort of pseudo-stand for the integrity of the Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences, we didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday. This is a Master And Commander-esque cannonball shot at the writers and show-runners of Grey's for failing to give her enough scenery to chew this season. While we don't watch the show, O'Neil reports that "one of the few dramatic turns she had on the show this past season involved rescuing a deer that had caused a string of car accidents" (which, actually, sounds kind of hilarious). Call us crazy, but if Izzy doesn't pull a Dr. Doug Ross by the middle of next season and skedaddle the fuck out of Seattle Grace Hospital, we'll eat our hat and liveblog it for you all to watch.

[Photo credit: INF]

• KATHERINE HEIGL TO STAR IN 'ESCAPE' [Var]
• Emmy champ Katherine Heigl quits the race, blaming 'Grey's Anatomy' writers [Gold Derby]

UPDATE (2:55pm): Ellen Page's "power lesbian" publicist Kelly Bush (#50 on Out Magazine's Power 50) responds! Full response after the jump.

The full item is as follows:

"Which rising young actress was informed at a recent film party that Jane Fonda wanted to meet her? 'I don't give a [bleep],' came the jaded response."

UPDATE (2:55pm): Here's the response that came from Ellen Page's publicist, Kelly Bush:

Ellen had a lovely conversation with Jane Fonda at the "Smart People" party. Jane was telling her about the upcoming V-Day event in New Orleans. Ellen was not able to attend since she is in pre-production on her next two films. She has requested I get her more information about the work Jane and Eve Ensler are doing so she can help in some way. We have several other clients in New Orleans right now including Jennifer Hudson and Salma Hayek. I am sure it is going to be an amazing event.

• NEW YORK MINUTE [Gatecrasher]

Al Pacino over Denzel? When Al doesn't win for Godfather I, Godfather II, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon — they fucked him over at least five times, I know. Then he does Scent of a Woman. Denzel [nominated that year for Malcolm X] already won for Glory: "He's young, he'll be back, he'll be all right. We fucked over Al, we'll give it to him." [Whispering] "Denzel, we'll hook you up, we got you." Training Day! He wins for Training Day. So we don't get it for Malcolm X. It's like the makeup call in basketball. It messes everything up. ...

If you don't get it when you should, it messes everything up. The problem is, you don't get it when you need to get it. And when you get the makeup call, then you're fucking somebody else over and it just keeps going on and on and on. Now I love Marty [Scorsese] — does he think Departed was the best film? Hell, no, he knows that, but would he give it back? Hell, no!

Of course, there are alternatives to Lee's Makeup Rule: the Crash Rule of Hollywood's Conscience Elite concluding Oscar night with its long-rehearsed, autoerotic grand finale; the Three Six Mafia Rule of being the best alternative in a shitty year... We'd love to hear your own rules below. That said, Lee is a Makeup-Rule candidate all the way, positioning himself for that day 10 years from now when his risky collaboration with Diablo Cody, Mo' Batter Blues, results in his best work since 25th Hour.

• Spike Lee on Why He'll Win an Oscar in 2025 [Vulture]