I wasn't expecting anything big, as the Academy has always turned it's nose up at Star Wars. I was really hoping against hope for an Ian McDiarmid Best Supporting Actor nomination, even if he didn't win, if only to acknowledge the transformation of the character he's been playing since 1983. And the fact he really put himself out there for this one with all the action scenes.
Stunned it didn't get nominated for visual effects, sound or any other technical awards, since these are the guys who all but invented digital technology and with every installment are determined to push the art to it's limits. Some elements are obviously cgi, but if you read the "making-of" books you find that there are things you don't even realize started out as nothing more than bluescreen.
Like Palpatine and Bail Organa on the balcony at the end of AOTC, did you know the two actors were the only real thing in the shot? Everything (and everyone) else were seperate elements that were composited in. Or the foyer to the opera in ROTS, none of it was there. It's those things that you don't think about that are so well done, it's just amazing to think it started out as a shot of Hayden Christensen climbing up a blue staircase. And I really thought Yoda was leaps and bounds more realistic in ROTS than he was in AOTC. It's a shame, considering this one was the best the Prequels had to offer.
--InfoDroid