Although I am writing this a little late (the Oscar nominations were announced weeks ago), after watching the 79th Annual Oscar Awards last night I could only feel disappointed and a little, well, offended.

Don't get me wrong - the event was great: red carpet fashion, upsets, tearful awards speeches and a humorous host (Ellen DeGeneres did surprisingly well, in my opinion). However, the only thing that really angered me about the show was the fact that Casino Royale was not nominated for a single award.

Casino Royale - one of the most critically praised movies of 2006/07 sat on the sidelines for the show; cast, crew and all. You may think that a James Bond movie winning an Oscar, or even being nominated for one, is illogical. Alas, you are mistaken.

It is uncommon knowledge to most that several James Bond movies in the past have had nominations and wins at America's most prestigious movie awards. Listed here at BondMovies.com in the "Bond At The Oscars" section, here is a quick rundown of James Bond's history at the Oscars:

As you can see, it is not the absolute shortest of lists. Bond has been there, and this year, he deserved to be back.

Now I am not going to rant about any of this year’s nominees or winners and say that “Bond was better.” Each in my mind deserved to be on the nominees list. I just think that Casino Royale did too.

In the heyday of the Bond phenomenon in the 1960’s, Bond movies were seen as the ‘cutting edge’ in special effects technology as proven by their two Oscar wins for Special Effects in 1965. If you have seen Casino Royale, you obviously know that I was not hoping the film would be nominated for that category. However, if you saw the film and left saying “if any Bond movie deserves and Oscar, this one does” like I did in November of 2006, then we understand each other.

Casino Royale meant more than just increasing the tally of movies of our favorite secret agent to twenty-one. Royale came out at a time when the franchise was in decline and the series needed a refresh or there was a serious danger that its future be thrown in jeopardy. The Bond producers took a huge cinematic risk with the film - faced with poor fan base reaction to the previous film Die Another Day yet high box office totals that pleased the movie studio immensely still made it a successful Bond film. If anything, someone should acknowledge this admirable act not only in the Bond universe but also in Hollywood where today dollar signs and admissions are all that matter in the majority of action/adventure movies and not plot and character development – all strong characteristics in Casino Royale.

I’m not even sure who I would replace in the nomination field with a representative from the 007 camp. However, I do know that after watching the Oscars I felt sick to my stomach that Casino Royale was only represented by Eva Green and Daniel Craig solely as presenters at a show for a Bond movie that, in my opinion, was also a well directed and acted film deserving of an Oscar nomination.