Academy Award Nominations + My Thoughts

Oh Oscars, never have you epic failed so hard. Actually there's plenty of excellent, deserving nominees, there are just a few omissions that are hard to ignore. Here's the list of nominees, my thoughts, as always will be in green.


BEST PICTURE
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
I have a love/hate relationship with the 10 Best Pic nominees. In a way, I think 10 makes it feel less special, but then again, more films get recognized that otherwise wouldn't. (hello, District 9) However, now that there are so many some films get thrown in seemingly just for the hell of it. I have a huge problem with animated films being nominated for Best Picture. I do. They have their own category. If I could modify this list, I would remove Toy Story 3 and Winter's Bone and swap them with Never Let Me Go and The Town.



BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours
Javier Bardem was the semi-surprise here, I would've liked to have seen Gosling just because he's one of my favorite actors. This category was pretty predictable, but deserving. I'm really happy for Jesse Eisenberg.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech
Christian Bale! Yes, Yes Yes! The biggest snub here is Andrew Garfeild for The Social Network. When he didn't get nominated for the SAG, I grew kind of concerned. It was his performance that drove Jesse Eisenberg's. Nominating Jesse without Andrew just doesn't seem fair. They played off each other so well. No, Justin Timberlake wasn't snubbed. Really people, was that role much of a stretch for him?


BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
The 5th spot in this was also up in the air. I'm glad Michelle Williams got it. I haven't seen Blue Valentine yet, but boy do I want to. This is one of those performances where I will just believe the hype because it's all probably true. Portman is winning, but I think it would be great if Bening won.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Something in this category doesn't belong. Can you guess what it is? Yes, Hailee Steinfeld was a LEAD in True Grit. She deserves a nomination, she does, just not in this category.

BEST ANIMATED FILM
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3
Go How To Train Your Dragon.

BEST ART DIRECTION
Alice in Wonderland, Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara
Happy Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1, Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Inception, Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
The King’s Speech, Eve Stewart, Judy Farr
True Grit, Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh
Hey Harry Potter got in there! Fabulous. I see Inception taking it home though.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Black Swan, Matthew Libatique
Inception, Wally Pfister
The King’s Speech, Danny Cohen
The Social Network, Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit, Roger Deakins
Also another thing I see Inception taking home.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Alice in Wonderland, Colleen Atwood
I Am Love, Antonella Cannarozzi
The King’s Speech, Jenny Beaven
The Tempest, Sandy Powell
True Grit, Mary Zophres
The King's Speech has this one practically in the bag. The Academy loves old British films.

BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit
David Fincher, The Social Network
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
David O. Russell, The Fighter
Ah, the elephant in the room. The biggest Oscar snub of them all. I'm going to put this bluntly: Where the fuck is Christopher Nolan? You cannot tell me that the Coen brothers (while good directors) are better than Christopher Nolan. They aren't. Not this year, and definitely not compared to their all around work. The Coens remade an already Oscar nominated movie, Nolan created something so elaborate, so fascinating that I dare say the Coens couldn't even dream of creating. I know the Academy apparently hates Nolan, but then why not Danny Boyle for 127 Hours? Also a better director than the Coens! Even the Coens know this, their statement was "10 nominations seems like a lot, I hope we didn't take anyone else's." You did. You took Christopher Nolans. The Academy can make this up to me by awarding Inception Best Picture.

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz
Gasland, Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
Inside Job, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Restrepo, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
Waste Land, Lucy Walker and Angus Aynley
I'm really, really surprised Waiting For Superman isn't in here. The people that made The Tillman story are probably wondering why they aren't either. I'm not.


BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Killing in the Name (Nominees TBD)
Poster Girl (Nominees (TBD)
Strangers No More, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
Sun Come Up, Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
The Warriors of Qiugang, Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon


BEST EDITING
127 Hours, Jon Harris
Black Swan, Andrew Weisblum
The Fighter, Pamela Martin
The King’s Speech, Tariq Anwar
The Social Network, Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
No Inception for editing? Did they watch the last 20 minutes of this film? Editing at it's best. I see Black Swan taking away this one.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Hors la Loi (Outside the Law) (Algeria)
Incendies (Canada)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Dogtooth (Greece)
Biutiful (Mexico)
I'm watching Dogtooth tonight, I hope it's good. I thought I Am Love would be in here though.

BEST MAKEUP
Barney’s Version, Adrien Morot
The Way Back, Eduoard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk, Yolanda Toussieng
The Wolfman, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Holy crap, The Way Back snuck in here! I was wondering if they even qualified. These nominations suck. Not gonna lie, Alice and Wonderland and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I could've both been in here. Alice would've probably won. The Wolfman? Really?

BEST SCORE
127 Hours, A.R. Rahman
How to Train Your Dragon, John Powell
Inception, Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech, Alexandre Desplat
The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Hans Zimmer deserves this.

BEST SONG
“Coming Home,” Country Strong, Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light,” Tangled, Alan Menken, Glenn Slater
“If I Rise,” 127 Hours, A.R. Rahman, Dido, Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together,” Toy Story 3, Randy Newman
I really like "If I Rise", it's a sweet song. Still have yet to see 127 Hours, wish it would come my way.

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Day & Night, Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let’s Pollute, Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary), Bastien Dubois

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
The Confession, Tanel Toom
The Crush, Michael Creagh
God of Love, Luke Matheny
Na Wewe, Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143, Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

BEST SOUND EDITING
Inception, Richard King
Toy Story 3, Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
TRON: Legacy, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
True Grit, Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Unstoppable, Mark P. Stoeckinger
Inception.

BEST SOUND MIXING
Inception, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo, and Ed Novick
The King’s Speech, Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen, and John Midgley
Salt, Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan, and William Sarokin
The Social Network, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, and Mark Weingarten
True Grit, Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, and Peter F. Kurland
Inception.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Alice in Wonderland, Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1, Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter, Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
Inception, Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
Iron Man 2, Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick
Hereafter? I thought TRON: Legacy or Scott Pilgrim would get in. To be honest, TRON not getting in isn't a shock to me. While the visual effects were great, they didn't seem particularly tricky. Scott Pilgrim on the other hand, whether you liked the movie or not it had some pretty damn cool special effects.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Another Year, written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; 
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception, written by Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right, written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King’s Speech, Screenplay by David Seidler
I hope Inception takes this, but I have a feeling The King's Speech is going to win a ton of Oscars.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 Hours, Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3, Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
True Grit, written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter’s Bone, adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
Aaron Sorkin might as well be guaranteed to win this.