Today marked a big day for the film industry, as the 2011 Academy Award Nominations were announced. Lets break down the major categories.
Best Picture-No real shocks here, locks The Social Network, The King's Speech, Inception, True Grit, The Fighter, Black Swan, The Kids are Alright, and Toy Story 3 all received their predicted nominations. The drama came in the last two spots where three worthy films waited for the call. 127 Hours and Winter's Bone ended up beating out The Town. Most people felt Ben Affleck's sophomore directing effort would make the cut, but its not a huge shock to see the vastly underrated Winter's Bone make the grade. If the Academy was still at five nominees in this category, its likely we would see Social Network, Black Swan, The King's Speech, and The Fighter get nominated. The last spot would have been a dog fight between the masterful and brilliant Inception and the beautiful True Grit.
Best Actor-Everyone knew we would see Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth, Jesse Eisenberg, and James Franco here. The question came down to Robert Duvall or Ryan Gosling for the fifth spot.........and yet it went to Javier Bardem for Spanish language film Biutiful. One of the bigger shockers of the day as Bardem was virtually counted out of this race as buzz for the film never really gained steam in the States.
Best Actress-Probably the most chalk category of the day. This is the equivalent of all four number 1 seeds advancing in March Madness. Natalie Portman and Annette Bening will duke it out for the next month with Jennifer Lawrence, Nicole Kidman, and Michelle Williams watching from the sidelines.
Best Supporting Actor-A few locks here were Geoffrey Rush, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, and favorite Christian Bale. Most people thought spot five would go to Andrew Garfield for his breakout performance in The Social Network. But Deadwood alum John Hawkes got the call for his terrifying yet heroic performance in Winter's Bone. For me this was the shock I most wanted to see. Garfield was terrific, but Hawkes stole every scene he was in and played the opposite character he has made his career playing. Personally I would have loved 7 nominations in this category with Vincent Cassel getting a nod for Black Swan.
Best Supporting Actress- Hailee Steinfeld was the big question mark here, would she be nominated as campaigned for Best Supporting Actress? Or would the Academy nominate her in the lead category considering she was IN EVERY SCENE OF THE MOVIE. But better to see her at least nominated then left off completely. Other nods went to Helena Bonham Carter, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, and Jacki Weaver for the Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom. This category had its share of snubs with Julianne Moore being left off as well as Black Swan ladies Mila Kunis and Barbara Hershey.
Best Director- We all knew we would see Tom Hooper for King's Speech, David Fincher for The Social Network, and Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan. And most assumed Christopher Nolan would get in for Inception. However both the Coen Brothers for True Grit and David O'Russell for The Fighter crept in and took Nolan's spot. This to me is the real travesty of the nominations. Inception was one of the most amazing directorial achievements I have ever seen, and to put the scenes and sequences together took nothing short of a genius. The Academy apparently felt that David O'Russell did a better job setting his camera down and watching his actors go to work. While I loved The Fighter, one director had to be left out and I feel it should have been O'Russell.
Overall I was very pleased with the nominations, my biggest gripes were the Nolan directing snub, Inception also being snubbed for editing, Shutter Island getting completely shut out, The Town only snagging one nomination, and Tron: Legacy getting overlooked for visual effects.
Maximus
I agree with you on most of the snubs for this year. The directing catagory is a tough one this year but to leave out Christopher Nolan was by far the biggest snub. In my opinion Inception was the best movie of the year and to leave out the man who directed such an intriguing and solid movie is just wrong. Also it is sad that it did not get a nod in the editing category for how well it flowed. Once again it proves the point of Oscar favoritism to movies that are released right before the ballads go out. I think we all knew Shutter Island was going to be left out. It seems the Oscar voters must have forgot that it came out this year. I am not that disappointed in The Town not making the cut for Best Picture. Though I did like The Town, I didn't think it was an Oscar movie(I will explain this in the future at some point). Tron should have been a shoe-in for visual effects. The one I disagree with you on is John Hawkes recieving the nod over Andrew Garfield for Best Supporting Actor. Though I did not like Winter's Bone, Hawkes' character was the only thing that kept me from being bored to tears. Garfield on the other hand played a perfect counter part to Jesse Eisenberg's character in The Social Network making the movie flow brilliantly. Also I think that Vincent Cassel should have taken the place of either Mark Ruffalo or Jeremy Renner. Cassel's character in Black Swan was a perfect supporting role to Natalie Portman's lead character and I thought he did a solid job throughout the whole movie. I would probably exchange him for Jeremy Renner. So there is no confusion, I do think Renner did a good job but I don't think his character was that difficult to play. Other than that I am excited to see how everything pans out on February 27th.
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