I can't believe that we have yet to discuss this year's Oscar nominations, which where announced on Tuesday morning. Colin Firth, nominated in the "Best Actor" category for his role as a gay man mourning the death of his partner in A Single Man, and Lee Daniels, the openly gay director of Precious, are sadly the only nominees of major gay interest, but there are a few surprises among this year's nominations. The nominees:
Best Picture:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
Though there are ten nominees this year, instead of the traditional five, this has rapidly become a two-movie race between Avatar (AKA the highest grossing movie of all time) and The Hurt Locker. I'm personally rooting for The Hurt Locker, which was absolutely brilliant. The movie is out now on DVD, so if you haven't had a chance to see it yet, do yourself a favor and put it at the top of your Netflix queue.
Best Director:
James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Besides Daniels representing the gays, we also have Kathryn Bigelow, only the fourth woman to ever be nominated in this category. If she ends up winning, she will be the first female director ever to do so. With that in mind, it's hard to root against her, especially when her movie is as fantastic as it is.
Best Actor:
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
I'd love to hear Firth's name called on Oscar night, but Jeff Bridges has this one in the bag.
Best Actress:
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
The massive amount of goodwill for Sandra Bullock's performance helped The Blind Side (which I have yet to see, though it looked a tad sappy for my taste) garner that Best Picture nomination, and she's the clear front-runner here even against a legend like Meryl Streep.
Best Supporting Actor:
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
I haven't seen a single movie that any of these performances come from, but after sweeping just about every award so far, I'd say Christoph Waltz is a lock to win.
Best Supporting Actress:
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo'nique, Precious
As with most of the acting categories this year, there's not a whole lot of suspense in this race, since Mo'nique is all but guaranteed a win (and deservedly so). I was a little disappointed that Julianne Moore didn't receive a nod for her excellent work in A Single Man; I'd swap her in for Penelope Cruz's work in the snoozefest, Nine.
What does everyone else think of this year's nominations? What were the biggest surprises? Who do you think got snubbed?
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5 comments:
For people who missed THE HURT LOCKER and INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, Movies 10 is bringing them back this week. These are my two favorite films of the year. Absolutely!
Yeah, I need to see THE HURT LOCKER...
I'm disappointed that 500 DAYS OF SUMMER is not considered for Oscars. I thought it was a good film.
But my biggest surprise is AVATAR. I saw the trailer and I thought it seemed like one of those movies that is big blockbuster computer-generated not "real" cinematography. Is it just me and my "snobby" preferences? Is AVATAR good/worth seeing and have I been to hard on it? LMK, thanks...
I am most upset that (500) DAYS OF SUMMER did not make it to the top 10 and THE BLIND SIDE did. TBS is okay but it could very well have been a Lifetime movie in my opinion. And Sandra Bullock was good but not good enough (not even close!) to win against the likes of Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan. Heck, I'll even take Gaby from PRECIOUS over her. But this is probably her best chance to win an Oscar so the Academy would go for that. It's just frustrating that Meryl has never won again since forever! How can Hillary Swank and Jodie Foster have two Best Actress Oscars and Meryl has only one (her other trophy is for Best Supporting Actress). I can't even get over the fact that Sandra's performance is being favored over amazing performances from Emily Blunt (YOUNG VICTORIA) and Abbie Cornish (BRIGHT STAR). Ugh!
THE MESSENGER, STAR TREK, THE HANGOVER are films that could have been nominated over THE BLIND SIDE. That movie has completely blind sided the Academy.
Christoph Waltz is my favorite performance of the year, bar none. But I do have a soft spot for Woody Harrelson's performance in THE MESSENGER for the Supporting Oscar. His costar Ben Foster should have also been nominated for Best Actor but maybe having two soldiers in the top 5 would have been too much, LOL. I do love Jeremy Renner in THE HURT LOCKER but Jeff Bridges is a lock. Renner could still be the spoiler. Remember when Adrien Brody won for THE PIANIST?
Mo'nique is a sure winner. But Penelope Cruz from NINE does not have any business being nominated here. Julianne Moore was definitely snubbed!
AVATAR is indeed a great cinematic experience. It deserves the hype and the box-office returns. But an Oscar Best Picture? No way! The screenplay can't even get a nomination because the film is all about technical wizardry! Not enough meat to it. But if people are looking for innovation for their Best Picture winner, then AVATAR would be it for them. Which is very sad as THE HURT LOCKER is the best movie of the year. And I'm getting sick at the thought of James Cameron could possibly win over Kathryn Bigelow. There's not even a comparison to their directing efforts!
I have only ONE movie to see before the Oscars (The Blind Side) and I will have seen all the nominated films this year. I kept holding off on The Blind Side because I thought it was certainly too much of a lightweight to be considered for best movie. Surprise surprise, huh? Michael could be right regarding Sandra Bullock getting the award this year, but is her body of work THAT deserving?
The Hurt Locker was an incredible film, and would be my pick over Avatar. Kathryn Bigelow surely deserves the award for director.
Many good films this year....yes it would be good to see Colin Firth win - but Jeff Bridges gets the top honor this year, to be sure.
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