Full_list:_82nd_Academy_Awards_Nominations: Yes, the big day is here. This morning we finally learned the names of the nominees for the 82nd annual Academy Awards. Ten films are competing for Best Picture (which is a little ridiculous), but every other category is sticking to the classic five nominees, which should keep the running time of the broadcast down to somewhere around 8 hours. Anne Hathaway showed up to look pretty and list off the nominees in all of the major categories. Overall, the list featured the usual suspects, but as per usual the Academy did sneak in a few pleasant surprises. Sadly, the deserving people probably won’t win, but it was nice to see a few wise choices in there.

First off, let’s talk Best Picture. There was a lot of hoopla made about ten movies getting recognized for the big prize this year and the list did provide the expected mix of obvious choices, a few surprises, and at least one idiotic choice. First off Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, and Up In The Air all got their expected nominations. The winner will come from one of those titles and frankly it will be either Avatar, Up In The Air, or the critics favorite The Hurt Locker. All are reasonably safe bets that fit in with what the Academy likes to honor. Pixar picked up the second ever Best Picture nomination for an animated feature (preceded only by Disney’s Beauty And The Beast) and has an outside shot at the trophy. The nice and unexpected nominations went to District 9 and the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man. Both were easily amongst the best movies of the year and never would have gotten nominated without the increased number of eligible titles. They won’t win, but it was nice to see the Academy pick some unconventional choices. Unfortunately the larger list left a spot open for a Best Picture nomination for The Blind Side, which is ridiculous. That silly piece of Hollywood hokum will be forgotten almost instantly and doesn’t deserve to be considered amongst the other choices. But, if the increased number of nominees means one questionable choice sneaks in along with three unexpected titles that genuinely deserved it, then I guess that’s a fair trade.

There were no big surprises in the Best Actor category, which is practically being handed over to Jeff Bridges on a silver platter (and deservingly so, the guy should have won one of these things long ago). Sure it would have nice to have at least seen Matt Damon be nominated for his fantastic work in The Informant!, but that underrated movie is sadly just too unconventional for the Oscars. I was hoping for a nod for Patton Oswalt’s incredible work in Big Fan, but I’m only one of 5 people who actually saw that movie (Run out and rent it today by the way. It’s a cult classic in the making). The Best Actress field was even more predictable and it’s sadly looking more and more likely that Sandra Bullock will take home the big prize this year. She doesn’t deserve it and there’s always the chance of Oscar darlings Meryl Streep or Helen Mirren pulling off an upset, but don’t count on it. This will be the year that the most talented lead performer in Speed gets an Oscar, for better or worse.

The Supporting Actor and Actress field rounded up some interesting choices. But as nice as it is to see Woody Harrelson be recognized, we already know who will be taking home these trophies. The Academy may as well have printed Christoph Waltz’s name on an Oscar back in August for his amazing work in Inglourious Basterds. The guy earned the award and the stardom that will follow. No actor in any category more richly deserves to win than him. In the Best Supporting Actress category, get ready for former stand up comic Mo’nique to pick up an Oscar. She’s was shockingly good in a role that clearly held great personal resonance for the comedienne and it’s guaranteed that she’ll cry on stage when she wins, which the Oscar folks love.

Best Animated Feature Film featured some surprising choices with the previously unknown The Secret of Kells getting a surprising nod and the failed Disney comeback vehicle The Princess And The Frog scoring a sympathy vote. Pixar is guaranteed and win for Up! and while they deserve it, I would love to see this award go to either of the amazing stop-motion options Coraline or The Fantastic Mr. Fox. The Best Director nominations rounded up all of the expected choices and while obsessive videostore clerks everywhere would love to see Tarantino win, the prize will go to either James Cameron or Kathryn Bigelow (a former husband and wife). Even though he doesn’t deserve it, I’d like to see James Cameron win just to see how he embarrasses himself onstage this time (he did manage to top that humiliating “King Of The World” speech twice at the Golden Globes, so he’s got a lot to live up to). However, don’t be surprised it Kathryn Bigelow picks up the prize. Her movie is a strong one and she just won the top prize at the Directors Guild Of America Awards over the weekend, which is normally a good indication of an Oscar win. She would also be the first woman to ever take home the prize and the self-congratulatory Academy does like to appear brave by making choices like that a few decades too late.

I could go on about the other categories, but I’d imagine that no one really wants to read my thoughts on that. So I’ll just let the list speak for itself in those areas. Overall, this isn’t a terrible line up. The acting categories are exactly as expected, but the increased number of Best Picture nominees did honor some deserving titles that would normally be ignored, so that was nice (even if The Blind Side may instantly go down in history as the worst Best Picture nominee of all time). But despite all that, I have to say that my favorite nominee comes in the Best Original Screenplay Category. Despite not making it onto a single short list before now, the amazing British comedy In The Loop scored a well deserved nod. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, rush out and get it. It’s one of the smartest and most well written comedies of the last ten years and it was so exciting to see it recognized. That means that this morning a team of five grown men in Britain were nominated for Oscars for coming up with the following examples of brilliant swearing. I can’t even imagine which moment from the movie could be shown on live television as an Oscar clip. Enjoy:


Best Picture

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up!
Up In The Air

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

Best Actress

Sandra Bullock — The Blind Side
Helen Mirren — The Last Station
Carey Mulligan — An Education
Gabourey Sidibe — Precious
Meryl Streep — Julia and Julia

Best Supporting Actor

Matt Damon — Invictus
Woody Harrelson — The Messenger
Christopher Plummer — The Last Station
Stanley Tucci — The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz — Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress

Penelope Cruz — Nine
Verna Farmiga — Up In The Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal — Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick — Up In The Air
Mo’nique — Precious

Best Director

James Cameron — Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow — The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino — Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels — Precious
Jason Reitman — Up in the Air

Best Original Screenplay

Mark Boal — The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino — Inglourious Basterds
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman — The Messenger
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen — A Serious Man
Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, and Thomas McCarthy — Up!

Best Adapted Screenplay

Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell — District 9
Nick Hornby — An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, and Ian Martin — In The Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher — Precious
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner — Up In The Air

Best Foreign Language Film

Ajami
El Secreto De Sus Ojos
The Milk Of Sorrow
Un Prohete
The White Ribbon

Best Animated Feature

Coraline
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess And The Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up!

Best Documentary Feature

Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
Which Way Home

Best Animated Short

French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady And The Reaper
Logorama
A Matter Of Loaf And Death

Best Live Action Short

The Door
Instead Of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

Best Documentary Short Subject

China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears Of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign Of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing Of A GM Plant
Music By Prudence
Rabbit A La Berlin

Best Cinematography

Avatar
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Best Editing

Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

Best Art Direction

Avatar
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoris

Best Costume Design

Bright Star
Coco Avant Chanel
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Best Sound Mixing

Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen

Best Sound Editing

Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up!

Best Visual Effects

Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Best Makeup

Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Best Score

Avatar
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up!

Best Song

“Almost There” — The Princess And The Frog
“Down In New Orleans” — The Princess And The Frog
“Loin de Paname” — Paris 36
“Take It All” — Nine
“The Weary Kind” — Crazy Heart