Nobody’s beating Portman for Best Actress, so the studio pushed for Steinfeld to be nominated for supporting, where she has a much better chance of winning.
Nice to see the Toy Story 3 love, especially in Screenplay.
I am really surprised how many nominations “The King’s Speech” got. I need to see this.
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. It lets the academy nominate both well-regarded but over-looked films (Winter’s Bone) and more mainstream fare (Inception), making them look perceptive and pandering, all at once!
It’s actually not such a bad thing if it gets people interested in movies they may not have been aware of or had passed on but if the idea is ‘these 10 films are all equally worthy of winning Best Picture’ they ain’t foolin’ no one.
The nominations are actually pretty good overall this year, though.
The Winter’s Bone nominations are sweet, and almost make this list look somewhat credible. It’s a shame it won’t win any of them, because it really deserves to win them all.
Edit: eh, or maybe True Grit could win Adapted Screenplay. I’d be ok with that.
Another edit: Wow, Jacki Weaver? Awesome. Probably my favorite performance of the year overall.
Glad to see multiple nominations for Winter’s Bone. I doubt it will win, but more people will see it now.
Alternatively, they might go with ‘that Face-space thing’ so they don’t seem old and out-of-touch.
“Incendies” has been getting serious plaudits in the last month here in Canada; Denis Villeneuve was on the front page of the Star’s entertainment section the other day. They’re saying he’s the next Denis Arcand, a comparison helped I’m sure by their shared first name.
So there you go: some inside information for you when you’re filling out your Oscar Ballot. Canada for Best Foreign Film! (note: I personally haven’t seen it yet.)
Surprised to see True Grit so many times on that list. I thought it was good, but not worth nominating half a dozen times. Hailee Steinfeld definitely deserves to be nominated for her performance, though.
BTW - the fact that there are 10 best picture nominees, but only 5 best director / 5 best writer nominees should tell you all you need to know about the Oscars.
I hope How to Train Your Dragon wins Best Animated…it’s a long shot most likely, but I can still hope.
Actually, there are 10 movies nominated for best screenplay. But don’t let the facts get in the way of sticking it to the Academy!
Are you pointing that out just to nit-pick my brain fart, or do you actually think the Academy doesn’t deserve a little mocking for its arbitrary classification rules?
It depends on whether we ever see a movie win best picture that didn’t have a best director nomination as well. As we are only two years into the expanded best picture model, it’s hard to jump to conclusions, though a lot of people are making the same assumptions you are.
I enjoy the Academy awards and generally think they do a good job. And I think it was a good decision to expand the BP nominees to 10 to allow some positive recognition for movies that aren’t historically Oscar “type” movies such as District 9 last year, Inception and Winter’s Bone this year.
So yes, I think that AMPAS gets more criticism than they deserve.
Nolan not getting a nom for director is a bit surprising.
I’ve had it on my Amazon.ca wish list, but after seeing the best picture nod, I ordered it on BD today. That’s definitely one benefit of the 10 noms format and, as far as I know, was one of the major reasons for the shift from 5.
Totally blown away by that one. At least he’s there for the screenplay.
[Edit] Is it just me, or is there something odd about DiCaprio missing out on acting nominations/wins time and again. I always thought he was a pretty damn good actor; am I just thinking that because he happens to be in interesting/great movies a lot?
A lot of articles are noting that. It’s even more odd when you consider that Inception got the third most nominations overall and is the only one of the top five total nomination films that didn’t get a best director nom. They basically chose Aronofsky for Black Swan (a less nominated film overall) over Nolan.
While King’s Speech seems likely to win Best Picture at this point, there was talk for awhile that Inception would have a shot at it. Nolan not getting a director’s nomination pretty much eliminates that according to conventional wisdom.
So by that logic, King George VI didn’t exist and is a fictional character? ;)
No. In the Loop was a BBC TV show first called The Thick of It. So it was an adapted screenplay.
Maybe Roger Deakins will finally win this year.
Also, how the hell does Hereafter get a visual effects nod over Scott Pilgrim?