Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The 83rd Academy Awards Nominations


The 83rd Academy Awards Nominations


What we have all been waiting for, what we have all tried to guess and predict about, what we've been trying to figure out probably since last year's ceremony are finally here: the nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards have been announced. And while this is obviously not as exciting or interesting as the cermony itself, we (or at least I do) get a kick from watching this nominations. This year, the year which could have been the most predictable of all, has come with a few surprises, but yet nothing really breathtaking. So here is the list of the nominations for this year's Oscars and my thoughts on them:

Best Picture:

Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

These films were all predicted to be nominated for this award. Before today, I thougt The Town would make the list, but apparently it didn't convince the Academy members.
Who I Want to Win: The Social Network
Who Should Win: The Social Network
Who Will Win: The Social Network or The King's Speech


Best Director:

Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – True Grit
David Fincher – The Social Network
Tom Hooper – The King's Speech
David O. Russell – The Fighter

Its a surprise not to see Nolan in here, but we have all gone through this before. Also, I was expecting to see Danny Boyle in here, but apparently they liked better The Fighter or True Grit
Who I Want to Win: David Fincher - The Social Network
Who Should Win: David Fincher - The Social Network
Who Will Win: David Fincher - The Social Network

Best Actor:

Javier Bardem – Biutiful as Uxbal
Jeff Bridges – True Grit as Rooster Cogburn
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network as Mark Zuckerberg
Colin Firth – The King's Speech as King George VI
James Franco – 127 Hours as Aron Ralston

This is the best Best Actor nominations I've seen so far. I was hoping that Javier Bardem would get in, and he did in here.
Who I Want to Win: Colin Firth - The King's Speech or Javier Bardem - Biutiful
Who Should Win: Colin Firth - The King's Speech
Who Will Win: Colin Firth - The King's Speech


Best Actress:

Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right as Nic
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole as Becca Corbett
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter's Bone as Ree Dolly
Natalie Portman – Black Swan as Nina Sayers
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine as Cindy

Even at this stage I was hoping to see Tilda Swinton or Julianne Moore or even Noomi Rapace here, but they did just what was expected. Anyway, this are fair good nominations but the win isn't very hard to guess.
Who I Want to Win: Natalie Portman - Black Swan
Who Should Win: Natalie Portman - Black Swan
Who Will Win: Natalie Portman - Black Swan


Best Supporting Actor:

Christian Bale – The Fighter as Dicky Eklund
John Hawkes – Winter's Bone as Teardrop
Jeremy Renner – The Town as James "Gem" Coughlin
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right as Paul
Geoffrey Rush – The King's Speech as Lionel Logue

Andrew Garfield was (sadly) left out from this category, but other than that this are fairly good nominations.
Who I Want to Win: Christian Bale - The Fighter or Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech
Who Should Win: Christian Bale - The Fighter or Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech
Who Will Win: Christian Bale - The Fighter


Best Supporting Actress:


Amy Adams – The Fighter as Charlene Fleming
Helena Bonham Carter – The King's Speech as Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Melissa Leo – The Fighter as Alice Ward
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit as Mattie Ross
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom as Janine "Smurf" Cody

Hailee Steinfeld made the list, meaning that another strong contender (probably Mila Kunis) was left out. It is possible that her performance was great, but I didn't see her in the Oscar race. Pleasantly, I was wrong.
Who I Want to Win: Amy Adams - The Fighter
Who Should Win: Melissa Leo - The Fighter
Who Will Win: Melissa Leo - The Fighter


Best Original Screenplay:

Another Year – Mike Leigh
The Fighter – Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson
Inception – Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right – Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg
The King's Speech – David Seidler

This is an interesting race. But Black Swan, which deserves the award, wasn't even nominated here. Damn you Academy!
Who I Want to Win: Black Swan * or The Kids Are All Right
Who Should Win: Black Swan *, then Inception or The Kids Are All Right should win out of the nominations
Who Will Win: The King's Speech


Best Adapted Screenplay:

127 Hours – Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy from Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston
The Social Network – Aaron Sorkin from The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
Toy Story 3 – Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich; characters based on Toy Story and Toy Story 2
True Grit – Joel Coen and Ethan Coen from True Grit by Charles Portis
Winter's Bone – Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini from Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
I was hoping to see The Town or The Ghost Writer, but I can live with these ones.
Who I Want to Win: The Social Network
Who Should Win: The Social Network
Who Will Win: The Social Network


Best Animated Feature:

How to Train Your Dragon – Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
The Illusionist – Sylvain Chomet
Toy Story 3 – Lee Unkrich
A five nominees race would have been better, considering that there were already more than five competing for one spot. I would have liked to see Tangled in here particularly, from the other possible nominees.
Who I Want to Win: Toy Story 3
Who Should Win: Toy Story 3
Who Will Win: Toy Story 3


Best Foreign Language Film:

Biutiful (Mexico) in Spanish and English – Alejandro González Iñárritu
Dogtooth (Greece) in Greek – Yorgos Lanthimos
In a Better World (Denmark) in Danish, Swedish and English – Susanne Bier
Incendies (Canada) in French and Arabic – Denis Villeneuve
Outside the Law (Algeria) in Arabic and French – Rachid Bouchareb
This is probably the hardest one to choose. I was surprised not to see Of Gods and Men or Uncle Boonmee here. I would have also liked to see Even the Rain.
Who I Want to Win: Biutiful
Who Should Win: Biutiful
Who Will Win: Biutiful or In A Better World


Best Documentary Feature:

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 Aynsley

I thought that Waiting for Superman was going to be, but it wasn't even nominated...
Who I Want to Win: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Who Should Win: Exit Through the Gift Shop or Restrepo (?)
Who Will Win: Restrepo

So these are my thoughts and predictions on the Academy Awards based on the nominations. Please leave a comment saying what you think. Thank you for your time

5 comments:

  1. Inception deserves best original screenplay. There's no debate on that.

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  2. I dont know, i like better Black Swan

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  3. The King's Speech does have a chance- you make a good point....

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  4. I'm with OMF, Inception actually should have best original screenplay. Black Swan was creative, but Inception actually has the advantage of being the audience favorite.

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  5. @Simeon, you're right, it has great chances, but I hope TSN wins
    @Steve, true, but that has never stopped the academy from choosing another film (Crash over Brokeback Mountain?)

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