2011 Oscar Nominations Are Announced, The King’s Speech Leads The Pack

It’s both incredibly surprising and incredibly ordinary. First let’s get the big controversy out of the way. The fact that Christopher Nolan is not in the Best Director category and the fact that David O. Russell is there is an outrage. The Fighter is a decent film but by no means is O. Russell’s direction better or more of an ACHIEVEMENT than Nolan’s film. In no way at all.

As predicted the front runner with 12 nominations is The King’s Speech, which is surprisingly followed by True Grit with 10. The Social Network and Inception follow that with 8 nominations each. The Fighter and 127 Hours follow that with 6 and finally Black Swan with 5.

Other surprise nominations are Javier Bardem’s Best Actor nomination for Biutiful and Jacki Weaver’s performance in Animal Kingdom also receives recognition. Also nice to see Mike Leigh’s screenplay for Another Year get some recognition, although the greatest irony about that nomination is that he doesn’t write screenplays and they’re mostly improvised.

As far as how the awards will go down I think its too early to call who will get Best Picture after the Producers Guild shake up at the weekend. But Fincher for me is a lock for Best Director, Best Actor will almost certainly be Colin Firth, Best Actress will go to Natalie Portman, Supporting Actor will be Christian Bale and Best Supporting Actress will probably end up being Melissa Leo. However I’m fully prepared and expect the Coen Bros’ True Grit could very well make a stir in the major categories.

The full list of this year’s nominees are below:

Best Picture
Black Swan – Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin
The Fighter – David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Mark Wahlberg
Inception – Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas
The Kids Are All Right – Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray
The King’s Speech – Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
127 Hours – Danny Boyle, Christian Colson, John Smithson
The Social Network – Scott Rudin, Caen Chaffin, Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti
Toy Story 3 – Darla K Anderson
True Grit – Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Scott Rudin
Winter’s Bone – Anne Rossellini, Alix Madigan-Yorkin

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

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem for Biutiful
Jeff Bridges for True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network
Colin Firth for The King’s Speech
James Franco for 127 Hours

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Natalie Portman for Black Swan
Annette Benning for The Kids Are All Right
Jennifer Lawrence for Winter’s Bone
Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine
Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale for The Fighter
John Hawkes for Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner for The Town
Mark Ruffalo for The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush for The King’s Speech

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams for The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter for The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo for The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit
Jacki Weaver for Animal Kingdom

Best Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours – Simon Beaufoy, Danny Boyle
The Social Network – Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3 – Michael Arndt, Lee Unkrich, Andrew Stanton & John Lasseter
True Grit – Joel & Ethan Coen
Winter’s Bone – Debra Granik & Anna Rosselini

Best Original Screenplay
Another Year – Mike Leigh
The Fighter – Scott Silver, Paul Tamasay, Eri Johnson & Keith Dorrington
Inception – Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right – Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko
The King’s Speech – David Seidler

Best Animated Film
Toy Story 3
The Illusionist
How To Train Your Dragon

Best Foreign Language Film
Biutiful
Dog Tooth
In A Better World
Incendies
Outside the Law

Best Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit

Best Cinematography
Black Swan – Matthew Libatique
Inception – Wally Pfister
The King’s Speech – Danny Cohen
The Social Network – Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit – Roger Deakins

Best Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland – Colleen Atwood
I Am Love – Antonella Cannarozzi
The King’s Speech – Jenny Beavan
The Tempest – Sandy Powell
True Grit – Mary Zophres

Best Documentary, Feature
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land

Best Documentary, Short Subject
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

Best Film Editing
Black Swan – Andrew Weisblum
The Fighter – Pamela Martin
The King’s Speech – Tariq Anwar
127 Hours – Jon Harris
The Social Network – Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Best Make Up
Barney’s Version – Adrien Morot
The Way Back – Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
The Wolfman – Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Best Original Score
How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell
Inception – Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat
127 Hours – A.R. Rahman
The Social Network – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Best Original Song
Coming Home from Country Strong – Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
I See the Light from Tangled – Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
If I Rise from 127 Hours – Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
We Belong Together from Toy Story 3 – Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best Short Film, Animated
Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)

Best Short Film, Live Action
The Confession
The Crush
God of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143

Best Sound Editing
Inception – Richard King
Toy Story 3 – Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
Tron: Legacy – Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
True Grit – Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Unstoppable – Mark P. Stoeckinger

Best Sound Mixing
Inception – Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
The King’s Speech – Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
Salt – Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
The Social Network – Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
True Grit – Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Best Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland – Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 – Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter – Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
Inception – Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
Iron Man 2 – Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick