Oscar Nominations

pcmr

weaksauce like invictus is there, also i don't need to see another mo'nique acceptance speech ever againBest Picture * ???Avatar??? James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers * ???The Blind Side??? Nominees to be determined * ???District 9??? Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers * ???An Education??? Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers * ???The Hurt Locker??? Nominees to be determined * ???Inglourious Basterds??? Lawrence Bender, Producer * ???Precious: Based on the Novel ???Push??? by Sapphire??? Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers * ???A Serious Man??? Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers * ???Up??? Jonas Rivera, Producer * ???Up in the Air??? Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, ProducersActor in a Leading Role * Jeff Bridges in ???Crazy Heart??? * George Clooney in ???Up in the Air??? * Colin Firth in ???A Single Man??? * Morgan Freeman in ???Invictus??? * Jeremy Renner in ???The Hurt Locker???Actor in a Supporting Role * Matt Damon in ???Invictus??? * Woody Harrelson in ???The Messenger??? * Christopher Plummer in ???The Last Station??? * Stanley Tucci in ???The Lovely Bones??? * Christoph Waltz in ???Inglourious Basterds???Actress in a Leading Role * Sandra Bullock in ???The Blind Side??? * Helen Mirren in ???The Last Station??? * Carey Mulligan in ???An Education??? * Gabourey Sidibe in ???Precious: Based on the Novel ???Push??? by Sapphire??? * Meryl Streep in ???Julie & Julia???Actress in a Supporting Role * Pen??lope Cruz in ???Nine??? * Vera Farmiga in ???Up in the Air??? * Maggie Gyllenhaal in ???Crazy Heart??? * Anna Kendrick in ???Up in the Air??? * Mo???Nique in ???Precious: Based on the Novel ???Push??? by Sapphire???Animated Feature Film * ???Coraline??? Henry Selick * ???Fantastic Mr. Fox??? Wes Anderson * ???The Princess and the Frog??? John Musker and Ron Clements * ???The Secret of Kells??? Tomm Moore * ???Up??? Pete DocterArt Direction * ???Avatar??? Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair * ???The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus??? Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith * ???Nine??? Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim * ???Sherlock Holmes??? Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer * ???The Young Victoria??? Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie GrayCinematography * ???Avatar??? Mauro Fiore * ???Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince??? Bruno Delbonnel * ???The Hurt Locker??? Barry Ackroyd * ???Inglourious Basterds??? Robert Richardson * ???The White Ribbon??? Christian BergerCostume Design * ???Bright Star??? Janet Patterson * ???Coco before Chanel??? Catherine Leterrier * ???The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus??? Monique Prudhomme * ???Nine??? Colleen Atwood * ???The Young Victoria??? Sandy PowellDirecting * ???Avatar??? James Cameron * ???The Hurt Locker??? Kathryn Bigelow * ???Inglourious Basterds??? Quentin Tarantino * ???Precious: Based on the Novel ???Push??? by Sapphire??? Lee Daniels * ???Up in the Air??? Jason ReitmanDocumentary (Feature) * ???Burma VJ??? Anders ??stergaard and Lise Lense-M??ller * ???The Cove??? Nominees to be determined * ???Food, Inc.??? Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein * ???The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers??? Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith * ???Which Way Home??? Rebecca CammisaDocumentary (Short Subject) * ???China???s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province??? Jon Alpert and Matthew O???Neill * ???The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner??? Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher * ???The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant??? Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert * ???Music by Prudence??? Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett * ???Rabbit ?? la Berlin??? Bartek Konopka and Anna WydraFilm Editing * ???Avatar??? Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron * ???District 9??? Julian Clarke * ???The Hurt Locker??? Bob Murawski and Chris Innis * ???Inglourious Basterds??? Sally Menke * ???Precious: Based on the Novel ???Push??? by Sapphire??? Joe KlotzForeign Language Film * ???Ajami??? Israel * ???El Secreto de Sus Ojos??? Argentina * ???The Milk of Sorrow??? Peru * ???Un Proph??te??? France * ???The White Ribbon??? GermanyMakeup * ???Il Divo??? Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano * ???Star Trek??? Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow * ???The Young Victoria??? Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny ShircoreMusic (Original Score) * ???Avatar??? James Horner * ???Fantastic Mr. Fox??? Alexandre Desplat * ???The Hurt Locker??? Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders * ???Sherlock Holmes??? Hans Zimmer * ???Up??? Michael GiacchinoMusic (Original Song) * ???Almost There??? from ???The Princess and the Frog??? Music and Lyric by Randy Newman * ???Down in New Orleans??? from ???The Princess and the Frog??? Music and Lyric by Randy Newman * ???Loin de Paname??? from ???Paris 36??? Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas * ???Take It All??? from ???Nine??? Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston * ???The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)??? from ???Crazy Heart??? Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

skel

Actor in a Leading Role

* Morgan Freeman in ???Invictus???

Actor in a Supporting Role

* Matt Damon in ???Invictus???

Gratuitous Ferner Baddies in Meriman Film

* ???Fantastic Mr. Fox??? Wes Anderson

Music (Original Score)

* ???Sherlock Holmes??? Hans Zimmer

waxjunky

Jeff Bridges is a lock -- George Clooney is going to have to put in just a little more time.

Cosmo

All I know is that these two really should be a lock:

Actor in a Supporting Role * Christoph Waltz in ???Inglourious Basterds???

Directing * ???The Hurt Locker??? Kathryn Bigelow

Would love to have seen Chris Plummer win something but Waltz's performance was just so absurdly good I don't think anyone can beat him.

ladyday

The Blind Side, really? I tried to watch it last night (oscar consideration copy) and only made it about halfway through before I turned it off and went to bed.

waxjunky

All I know is that these two really should be a lock:

Actor in a Supporting Role * Christoph Waltz in ???Inglourious Basterds???

Directing * ???The Hurt Locker??? Kathryn Bigelow

Would love to have seen Chris Plummer win something but Waltz's performance was just so absurdly good I don't think anyone can beat him.

I agree that Waltz is also a done deal. I don't see Bigelow as a lock, although she is definitely the most deserving. I'll be pulling for her, most definitely, but it's going to be tough when you have these beastly production like Avatar to go up against. Just my take.

Woimsah

All I know is that these two really should be a lock:

Actor in a Supporting Role * Christoph Waltz in ???Inglourious Basterds???

Directing * ???The Hurt Locker??? Kathryn Bigelow

Would love to have seen Chris Plummer win something but Waltz's performance was just so absurdly good I don't think anyone can beat him.

I agree that Waltz is also a done deal. I don't see Bigelow as a lock, although she is definitely the most deserving. I'll be pulling for her, most definitely, but it's going to be tough when you have these beastly production like Avatar to go up against. Just my take.

It's crazy to see such an overwhelming reaction to an acting job like Waltz's. I'm in full agreement, I just think it's sort of fascinating to see how not one person doesn't agree that this was by far and away the performance of the year (at least in my experience). Dude is on a whole other level in that role.

neil_something

All I know is that these two really should be a lock:

Actor in a Supporting Role * Christoph Waltz in ???Inglourious Basterds???

Directing * ???The Hurt Locker??? Kathryn Bigelow

Would love to have seen Chris Plummer win something but Waltz's performance was just so absurdly good I don't think anyone can beat him.

I agree that Waltz is also a done deal. I don't see Bigelow as a lock, although she is definitely the most deserving. I'll be pulling for her, most definitely, but it's going to be tough when you have these beastly production like Avatar to go up against. Just my take.

It's crazy to see such an overwhelming reaction to an acting job like Waltz's. I'm in full agreement, I just think it's sort of fascinating to see how not one person doesn't agree that this was by far and away the performance of the year (at least in my experience). Dude is on a whole other level in that role.

I agree.

I also think it's unfortunate that it is considered a supporting role.

waxjunky

All I know is that these two really should be a lock:

Actor in a Supporting Role * Christoph Waltz in ???Inglourious Basterds???

Directing * ???The Hurt Locker??? Kathryn Bigelow

Would love to have seen Chris Plummer win something but Waltz's performance was just so absurdly good I don't think anyone can beat him.

I agree that Waltz is also a done deal. I don't see Bigelow as a lock, although she is definitely the most deserving. I'll be pulling for her, most definitely, but it's going to be tough when you have these beastly production like Avatar to go up against. Just my take.

It's crazy to see such an overwhelming reaction to an acting job like Waltz's. I'm in full agreement, I just think it's sort of fascinating to see how not one person doesn't agree that this was by far and away the performance of the year (at least in my experience). Dude is on a whole other level in that role.

I agree.

I also think it's unfortunate that it is considered a supporting role.

That's a good point.

pcmr

i mean the invictus thing is mad suspect

is it because it's mandela

that film was on no one's radar no oscar buzz watsoever

DB_Cooper

i mean the invictus thing is mad suspect

is it because it's mandela

that film was on no one's radar no oscar buzz watsoever

White folks saving minorities-related.

Lucious_Fox

mannybolone

Inglorious B was an ensemble film. I don't think there was a single, conventional "leading" role in that so, by default, all roles are supporting.

I agree - I think Waltz is a good lock for the prize though it's a tough category considering that a lot of Hollywood folks would likely also be pulling for Tucci (who put in two very good supporting roles this past year and hasn't really been honored before) and never count out the old dudes (in this case, Christopher Plummer). That said, I still think Waltz is the one to beat.

For best director - under other circumstances, it'd probably be Cameron but I think people still found his last acceptance speech so dislikable, I could see people voting against him just in spite. I don't think he deserves it, by the way, but "Avatar" seems to be on a juggernaught pace. I could see the Academy swaying over to Bigelow since A) it's a better film and B) it'd make history.

I don't think Bridges is a lock but I don't think Clooney has it sewn either. I do think it'll be one of those two.

Best Actress is fascinating this year. Have no idea which way that will lean.

white_tea

Saw Up in the Air over the weekend -- decent little film. Not huge in scope, and Clooney plays a fairly straight-laced dude, which seems not even a stretch of his own persona. If Juno hadn't been such a sleeper hit, no one would even be talking about Up in the Air or Reitman though.

DOR

Actor in a Supporting Role * Christoph Waltz in ???Inglourious Basterds???

m_dejean

I saw Inglorious Basterds for the first time a couple of days ago (late pass) and Christoph Waltz straight killed it (literally). Enjoyed his character a lot. I usually don't follow the oscars much, but he definitely deserves an award for that performance.

rootlesscosmo

am I the only one in the world that thought Hurt Locker was weak? I mean the *directing* was fine as far as that went, but what a weak story.

"Here's the time we diffused the bomb in front of the house; then there was the time we diffused the one at the UN compound; then there was this other one...and oh yeah the one dude is hella mental and uncooperative the whole time and is apparently unable to function in normal society when he gets back."

*yawn*.

deathvalley90210

am I the only one in the world that thought Hurt Locker was weak? I mean the *directing* was fine as far as that went, but what a weak story.

"Here's the time we diffused the bomb in front of the house; then there was the time we diffused the one at the UN compound; then there was this other one...and oh yeah the one dude is hella mental and uncooperative the whole time and is apparently unable to function in normal society when he gets back."

*yawn*.

i really enjoyed the parts about defusing the bombs, but the various bits of story that linked them were a bit of a snore, so it wasn't that different your standard action movie. overall, i enjoyed the film, but chuckled to myself a bit about how hyper-masculine the aforementioned bits of story that linked the action were. "the only things that are more masculine than what these dudes do for a living are the things they do when they are off work: get drunk and punch each other in the stomach, play first person shooters, work on cars, drink and listen to ministry, risk their lives to solve imagined crimes, go shopping and only manage to get soft drinks, brood/have manly talks with 2 year olds about how much a bummer life is going to turn out to be."

rootlesscosmo

haha yeah.

bassie

I have held off commenting on it because it is so well-liked around here and I am becoming the resident movie-grump.
There was something loosely likable about it for me, because I like films in which "nothing happens"...a series of events with a common link and then it's over with no ending.
But it was not a movie I needed to see. It did not tell me anything I did not know; not necessarily in fact, but in my gut. I guess you can say that about any artform, that sometimes all it gives you is the experience and doesn???t tell you anything, doesn???t inform you.
It was not an experience I needed in my life. And I should mention that as a rule I do not like war films, but after hearing so many good things about it, I went.
The desert ambush scene was good, but hardly carried the whole movie.
The conversation between James and Sanborn in the jeep was so terribly written and such a wasted opportunity, I was amazed.
The American soldiers as caring heroes was heavy-handed, as was using James to illustrate the American addiction to war.

mannybolone

I have held off commenting on it because it is so well-liked around here and I am becoming the resident movie-grump.
There was something loosely likable about it for me, because I like films in which "nothing happens"...a series of events with a common link and then it's over with no ending.
But it was not a movie I needed to see. It did not tell me anything I did not know; not necessarily in fact, but in my gut. I guess you can say that about any artform, that sometimes all it gives you is the experience and doesn???t tell you anything, doesn???t inform you.
It was not an experience I needed in my life. And I should mention that as a rule I do not like war films, but after hearing so many good things about it, I went.
The desert ambush scene was good, but hardly carried the whole movie.
The conversation between James and Sanborn in the jeep was so terribly written and such a wasted opportunity, I was amazed.
The American soldiers as caring heroes was heavy-handed, as was using James to illustrate the American addiction to war.

I actually thought the film handled all that stuff quite deftly and I certainly did not see James as an allegorical figure for America. I thought the end of the film - where he goes back home for a spell - very clearly indicates a kind of personal arc, not a national one.

And I thought the convo between James and Sanborn was quite well-written. It was Mamet-level scripting but it wasn't supposed to be. James can't really explain why he loves what he does - he's not meant to be "understood" with any kind of simplistic pathology.

But hey, that's the beauty of the subjective experience.

fishmongerfunk

hurt locker was one of the best films i've seen all year. i especially liked that they avoided sanctimony, preachiness, or sentimentality.

then you get that sandra bullock movie about white rich ladies saving promising black youths from themselves and their self-destructive culture nominated for best picture and her for best actress.

bullshit Hollywood politics....

mannybolone

BTW: I don't see Renner coming anywhere near Best Actor. I liked dude in this but I wasn't that bowled over by his performance.

Breez

i mean the invictus thing is mad suspect

is it because it's mandela

that film was on no one's radar no oscar buzz watsoever

White folks saving minorities-related.

HAHA, always a winner

bassie

I actually thought the film handled all that stuff quite deftly and I certainly did not see James as an allegorical figure for America. I thought the end of the film - where he goes back home for a spell - very clearly indicates a kind of personal arc, not a national one.

.....

But hey, that's the beauty of the subjective experience.

lol - ain't that the truth!

I would have conceived the James/America allegory to a lesser degree if not for the end when he goes home. Only once back in the States, especially the scene in the supermarket, did it really feel that way to me.
Until then, in Iraq, it just so happened to be through an American lens, and of course they "represent" America as its soldiers. Yet, a lot of it was a collective experience imo, what many youngish soldiers of the Western world must go through.

I am not disputing your points, just saying why I think what I do.

motown67

Invictus probably got a nod because Clint Eastwood made it along with the saving minorities, feel good theme. Was not a bad movie actually, but not great by any means.

I also liked Hurt Locker a lot. I thought the bomb scenes were suspense filled.

deanosounds

District 9 for best picture wtf?

explain this to me

mannybolone

District 9 for best picture wtf?

explain this to me

10 spots to fill. You gotta find stuff.

deanosounds

I can think of about a dozen starting with the white ribbon, single man,

mannybolone

I can think of about a dozen starting with the white ribbon, single man,

Sure but saying - the Academy is not exactly known for having impeccable, unassailable taste.

waxjunky

BTW: I don't see Renner coming anywhere near Best Actor. I liked dude in this but I wasn't that bowled over by his performance.

His nomination was his award. Now he's closer to the inner circle, with opportunities to make or break it on the horizon.