Best Picture:
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winters Bone
Thoughts: 7 of my top 10 movies, and 9 of my top 12 were nominated for best picture, so obviously I think the academy got this category spot on. The one film that was nominated that I felt was nothing special was Winter's Bone. Even with the move to 10 nominees, this is a two horse race. The Social Network is the overwhelming favorite and The King's Speech is mounting a strong surge behinds its 12 nominations. I think that The Social Network will and should win, but I can't say that The King's Speech would not be a deserving winner as well.
Best Actor:
Javier Bardem (Biutiful)
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)
Who I would have nominated:
1. Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
2. James Franco (127 Hours)
3. Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
4. Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter)
5. Leonardo DiCaprio (Shutter Island)
- I have not seen Biutiful
- James Franco was my vote for best actor until I saw The King's Speech at which point it was obvious that a win by anyone other than Firth would be shameful.
Best Actress:
Annett Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)
Who I would have nominated:
1. Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
2. Anne Hathaway (Love and Other Drugs)
3. Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
4. Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right)
5. Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
- A couple of differences here. I loved Hathaway in Love and Other Drugs and feel she is being criminally overlooked. I was very happy to see Kidman recognized for the extremely well done and little seen story of grief, Rabbit Hole. Like I said before I was just not a fan of Winter's Bone and the same goes for Lawrence. I recognize the quality acting in Blue Valentine but found the movie itself appalling. This is another two horse race between Portman and Bening but frankly it is race brought on by politics not quality of work. Bening is very good in The Kids Are All Right, but her performance is predicated on the other quality acting performances in the movie, whereas Portman absolutely carries her movie in by far the more difficult role. People point to the fact that Bening has been a great actress for years and has never won an Oscar while Portman is still young and will have other opportunties, but those people seem to have forgotten this is not the most deserved/overdue actress, it the best actress, and that is far and away Portman this year.
Best Supporting Actor:
Christian Bale (The Fighter)
John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)
Jeremy Renner (The Town)
Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)
Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)
Who I would have nominated:
1. Christian Bale (The Fighter)
2. Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)
3. Andrew Garfield (The Social Network)
4. Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)
5. Jeremy Renner (The Town)
- If there was one category that declared The Social Network was not the automatic winner for Best Picture it was Best Supporting Actor. The snub of Andrew Garfield proved that there are some skeptics on the movie. Otherwise all you need to know about this category is that Bale wins in a landslide for his great performance in The Fighter.
Best Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech)
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)
Who I would have nominated:
1. Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
2. Marrion Cottilard (Inception)
3. Michelle Williams (Shutter Island)
4. Mila Kunis (Black Swan)
5. Amy Adams (The Fighter)
-I have not seen Animal Kingdom
- This is historically the hardest category to make predictions on. I have a couple of complaints about the nominees. The fact that Hailee Steinfeld was nominated for best SUPPORTING actress is completely absurd considering she has the most screen time of anyone else in True Grit and the movie is ABOUT her. I also think that Helena Bonham Carter getting nominated for The King's Speech says a lot more about the overall love for that movie than for her performance which was not that special of a role if you ask me. If I was voting I would go with Leo for The Fighter but I have heard good things about Weaver in Animal Kingdom which I have not seen.
Best Director:
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)
David Russell (The Fighter)
Who I would have nominated:
1. David Fincher (The Social Network)
2. Christopher Nolan (Inception)
3. Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
4. Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)
5. Danny Boyle (127 Hours)
- The glaring omission here is the unexplainable absence of Nolan for Inception. He was nominated for his writing in the original screenplay category but that is no excuse for his absence here. I am not sure what he did to make people mad at him but it is obvious there are people holding grudges for something. I have nothing against Russell but I would have preferred to see Boyle for 127 hours because I think his directing had a bigger hand in making that movie enjoyable than Russell did in The Fighter. All of that said this is a pretty safe category to assume Fincher will win for his brilliant directing of The Social Network on top of being well overdue for a trophy.
Next post I will tackle the writing nominees and some of the tech categories (Stay Tuned)
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