Oscar Road Trip: Nominations

The start of a month long series of posts about movies nominated on the Oscars. Only half an hour ago the Academy announced their nominations. My rather brief thoughts below the listed nominees.

How the road trip will play out is that all of us here will be watching and rewatching the films nominated and giving our picks on who's going to win when the winners are announced on the 27th of February.

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

DIRECTOR:

Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan

David Fincher - The Social Network

Tom Hooper - The King's Speech

Joel & Ethan Coen - True Grit

David O. Russell - The Fighter

ACTOR:

Javier Bardem - Biutiful

Jeff Bridges - True Grit

Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network

Colin Firth - The King's Speech

James Franco - 127 Hours

ACTRESS:

Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right

Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole

Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone

Natalie Portman - Black Swan

Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine

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

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

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Mike Leigh - Another Year

Scott Silver & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson - The Fighter

Christopher Nolan - Inception

Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg - The Kids Are All Right

David Seidler - The King's Speech

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy - 127 Hours

Aaron Sorkin - The Social Network

Michael Arndt - Toy Story 3

Joel Coen & Ethan Coen - True Grit

Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini - Winter's Bone

ANIMATED FEATURE:

How to Train Your Dragon

The Illusionist

Toy Story 3

ORIGINAL SCORE:
John Powell - How to Train Your Dragon
Hans Zimmer - Inception
Alexandre Desplat - The King's Speech
A.R. Rahman - 127 Hours
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - The Social Network

So there are the nominations. Thoughts? Comment below.

I hate the Oscars!

• Not too sure why David O. Russell got the nomination for Best Director over Christopher Nolan. The Fighter hasn't premiered here yet, and it'll be one of the first films I see, but the subject matter Nolan dished out to audiences in July was unbelievable and handled fantastically. Being overlooked AGAIN [happened previously in 2008 for The Dark Night] really does make me think what kind of stuff is being taken at the Academy.
• Not too sure why Mark Ruffalo got the nomination for Best Supporting Actor for The Kids Are All Right over Andrew Garfield for The Social Network. I really did find Garfield's performance to have such an edge and development that I was captivated more so than I was by Eisenberg. Mark Ruffalo? Not so much.
• Not too sure why A.R. Rahman got the nomination for Best Score for 127 Hours over Daft Punk for Tron: Legacy. We've heard Rahman work before with Boyle on Slumdog Millionaire and he has some fantastic stuff on 127, but comparative to the mood, energy and atmosphere Daft Punk brought to the table for Tron, it's got nothing. The robots deserve at least a nomination if not the damn Oscar itself.

I love the Oscars!

• The King's Speech has received 12 nominations. If it wins all of them, I'll die a very happy man. It's a stunning film. Tom Hooper's direction is exquisite, Colin Firth was wow, Geoffrey Rush was wow, hell, Helena Bonham Carter was fantastic. Hooper managed to pull a character out of Carter that wasn't Bellatrix or a piece of Tim Burton's hair, for that he deserves to win.
• Inception at least got recognised, that's one thing I can take away from the lack of Nolan on the Best Director list.
• Toy Story 3 also got a best picture nomination, it won't win it. But I'm glad that it at least grabbed a nomination, it's a fantastic closer to a fantastic saga.
• Holy crap, supreme turnaround for the Coens! They get 10 nominations overall for True Grit, which my god, deserves the recognition. Jeff Bridges is one of the most badass Cowboys on the planet and it's helmed greatly as usual by the Coens.
• If I could hug Jackie Weaver right now, I would, her performance in Animal Kingdom was superb. She won't win it, but she definitely gets the nomination.
• Screenplays, I've read the majority of them, but I'll save my thoughts for the predictions post in the weeks to come.

Credit to Firstshowing for having swell formatting on their Oscar nomination post. Credit to Oscar for the image.