Without the aid of caffiene or deep REM sleep, here's my shakedown on what did (or didn't) get nominated for the Little Naked Shiny Guy Awards:
*The cuts to the "Man on Street" interviews for the general public's favorite movies of the year is giving some great credence to the idea of mass firebombing.
*I like Franco and Hathaway, but man, I wish they'd bring back Steve Martin or Jon Stewart.
*It is way too fucking early to have to suffer Mo'Nique.
*All in all, a pretty damn great set of nominations, all for pretty damn great films. Nolan not getting a director's nod for Inception pretty much dashes my hopes that it would win Best Picture, but it's hard to argue with who got in there instead. King's Speech got the most nominations, but Social Network's got the early heat. It's going to be one of those two, with True Grit hanging out in the middle, abiding.
Full list and comments after the jump.
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
Hey, look, no red state pandering like last year! We've already won. Also pretty awesome: other than Winter's Bone, which never broke out of the art house circuit, almost all the films nominated were not only deserving of a nomination, but also box office successes! I do like that 2010 was the kind of year where True Grit and Black Swan could outperform pre-fabricated nonsense like Prince of Persia.
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
Fincher's likely got this in the bag; we'll see how the DGA goes. He took a movie about Facebook--which, when first announced, made me think it was going to be some brightly lit, obnoxious comedy--and made it, well, interesting. I don't know about it being the Voice of a Generation, but silly labels aside, it was strong, confident work. If Nolan had been nominated--and really, how was he not?!--this would be a horse race, but since he wasn't, it isn't. Aronofsky is the dark horse, especially since audiences seem to be really responding to his 100 minute session in making you crazy.
BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem-- Biutiful
Jeff Bridges-- True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg-- The Social Network
Colin Firth-- The King's Speech
James Franco-- 127 Hours
I can see Eisenberg or Franco pulling off an upset, but outside of that happening, this is Colin Firth's to lose this year.
BEST ACTRESS
Annete Benning-- The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman-- Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence-- Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman-- Black Swan
Michelle Williams-- Blue Valentine
Benning seems destined to be always the bridesmaid, never the bride, because hey guess what, this already has Natalie Portman's name engraved on it.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale-- The Fighter
John Hawks-- Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner-- The Town
Mark Ruffalo-- The Kids Are All RightGeoffery Rush-- The King's Speech
I love that Jeremy Renner's Cagney-esque performance in The Town got some love, though for Renner, again, it's just nice to be nominated. This is Bale's year to shine, and he seems to love the fact that he finally got to do a role that let him smile. It's his this year, with a possible upset by Rush for his lovely turn in The King's Speech. Although Rush makes me ponder for a time when the Academy would recognize that sometimes a film has two leads, and not relegate one above the other.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams-- The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter-- The King's Speech
Melissa Leo-- The Fighter
Halee Steinfeld-- True Grit (despite the fact that she's THE LEAD ROLE)
Jacki Weaver-- Animal Kingdom
Like I said above, Steinfeld really should have been in the Best Actress category, since her character is the main character, and she walks away with the movie. But it's her first film and she's only 14, so she gets the "smaller" nomination, but in some ways this is befitting, since in this category she's all but assured victory. Adams and Leo for The Fighter will cancel each other out, though both did great work. Carter and Weaver both got their recognition with the nomination, thus leaving the battlefield open for Halee to make her way.
BEST SCREENPLAY, ORIGINAL
Another Year
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
I haven't seen The Kids Are All Right yet, but it seems like the kind of film hinged on its scripts and the actors delivery, so it might have an outside shot. I think Inception will take this one for how ingeniously it's structured on a script level, and how it plays with big ideas and a big story on a big canvas, and did so in a way that you can see straight through the window dressing and see the script's work at play as well. If that doesn't get it, then The King's Speech will, since it too is all about the dialogue.
BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone
If there's one place Social Network has a sure fire bet, it's here. Sorkin, now clean and (mostly) sober, had been doing phenomenal work on television for the last ten years, and pretty great screenwork for a while, too; Charlie Wilson's War is delightful. His script for Social Network juggles three different timelines effortlessly, filled with great lines and knowing when to let a moment be big or small. There's no other work in this category that comes close.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Black Swan
Inception
The King's Speech
The Social Network
True Grit
Give it to Deakins already. The man's been the top of the field for damn near 20 years now, and has never won. Sad thing is, most of the times he's lost it's been to other worthy opponents, and this year is no different. Black Swan is a very visual film, Inception has some truly envelope pushing techniques, and The King's Speech has similarly great, if much more subtle, techniques of putting you in the main character's head. This is usually the toughest category to call, and this year is no different.
BEST EDITING
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
BEST FORIGEN FILM
Biutiful
Dogtooth
A Better World
Incendies
Outside the Law
I'm horrible at predicting these, but go Dogtooth for being the first surrealistic comedy about incest to be nominated for an Oscar. Note how I said incest, not inbred.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land
I really hope Exit takes this, because I want to see if and how Banksy shows up.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3
Toy Story 3 will likely walk away with it, but for the first time since Spirited Away I'm betting against Pixar and for someone else; in this event, the spectacular How To Train Your Dragon. But since Toy Story nabbed the Best Picture slot, its win will be here.
BEST SOUND EDITING
Inception
Toy Story 3
Tron: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable
BEST SOUND MIXING
Inception
The King's Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit
Cue people who can't figure out the difference between nominating the film and nominating the work bitching about Salt and Unstoppable getting nominations for their SOUND WORK.
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Alice in Wonderland
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2
This list might be the most perplexing. Alice in Wonderland seems to be less "quality" visual effects, more "sheer amount of CGI shit relentlessly thrown in your face." Iron Man 2 had good effects work, it just didn't really jump out at me at any point as nomination-worthy. Hereafter had a pretty iffy-looking tsunami wave, but kudos, I guess, for getting Clint to do something with special effects in it (seems like a once-every-ten-years kind of thing for him). About the only one here that really screams "Oscar!" is Inception, which of course is why it will win.
BEST MAKEUP
The Way Back
The Wolf Man
The category is so easy to call, it's practically on speed dial.
BEST SONG
Country Strong
Tangeled
127 Hours
Toy Story 3
This category usually has five nominations. Hey, Academy, there's totally a spot open for Scott Pilgrim's "Threshold!" Make this right!
BEST 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 and Atticus Ross--The Social Network
A lot of great work done this year get noticed, most notably John Powell getting his first Oscar nod for Dragon. That film's nomination is also great news, since pretty much every other score-related nomination list had left him off of it. He's my personal favorite to win, but in all likelihood this is a horse race between Hans Zimmer and the Reznor/Ross team, both for worthy work.
BEST ART DIRECTION
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part I
Inception
The King's Speech
True Grit
Eh.
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Alice in Wonderland
I Am Love
The King's Speech
The Tempest
True Grit
Eh.
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