This morning, the 2011 Academy Award Nominations were announced. The full list may be found on the Oscars official Web site here, but the best picture nominees are below:
Best Picture
- “Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
- “The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
- “Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
- “The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
- “The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
- “127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
- “The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
- “Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer
- “True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
- “Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers
What are your surprises? Did a movie make the list of nominees that you felt was undeserving? Did the Academy fail to nominate a movie you felt was more deserving? Which one of the nominees do you think will win? Post a comment and let us know!
As for me, I have a difficult time picking between “The Social Network” and “The King’s Speech”, which I saw in my movie class last fall (please click here for the review). I don’t think “Toy Story 3” will win because it’s also nominated in the Best Animated Feature Film category, which is where I believe it will get its Oscar. Also, I’m still not crazy about expanding the list to 10 because it feels somewhat diluted; I wish they would go back to 5 – if they did, I doubt a film like “Inception” would make it on the list (although I did like it quite a good deal).
Just in case you missed it, here’s a video clip of the announcement:
I haven't given a rat's ass about the Academy Awards since 1951, when they gave an award to Humphrey Bogart (for "African Queen") over Marlon Brando (for "Streetcar Named Desire") in an obvious attempt to make up for previous snubs. Clearly, Bogey deserved recognition for his career achievements, but this particular film was DOO-DOO compared to Brando's work in "Streetcar."
ReplyDeleteEver since then, I've recognized "the Academy" for exactly what they are: nothing more than pseudo-intellectual masturbation.
Hello, Anonymous and thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteI completely understand your frustration with The Academy -- their selections sometimes seem unfair (not unlike life itself ... but anyway ... ).
While I certainly don't want to defend that particular decision, my guess is that Brando won it because he had something of an unfair advantage -- he first played the role on Broadway for quite a while before appearing in the movie version. As a result, he had plenty of time to wring out every single nuance of the character. Bogart's role, however, was a one-shot deal for the movie.
Is it comparing apples to oranges? Perhaps so. Even Bogart himself said that it only made sense to give out awards like "Best Actor" if every actor played the same exact role -- that way, you could compare the performances against each other.