Today is my Christmas, hand to God. The morning of the Oscar nomination announcements give me more anticipation and pleasure than any holiday. Like every Oscar nomination list every single year, there is bound to be some snubs, some surprises, and some sure things. Drama! Add to that existing drama this little incident – ABC “leaked” several of the nominees about twenty minutes before the announcement! But some of those “leaked” were bullsh-t. So whatever. Before I even get to the nominations, let me just give my list for who I think/thought would be the frontrunners:
Best Picture: Avatar
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique
Let’s see where my list falls with this year’s big nominees:
Best Picture: Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A serious Man, Up, Up In the Air
Best Director: James Cameron (Avatar), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Quentin Tarantino (Basterds), Lee Daniels (Precious) and Jason Reitman (Up In the Air)
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe, Meryl Streep
Best Actor: George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman and Jeremy Renner
Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick and Mo’Nique
Best Supporting Actor: Matt Damon, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Plummer, Stanley Tucci and Christoph Waltz.
[From The Oscar Website – Complete List Here]
Thoughts? My boy Jeremy Renner got the Best Actor nomination! Yeah! Good for him, he’s very deserving. I’m also thrilled with Matt Damon’s nom for Invictus, and with all the nominations for Precious, especially Gaby Sidibe’s. Who got snubbed? Everyone from Nine, except for Penelope Cruz. No dual nominations for Meryl Streep, either. Also, no Best Director nomination or Best Picture nom for Clint Eastwood for Invictus. And no Julianne Moore from A Single Man, although Colin Firth is probably thrilled with his nomination.
Promotional images from ‘The Blind Side’, ‘Precious’, ‘Up In the Air’, ‘Inglourious Basterds’, ‘The Hurt Locker’, ‘Invictus’ ‘A Single Man’, ‘Julie & Julia’ and ‘Crazy Heart’. Credit: WENN.
Quentin Tarantino? Really? For what? That inglorious movie or for the pot exposure? kkkkk
Sandra Bullock??????
District 9 nominated for best picture? = :happy face:
Jeremy Renner gets a nomination? = :confused face: I liked the movie but whaaa?
Why not nominate Sam Rockwell for Moon- or even Nicolase Cage for Bad Lieutenant?
edit; for the record I hated up in the air and I hate those smug fecker ‘s Clooney & Reitman.
No huge surprises, but a decent list.
I never did see Inglorious Basterds, but I just don’t care for Tarantino. I know a lot of people love his films, but most of them just aren’t for me.
I’d like to see Kathryn Bigelow win. Has a woman ever won that category? Plus James Cameron bugs me.
Jeff Bridges for the win!! George Clooney already has an Oscar, he doesn’t need another one! I’m also very happy with the Sherlock Holmes tech nominations, it’s good to see it get some recognition. Hopefully it will win something and it won’t all go to Avatar.
@ Lucy2 I think Jane Campion won for The Piano
why sandra bullock????????
Yay District 9! Too bad Avatar is more likely to win. Life is unfair 🙁
Inglourious Basterds for Best Picture? really? That was such a stupid movie.
but Avatar is a materpiece and clooney suck it, because jeff bridges got this
@gloaming I thought I was the only one that saw Moon! It was great!!
YIPPIEE FOR COLIN FIRTH!!!!!!!! I LOVE HIM!!!!!!!
REALLY surprised (but glad) that District 9 was nominated.
I enjoyed it very much but I’m surprised that the Academy, who has a history of overlooking movies like that, actually gave it a nod.
I’m just amazed as this is the first year in a LONG time that I’ve actually seen some of the best pic nominees. Looking forward to Inglorious as I haven’t seen it yet…also want to see Precious.
I agree with Gloaming – Sam Rockwell worked his socks off for “Moon” and it’s editing was even better than District 9!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Clooney got nominated for the wrong film. He was very very good in Up In The Air, but I thought he was better in “The Men Who Stare At Goats”. Jeff Bridges was good in it too.
I know that this will be considered sacrilege, but I thought Amy Adams was better in ‘Julie & Julia’ than Meryl! And I thought Stanley Tucci was great too.
The film is depressing as hell, but I’m surprised there’s no nod for Viggo Mortensen for “The Road”. I’ve never really been enamoured with Morgan Freeman’s acting, so I’d much rather see Viggo here than Freeman getting it for doing a (South African accent (I would like to think Hollywood would have more class than to nominate him solely for playing Nelson Mandela; leave me to my delusion). In fairness I’ve not seen ‘Invictus’ yet.
Of all the countless really great TRUE performances by actresses, these idiots pick Sandra bullock??! Really?? lol this alone makes the Oscars lose all sorts of credibility. Talk about a FAIL.
oooh and congrats to the two Irish(-Belgian-French) animated movies that got nominated (The Secret of Kells and Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty) The Secret of Kells’ll be trounced by “Up”, but well done anyway 🙂 Brown Bag films have been nominated before, nor will they win this time, but yay for them anyway!
I don’t understand Sandra Bullock either ! Must be a popularity contest. She seems well loved in the industry. I much prefer Mulligan performance.
Thrilled for Matt Damon nom althought it will likely go to Waltz.Loved Clooney in up in the air but Jeff Bridges’ oscar is long overdue.
I just watched District 9 last week and was really surprised by how much I liked it. It was nothing what I expected and I didn’t even know Peter Jackson directed it.
I really thought it would be humans fighting aliens and things exploding, I was pleasantly surprised that it actually had a really good story. If you haven’t seen it yet, bump it up on your Netflix que.
I still don’t get the Avatar hype. Yes, the movie is visually gorgeous and an enormous technical achievement, but the story is old and recycled. Please, please, please let a well-written, well-acted, original concept like District 9 or The Hurt Locker win this year. The Academy could use the credibility boost.
Also, I love Up, but I thought animated features could no longer be nominated for Best Picture after Beauty and the Beast nearly won so many years ago. Isn’t that why they created the Best Animated Feature category?
Peter Jackson did not direct District 9. He produced it.
Not to nitpick, but I 100% agree with you Mairead about Morgan Freeman.
If his accent is terrible, how can he considered the best of 2009 for the role? Accent is a part of portraying the character. For most of us a poor accent takes us out of the movie — especially people from the country of origin.
regarding District 9…
IMO, one of the things I thought made it so good (and watchable) was that the actors were virtual unknowns in the US so, that aspect, along with the documentary style, made it more believable because the viewer wasn’t distracted by the “celebrity” of the characters.
there are some actors that I can’t see as anything but themselves, and this film seemed to go out of its way to counter that.
Thanks Kolby! I saw his name in the credits and assumed he directed it.
Yay for posters who wanted Sam Rockwell nominated for Moon. LOVED that movie. I also think the soundtrack for Moon should’ve been nominated. It’s so haunting and gorgeous. And to those who think “Inglorious Basterds” is “stupid”. No, it is not stupid. Maybe you didn’t like it, and that’ just fine, but not liking something does not make it stupid. That movie is complex and intelligent. Tarantino, weird as he may be, is a master when he’s on point.
Why are people so surprised by these nominations? Sandra Bullock, Morgan Freeman, Inglourious Basterds, and other nominations were nominated and winning all season long. Maggie Gyllenhaal is the only surprise.
Jeremy Renner was amazing in The Hurt Locker and by far that is the best pic of the year and bigelow but director but you know those fucks at the academy will pick avatar and cameron (double hate). i get jeff bridges for the win but bullock? seriously, she better not win.
Bullock will get a win in the same vein that the awful Julia Roberts got it for her after-school-special performance in Erin Brokavich. Yes, I’m still pissed about it because Ellen Burstyn was robbed.
the winner for best picture should DEFINITELY be avatar, and James Cameron should win for director of it. Say what you will about the story being done before, but surely you can appreciate how WELL it was done! My god, i felt like i was in Pandora the entire movie! It MAKES that storyline truly feel REAL.
I absolutely love sandra bullock, but i didn’t get the hype about her performance in “the blind side” – and I really didn’t love doubt even though Meryl is the goddess of acting. So idk about best actress.
and there is no way in HELL that Mo’nique won’t win supporting actress. Her performance in Precious was crazy good.
Chris Tucci and Colin Firth are always great…
so excited to see!!!
Bullock’s nom comes as no surprise, what I find appalling is that she will win. There were far superior performances this year.
To the MOON lovers out there – Just read that stupid Sony sabatoged their own film’s Oscar chances because they didn’t send out screeners to avoid pirating. Idiots! A cursory search of bittorrent sites would indicate it’s already all over the place anyhow. Plus they were selling the DVD for $40 freakin’ dollars with no bonus disc. Talk about inspiring pirating! They blew it. Moon was such an original concept superbly acted and scored, not to mention the technical aspect with all the amazing set models. I hate Sony. See Moon anyway though. Can you tell I loved it?
Oh, and Allison, I agree. Sure, Avatar is a classic hero’s journey and a version of a David vs Goliath type of tale. Almost all stories are some variation on a universal theme. But nobody has told it in this way for sure! It’s brilliant in every aspect. Perfection on a giant scale.
@gloaming … According to wikipedia (if you believe that site), “No woman has ever won best director, and only four have ever been nominated: Lina Wertmüller for 1976’s Seven Beauties, Jane Campion for 1993’s The Piano, Sofia Coppola for 2003’s Lost in Translation, and Kathryn Bigelow for 2009’s The Hurt Locker.”
I haven’t seen Avatar, but I really liked District 9, Inglourious Basterds and Up. I’m not much of a Tarantino fan, (though I did like Pulp Fiction), but that movie was funny and kept both me and my boyfriend interested (which is really hard to do).
yay Moon love! The bf and I just bought it (FYI it was only 19.99, not 40.00 dollars as someone else suggested) and were totally blown away! We both love Sam Rockwell though ( Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is one of my fave movies ever) so maybe we are biased.
Did you guys know that David Bowie’s son is the director and I think also one of the writers of Moon? Pretty talented celebrity kid!
i loved Moon and sam rockwell should definately have been nominated instead of morgan freeman. i’m an avatar hater so i don’t want it to win but it win. bullock winning truly would be a travesty.
Julianne Moore was in A Single Man for all of like 20 minutes. That movie is really all about Colin Firth, so not surprised she didn’t get a nom. Good for Colin, although Jeff Bridges will probably win. Can’t wait to see his movie–comes out in my area this weekend.
I’m with all of you Moon lovers and Avatar haters. I would love to see Kathryn Bigelow win Best Director and rub it in Cameron’s face.
Somebody’s ass is gettin fired at Sony!
There are a few standout movies for me this year but Blind Side wasn’t one of them, neither was Precious tbh. Though Monique was superb in the latter.
I think Sandra Bullock is being anointed because her movies have grossed more than any other female actress,(over $1billion?) the same reason Julia Roberts won hers.
The “perfection” people seem to be touting in Avatar is the result of special effects, and the Academy Awards has a category for that. Two, actually. Glorious special effects do not a Best Picture make. Believe it or not, the STORY and PERFORMACES are also important. A Best Picture Oscar winner should have all three.
‘Inglourious Basterds’ is a good film overall, but it’s very uneven. The WW2-as-a-western concept worked very well. And there were some fantastic performances, esp. Christoph Waltz and some stunning set pieces, especially the opening scene, which is one of the best I’ve seen in years. But the fact was that almost anytime the Americans landed on screen it seemed like they wandered in from a different film. They were funny enough, but the direction was patchy.
I really enjoyed “Up In The Air” as well, but I’m not convinced it’s one of the best of the year.
And why no “500 Days of Summer” in the screenplay – it’s the best non-rom-com out for years with a beautifully-balanced script, as well as great performances by Joseph Gordon Levitt & Zooey Deschanel! Booooo @ the Academy
But woooo for the Matt Damon and Maggie Gyllenhaal noms 😀
Gloaming according to numbers.com. Julia’s movies have grossed $4.8 billion worlwide, Meryl $3.45B, Angelina Jolie $3.43B Sandra Bullock $3.147B
The Avatar script was woeful but I really enjoyed the whole spectacle of the film.
James Cameron needs to hire some writers because I think, as a film maker, that’s his weakness.
But you have to hand it to him, the man has cojones.
@jenna- Your right, Jane Campion won for best screenplay.
@Kim- Oh. Wrong again.
On a side note, I hope CB sets up a chat room like last year. Watching the Oscars here with other bitches was a really good laugh.
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious should win Best Actress for her brillinat portrayal of a victim of abuse.
The Academy Awards don’t do dual nominations in the same category- ie. Meryl Streep could be nominated twice in the Best Actress category for two separate performances, but for the Oscars the Academy has to choose one of the performances to feature.
@ Kolby: totaly agree. I dont think Avatar should win best Picture. I want it to win best Special effect tough.
Bullock WILL win, of that I am certain. Like a couple of people have already said, in the end, the Oscars are a popularity contest, and everyone feels Sandra has “paid her dues,” that it’s “her year,” etc. It definitely is the Julia Roberts/Erin Brockovich thing all over again. Hey, at least Bullock tried a different accent in this one. Roberts just played her big ol’ horsey self, like she always, always does.
Et tu, Trillion? 😉
Avatar was indeed a great movie on many levels, but I honestly don’t think it trumps “The Hurt Locker” and certainly not “District 9.” Oh, and Sharlto Copley should have been nominated for his superb performance — I can’t believe that was his first professional acting gig!
Ps: Totally agree with your assessment of Julia Roberts’ Oscar … ugh.
Jeff Bridges should get an oscar he was awwwwwwwwwwwesome in Carzy Heart.
I’m so happy that D9 has got a few noms, that movie was one of my favs of 2009, brilliant film on many levels.
And I agree with everyone about this being Sandys ‘year’ and how its another Julia Roberts thing all over again *sigh*.
I hope Jeff Bridges wins, I luurrrve him and I don’t want to see smarmy George win.
If they decide to give James Cameron a 2nd directing Oscar, I’ll be really peeved.
Martin Scorsese received his only Oscar ONLY two years ago! Stanley Kubrick NEVER won! And James Cameron might get TWO Oscars for his last two films?
Big time fail!
Ciao Codzilla! I’ll be blown away if Dist. 9 takes the win but would be stoked if it did. It’s not perfect, but it’s the most original of the lot, is superbly acted, and shows great use of special effects without being overblown. Plus I like an underdog. South Africa represent!
More about Moon: The director/writer, Duncan Jones changed his given name of Zowie Bowie. Good call. I saw Moon at the SF Film Fest. and afterwards for the Q & A, someone had to go to the bar and find him. He was almost a no-show! I hope he writes and directs more great, original, strange stuff.
I guess I’m in the minority here, b/c I hated District 9 (it didn’t move me in the least), thought Avatar was cheesy (Pandora?–sounds like a teenage boy’s fantasy), only like the second half of Inglorious (when the revenge killing started), and everything else underwhelmed me (except 500 Days of Summer and The Hurt Locker). It was a sucky year for movies overall.
I’ve actually seen some of the best movies nominated this year! Up in the Air, Precious, Avatar, and the Blind Side. I’m surprised an alien movie (District 9) was nominated to, that doesn’t happen often?
Out of the movies I’ve seen I would say it should go to Avatar. No, the story is not original but that is not the point. It’s the whole universe of Pandora that is the focus of the movie.
I liked Bullock in The Blind Side and I thought she did well but I’m not sure if she deserves the Oscar. I would really like Anna Kendrick from Up in the Air to get Best Supporting Actress. And for Princess and the Frog to win Best Animated Whatever, it was cute! 🙂
this is who i’d like to win:
Best Picture: Inglorious Basterds/Precious
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Best Actor: George Clooney
Best Actress: Gabourey Sidibe
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique
Some people don’t receive noms because the studios don’t actively campaign for them either due to lack of critical and/or public response, lack of money, or apathy. It’s 10% critical acclaim and 90% who can campaign the loudest and toss around the most dough. Seriously. Example: the only reason that Precious has done so well is because it made a strong showing at Cannes in which it received a rousing response from the public and probably picked up a major distributer. Then you had Oprah and Tyler Perry promoting it. Suddenly everyone knew about the film. Thank God it translated into indie box office sales, because you wouldn’t see it with as many noms at it has otherwise.
It hasnt really been a great year for movies. Avatar was visually breathtaking and I really enjoyed it, but nowhere near in the same league as The Departed, No country or even Slumdog. I really dont see what all the fuss is about up in the air. I did not find it nearly as good as Crazy Heart.I absolutely worship Jeff Bridges; one of Hollywoods greatest. The fact that he has been overlooked for so long is a crime. But luckily if (hopefully when) he wins it will definitely be for his incredible performance and not cos hes ‘due one’. And Bullock???? If she wins and Streep gets overlooked yet again -yes 14 times in the last 27 years she has been snubbed – I will not be happy!!The Academy should just stop nominating Streep if shes never going to win- I know she has 2, but as I said the last one was 27 years ago!! Also, Her portrayal of Julia Child was an absolute joy to watch.No one else could have pulled that one off. Id like to see Bullock try that role. Yet Streep could stroll though the role Bullock played. Some critics waffle on about this not being ‘her best performance’ that if she didn’t get one for out of africa or doubt or…- i could keep going – she doesnt really deserve one for such a ‘lighthearted’ role. Her biggest competition is herself. She is such an incredible actress she is always being compared to other roles she has played in the past and not won for. If she doesnt win the Oscar this year it is only because she is too good.
Adore this film, John Travolta plays a good part in the film