Oscars 2011

It's that time of year again... Time for the 83rd Academy Awards... hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway. Both are intriguing choices for hosts, neither are comedians, though that doesn't always work (ref: David Letterman) and both are incredibly likeable.

Without further ado, below, please find the listing of nominees (with my choices bolded, natch and what will probably win in italics). To this point, I have seen all best picture nominees with the exception of Inception and 127 Hours. Inception because I just haven't gotten to it yet, and 127 Hours because I don't think I'll be able handle the arm cutting scene.

Best Motion Picture
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Kids are All Right
The Social Network
127 Hours
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
The Kings Speech has been racking up all the recent awards, and not only was it quite good, but I really enjoyed it. That said, I really thought The Social Network was a masterful film. HOwever, I wouldn't be annoyed if The Fighter, Winters Bone, True Grit or The King's Speech won. This was a great year for movies, though I do wonder which will stand the test of time.

Best Actress In A Leading Role
ANNETTE BENING-THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
NICOLE KIDMAN – RABBIT HOLE
JENNIFER LAWRENCE – WINTER’S BONE
NATALIE PORTMAN – BLACK SWAN
MICHELLE WILLIAMS – BLUE VALENTINE
Haven't seen Blue Valentine yet, but I won't be miffed if either Jennifer Lawrence, Natalie Portman or Michelle Williams wins. I heard she was that good.

Best Actor In A Leading Role
JESSE EISENBERG – THE SOCIAL NETWORK
COLIN FIRTH – THE KING’S SPEECH
JAMES FRANCO – 127 HOURS
JEFF BRIDGES – TRUE GRIT
Javier Bardem – BEAUTIFUL
Another ridiculously tough category. Jeff Bridges was great in True Grit, and Colin Firth was wonderful as the stammering Bertie. But, there was just something about Jesse Eisenberg's performance that I just adored.

Best Actress In A Supporting Role
AMY ADAMS – THE FIGHTER
HELENA BONHAM CARTER – THE KING’S SPEECH
JACKI WEAVER – ANIMAL KINGDOM
MELISSA LEO – THE FIGHTER
HAILEE STEINFELD – TRUE GRIT
I think it's a legitimate toss-up between Leo and Steinfeld, but I always feel that the best supporting actor award is give to the young actor. I though Amy Adams was good in The Fighter, mostly holding her own in her scenes with Leo. also heard very good things about Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom, though I have not seen that yet.

Best Actor In A Supporting Role
CHRISTIAN BALE – THE FIGHTER
JOHN HAWKES– WINTER’S BONE
JEREMY RENNER – THE TOWN
GEOFFREY RUSH – THE KING’S SPEECH
MARK RUFFALO – THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
Christian Bale was just smashing. I don't care that he's got quite the temper on him, he can act the heck out of his movies.

Achievement in Directing
DARREN ARONOFSKY – BLACK SWAN
DAVID FINCHER -THE SOCIAL NETWORK
TOM HOOPER – THE KING’S SPEECH
JOEL COEN, ETHAN COEN – TRUE GRIT
DAVID O. RUSSELL – THE FIGHTER
I think this will go the same way as Best Picture in that The Kings Speech will win, but honestly, any of these can win and I'll be content.


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winters Bone
This wasn't actually included in the ballot I copied and pasted from, but I really want Aaron Sorkin to win, and I think he will be. That said, similar to best picture/director, I'd be okay with any of the winners.

Animated Feature Film
How to Train Yor Dragon Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
Toy Story 3 Lee Unkrich
Since it's not going to win Best Picture, Toy Story 3 will notch another victory for Pixar.

Cinematography

“Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
“Inception” Wally Pfister
“The King's Speech” Danny Cohen
“The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth
“True Grit” Roger Deakins
This will probably be taken by either Inception or Black Swan. I'm thinking they're going to give it to Inception, sort of as a make-up for the dis in the Best Director category.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

* “Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
* “The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
* “Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
* “The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
* “The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler
Yes, The Fighter could have been a generic sports story, but it was so much more. You really got to know the characters and the place, and while a lot of that credit goes to the director and actors, it always starts on the page.

And, the rest of the categories which quite frankly, I'm too lazy to go through. Though, in my own defense, I only decided to bring back the Oscar live-blog about an hour ago.


Art Direction
“Alice in Wonderland”
Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
“Inception”
Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
“The King's Speech”
Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Judy Farr
“True Grit”
Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

Another tough category. I'm leaning towards Harry Potter or Inception.

Cinematography

* “Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
* “Inception” Wally Pfister
* “The King's Speech” Danny Cohen
* “The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth
* “True Grit” Roger Deakins

Costume Design

* “Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood
* “I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
* “The King's Speech” Jenny Beavan
* “The Tempest” Sandy Powell
* “True Grit” Mary Zophres

Documentary (Feature)

* “Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
* “Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
* “Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
* “Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
* “Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

Documentary (Short Subject)

* “Killing in the Name” Jed Rothstein
* “Poster Girl” Sara Nesson and Mitchell W. Block
* “Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
* “Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
* “The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

Film Editing

* “Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
* “The Fighter” Pamela Martin
* “The King's Speech” Tariq Anwar
* “127 Hours” Jon Harris
* “The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Foreign Language Film

* “Biutiful” Mexico
* “Dogtooth” Greece
* “In a Better World” Denmark
* “Incendies” Canada
* “Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

Makeup

* “Barney's Version” Adrien Morot
* “The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
* “The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Music (Original Score)

* “How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
* “Inception” Hans Zimmer
* “The King's Speech” Alexandre Desplat
* “127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
* “The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Music (Original Song)

* “Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
* “I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
* “If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
* “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Short Film (Animated)

* “Day & Night” Teddy Newton
* “The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
* “Let's Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
* “The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
* “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois

Short Film (Live Action)

* “The Confession” Tanel Toom
* “The Crush” Michael Creagh
* “God of Love” Luke Matheny
* “Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt
* “Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Sound Editing

* “Inception” Richard King
* “Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
* “Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
* “True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
* “Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger

Sound Mixing

* “Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
* “The King's Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
* “Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
* “The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
* “True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Visual Effects

* “Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
* “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
* “Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojansky and Joe Farrell
* “Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
* “Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick





So, all in all, a particularly tough year for the voters as there were a slew of really good movies. I'll leave it to time to see which will be considered great.