In Contention: The Academy Awards Nominations
By Josh Spiegel
February 5, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
It's no surprise that the top film, in terms of overall nominees, was Avatar. The sci-fi epic, which is now the highest-grossing film ever, garnered nine nominations. The surprise, however, is that Avatar was not alone. The Hurt Locker also got nine nods, leaving no movie with more than that many potential honors. Avatar, for all of its box-office record-breaking, couldn't top ten nominations, losing out on the Best Original Screenplay or Best Original Song categories. Still, it pulled in nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. Unfortunately, any hopes you may have had to see Zoe Saldana nominated for her performance (as much as I loved this movie, let's all just calm down and realize how ridiculous that campaign was) have been dashed.
As I mentioned, The Hurt Locker got nine nominations also, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing. What with its recent wins at the Producers and Directors Guild, The Hurt Locker is looking more and more like a potential upset to the presumed easy Best Picture win for Avatar. Alongside the actors perhaps rebelling against Avatar for not being an "actors'" movie, you never know; this low-grossing action movie set in Baghdad could win the Best Picture Oscar. Its director, Kathryn Bigelow is also an odds-on favorite for Best Director, though those two awards may be the only ones The Hurt Locker can win. Any technical awards are as likely to go to Avatar.
The other three movies that make up the list of the five frontrunners - Inglourious Basterds, Precious, and Up in the Air - were next on the list, getting eight, six, and six nominations, respectively. As expected, Inglourious Basterds was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing. It also got nods for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing, categories usually reserved for less dialogue-heavy movies; chalk it up to the ultraviolence Quentin Tarantino is known for. Christoph Waltz is, as always, the man to beat in the Best Supporting Actor category, while Tarantino's script may very well get the Oscar in just about five weeks' time. Other than that, Inglourious Basterds may go home empty-handed. One common thread here: lots of spreading the wealth.
Precious was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. Obviously, Precious is on target for one key award, Best Supporting Actress. Aside from that, Precious will probably find itself lagging behind the stronger contenders in the other contenders. Still, its appearance in the Best Director and Best Film Editing categories is very impressive, as some prognosticators (myself included) assumed that Lee Daniels, the film's director, wouldn't show up on the nominees list, in favor of someone more flashy, like Neill Blomkamp. Daniels' appearance reasserts that Precious, while maybe not a serious frontrunner, is not to be ignored.
Up in the Air got nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and got two nods for Best Supporting Actress (Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick). A month or two ago, Up in the Air was the movie to beat. Avatar hadn't come out yet, George Clooney's performance was going down like gangbusters, and the movie mirrored the times we were living in. Granted, the latter point hasn't changed since then, but Avatar's complete domination at the box office has been far too much to ignore. The movie's likeliest win is in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, as writers Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner are probably going to get the golden statue. Clooney could always surprise in the Best Actor category, but at this stage of the game, him stealing the trophy from fellow nominee Jeff Bridges would be a major surprise.
And, speaking of surprises, let's talk about the other five Best Picture nominees. Alongside Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, and Up in the Air, there's An Education, Up, District 9, A Serious Man, and The Blind Side. The first two of those latter five movies - An Education and Up - were among the expected ten nominees. I had also predicted that District 9 would show up, but I wasn't expecting that its chances would be better than fellow nominees A Serious Man and The Blind Side, both of which are major, major surprises. A Serious Man, the latest film from Joel and Ethan Coen, had been all but written off long before yesterday morning. Along with its other nomination, for Best Original Screenplay, it's clear that the Academy is in a long-lasting love affair with the Coens.
And The Blind Side. Sigh. Everyone expected, everyone figured, everyone knew that Sandra Bullock would pull a nomination for Best Actress, which she did. As I've said before, based on her recent buzz and wins, she is the frontrunner in the category next to Meryl Streep. But a Best Picture nomination? Consider me surprised. Obviously, the love being dumped on Bullock has transferred over to the Best Picture category; the preferential balloting system used this year is very clearly paying off for movies such as A Serious Man and The Blind Side, both of which only got two total nominations, and are about as likely to win the Best Picture Oscar as I am to win an Oscar next year. Much more so than for Up or even District 9, in these cases, the nomination is the win. Don't expect these films to win.
Other notable nominees include The Secret of Kells. Yes, everyone's favorite independently animated Irish film of 2009, The Secret of Kells. Though other indie favorites such as Mary and Max or $9.99 were more well-known, obviously this little movie hit a chord with the voters. Still, as it's up against big movies such as The Princess and the Frog, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Up, The Secret of Kells and its filmmakers should be thrilled to be nominated. Penelope Cruz picked up a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in the maligned musical Nine. The film also got a couple of technical nominations, and one for its original song, Take It All. The song faces two songs from The Princess and the Frog, one from Crazy Heart, and another from the Parisian musical Paris 36. Yep, another movie we've never heard of.
Speaking of Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges was not the only actor who got an Oscar nod. Maggie Gyllenhaal got a Best Supporting Actress nomination, despite not having been a frontrunner for the position. She won't win, of course, being against Mo'Nique, but the appearance proves that Crazy Heart may have been something close to the 11th pick for Best Picture. There was obviously a lot of love for this movie; who knows? Maybe if the movie had gotten as much press and money as The Blind Side, it might've snuck onto the Best Picture list.
Before I leave you with the nominees, and before you ponder if you really have to see The Blind Side (okay, maybe I have to ponder that), I'll talk about the two happiest occasions of the Oscar nominations: first and foremost, In The Loop (also known as my favorite comedy of 2009, and the most underrated movie of the year) got a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Though its breakout star, Peter Capaldi, did not get a Best Supporting Actor nomination, the film's script being honored is great. Also, my favorite movie of the year, despite the hurdles it faced, did get five nominations, including Best Picture; that movie, of course, is Up. Up also got nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Animated Feature, Best Original Score, and Best Sound Editing. I know the movie won't win, but I'm thrilled that another great animated film has been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Sometimes, it's the little things.