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UPDATE: Let me say from the outset that, for Best Picture, Star Trek was robbed. So was Invictus. And (500) Days of Summer. And The Messenger. And A Single Man. And Coraline. Meanwhile, the only real tension on March 7th will be whether Avatar or The Hurt Locker, and James Cameron or Kathryn Bigelow, and Meryl Streep or Sandra Bullock, take the Oscar. The rest of the marquee categories are shoo-ins (Jeff Bridges, Mo'Nique, Christoph Waltz, The White Ribbon). Which is a tad more uncertainty and excitement than the world's most boring broadcast has experienced in years past. Maybe ratings will be up...
The studio scorecard shows Sony Pictures Classics tied with The Weinstein Company for most nominations, 13. Overall, Sony had the most nominations with 18 (including 13 for Sony Classics) but only 1 for a film developed in-house, Fox was next with 14 (including 3 for Fox Searchlight), The Weinstein Co had 13, Paramount 12, Universal 11 (including 2 for Focus Features and Working Title Films, and 1 for just Focus Features), Summit Entertainment 9, Disney 8, Warner Bros 7, and Lionsgate 6.
Here is the scorecard by film: “Avatar” 9, “The Hurt Locker” 9, “Inglourious Basterds” 8, “Precious" 6, “Up in the Air” 6, “Up” 5, “District 9” 4, “Nine” 4, “Star Trek” 4, “Crazy Heart” 3, “An Education” 3, “The Princess and the Frog” 3, “The Young Victoria” 3, “The Blind Side” 2, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” 2, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” 2, “Invictus” 2, “The Last Station” 2, “The Messenger” 2, “A Serious Man” 2, “Sherlock Holmes” 2, “The White Ribbon” 2.
Meryl Streep's nomination for "Julie & Julia" is her 16th, further distancing herself from Katharine Hepburn, 12, and Jack Nicholson, 12. (Though Hepburn won 4 Best Actress Oscars and Nicholson 2 Best Actor Academy Awards as well as 1 Best Supporting Actor, Streep has just 1 Best Actress Oscar and 1 Best Supporting Actress.)
Peter Jackson and his team of collaborators in New Zealand have the distinction of garnering nominations with 3 films: the 4 nominations for "District 9", Stanley Tucci's Best Supporting Actor nomination for "The Lovely Bones", and Weta Digital's work on "Avatar".
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At 5:38 AM PT: It's the crack of dawn, and nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards were just announced by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and Oscar-nominated actress Anne Hathaway at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards
Best motion picture of the year
“Avatar” A Lightstorm Entertainment Production
James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers (20th Century Fox)
“The Blind Side” An Alcon Entertainment Production
Nominees to be determined (Warner Bros.)
“District 9” A Block/Hanson Production
Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers (Sony Pictures Releasing)
“An Education” A Finola Dwyer/Wildgaze Films Production
Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers (Sony Pictures Classics)
“The Hurt Locker” A Voltage Pictures Production
Nominees to be determined (Summit Entertainment)
“Inglourious Basterds”
A Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures/A Band Apart/Zehnte Babelsberg Production
Lawrence Bender, Producer (The Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures)
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate)
A Lee Daniels Entertainment/Smokewood Entertainment Production
Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
“A Serious Man” A Working Title Films Production
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers (Focus Features)
“Up” A Pixar Production
Jonas Rivera, Producer (Walt Disney)
“Up in the Air” (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
A Montecito Picture Company Production
Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers
Achievement in directing
“Avatar” (20th Century Fox) James Cameron
“The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment) Kathryn Bigelow
“Inglourious Basterds” (The Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures) Quentin Tarantino
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate) Lee Daniels
“Up in the Air” (Paramount with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios) Jason Reitman
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart” (Fox Searchlight)
George Clooney in “Up in the Air” (Paramount with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
Colin Firth in “A Single Man” (The Weinstein Company)
Morgan Freeman in “Invictus” (Warner Bros.)
Jeremy Renner in "The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side” (Warner Bros.)
Helen Mirren in “The Last Station” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Carey Mulligan in “An Education” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate)
Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia” (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Matt Damon in “Invictus” (Warner Bros.)
Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger” (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones” (DreamWorks with Film4, Distributed by Paramount)
Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds” (The Weinstein Company)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Penélope Cruz in “Nine” (The Weinstein Company)
Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air” (Paramount with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart” (Fox Searchlight)
Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air” (Paramount with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate)
Best animated feature film of the year
“Coraline” (Focus Features) Henry Selick
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” (20th Century Fox) Wes Anderson
“The Princess and the Frog” (Walt Disney) John Musker and Ron Clements
“The Secret of Kells” (GKIDS) Tomm Moore
“Up” (Walt Disney) Pete Docter
Adapted screenplay
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell - “District 9” (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Nick Hornby - “An Education” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche - “In the Loop” (IFC)
Geoffrey Fletcher - “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate)
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner - “Up in the Air” (Paramount with Cold Spring and DW)
Original screenplay
Mark Boal - “The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment)
Quentin Tarantino - “Inglourious Basterds” (The Weinstein Company)
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman - “The Messenger” (Oscilloscope)
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen - “A Serious Man” (Focus Features)
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter - “Up” (Walt Disney)
Achievement in cinematography
“Avatar” (20th Century Fox) Mauro Fiore
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Warner Bros.) Bruno Delbonnel
“The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment) Barry Ackroyd
“Inglourious Basterds” (The Weinstein Company) Robert Richardson
“The White Ribbon” (Sony Pictures Classics) Christian Berger
Achievement in costume design
“Bright Star” (Apparition) Janet Patterson
“Coco before Chanel” (Sony Pictures Classics) Catherine Leterrier
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” (Sony Classics) Monique Prudhomme
“Nine” (The Weinstein Company) Colleen Atwood
“The Young Victoria” (Apparition) Sandy Powell
Best documentary feature
“Burma VJ” A Magic Hour Films Production (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
“The Cove” An Oceanic Preservation Society Production (Roadside Attractions)
Nominees to be determined
“Food, Inc.” A Robert Kenner Films Production (Magnolia Pictures)
Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
“The Most Dangerous Man in America” A Kovno Communications Production
Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
“Which Way Home” A Mr. Mudd Production
Rebecca Cammisa
Best documentary short subject
“China’s Unnatural Disaster” A Downtown Community TV Center Production
Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” A Just Media Production
Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” A Community Media Production
Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
“Music by Prudence” An iThemba Production
Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
“Rabbit à la Berlin” An MS Films Production (Deckert Distribution)
Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra
Achievement in film editing
“Avatar” (20th Century Fox) Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
“District 9” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Julian Clarke
“The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment) Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
“Inglourious Basterds” (The Weinstein Company) Sally Menke
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate) Joe Klotz
Best foreign language film of the year
Israel - “Ajami”
An Inosan Production (Kino International)
Argentina - “El Secreto de Sus Ojos”
A Haddock Films Production (Sony Pictures Classics)
Peru - “The Milk of Sorrow”
A Wanda Visión/Oberon Cinematogràfica/Vela Production
France - “Un Prophète”
A Why Not/Page 114/Chic Films Production (Sony Pictures Classics)
Germany - “The White Ribbon”
X Filme Creative Pool/Wega Film/Les Films du Losange/Lucky Red Production (Sony Classics)
Achievement in makeup
“Il Divo” (MPI Media Group through Music Box) Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
“Star Trek” (Paramount and Spyglass) Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
“The Young Victoria” (Apparition) Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“Avatar” (20th Century Fox) James Horner
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” (20th Century Fox) Alexandre Desplat
“The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment) Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
“Sherlock Holmes” (Warner Bros.) Hans Zimmer
“Up” (Walt Disney) Michael Giacchino
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Almost There” (Walt Disney)
Music and Lyric by Randy Newman from “The Princess and the Frog”
“Down in New Orleans” (Walt Disney)
Music and Lyric by Randy Newman from “The Princess and the Frog”
“Loin de Paname” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Music by Reinhardt Wagner, Lyric by Frank Thomas from “Paris 36”
“Take It All” (The Weinstein Company)
Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston from “Nine”
“The Weary Kind” (Theme from "Crazy Heart") (Fox Searchlight)
Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
Best animated short film
“French Roast” A Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films Production
Fabrice O. Joubert
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” A Brown Bag Films Production
Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
“The Lady and the Reaper” Kandor Graphics & Green Moon Production
Javier Recio Gracia
“Logorama” An Autour de Minuit Production
Nicolas Schmerkin
“A Matter of Loaf and Death” An Aardman Animations Production
Nick Park
Best live action short film
“The Door” An Octagon Films Production (Network Ireland Television)
Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
“Instead of Abracadabra” A Directörn & Fabrikörn Production (Swedish Film Institute)
Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
“Kavi” A Gregg Helvey Production
Gregg Helvey
“Miracle Fish” A Druid Films Production
Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
“The New Tenants” A Park Pictures and M & M Production
Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson
Achievement in sound editing
“Avatar” (20th Century Fox) Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
“The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment) Paul N.J. Ottosson
“Inglourious Basterds” (The Weinstein Company) Wylie Stateman
“Star Trek” (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment) Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
"Up” (Walt Disney) Michael Silvers and Tom Myers
Achievement in sound mixing
“Avatar” (20th Century Fox)
Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
“The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment)
Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
“Inglourious Basterds” (The Weinstein Company)
Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
“Star Trek” (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment)
Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” (DreamWorks and Paramount with Hasbro)
Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson
Achievement in visual effects
“Avatar” (20th Century Fox)
Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
“District 9” (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
“Star Trek” (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment)
Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton
Achievement in art direction
“Avatar” (Twentieth Century Fox)
Set Decoration: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg
Art Direction: Kim Sinclair
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro
Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
“Nine” (The Weinstein Company)
Art Direction: John Myhre
Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
“Sherlock Holmes” (Warner Bros)
Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood
Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
“The Young Victoria” (Apparition)
Art Direction: Patrice Vermette
Set Decoration: Maggie Gray
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10 movies for best picture,morons or how to vote conan in
Who knew anyone from the Twilight Saga could actually act? Good for Anna Kendrick.
Watch her in Camp. Best youth performance in ages.
THE! HURT! LOCKER!
Woody Harrelson has had a great year…a nom and a fun hit like zombieland.. Good for him
UP IN THE AIR is virtually a new script.
The female characters were created for the film, so the lead would have people to talk to.
That being said, DISTRICT 9 was a perfect sci-fi allegory.
You can be a completely new adaptation and still be terrible.
The only category in which I’ve seen all the nominees is Adapted Screenplay. My two cents on that – It’s a two horse race. In The Loop was a treat. The Malcolm Tucker character performed by Peter Capaldi was a shocker.
I think the Oscar will go to District 9, however. Great script, great performances. Sharlto Copley could have received a nomination for his work. IMHO, he and Clooney aren’t even in the same league.
Big ups to Blomkamp and Tatchell.
Can’t wait to see what else you write/adapt.
Not a chance that the Adapted Screenplay Oscar will go to anything but Up in the Air. 100% locked for the win.
As a South African, and from pretty much every other South African I’ve spoken to District 9 was the better South African themed film over Invictus. Really glad it got a best picture nomination.
Invictus wasn’t bad but it fell flat in the final act, Morgan Freeman’s accent kept slipping and giving lines to B-grade rugby players who can’t act didn’t help. On the other hand Damon was amazing and had the best South African accent I’ve ever seen an American do.
This should be an interesting race. I predict a record number of viewers will be watching in hope of an Avatar best pic win, and Hurt Locker best director.
Yep, just like I thought — that abnormally long list of Best Pic Nominees looks frigg’n ridiculous! Someone please tell me how an animated film (”UP”) can be up for both “Best Pic” and “Best Animated Pic.” Thought that nonsense was worked out after “Beauty and The Beast” almost won Best Pic against live action films?
Maybe because Up is a FAR BETTER film than most of the other nominees.
I suppose we should drop District 9 and Avatar too, since half their characters are digital animation.
Because Up was a really good film? It’s no different than a movie being up for best foreign language and best picture.
It’s also makes it an even easier pick for animated in oscar pools
You might be right, however, in my humble personal taste, I would lose the nicely made TV movie (”The Blind Side”) or the animated movie (”UP”) for a nomination to “500 Days Of Summer.” Then again, if I was king of the movie world, I’d go back to 5 best pic choices
It’s narrow-minded people like you that keep animated movies from getting the respect they deserve. If a movie, like Up was in 2009, is better than most of the live-action movies of the year, it deserves to be up for Best Picture.
The Best Animated Picture category was created so people like you could ignore brilliant filmmaking that you don’t understand. You don’t understand that animated films typically take years longer to make than the average live-action film with the efforts of many more people. Animated film is on the rise and 2009 was one of its best years in a long time. In a weaker year, any of those Best Animated Picture nominees could’ve fought for a Best Picture slot.
Good for Pixar. After years of fighting for recognition they get the respect they deserve.
Let me guess. Your favorite movie of 2009 was Avatar. Guess what? That was basically an animated film.
Well, did I touch a little nerve there, Theo? Try making your point next time without such aggression and you might come off with an intelligent opinion.
For the record, my point was to question why we have have a Best Pic section for animation if it doesn’t matter what category an animated film goes in? And great films are not great because of great effort re: animation taking years to make. It starts with story and ends with execution.
No disrespect to “Up” — though it didn’t happen to rock my world as much as other Pixar efforts — and Pixar has been lauded with Oscars and wonderful reviews plenty. I was happy to see other non-Pixar efforts as well this year, like “The Fantastic Mr.Fox.”
And lastly, NO, Avatar was not my favorite film by a mile — though by your measure it should win alone on the years it took to make it. I found it to be highly derivative of Pocahontas and the dialogue was in parts laughable “We’re not in Kansas anymore.” Ugh!
Oh, and FYI: “Avatar” was not mostly animated — the actors movements had digital layers mapped onto them that computer programs tracked. You’re saying it was mostly animated insults the actors who facial and body movements gave the film it’s only emotional heartbeat.
P.S. “Ingourious Basterds” was my favorite film. And my second was “500 Days Of Summer” which was not nominated — even though the nicely made TV movie “The Blind Side” was…
the answer is “Up” is one of the years best films. that’s evident but the nomination for screenplay too
There is a simple reason why Up is in both Best Animated Picture and Best Picture. It means that the best of the 5 animated films also happens to be at least the 10th best overall picture, in the opinion of the AMPAS. I see no reason that can’t be the case.
The big issue would be if Up didn’t win Best Animated Film (or hadn’t been nominated). It would say there is another film (or if it weren’t nominated, at least 5 other films) that is/are better than Up but somehow is not among the Top 10 films of the year.
I really don’t get why people loved UP. It’s a pretty by the numbers fish out of water story, and every character is stock and unappealing. Also Ed Asner mumbles poorly, more proof that Hollywood’s bizarre aversion to professional voice actors makes these cartoons even worse than they have to be. (Whoops I might be offending the arrested adolescents here by suggesting that cartoons filled with broad caricatures are not the highest form of art.)
Matt Damon as best supporting actor is surely a joke! It’s so unfait to other more deserving actors. I’m not saying he’s a bad actor, of course he’s not, but working for probably no more than 3 days, to help a mate, on a very slightly written character makes no sense to me. Not right!!
Damon was down right BAD in Invictus — and don’t get me started about that movie, felt like a mediocre TV movie. Eastwood is getting a free pass on that one.
Not ripping Damon — he probably deserved a nod for Informant, but getting one for Invictus is highway robbery.
I agree that it isn’t Damon’s most deserving nomination (even for this year) but he worked a lot more than three days.
He should have been nominated as best actor in a leading role for his amazing performance in The Informant! and not for Invictus, where he was totally wasted in the worst movie of the year. He should have been nominated instead of Morgan Freeman.
ditto Damon was brilliant in The Informant, raised my opinion of him 1000%…very underrated comedy
not a lot of surprises, and glad to see Hurt Locker get some love.
Curt
Congrats Jim Cameron! This one’s in the bag.
Ten best picture nominations is a mistake. Duh.
Go Jeremy Renner. His quote just rose up.
Without a doubt. Jeremy gave a performance for the ages.
I don’t understand why Tetro which was for me and lots of us the most amazing film of 2009 is completely forgotten here, against Hogan’s heroes, and the smurfs in 3D!
It’s because you have bad taste.
Another year the oscars blow off Clint Eastwood. He should have at least gotten Best Director nomination
Anyone could have sleep-walked Invictus to the place that it ended up.
Nothing special in the directing area, nothing special in the movie area. It was entertaining, that’s all.
Newsflash – Clint shouldn’t be given awards for sneezing.
Congratulations to all the nominees!!!
No BEACHES OF AGNES for best documentary? What the hell happened?
What does Clooney do not to get a nomination? He orchestrates a tremendously successful public relations campaign in his own image but this guy is a nonactor. Sorry. Between the bobble-head and the shallow charm there isn’t much talent and there is even less training. Its mind boggling. People are forever mistaking ‘likeability’ for talent. What a sad waste. Meanwhile many deep,edgy,multi-dimensional actors are out there with performances that are going unacknowledged.
Oh well, life isn’t fair is it? And none of this is a big deal.
Amen.
Hurt Locker is far too overrated in every way. Bigelow pretends to be Paul Greengrass. Only PG does it better. Hell she even stole PG’s DP: Barry Ackroyd. Nevertheless it is a great movie, but not Oscar-worthy. United 93 was. And so is AVATAR.
Wait let me see if I understand this. The Hurt Locker is NOT Oscar worthy but Avatar IS!
WOW You must be all sorts of dumb.
I disagree. It was a brilliant decision to have Ackroyd cut The Hurt Locker. You can’t steal a DP. You offer him the job and he/she either accepts or not. I’m a huge PG fan, but you have to give props to everyone on The Hurt Locker. A gem of a movie.
Now if you want to something over rated, just check out Up in the Air.
Sadly, no real surprises.
I wish there were more foreign non English films & actors represented. I think it helps the business and expands American awareness.
District 9 imo is surely one of the most original pieces to come along in a while. I am happy to see it garner a nod.
Colin Firth? For what? He has been playing that same character for years and years. Tiresome,predictable and there is a confusion there between what is interpreted as ’subtlety’ but in fact is just a simple lack of range of emotional expression or depth. But Americans are addicted to the melifluous tones of the British actor whether or not he or she is actually talented and has anything to say.
I’m stunned but delighted by the Best Picture nomination for DISTRICT 9. I’m also stunned that I’ve seen all ten of the Best Picture nominees. Well, that is if you count the 30 minutes I spent watching A SERIOUS MAN before abandoning it. Seriously, Academy? It’s not worthy!
no 500 days of summer? i think a big snub
Hangover: 0
It was too much to hope, I suppose, that Andrea Arnold’s amazing Fish Tank would attract the Academy.
Pretty awesome for District 9, and at least nothing embarrassing got into the best pic category, seeing as there are 10 now, although I really hope there isn’t some kind of upset resulting in the BLIND SIDE winning.
Avatar will win best pic, unless the Academy wants to be farther out of touch with the public than Pandora. K.B. will justifiably get best director and earn tons of bonus love for the Academy by women and ex’s everywhere. Everything else is a party mix.
@Valerie – I agree, ‘Tetro’ was amazing. Also, ‘500 Days of Summer’ missing is not good!
So much overkill with 10 picture nominees. When there was last 10, there was no television or cable shows. Hollywood then was the only place producing films for mass audiences. The tradition for the past 7 decades was shunted aside to get a bigger TV rating and was instituted by a minority of Board members without consulting membership.
Congrats to all nominees – you deserve them! As for “best” picture nominees? Well, not as special, eh?
Tough list for beat picture. I would love to see Up pull an upset. It was clearly the best film of the year. It will probably go to Avatar. BTW, for all the Up nay Sayers, I would have bet on Up being in the mix with 5 nominees.
STAR TREK was the Best Picture of the year. Avatar was fun, but poorly written. Star Trek was executed perfectly. It is the best film of the series and year.
Hold the phone…you think Avatar is poorly written, but Star Trek was the best movie of the year? Yikes. Avatar actually had a plot that I could follow from beginning to end. Star Trek’s plot jumped in so many different directions, I couldn’t count them. Leonard Nimoy was awesome though…
If you had said District 9 was the best movie of the year, that would have been much more appropriate.
It should be Matt Damon for THE INFORMANT, not INVICTUS.
So, are we supposed to infer that the REAL Best Picture nominees are the films nominated under Best Director? Isn’t that how it usually is anyway? This list of 10 is ridiculous. It may be an honor just to be nominated, but The Blind Side is probably the only sub-five nominee that has a chance of drawing in any extra viewers….
Glad to see The Cove get the Oscar treatment. No movie has ever affected me the way that one did.
How was INVICTUS robbed, Nikki? I’m a huge Clint fan, and even I was disappointed.
THE BLIND SIDE for Best Picture? How about MOON or A SINGLE MAN or 500 DAYS OF SUMMER? Oh well.
Glad to see Lee Daniels get the nom over Clint Eastwood. Eastwood’s a great director, but didn’t deserve a nom for INVICTUS.
no real surprises here . . . other than Penelope for Best Supporting in the disastrously conceived Nine . . .
Serious Man? Such a mediocre film with virtually nothing fresh about it. If Coens didn’t have their name on it, it would have been shut out.
The biggest truth is the absurdity of 10 best pics. No surprise that you can easily delete 5 pics from Blind Side (broadly commercially but not cinematically interesting), Serious Man (mediocre as stated), Inglorious Basterd (entertaining but somewhat of a mess), etc.
Good to see that comedies are ignored again, other than the obligatory Pixar noms (which we can all agree are a horse of a different color). But it is great to see that the Academy didn’t go strictly for Oscar-bait this year, good on that!
A Single Man shut out for art direction and cinematography
500 days not present in the writing category
Blind Side for best picture
no editing nomination for Up in the Air
Penelope Cruz over Julianne Moore for supporting actress
ugh. I guess the Oscars had some good times, 1999 – 2007, but that’s all over now.
at least In the Loop got a writing nod, and at least A Serious Man got a best picture nod. that’ll give me some solace tonight.
Very please with these nominations! And I agree that it’s a shame that ‘(500) Days Of Summer’ was snubbed for Best Pic and Best Screenplay–what a shame!
Was glad to see that the over-hyped and utterly nihilistic ‘The Road’ didn’t get any nods. That movie is over-regarded.
if you think the road was nihilistic, you don’t know what “nihilistic” means.
How is “The Road” over-regarded and over-hyped? It got no love during the awards season and it should have. No doubt one of the best five movies of the year. And Viggo was snubbed too. Best performance of his career.
You obviously have no taste in good films, with that said you obviously don’t know what your talking about if you think that ‘The Road’ was “Over-hyped”.
I couldn’t believe that ‘The Road’ didnt EVEN get recognized, It’s a slap in the face to a really good movie and acting. Maybe it’s just me, but the Road left an impression, a thought, even a sense of depression. And If a film can do that to you, than it should AT LEAST be recognized.
Nikki — the only robbery associated with Invictus was my wallet in paying $12.50 for a glorified TV movie.
And so begins the steroid era of BEST PICTURE NOMINATIONS…
Noms going forward will need a asterik next to them to differentiate them between the era when five movies contended and when the flood gates opened and just everyone did.
amen.
Invictus was robbed? What a joke that movie was. Terrible script and Clint phoned in the whole movie. It was bad on every level. So bad the DGA even chose to ignore it. Don’t defend that movie please.
I’ve always wondered why they do the nominations so bleeping early?? Could someone enlighten me??
It’s all about getting live coverage on East Coast morning news shows.
To accomodate the east coast people, so they don’t have to wake up and sit around getting ulcers wondering.
Also it makes for better stories when actors say they were woken up by a call saying they had been nominated!!!!!
I’m no expert, but I think it was to cut down on all the over the top campaigning. although I don’t think that worked.
So the news shows on the East Coast have them by 8:00 a.m.
Also District 9 was almost all improvised people.
KELLS, baby, KELLS! Whoever said hand-drawn animation was dead (or buried in formula) has not seen this movie.
Surprised and disappointed not seeing “Moon” and “Star Trek” in Best Picture category…
Wow. Even with ten nominations, the Academy bollocks it up, failing to include not only 500 Days of Summer, but Where the Wild Things Are, and, as more obscure films go, Brothers Bloom, Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Moon, all of which were great films deserving of some attention in the expanded list.
Other shocks – how did Ponyo miss a nomination for best animated feature?
I’m with you on Ponyo but IDP? That was a hellacious bore!
Ponyo was released in July 2008 – thats why no nomination this year
Uh because it sucked.
Star Trek was robbed of best pix? It was a great popcorn flick but that’s about it. Don’t think it was robbed unless you’re a trekkie, lol. Coraline is being nominated quite appropriately in the category of best animated flick. I don’t know how Nikki could feel that one is deserving of a best pix nod.
Seriously, how can anyone think Star Trek could be nominated when there are already 2 sci-fi flicks on the list, one the biggest flick in 12 years and the other, district 9, is just flat out better.
Say flick one more time…
District 9? Really? And The Blind Side wasn’t all that great either. Best Picture should go to one of these four: An Education, Avatar, The Hurt Locker, or Precious.
And at least The Hangover wasn’t nominated.
I love Sony’s 18 nominations but only 1 from films developed in house (SPC films are acquisitions, as was District 9.
I think the new Best Picture voting system favors The Hurt Locker and seriously hurts Avatar. I could see a lot of 1’s for Avatar which will basically offset and 10’s it gets. Meanwhile, I don’t see an overwhelming amount of 10’s for Hurt Locker, but I would be shocked to see very many below 5’s, which might be enough in a very crowded group.
I still hold out hope for an Up In The Air surprise (hard to call it an upset) as I think it was the best film of 2009.
what about sam rockwell in moon! best performance of the year by far.
He had me at Galaxy Quest.
500 Days Of Summer? Does that include a day where you went nuts, Nikki? That was a cute idea masquerading as a music video masquerading as a commercial for Itunes. I only wish there were ten best picture nominees when Porkys II was released.
(500) days? That was an indie spoof! It was terrible. I’d rather The Hangover got nominated or something that I didn’t laugh at how awfully and tritely it was executed. Vomit.
LOL! I agree. Way too much music. And I love the era.
AVATAR is a $300 million cartoon.
yeah, but it also changed the business.
Did she just say STAR TREK was robbed? i can’t tell if that’s a joke or not. That’s a joke right? please tell me that’s a joke. Oh wait…it’s a typo! you meant that you felt robbed watching Star Trek because it was such a waste of time? ok. i get it. nevermind. carry on.
Even if Hurt Locker beats Avatar for best picture, James Cameron deserves Best Director, hands down. No one even comes close.
What he accomplished with that film is groundbreaking. None of the other nominees did anything original or inspiring.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, the PC academy will most likely give it to Bigelow. Cameron will have to settle for Best Picture most likely. Not that it really matters at this point anyways.
Angry angry ANGRY that “(500) Days of Summer” is not up for Best Pic or Best Screenplay and that complete POS “A Serious Man” is. I’m sorry, does the last name Coen automatically grant you a nomination, no matter how boring, inaccessible, offensive and pointless your movie is? “Summer” was the best movie I saw this whole year, and this is just proof that Academy members don’t actually watch the screeners before they nominate, they just go to parties and pick a name that they know. What a waste.
I think you have to be Jewish to appreciate the brilliance of A Serious Man. I watched it with 3 Jews and they were laughing their asses off and I didn’t have a clue….
I was turned off by the incessant marketing shoved down my throat, one of the two writers constantly talking about his ex-girlfriend even after he wrote a movie slamming her, and the fact that the move was all style and no substance. Were there any good lines about men and women there? Not a single one. Nothing about their experiences, their families, nothing. The female character was an empty shell, and Joe had nothing particularly charming to say. Not a lot here, sorry.
Clooney should be seriously considered for making that mean-spirited and offensive compilation of a movie “Up in the Air” barely tolerable. And even his charisma couldn’t open or keep alive this worthless effort.
Without the ten pic noms, no way Up gets a nod. Now, there is at least an outside chance it wins best film (like they say in sports, as long as you make the playoffs, you have a shot at the title). Animated or not, it was the best film of the year. I hope it takes both animated and best film, plus original screenplay, all of which it deserves (unless The Secret of Kells is amazing, but Fox was overrated, Coraline was good, not great, and Princess was boring). The nice thing about animated this year is there is no Leno-style jokefests from 20th (Ice Age) or Dreamworks (Shrek) nominated just so they can have at least three noms. While not all the animated films were great, they are ambitious (stop motion in Fox and Princess trying to save 2-D film animation).
No STAR TREK nomination is no big surprise — though it would have been nice. But how do you ignore MOON?
Not cool.
Moon didn’t send out screeners as it didn’t think it had a good enough chance at being nominated.
Also, it wasn’t very good. No more than a watered-down 2001: A Space Odyssey with a great performance from Rockwell, who had nothing to do.
How in hell District 9 gets a best picture nom and 500 Days of Summer doesn’t?? makes no sense
cause 500 days was irritating whiny misogynistic devoid of real characters etc
“(500) Days of Summer” is good, sure, but I never felt it was Oscar-caliber. It was only after Fox Searchlight started running ads/sending discs around that I had any idea anyone actually did think that and I have to admit to being surprised. It’s solid, I thought the script was actually its weakest link, and think that if there were 10 nominees for director, Webb MIGHT have squeaked in there, but I don’t really know what other categories it might’ve taken other than Deschanel and that’s even a big “maybe” when compared to the other nominees.
Disappointed that The Road was overlooked in every catergory. My favorite of the year. Go Hurt Locker then.
The Road is a great film – so is Hurt Locker – there’s a difference between “films” and “movies.” Hope White Ribbon gets one too.
Matt Damon for Invictus?? really? I guess speaking with an south african accent must take a lot of acting skill, and lets not forget the rugby playing lessons, IMO he was better in the departed.
his accent was more sort of british than anything else. all the dialect work in that film was a mess.
Add Christian McKay (ME & ORSON WELLES), to the Academy Award Theft Victims list(hey, maybe Dick Wolf will create a series around this theme). This was one of the best reviewed films of the year, but without the weight of a big advertising budget, both he and the film overall were overlooked. Hopefully someday there will be a way of leveling the playing field for quality films that do not have the $ to spend on award campaigns.
I agree with this assessment of Mr. McKay’s performance, as well as the film, which I found to be an American “Shakespeare in Love”.
On the issue of playing field – I think that has been enormously helped through the screener system. I make it a habit to ignore reviews and as much advertising as I can, so that I can see a picture somewhat purely. I don’t think, for instance, that Hilary Swank (”Boys”) or Melissa Leo would have had a shot without the system.
I think the playing field would be wider if 1) members could attend any public showing as well as the AMPAS screenings and 2) if the screeners were sent out on a slightly prolonged schedule. One can’t always view 50 films in a month.
My guess is that with so many to see in so short a time, “Me and Orson Welles” wasn’t seen by a lot of members. Just a guess.
I totally agree! He was absolutely phenomenal in that role. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in anything before, but I am now a huge fan. That movie was well done and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s such a shame that he didn’t get any recognition.
“Avatar” gets snubbed for Best Original Screenplay, but sweet to see “District 9″ gets the nom (Original) for the same basic story (Earth guy learns empathy for aliens by becoming one of them).
What? someone’s been reading yahoo.com a little too much.
Even if dialogue counts for only half the weight in a screenplay nomination, Avatar should have been banned outright. The only reason it got a WGA nod is because half of the good scripts didn’t qualify
Am I the only one who wasn’t really that impressed with Hurt Locker? Decent direction sure, but that movie was a real snore and totally predictable.
Avatar is going to destroy anyway.
You Avatar fanboys are pathetic. The hurt Locker was predictable?! Did you ever see Avatar??? It is alien Pocahontas in 3d! NOTHING PREDICTABLE THERE *eye roll*
Not surprising, but who *really* got robbed was Hal Holbrook for his FIRST (!) lead role ever in THAT EVENING SUN.
buddhabob: I agree with you about bobblehead Clooney. There’s no emotional depth in his acting. Tries to get by on charm. He’s no Jeff Bridges, who is deserving of the Oscar in every way.
500 DAYS OF SUMMER should have at least pulled a best original screenplay nom, if not one of the 100 best pic noms.
The voting membership of the Academy is largely an elderly group and so they likely did not even see STAR TREK much less MOON. It’s debatable whether the former deserved a best pic nom but the latter clearly indeed. A group of silvercaps will never represent the state of the filmic arts in the 21st century, they still see ‘good’ films as those being like films made pre-1975. Figure HURT LOCKER to win the top prize, worldwide viewing audience be damned.
Surprised by all the backlash over ‘500 Days’ not getting a nod–
Put that film’s storyline in sequential order and you get LAME…
Out of order, as they edited it, and it’s even worst… yeah so the guy doesn’t get the girl. who fucking cares.
Up! was by far the most creative, moving, and accessible film of the year. It deserves all of the awards it can muster. With that being said its nearly impossible to imagine it winning Best Picture. But if it did I’d raise my glass in celebration
Hurt Locker and Katheryn Bigelow all the way!
Star Trek DID deserve to be up there, it was extremely well written, made, and acted. The person who said there are already several scifi films on the list is AN IDIOT! There shouldn’t be a limit on scifi, and it shouldn’t be looked down on. Just like comedies can be worthy of best picture (although you wouldn’t know it from the way the noms always skew). It is about the overall movie as an experience and as it was crafted, not about “important works about serious subjects”.
Predictions:
BEST PICTURE: Hurt Locker
BEST ACTOR: Jeff Bridges
BEST ACTRESS: Sandra Bullock
BEST DIRECTOR: Bigelow
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Mo’Nique
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christolph Waltz
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Hurt Locker
BEST ADAPTED: Up in the Air
This outcome will distribute the wealth which is the whole purpose of these silly awards. Lets hope no one goes out to buy any of the turkeys nominated and we will be back to five noms next year.
Field expansion to 10 is totally pointless. None of the additional 5 have a snowball’s chance in hell. For all intents and purposes, the only 5 that matter are still Avatar, Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, and Up in the Air. Some of the votes being funneled toward other popcorn movies that wouldn’t have been nominated in traditional years (like D-9 and Blind Side) will probably hinder Avatar and help Hurt Locker.
The fascination with Hurt Locker is somewhat of a curiosity to me. If it’s as brilliant as people claim, why couldn’t it catch on with mainstream audiences during its unremarkable theatrical run? Surely the word of mouth on something this great would’ve spread like wildfire, causing it to expand slowly but surely throughout all flyover-territory shopping malls. You can’t go with the defense that regular people were just too stupid to understand it because it’s ultimately a thriller with action-movie undertones. The Iraq setting can’t be scapegoated either because this angle is (thankfully) never politicized. True, it’s doing well on dvd now, but only because of the pack mentality that forced its exposure onto anyone who hasn’t been in a coma since the beginning of award season. I think this might be a case where a lot of the expected award hopefuls from the end of this year fell so short of that stature that it enabled a paper tiger to get a level of fervor backing that it otherwise wouldn’t have had.
You just brilliantly said what I’ve been thinking for a long time. Every time I say it though, I get called a “mindless popcorn-movie sheep”. Very good points there man (or ma’am).
500 Days of Summer was a well constructed visual parade. Not a good movie though. Definitely not worthy of Best Picture.
Ten Best Picture noms is the Hollywood equivalent of today’s schools where you get a gold star just for showing up. What absolute bullshit and a slap in the face to those that actually earn it.
My Best Picture prediction:
The ‘Bravehart’ and ‘Crash’ voters will unite behind “The Blind Side.” “Avatar and “the Hurt Locker” will cancel each other out. The other nominees will be all over the map. “The Blind Side” wins. The Best Picture presenter gives the classic Whiskey Tango Foxtrot look to the camera.
I hope this doesn’t happen, but . . .
I too fear that THE BLIND SIDE will be this year’s CRASH.
THE OSCARS JUST DIED
I don’t think anybody was really “robbed.” Ten is too many nominations for best pic anyway. It still will boil down to either “Avatar” or “Hurt Locker.” How many sci fi pics should there be in there? —District 9, Avatar AND Star Trek(terrific film, by the way)I’d be curious to know if there were ONLY 5 nominees — which 5? I’d choose –Avatar, Hurt Locker, An Education,Up In the Air, and Up.
Personally, I’d have dumped An Education and A Serious Man in favor of Trek and Capitalism: A Love Story. And the risk of committing an unforgivable act of heresy, I’d replace the Hurt Locker on this list with Where the Wild Things Are.
For my second act of heresy, I’d leave off James Cameron’s hot ex in favor of Spike Jonez for Where the Wild Things Are.
For actor, I’d have left off Freeman and Firth in favor of Ben Foster for The Messenger and either Chris Pine for Trek or Sharlito Copley for District 9.
Actress, I’d drop Streep (my heresy trifecta) in favor of Shohreh Aghdashloo in The Stoning of Soraya M, a film I know people skipped because they didn’t want to watch an actual stoning. Probably didn’t help that the film was in Persian. Shohreh rocked in a great film about a very difficult issue.
Supporting Actor – replace Matt Damon with the lamentably ignored Jackie Earle Haley from Watchmen. He had to keep that character interesting without the benefit of his face for the better part of that film, and he succeeded magnificently.
Supporting Actress – Penelope Cruz was nominated for the wrong movie. What happened to Broken Embraces?
Adapted Screenplay – Nothing against Nick Hornby, but I’d have loved to see Kurtzman and Orci in there for Trek, if only to see what the posts in this comments section would have looked like.
Original Screenplay – Lose A Serious Man in favor of any other original screenplay written this year. Seriously. Memo to the Coen Brothers – it is not a felony to write a third act. However, it should be a felony to end a film with a random effing tornado. Are these really the same guys who gave us O Brother Where Art Thou?, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski??? I get the distinct impression they’ve forgone filmmaking in favor of goofing on the Academy and on their audience.
Congrats to both RYAN BINGHAMs: 1) the co-writer of the Oscar nom’d song for CRAZY HEART, 2) the name of George Clooney’s character in UP in the AIR.’
They shd have nominated The Chipmunks movie. That would attract the young viewers for sure. What a complete joke this Oscar is
Great that Christopher Plummer finally got some Oscar love. It’s astounding that he hasn’t been nominated before, he’s been doing excellent work for decades. FWIT I agree that Moon was one of the best movies released this year. Such a pleasant suprise and how often do you walk out of the cinema saying that?
No Love for the ROAD, John Hillcoat, or Viigo? Such a shame.
AVATAR AND LOCKER ARE TRUE.
BRIDGES AND BULLOCK ARE TOO.
MO’NIQUE AND CHRISTOPH WILL SCORE,
KATHERINE BIGELOW’S STAR WILL SOAR.
AND CAMERON WILL BE LEFT QUITE BLUE.
When I first saw the list this morning, I saw Woody Harrelson’s name only and thought it was for Zombieland, and I didn’t flinch one bit because I felt it was a well-deserved and out-of-the-box choice. Like the commenter above said, he had a great year and this is well-deserved. I always liked him, although I have to admit that to me he’ll never top his part in Doc Hollywood. (The scene where he responds to Bridget Fonda asking, “is that a star?” with “No, that’s Ted Danson” is a funny scene!).
Up for Best Picture is well-deserved. If there were only 5 movies on this list like before and Up was there, I would still think it. In a just world, District 9 would win, and Star Trek would have been nominated over Up in the Air.
I’m surprised Pixar’s “Partly Cloudy” was nominated for animated short.
Tilda Swinton was robbed. She was unbelievable in JULIA. Oh, maybe no one saw the movie, or she’s too edgy or? Anyway, see the movie. (I wonder if she got an Independent Spirit Nomination, are they out yet?)
The real victims are the 4 runner-ups for the best picture, to be put in a category with 5 more additional sodium-lacking weak-sauce pictures.
Dilute the milk ya’ll, we can’t afford whole milk anymore
I am sick of people who say that Avatar is something like Pocahontas or Dance with the wolves. C’mon, get a life… About the Oscar thing, too bad that actors weren’t nominated. I think they acted pretty well (at least some of them, like Zoe Saldana) no matter it was comp job.
Don’t count out “Inglorious Basterds.” The actors branch is the largest in the Academy and SAG voters picked “Basterds” for Best Ensemble. Plus it’s the best film nominated.
Why is Avator up for Visual Effects when it’s the whole thing is an Animated film??
Julia was actually released pretty much everywhere else at the end of 2008, though I doubt most Academy voters even bothered to notice anyway. No spirit award nomination for Swinton, but there are some good choices highlighting some really good performances.