Oscar Nominations - Lou's thoughts

| Posted by Lou | The time is 11.08am here in Invercargill NZ |

Well this year I've actually seen a fairly good whack of the Oscar Films, which in some ways is bad as it makes me feel more peeved at the snubs and the dumb nominations. Therefore rather than being just my choices, this is going to contain a lot of moaning about the filter through which the Academy is viewing the year in cinema.

Apologies that it's not Bel going first - she would have made it all nicely laid out with bullets and videos and stuff. I can't be arsed.

With apologies to the many technical practitioners I have deleted for the ease of reading my unformatted lists...

Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”
James Franco in “127 Hours”

This is the biggest no-brainer of all time. Colin Firth is going to win. He deserves to win. (In fact, I thought he deserved to win last year too after I saw A Single Man.) In second place I would put James Franco, who was absolutely magnificent in 127 Hours.

What I'm peeved at is the snub of my third place getter, Ryan Gosling. He was fantastic in Blue Valentine, and is one of the few Hollywood stars who uses his charm and good looks to..... make small indie films by first-time filmmakers. This has been recognised before with his nomination for Half Nelson, but I really genuinely thought this one deserved a nod too (as Michelle Williams has gotten for it in the lady category).

So has anyone seen Biutiful? Has anyone heard of Biutiful? I'm not saying nominations should only go to films we have heard of, but with Javier having a previous Best Actor nomination for a little foreign-language film (hold the phone - I thought Javier had been (rightfully) nominated for the (heart-wrenching) film The Sea Inside, but it seems it was actually Before Night Falls (in 2001, when Russ won for Gladiator)... which I've never heard of, to be honest) and having picked up an Oscar two years ago for Best Supporting Actor in No Country For Old Men, perhaps he could get a rest? It smacks a little bit of favouritism.

Though incidentally, the BAFTAS have made the exact same choices in this category so perhaps I should shutthefuckup and stop being such a Ryan Lover?

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech”

This is a tough one - but I think Christian Bale will get it (for a film I can't bring myself to go see as it looks like one I'd roll my eyes through).

I just can't understand Mark Ruffalo's nomination. I like Mark Ruffalo, but actually thought his performance in this film (which I will moan about more later) was a bit shit.

Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Nicole Kidman?? Are you kidding??

I'm going for Natalie Portman and really hope she gets it as I fear they'll do their Hollywood mates thing and give it to Annette Bening undeservedly for a shite film.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

This is a tough category - I'm sort of torn between thinking they'll give another to an actor from The Fighter, and thinking that Helena was amazing as "The Queen Mum - the early years", and thinking that it'd be cool to have a youngster win it out of nowhere (Hailee Steinfeld).

But as I have only seen one of these films I'm going to have to go for it and hope that after years and years and years of being in everybody consciousness as an Interesting Actor, Helena gets something to put on the mantlepiece to show for it. Plus surely the Americans would love to have the headline potential of "The King and Queen of the Oscars" etc?

Animated Feature Film

“How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
“The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
“Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich

One would think Toy Story 3 considering it has a Best Picture nomination. In fact, isn't this a bit silly as a category cross-over?

Art Direction

"Alice in Wonderland"
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1"
"Inception"
"The King's Speech"
"True Grit"

Um... golly... I actually really loved the Production Design of The King's Speech, but I'm going to go for True Grit (unseen as of the time of writing) as I think it should get something, and it looked awesome in the preview.

You would think any awards for Harry Potter will wait until Part 2 has been unleashed on the world.

Cinematography

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

Sight unseen, I'm going for Black Swan on this one.

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

Is The Tempest out? I wanted to see that... Um, well, perhaps Alice? No idea really...

Directing

“Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
“The Fighter” David O. Russell
“The King's Speech” Tom Hooper
“The Social Network” David Fincher
“True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Where is Christopher Nolan?! Come on people, Inception was universally loved and acclaimed... Surely these people can look beyond the timing of film releases?? And how long is it since we had a blockbuster that was clever and well-made and so loved by all types of people?? Sheesh.

I fear that Fincher might get it even though The Social Network seems to have only been loved by a handful of critics and not by the people who it supposedly defines, but I'm going to put my money (and hope) on Hooper. If I can't have Nolan.

Hooper turned a film about speech therapy into an entertaining laugh-out-loud, cry-into-your-sleeve kind of film that people look forward to seeing (it is the first film in years I have rushed out to see on the opening day), so actually I think he deserves it. (Though not quite as much as Nolan does.)

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

No idea whatsoever so in order to score some points with Bel I'm picking Banksy :) Plus Hollywood is so insecure they'll surely want to look cool by going for him? And create a little false intrigue as to who will collect it? (Well, obviously the primary filmmaker dude will, but you know...)

Documentary (Short Subject)

“Killing in the Name” Nominees to be determined
“Poster Girl” Nominees to be determined
“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

Sharp eyes might figure out why I have randomly selected this one.

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

Oooooh tough one! Actually I would have gone for Inception, but again it has been snubbed. I'm going to do a bit of a left-fielder and go for 127 Hours as I thought the editing was one of the primary ingredients making it an entertaining and horrific film.

Foreign Language Film

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

I'm basing this purely on the Best Actor nom for Javier.

Makeup

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

I've seen one of these so I'm picking it! Even though I don't really remember there being much to the make-up...

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

I think I need to give something to The Social Network, so randomly this is going to be it.

Music (Original Song)

“Coming Home” from “Country Strong”
“I See the Light” from “Tangled”
“If I Rise” from “127 Hours”
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3"

Gotta love a Disney song - let's just hope it's the PS22 choirdoing the singing!

Best Picture

“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“The King's Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3”
“True Grit”
“Winter's Bone"

I genuinely thought Inception was the Film of the Year. It was innovative, stunningly imagined, well acted, and had emotional punch alongside the massive workout for your cognitions. But it's not going to win. Which is a shame.

I hope - hope - it is The King's Speech because I really do not want The Social Network to take this title. It would just emphasise how up their own arses the Academy are and how much it is about the marketing. Do you know anyone who loved The Social Network? Who left the theatre saying "wow, that was really about us" ? No, you don't, because everyone kinda went: "Well, I guess it was fine - it was nicely shot and all... Justin Timberlake was quite good... um, yeah."

What the fuck is The Kids Are All Right doing here? It just a self-congratulation from the industry to the industry for being so gosh darned liberal as to have made a film about lesbian parenting. But heck we'll just ignore that the film isn't actually all that great, and that it shies away from depicting lesbian sex despite a keenness to portray heterosexual and gay-man sex in all its detail. High fives Annette and Julianne - you're straight but you played gay! But perhaps you could have, oh I don't know, gotten a bit more sexual with each other? You know that lesbians get it on, right?

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

I nearly had a heart-attack seeing "Day & Night" and thinking it was the Tom Cruise film being nominated for something, shudder.

I have no idea obviously so am going to go with... the one named after a cartoon film that I recently watched and liked.

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”
“Toy Story 3”
“Tron: Legacy”
“True Grit”
“Unstoppable”

Inception has gotta fucken win something.

Sound Mixing

“Inception”
“The King's Speech”
“Salt”
“The Social Network”
“True Grit”

Well it is about sound and all?

Visual Effects

“Alice in Wonderland”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
“Hereafter”
“Inception”
“Iron Man 2”

Inception all the way.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

“127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
“The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
“Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
“True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

(I can't bring myself to delete writers' names.)

This is a tough one, but I'm going to say The Winter's Bone as it sounds like it was bloody good and I really don't want them to go with the obvious choice.

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

Again, I think this should be Inception. I hope it's not The Kids Are All Right. I'm guessing The King's Speech.