The Reaction: Few Surprises in the 2010 Oscar Nominations

Wow, even though all of my predictions didn’t come true, most of them did as this morning saw the we discussed all the way up to the most undeserving of the bunch, a Best Picture nomination for The Blind Side. Other than that the surprises were limited to… well… none. At least none that qualify as something we couldn’t have possibly seen happening.

No biggie, no surprises means we were prepared for any major disappointments, which is what The Blind Side nom is to me, but there are other things to discuss here. So let’s get to it shall we?

First off, the top of the heap looks like this in terms of number of nominations:

• Avatar (9 nominations)
• The Hurt Locker (9 nominations)
• Inglourious Basterds (8 nominations)
• Precious (6 nominations)
• Up In the Air (6 nominations)

Next, a quick glance at the Best Picture nominees:

• Avatar
• The Blind Side
• District 9
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious
• A Serious Man
• Up
• Up In the Air

Of that bunch Avatar, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious and Up In the Air were locks. Most of us agreed Up would get in and I would say most everyone had District 9 and A Serious Man banging on the door. The only one that seems out of place is The Blind Side, but there’s no sense in continuing down that path considering most of us agree it’s a decent enough film, just not necessarily worthy of a Best Picture nom, with other audience favorites such as Star Trek and 500 Days of Summer on the outside looking in. Not like it matters, the nominations we are arguing over are merely meant to bring in viewers, it’s not like they have a chance to win.

Instead of being surprised by the inclusion of The Blind Side, I would say I am more surprised by the exclusion of Invictus, but only due to the fact both Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon were nominated for acting awards. I assumed Freeman was a sure bet, but wasn’t positive on Damon. Seeing how Damon got the nod the Picture miss surprises me. Director Clint Eastwood also missed out on a nod for the film as Lee Daniels (Precious) and Jason Reitman (Up In the Air) took the two toss-up director slots with Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron left to duke it out with Bigelow currently wielding the bigger stick. Quentin Tarantino is the fifth nominee and he’ll serve as referee with Daniels and Reitman playing the role of spectators.

In the acting nominations, the lead categories went exactly as predicted, but the Supporting categories had a couple names that sat on the outside of my predictions, but were obviously still in the mix.

On the supporting actor side I was convinced Christian McKay would earn the nomination for Me and Orson Welles, but was proven wrong as Christopher Plummer joined Helen Mirren with a nomination for The Last Station, a made-for-TV film masquerading as a theatrical feature and filling fifth slot Oscar noms while it’s at it. On the actress side Penelope Cruz deserved her nod for Nine no matter what you thought of the film, but the Maggie Gyllenhaal nod for Crazy Heart is a bit of a surprise as both Samantha Morton (The Messenger) and Julianne Moore (A Single Man) were both far more deserving and lauded throughout the award season.

In the animated category I think it’s a bit interesting to see The Secret of Kells get the nod over such films as Ponyo or even the box-office success of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. If any film were going to surprise in that category I thought it would be the more recent critical darling Mary and Max. A late season personal favorite that wasn’t in contention was A Town Called Panic. Oh well, Up is going to win.

As for the most welcomed surprise of the lot, it has to be the Original Screenplay nomination for In the Loop scripters Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche. The film deserves as much attention as it can get and that is one hell of a screenplay.

With that said, I’m spent and need to get a little bit of sleep. You can browse the complete list of nominees The Contenders“. So keep your eyes peeled.

In the meantime discuss the nominations below and look forward to Sunday, March 7, 2010 as that is the day the winners of the 2010 Oscar Awards will be announced and I will be here live blogging and reporting the winners as they are announced. I hope you will join me.