Well, who would’ve thought the biggest surprise of Oscar nomination morning would be Christopher Nolan not getting a nomination for Best Director for Inception? What does Nolan need to do to get a directing nomination? I think you’ll all remember how The Dark Knight not only missed a Best Picture nomination, but Nolan wasn’t nominated as a director that year either. I can’t wait for the uproar after the ignore him for The Dark Knight Rises should that film be received as well as both Inception and The Dark Knight.
I was more prepared for a surprise Best Picture nomination such as The Ghost Writer or Rabbit Hole sliding in, but the Best Picture noms ended up being just as most expected, and I was happy to see I was wrong to leave 127 Hours off my top ten.
However, where do you begin when it comes to the other snubs and surprises? I guess I’ll start at the top and work my way down and you can fill in the blanks with anything I missed in the comments.
In the Best Actress category it wasn’t much of a surprise to see Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine) in there, but it is a snub to see Lesley Manville (Another Year) was forgotten altogether. I suspect she became victim of terrible campaigning on the part of Sony Pictures Classics whom labeled her a Lead Actress instead of Supporting and she ended up splitting votes to the point she just didn’t have enough for either list.
As for the Supporting Actress noms I can’t say I was surprised as I predicted all five, but I would bet some were expecting Mila Kunis (Black Swan) to be called.
On the men’s side, Jeff Bridges (True Grit) was the only one I didn’t have in my predictions that got the call as it turns out Ryan Gosling is the Blue Valentine half to get snubbed. Also, it appears Sony Classics loses out again as Robert Duvall (Get Low) didn’t find his way into the top five either.
The one opportunity to surprise in the Best Actor category would have been for Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter) to get a nomination, but while he saw the rest of his castmates get nominations he did not.
In Supporting Actor I was happy to see my five predictions were right, but The Social Network fans may be miffed to see Andrew Garfield didn’t make the cut, but even then, you have to be happy John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone) saw his performance recognized.
I’ve already mentioned Christopher Nolan’s directing snub so there isn’t much more to discuss here, though I am sure some will take the opportunity to note we are back to five male nominees. I wonder if the Academy will ever consider beefing this category up to ten nominees just to try to make sure females are always nominated. Would anyone have argued if Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone) had been nominated? You also had Sofia Coppola (Somewhere) and Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids are All Right) as potential nominees.
In the screenplay department I was surprised to see Mike Leigh’s script for Another Year nominated, especially over Black Swan. If you’ve read the two scripts I would think you would know where I’m coming from.
If documentaries were more prominent I would think the omission of Waiting for “Superman” would probably be just as big of news as Nolan’s directing snub. However, one is a snub, the other is merely a surprise. Waiting for “Superman” is one of the most overrated documentaries I’ve seen in some time.
In the foreign category I’m just as surprised to see Dogtooth nominated as I am happy to see it nominated. However, I was surprised Life above All didn’t receive a nomination as that seemed to be a pick from several Oscar prognosticators.
Moving into the technical categories there were also some surprises, most notably two for TRON: Legacy, which saw itself missing out on a Visual Effects nomination and Daft Punk was grossly overlooked for a Best Original Score nomination.
Strangely, in the Best Original Song category there were only four nominees and even more surprising, not one of them is from Burlesque.
And finally, in Film Editing, my front-runner to win, Inception, didn’t receive a nomination. It was the only film nominated by the American Cinema Editors to not be nominated, with 127 Hours taking its place. I’m certainly not upset at 127 Hours getting a nom in this category as Jon Harris’s work deserves it, but Inception was all about the editing.
Without the editing and the direction of Inception how does the Academy even justify giving it a Best Picture nomination? It doesn’t make any sense. Why not just shut it out completely and make it seem like it just didn’t suit the Academy’s taste, rather than confuse us with random dismissals?
Maybe I’m overreacting, but while I don’t mind snubs, I do mind absence of logic.
As I posted in the complete list of nominees (which you can check out right here), here is a list of the top ten nomination getters:
- The King’s Speech – 12 nominations
- True Grit – 10 nominations
- The Social Network – 8 nominations
- Inception – 8 nominations
- The Fighter – 7 nominations
- 127 Hours – 6 nominations
- Toy Story 3 – 5 nominations
- Black Swan – 5 nominations
- Winter’s Bone – 4 nominations
- The Kids are All Right – 4 nominations
Now it’s your turn. Speak up! What snubs pissed you off? What surprises excited you? How did your predictions turn out? Does The Social Network still have the upper hand with the likes of The King’s Speech and True Grit so obviously impressing the Academy?
