This morning, AMPAS President Tom Sherak and last year’s Oscar winner Mo’Nique (Precious) announced the nominees for the forthcoming Academy Awards. In the Best Picture category, Winter’s Bone ousted The Town, headlining what was a very impressive run for Debra Granik’s Sundance winner — Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes both received acting nominations, and an Adapted Screenplay nod rounded out the film’s recognition.
Inception, meanwhile, was a lesser presence than expected. The exclusion of Christopher Nolan in the Best Director category — the third time he has been excluded after receiving a DGA nod — is a shocker. His fingerprints were all over his film, which he had been developing for ten years, while Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit) slid into the category for one of their most reserved works of their career. More unjust, though, is the absence of Lee Smith’s prodigious work in the Best Editing category.
The support for Blue Valentine, one of my 2010 favorites, proved to be only one-sided, as Michelle Williams’ nomination was not matched by her equally brilliant co-star, Ryan Gosling. Rather, the Best Actor category rounded itself out with Javier Bardem (Biutiful). I wish I could offer a more extended reaction to that selection, but alas, I have yet to see the film.
Like Inception, perhaps The Town was not as much of a widespread favorite as was perceived — Jeremy Renner received the film’s only nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category. Although the ten Best Picture nominees can be used to support popular filmmaking, it can also be used to support obscure indie pictures — like Winter’s Bone — that wouldn’t otherwise find themselves in the Oscar race. In this situation, the Academy went with the second option.
Another slow-to-bloom campaign that won over the voters was Jacki Weaver in the Best Supporting Actress category. I would argue that Ben Mendelsohn gave Animal Kingdom‘s pinnacle performance, but considering how crowded his category was, I’ll be more than content to see Weaver representing the film on the day of.
Maybe above all, this year’s slate of nominees is a reminder of how different the Golden Globes are from the Oscars. The former voting body praised Inception across the board, while mostly denying appreciation for either 127 Hours or True Grit. The Academy members, however, went in the opposite direction, giving True Grit the second-highest number of nominations, and giving 127 Hours acknowledgement in more fields than was expected.
The following is a list of nominees that I’m not entirely supportive of. There are glimpses of hope — Mike Leigh’s Original Screenplay nomination, Williams’ Best Actress nomination — but they’re opposed by a greater number of logical fallacies. As is often the case for me, the negatives outweigh the positives.
Click here to take another glance at my final predictions from last night. I was 40/50 in the categories I predicted, and 48/50 including my alternates.
BEST PICTURE
BEST DIRECTOR
BEST ACTOR
BEST ACTRESS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
BEST ART DIRECTION
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
BEST FILM EDITING
BEST MAKEUP
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
BEST SOUND EDITING
BEST SOUND MIXING
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
on January 26, 2011 at 1:52 am
Winter’s Bone – deservedly or not – is gathering scorn from me. In my mind it is about as “authentic” as Catfish.
on January 26, 2011 at 6:40 pm
I plan to rewtach Winter’s Bone sometime soon, but I am currently not much of a supporter. The problem for me, though, is related more to the bland narrative than the authenticity.