Academy Award nominations

That wonderful time of year has arrived again, when the Academy announces the highest nomination honour in the motion picture industry. Taking into account the rule-book changes they introduced this year, you could say that the nominations are more exciting than last years—however, let’s not stress those changes, and rather focus on the actual nominations.

No big surprises this year, not even with ten Best Picture nominations. The Blind Side being nominated for Best Picture could be considered a mild surprise, but the rest of the nominees were set-in-stone for months. The Princess and the Frog not receiving a Best Original Score nomination was somewhat odd, but the two Best Original Song ones kind-of balance it out.

Overall, Avatar and The Hurt Locker received the most Academy Award nominations—nine. Again, not a surprise. Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds received eight, previous-darling-put-to-shame Nine only four (including only one for the music—a travesty for a musical), my favourite of the year, Precious, received Best Picture, Best Actress and Supporting Actress, Best Directing, Editing, and Adapted Screenplay nominations (six), the same as Up in the Air with Clooney a Best Actor nominee, Pixar’s Up followed in the footsteps of WALL-E and received five Golden Boy nominations, and Star Trek received three technical nominations.

Best Picture

• Avatar (James Cameron and Jon Landau)
• The Blind Side (Gil Netter, Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson)
• District 9 (Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham)
• An Education (Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey)
• The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro)
• Inglourious Basterds (Lawrence Bender)
• Precious (Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness)
• A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
• Up (Jonas Rivera)
• Up in the Air (Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman)

Best Director

• James Cameron (Avatar)
• Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
• Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
• Lee Daniels (Precious)
• Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
• George Clooney (Up in the Air)
• Colin Firth (A Single Man)
• Morgan Freeman (Invictus)
• Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)

Best Actress

• Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
• Helen Mirren (The Last Station)
• Carey Mulligan (An Education)
• Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)
• Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)

Best Supporting Actor

• Matt Damon (Invictus)
• Woody Harrelson (The Messenger)
• Christopher Plummer (The Last Station)
• Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)
• Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)

Best Supporting Actress

• Penélope Cruz (Nine)
• Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)
• Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart)
• Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air)
• Mo’Nique (Precious)

Best Original Screenplay

• Written by Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)
• Written by Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
• Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman (The Messenger)
• Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (A Serious Man)
• Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter. Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy. (Up)

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell (District 9)
• Screenplay by Nick Hornby (An Education)
• Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche (In the Loop)
• Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious)
• Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air)

Best Animated Feature

• Coraline (Henry Selick)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
• The Princess and the Frog (John Musker and Ron Clements)
• Th Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore)
• Up (Pete Docter)

Best Foreign Language Film

• Ajami (Israel)
• El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
• The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
• Un Prophete (France)
• The White Ribbon (Germany)

Best Original Score

• James Horner (Avatar)
• Alexandre Desplat (Fantastic Mr. Fox)
• Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders (The Hurt Locker)
• Hans Zimmer (Sherlock Holmes)
• Michael Giacchino (Up)

Best Original Song

• “Almost There” (The Princess and the Frog)
• “Down in New Orleans” (The Princess and the Frog)
• “Loin de Paname” (Paris 36)
• “Take It All” (Nine)
• “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” (Crazy Heart)