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Oscar Nominations

The King’s Speech leads the field for this year’s Oscars with 12 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Colin Firth, whilst True Grit has 10 and The Social Network has 8.

The King’s Speech leads the field for this year’s Oscars with 12 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Colin Firth, whilst True Grit has 10 and The Social Network has 8.

Earlier today Moโ€™Nique and Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, revealed the nominations in Beverly Hills.

On first glance, there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of surprises, but here are a few things worth noting.

  • The King’s Speech is firmly back in contention for Best Picture: Even though The Social Network has swept the critics awards so far, the sheer amount of nominations for The King’s Speech (especially in the technical categories) indicates that it could now be the front runner. The Social Network is still a strong candidate but the feel-good, across the board appeal of Tom Hooper’s film may now be starting to show with Academy voters.
  • The Social Network team will be concerned: Despite all the critical love and awards season buzz for this film, the big question always was whether the 6,000 Academy members would embrace a contemporary film like this over the traditional Oscar bait of The King’s Speech. Whilst Fincher’s drama has been on a roll in recent weeks, the amount of nominations for The King’s Speech indicates Academy voters may be backing the more traditional candidate. It’s tempting to see comparisons with 1981 when plucky Brit drama Chariots of Fire won Best Picture whilst the more cerebral Reds nabbed Best Director, or even 2000 when Traffic won Best Director and Gladiator won Best Picture.
  • Christopher Nolan misses out for Best Director: Despite enormous critical and commercial success with Inception, he’s missed out again for Academy recognition, which after The Dark Knight snub in 2008 will raise a few eyebrows.
  • Javier Bardem gets in for Best Actor: Despite the mixed reaction at Cannes for Alejandro Gonzalez Innarritu’s drama, the central performance has deservedly got raves and made it on to the final list.
  • True Grit proves the Globes aren’t all that: For anyone who thinks that the Golden Globes isn’t just celebrity-obsessed foreign journalists second-guessing the Oscar race, look at the nominations for The Coen Brothers’ western, which they snubbed outright. Newcomer Hailee Steinfeld is one to watch in the Best Supporting Actress race.
  • Winter’s Bone keeps the indie flame alive: The nominations for Best Picture, Jennifer Lawrence (Best Actress) and Debra Granik (Adapted Screenplay) prove that serious indie dramas can still get recognition in a harsh environment for independent film. Roadside Attractions will be thrilled.
  • Blue Valentine is (sort of) snubbed: Although Michelle Williams got a Best Actress nomination, The Weinstein Company will be disappointed that the acclaimed indie drama missed out on Best Picture and Best Actor for Ryan Gosling.
  • Technical Snubs: The major technical shocker is the omission for Inception’s Lee Smith in Best Film Editing (arguably one of the best edit jobs in recent cinema history) and Tron: Legacy for Best Visual Effects.
  • The Banksy dream is still alive: Ingenious indie documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop made it through to the final nominees, which means that we could conceivably see Banksy at the Oscars (or at least some kind of mural outside). However, Inside Job remains the favourite for Best Documentary, especially with the shock omission of Waiting for Superman.

The Oscars take place on Sunday 27th February and here they are in full:

BEST PICTURE

  • 127 Hours
  • Black Swan
  • The Fighter
  • Inception
  • The Kids Are All Right
  • The King’s Speech
  • Winter’s Bone
  • True Grit
  • The Social Network
  • Toy Story 3

BEST DIRECTOR

  • Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
  • David O Russell – The Fighter
  • Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
  • David Fincher – The Social Network
  • Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – True Grit

BEST ACTOR

  • Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
  • Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
  • James Franco – 127 Hours
  • Javier Bardem – Biutiful
  • Jeff Bridges – True Grit

BEST ACTRESS

  • Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
  • Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
  • Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
  • Natalie Portman – Black Swan
  • Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • Christian Bale – The Fighter
  • John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
  • Jeremy Renner – The Town
  • Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
  • Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • Amy Adams – The Fighter
  • Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
  • Melissa Leo – The Fighter
  • Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
  • Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

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

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • Mike Leigh – Another Year
  • Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (screenplay), Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson (story) – The Fighter
  • Christopher Nolan – Inception
  • Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg – The Kids Are All Right
  • David Seidler – The King’s Speech

BEST ANIMATION

  • How to Train Your Dragon
  • The Illusionist
  • Toy Story 3

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

  • Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy – 127 Hours
  • Aaron Sorkin – The Social Network
  • Michael Arndt – Toy Story 3
  • Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – True Grit
  • Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini – Winter’s Bone

BEST ART DIRECTION

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

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • Black Swan
  • Inception
  • The King’s Speech
  • The Social Network
  • True Grit

BEST SOUND MIXING

  • Inception
  • The King’s Speech
  • The Social Network
  • Salt
  • True Grit

BEST SOUND EDITING

  • Inception
  • Toy Story 3
  • Tron: Legacy
  • True Grit
  • Unstoppable

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

  • Coming Home (from Country Strong) by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
  • I See the Light (from Tangled) by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater
  • If I Rise (from 127 Hours) by AR Rahman, Dido and Rollo Armstrong
  • We Belong Together (from Toy Story 3) by Randy Newman

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

  • How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell
  • Inception – Hans Zimmer
  • The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat
  • 127 Hours – AR Rahman
  • The Social Network – Trent Reznor and Atticus

BEST COSTUMES

  • Alice in Wonderland
  • I Am Love
  • The King’s Speech
  • The Tempest
  • True Grit

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

  • Exit Through the Gift Shop
  • Gasland
  • Inside Job
  • Restrepo
  • Waste Land

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

  • Killing in the Name
  • Poster Girl
  • Strangers No More
  • Sun Come Up
  • The Warriors of Qiugang

BEST FILM EDITING

  • Black Swan
  • The Fighter P
  • The King’s Speech
  • 127 Hours
  • The Social Network

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

  • Day & Night
  • The Gruffalo
  • Let’s Pollute
  • The Lost Thing
  • Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

  • The Confession
  • The Crush
  • God of Love
  • Na Wewe
  • Wish 143

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

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

BEST MAKE-UP

  • Barney’s Version
  • The Way Back
  • The Wolfman

NOMINATIONS TALLY

  • The King’s Speech – 12
  • True Grit – 10
  • Inception – 8
  • The Social Network – 8
  • The Fighter – 7
  • 127 Hours – 6
  • Black Swan – 5
  • Toy Story 3 – 5
  • The Kids Are All Right – 4
  • Winter’s Bone – 4
  • Alice in Wonderland – 3
  • Biutiful – 2
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 – 2
  • How to Train Your Dragon – 2

> Official Oscars site
> 83rd Academy Awards at Wikipedia
> Analysis at Awards Daily and In Contention