On the face of it, the nominees for the 83rd annual Academy Awards seemed fairly unremarkable. Aside from the deafening nature of not hearing Christopher Nolan’s name in the line-up for Best Director (the only true shock of the major categories), everything seemed to be within the expected parameters (even Javier Bardem sliding in, which seemed, increasingly, like a very real possibility these last few weeks).
But then I got to looking through the craft category nominations and the real interesting beats started to surface. First and foremost, “The King’s Speech” led the field with a whopping 12 nominations, even scoring in the Best Sound Mixing category. That’s major, to say the least. And enough, along with the PGA win, to consider it the frontrunner to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
“True Grit” wasn’t far behind with 10 nominations, including a bid for the Coen brothers in Best Director after all. Hailee Steinfeld stayed in Best Supporting Actress and Bridges was chalked up, but again, let me go back to the more intriguing crafts fields.
Like, oh, Best Film Editing? Where somehow, some way, Lee Smith was outright shafted for his immaculate construction of “Inception?” That, coupled with Nolan’s directing snub, indicates to me that the film just didn’t have the support we thought it did. I find myself wondering if it would have been one of five after all. But I don’t want to overstate it, because the film did manage eight nominations.
I’m quite bummed that “Shutter Island” didn’t register at all. Not a single nomination for some of the most amazing work above and below the line this year. Chalk it up to an early release and a timid push, I’d say. But the film did its job in the grand scheme. It made money.
My other underdog fave, “The Way Back,” managed to score a nomination after all, and in the field I’ve been expecting for it since I saw it: Best Makeup.
I’m ecstatic for Mike Leigh’s inclusion in the original screenplay field, though it came at the expense of “Black Swan” (which was starting to look shaky here as of late, if you asked around). The other screenplay field, adapted, was the only one that I nailed 100%. But I imagine many did.
One thing I did see coming was that sound mixing nod for “Salt.” The mixing community really dug the work in that film and a last-minute screener mailing aimed strictly at the sound branch clearly did the trick. Congrats to Greg P. Russell on his 14th Oscar nomination.
Another shocker: “Waiting for Superman” was completely shut out. That means no nominations for Best Original Song OR Best Documentary Feature, the latter obviously being the shock as it was largely considered the frontrunner. I’m long on the record for thinking the film a bit less as a work of filmmaking than it is as a work of activism, so it’s certainly how I would have nominated. I’m nevertheless surprised at the doc branch’s individualism there. GREAT line-up this year.
Let’s see. There a few more things to note by way of instant analysis before breaking away for a bit. Speaking of the original song category, it only had four nominees, and none of them were for “Burlesque.” Instead, “Coming Home” from “Country Strong” scored. Meanwhile, Alan Menken WOULD have tied Randy Newman for fourth-most-nominated-dude-still-living…if Newman hadn’t chalked up #20 today, that is. Now Newman joins Kevin O’Connell under Woody Allen and John Williams for third-most among those still upright.
And the biggest left-field pick (which put a smile on my face) might be “I Am Love” grabbing a nomination for Best Costume Design. How frisky of the branch.
“TRON Legacy” was snubbed in the visual effects field, which is worth noting. And it was “Hereafter” rather than “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” that took its place. I heard there was snickering about the handling of the younger Jeff Bridges at the bake-off, but that shouldn’t take away from all the other quality work on display in that film. Alas.
Oh, and I’m happy that “Blue Valentine” saw some love for Michelle Williams, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was saddened by the (however expected) exclusion of Ryan Gosling, who gave the year’s best performance, bar none.
I went 92/120 in overall predictions, 82/105 in the ones most predicted (excluding shorts) and 38/45 in the top eight categories. Check out the full list of predictions at The Circuit. And stay tuned later today for a special edition of Oscar Talk with Guy Lodge and (hopefully) Peter Knegt joining in. I’ll also have the sidebar updated and a fresh set of winner predictions soon.
Wait, one last thing……BANKSY!
[Photo: The Weinstein Company]
Comments
114 responses to “‘King’s Speech’ leads the pack with 12 Oscar nominations”
Can’t believe it – got them all right except I didn’t have “The Way Back” for make up (went with Alice).
I AM AWESOME!!!!!
Yay for Javier Bardem! I knew my favorite film of the year “THe Way Back” would get overlooked. In another decade, that film would have gotten the love it deserved.
Javier Bardem? Really???
Ryan Gosling’s snub is rather tragic in the scope of these awards. It’s a shame everyone who nominated Williams at #1 didn’t do the same for Gosling. I dunno whether I’m more annoyed @ Julia Roberts and her campaign, or True Grit in general for not waiting a year perhaps.
Bridges was so hammy, and for the second consecutive year, didn’t even deserve a nomination. Such a shame. In fact, I also feel bad for Duvall as well. Good thing Gosling’s still young and will probably get nominated again eventually, but still, it’s bad enough he was snubbed in 2007 for the likes of Johnny Depp and George Clooney, and now, it happens again….
“The King’s Speech” was over-nominated big time. Sound Mixing? Come on.
Also very disappointed to see “Winter’s Bone” do so well. Hawkes was very good, but over Andrew Garfield? No no no!
***… Lee Smith was outright shafted for his emasculate construction of “Inception?”***
Do you mean, “immaculate?”
I nailed all 10 for Best Picture, The Town can suck it!
I am also on a cloud for John Hawkes, that is just amazing.
Biggest Snubs:
1. Nolan for Director
2. Tron Legacy for VFX
3. Inception for Film Editing
4. Black Swan for Original Screenplay
5. Duvall for Actor
Hard to argue against the nominees for Director and Actor though. Poor Nolan in particular (even if he still got two nominations).
They liked 127 Hours better than expected, same with Winter’s Bone (it got four, and I predicted them all, happily). Black Swan wasn’t as loved as it was expected by most, same with Inception to a lesser degree.
AND BANKSY IS AN OSCAR NOMINEE!
Can I take a second to gloat? All along I said that the pacing of “Inception” was off-putting (bam-bam-bam-bam-bam with no finesse at all). I didn’t see it deserving of an editing nomination.
Tron: Legacy not getting into visual effects was the biggest surprise for me. I thought that and Inception were the shoe-ins for that category.
Also, no Tangled in animated feature. Obviously, it had its supporters with the song nomination and all, which makes it all the more surprising.
But, I will call it even, since Burlesque got nothing, leading to a (maybe) easy victory for Alan Menken. Though, I wouldn’t count out Newman, if the Academy wants to give a second award to Toy Story 3.
So I guess there will be ten directing nominees next year…? haha poor Christopher Nolan
Jacki Weaver’s nom makes me incredibly satisfied. I don’t even really care anymore. I got what I wanted. I’ll just be over here waiting for TKS to win and mumbling under my breath about how TSN is amazing.
I’m glad Winter’s Bone got the nod for screenplay, acting, and BP nods that it got. I’d be the first one to admit that watching the movie, I wasn’t blown away. But the movie stuck in my mind for months. I guess it’s careful and subtle presentation made the most impact after all.
Yay for John Hawkes and Jennifer Lawrence.
Oh, sound mixing for King’s Speech is a surprising nod. But now that I think about it, the movie was a little history of audio and it had to get those right. It’s so important to present the sound of everything to listen to a stuttering king.
Let’s all put a certain Guy Lodge in our prayers…”Burlesque” completely shut out.
Alan Menken is one of Academy’s sweetheart and will win the original song category.
I’m so glad for Michelle Williams, wow, second oscar nomination, after the snub of Wendy & Lucy!
I was hoping a nod for Danny Boyle in directing, but he got one as producer and sreencplay.
Dido- academy award nominee, cool!
Ed Harris being snubbed for his sublime, masterful work in “The Way Back” is one of the biggest crimes this award season.
English: I do! That would be the Text Edit program playing tricks on me and auto correcting in my quick typing frenzy. But what an auto correction, eesh.
Kris, I have to say, THANK YOU for continuing to give an even-handed analysis of awards coverage. The Twitter feed of one of your colleagues at Awards Daily this morning is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, reminding people “it’s not that big of a deal” while she is clearly falling apart inside. When you try and validate yourself through this stuff, you will inevitably lose. The house wins. It’s just good fun.
Dogtooth for Foreign Language was a surprise (in a good way!) as well.
I´m very happy with this line-up! The 12 nominations for “The King´s Speech” suggest in comparison to the (quite respectable) 8 nods for “Social Network” a thrilling race for the win.
“True Grit” would have been our unexpected darkhorse, if it wouldn´t have been snubbed for Best Editing.
Now we have a race!
Now that I’ve looked over the full list, I see that the three nominees on my wish list–Andrew Garfield, Mila Kunis, and Julianne Moore–got skunked. I’m bored already with the ceremony.
By the way, does anyone know why there are only four best song nominees?
I’m most happy about How to Train Your Dragon getting the Score nomination! And Guy will for sure be stoked that The Illusionist made it in. Here’s my somewhat redundant analysis
As always: hit and miss. But… No Andrew Garfield? Poor Spidey. And that VFX category is looking absolutely ridiculous.
But, um, Dogtooth anyone? I know at least one person who’s probably going nuts for this right now. And I’m going to import that DVD asap.
By the way, let’s not play the game of, “I thought such and such wasn’t worth and I feel vindicated by the Academy for snubbing it.” It’s just another group of people.
And I noticed a lot of comments were quarantined in the other thread. Apologies for that. Safety function in response to the deluge, I think. They’re all there now.
Adam: You are wise, sir.
Oh lord, I just saw ”There’s a place for us” for original song.
That makes Carrie Underwood an Academy award nominee!
127 Hours getting more nominations than Black Swan is crazy, but at least Aronofsky can laugh all the way to the bank too, unlike Boyle.
Mad that Andrew Garfield got snubbed but atleast John Hawkes got that spot….Really Happy about How To Train Your Dragon score nomination and Harry Potter getting art direction is also kind of a shock……
I´m very happy for Jacki Weaver and Dogtooth.
Wait, There’s a Place for Us was nominated? Not at Oscar.com. Or did they screw that up, too?
“while she is falling apart inside” made me laugh very hard, in an empathetic way of course.
Gabriel, I think you’re confused or the Oscar site is janked, because I only see four nominees, and that song is not one of them.
I don’t see a fifth song nominee on either Oscar site.
Delighted for: Another Year for screenplay, The Illusionist, Jacki Weaver, John Hawkes, Michelle Williams
Saddened by: Lesley Manville, Ryan Gosling, total snub of The Ghost Writer (expected)
Comments in the blog.
No Andrew Garfield is making me cry… So lame. He should’ve been there over Hawkes, or Ruffalo, or Renner… A damn shame.
I’m also disappointed about the snubs for Kunis and Nolan in director, and Lee Smith’s brilliant editing in ‘Inception’. How did they miss that?
What I Liked:
– Jackie Weaver for Animal Kingdom
– John Hawkes for Winter’s Bone
– Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine
– Black Swan for Cinematography
– Winter’s Bone for Best Picture
What I loathed:
– All the love for The Kids Are Alright. I have no problem with the Bening or Ruffalo nominations, but the Original Screenplay nod just pisses me off. Black Swan should have replaced it. The 800 pound gorilla in the room is the fact that Cholodenko’s film is being rewarded, not because of its artistic value, but its subject matter. I can’t stand it when the Academy is more interested in pushing an agenda, instead of rewarding artistic merit.
– Javier Bardem nominated, Ryan Gosling snubbed. Inarritu’s films are pretentious and always depressing. Biutiful is no different. Bardem was good, but Gosling should of been nominated over him. It doesn’t make sense for Williams to be recognized, and not her co-star. Gosling’s was, in my opinion, the best male performance this year.
– Christopher Nolan snubbed, again! This will be the dominant headline, but it really is a travesty that the Academy ignored him. He could have easily replaced Russell or the Coen brothers. What makes it even more aggravating is that Inception missed out on an Editing nod. Definitely the biggest joke this morning.
– Waiting for Superman snubbed, with propaganda “docs” like Gasland (which was on television; I thought that automatically eliminated it from contention) and Inside Job getting recognized. But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. WFS commits a big no-no in Hollywood, going after the teacher’s unions.
All in all though, not too bad. I would agree that The King’s Speech, not The Social Network, should be considered the favorite to win Best Picture. Bening in the mediocre The Kids Are All Right should be favored as well, not Portman.
I enjoyed Black Swan, but I am not surprised by the lack of a screenplay nod. It’s entertaining, but there were too many campy moments in the movie to be taken as seriously as the Top 5 nominees in the original screenplay category.
There were things announced today to feel proud of, a lot of them already covered by Kris. But, as with any year, there are also quite a few “wtf’s” thrown in for good measure, many (again) already covered by Kris: no Inception love in the Directing/Editing race (the latter of which I thought it could easily win), no “Black Swan” in screenplay, and no TRON for FX (I really don’t care if you thought the “young Bridges” FX didn’t look real…it was still MILES AND MILES better than the FX in “Hereafter”).
For me (besides those mentioned), my biggest complaints would have to be no Garfield in Best Supporting Actor (which has been my fave this year, although I’ll admit I haven’t yet seen “The Fighter”) and no Daft Punk for Original Score (although we all saw it coming). I’m also a bit down on the fact that neither Kunis nor Hershey got in the Supporting Actress race, but honestly I can see why, and that race was a tight one anyway.
I’m pretty happy about the nominations, over all. There won’t be any Sandra Bullock moments this year, anyway…
The biggest disappointment for me is that Ryan Gosling wasn’t nominated, though. And a smaller, (much more expected) disappointment is that Shutter Island wasn’t recognised, either. It was definitely one of my favourite films of the year.
About ”There’s a place for us”, My bad, I haven’t checked the good ceremony. Sorry!!
Im sad for Gosling not making it, but Williams gave a better performance and so if only one made it Im glad it was her.
King’s Speech for cinematography and sound mixing? Not good news for Social Network, along with Garfield not getting in.
It’s pretty clear the Academy loves TKS. Let’s just pray that Tom Hooper does not steal the award from David Fincher. AMPAS can’t afford the embarrassment.
I like all (almost all) the nominations! Yes it first seems a few snubs, but at least some other worthy performances got nominated. Yes Ryan Gosling was very good in Blue Valentine. But sinc i saw Biutiful i can say that Javier Bardem is also very good in that movie! So i dont feel bad about it!
I think my only disappointment is not seeing Chris Nolan get nominated! Coen Bros over Chris Nolan??? He must have pissed some people off real bad!
I think this also means that Fincher will get DGA this weekend! Nolan was the only possible threat, but now it is over I believe!
It’s the Art Direction and Costume Design and Best supporting Actor that did in the The Social Network.
All things being equal, these are three that nods that TSN missed to be on equal footing with The King’s Speech. Considering that The King’s Speech is a costume drama it’s expected to get those nods. And TSN isn’t a period drama, so it’s okay to miss those. But it’s BIG, BIG that Andrew Garfield missed best supporting actor–which happened all throughout the season.
So, I’m calling it even-steven between TKS and TSN. But, momentum is on The King’s Speech, big time. It will embolden those who are on the fence between the two to go with TKS.
I am bummed that Gosling wasn’t nominated mainly because I feel like he and Williams really complimented each other. They both deserved to hear their names called.
Finally I can get on this site!!!
There are no words for the Nolan and Smith snubs. Nolan is 0-3 in DGA/OSCAR matchups. This does not bode well for any ROTK redux with Dark Knight Rises in 2012. And besides, Lincoln is a 2012 release, they might as well cancel the Oscars.
I’m also surprised Waiting for Superman and Tron Legacy missed out in their respective categories.
my instant predictions
Best Motion Picture of the Year
THE KING’S SPEECH
Best Achievement in Directing
David Fincher, THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Colin Firth, THE KING’S SPEECH
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Natalie Portman, BLACK SWAN
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale, THE FIGHTER
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Hailee Steinfeld, TRUE GRIT
Best Adapted Screenplay
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Best Original Screenplay
THE KING’S SPEECH
Best Animated Feature Film
TOY STORY 3
Best Foreign Language Film
BIUTIFUL
Best Documentary Feature
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP
Best Film Editing
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Best Cinematography
TRUE GRIT
Best Art Direction
INCEPTION
Best Costume Design
THE KING’S SPEECH
Best Makeup
THE WOLFMAN
Best Music (Original Score)
THE KING’S SPEECH
Best Music (Original Song)
TOY STORY 3, “We Belong Together”
Best Sound Editing
INCEPTION
Best Sound Mixing
INCEPTION
Best Visual Effects
INCEPTION
The King’s Speech – 5
Inception – 4
The Social Network – 3
True Grit – 2
Toy Story 3 – 2
Black Swan – 1
Buitiful – 1
The Fighter – 1
Exit Through The Gift Shop – 1
The Wolfman – 1
To all those angry about Nolan’s snub, Black Swan’s poor showing and TKS’s dominance… just say this out loudly with your fists raised. It’ll make things better.
OSSSSSCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
Worked for me.
Let’s be honest. There’s a lot of suprises here. For better of for worse, there is a lot to chew on.
I would argue that Nolan’s exclusion, while notable is not unprecedented. It’s hard to get in for Science Fiction that has both ideas and action. Minority Report/The Matrix should have taught us something.
As always, there’s few things here that made me truly glad and much more than I found… well, meh.
127 hours? Eh.
And can we all agree that Jeremy Renner is the most overrated actor in the town now (no pun intended)?
Overall, except for a couple of epically dumb decisions (Jeremy Renner over Andrew Garfield), I’d say these are some of my favorite Oscar nominations in years. The 10 Best Picture Line-Up paid off this year. No extremely below-par films somehow making it in. I’d say that all the nominees are at least “good” films.
I’m most happy about the Best Documentary category. “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” “Restrepo” and “Inside Job” all making it in while “Waiting for Superman” completely shut out. WELL DONE, DOC BRANCH. The powers of Oprah have actually been conquered.
“Meanwhile, Alan Menken WOULD have tied Randy Newman for most-nominated-dude-still-living…if Randy Newman hadn’t chalked up #20 today, that is.”
I am also not sure where you were going with this, very obviously wrong, statement but I don’t like it.
Kris,
I really like your piece today. It is very level-headed, fair to everyone while not attacking anyone, good reporting with a few personal thoughts! Very good!