Cristane’s Blog

Oscar nominees: no Nolan, WTF?? + 83%

January 25, 2011 at 3:41 pm (Movies)

For every pleasant surprise the Academy had when reading the nominees for this year’s Oscars, there was one big snub that left me scratching my head. Despite this, however, most of the list is okay, and, if I were not to think about the next paragraph, I might actually say they got most nominees spot on.

But they didn’t, because, in what might be the biggest surprise in recent years, they completely ignored Christopher Nolan in the Best Director category. I have no idea how could this happen, because A), Inception still got plenty of love from the Academy, scoring 8 nods, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, and B), it’s safe to say the direction is pretty much the number 1 asset the movie has. No disrespect for Aronofsky, the Coens, and even David O. Russell, they all deserved their places, but choosing Hooper over Nolan is insane. After all, Hooper directed a character film that entirely relies on Colin Firth’s role and performance, and not on direction.

Leaving this monster rant aside, many other things are well from my point of view. Here are some pros and cons:

Pros
- I’m very happy with Winter’s Bone performance, which got 4 very deserved nominations, including for the stunning Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress, and John Hawkes for Best Supporting Actor.
- Black Swan, Aronofsky & Portman
- The Social Network and The King’s Speech got tons of nominations, as expected.
- Toy Story 3 getting nominated also for Best Picture and Best Screenplay, other than the already-in-the-bag Best Animation award they will win
- The lack of mediocre crap from the important categories (after last year’s The Blind Side, and this year’s Golden Globes debacle, you can never be too certain)
- Dogtooth scoring a Best Foreign Film nomination
- Since Clint Mansell couldn’t be nominated for Black Swan, I’m glad Hans Zimmer (Inception) and Reznor & Ross (The Social Network) are in

Cons
- The Town not getting anything other than Supporting Actor for Jeremy Renner
- Mila “Sweet Lips” Kunis left out of Best Supporting Actress
- Black Swan ignored for Best Script
- other than Best Director, Inception should’ve also been nominated for Best Editing

… and some self-praising, to end this post: I scored 83% at the predictions I wrote earlier, which is my all-time record to date (I missed only 9 nominees, out of 53). And, check this out, I got all the 10 Best Picture nominees correctly!

Here’s the complete list of nominees. Awards take place on February 27th.