Despite this year’s expansion of the best-picture field from five nominees to 10, the Academy Award nominations announced this morning fell pretty much as expected, at least in the major attention-grabbing categories. Specifically, Avatar and The Hurt Locker led the field with nine nominations each, setting the stage for the anticipated Oscar-night showdown between former spouses James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow. (Current wisdom has Bigelow scoring a historic win as the first female winner of the Oscar for direction, with Cameron’s achievement taking the top prize. And if some other film wins either prize, that will be a major upset.)
The dark-horse candidates squeaking into the picture race turned out to be the tremendously popular The Blind Side, the science-fiction allegory Distict 9, and the low-key Coen Brothers release A Serious Man. Disney/Pixar’s Up became the second film ever (after Disney’s Beauty and the Beast) to be nominated for best picture. None of those were sure things, but none of them came out of left field, either.
Altogether, the line-up seemed to satisfy the Academy’s apparent wish to bring more crowd-pleasing entertainment together with traditionally Oscar material. The category was rounded out with not-so-surprising noms for An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, and Up in the Air. Boosters of the more populist Star Trek and The Hangover in the main category were disappointed, though the nominated films have plenty of box-office credibility among them. .
The single biggest surprise of the televised announcements was probably the announcement that The Secret of Kells was nominated in the animated-feature category, beating out contenders including Studio Ghiblii’s Ponyo and Sony Pictures Animation’s Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Kells made the festival rounds last year, then was given an Oscar-qualifying run in Burbank in December. It’s reportedly set for a U.S. theatrical release next month.
There were no huge upsets in the major craft categories, though it was nice to see the Academy spread around its kudos beyond the usual suspects. It recognized DP Bruno Delbonnel’s work for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince alongside the cinematography of more awards-ready films: Avatar (Mauro Fiore), The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd), Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson), and The White Ribbon (Christian Berger). And film-editor Julian Clarke’s work on District 9 was cited along with nods to Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds and Precious.
As usual, the two sound categories were near mirror images, with the only difference being that Up made the cut for sound editing while Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was cited for sound mixing. The other nominations went to editing and mixing work on Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, and Star Trek.
The visual-effects honor will go to either Avatar, District 9, or Star Trek. OK, let’s face it — it’s going to Avatar. But it’s an honor just to be nominated. Those other films featured mind-blowing VFX work, too. Just not quite as mind-blowing as those in the Cameron movie.
The full list of Oscar nominees is online at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences web site.
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