My thoughts on the nominations, which you can find here; I copied these from my Facebook page, so some of you may have already read them…
The Blind Side & District 9 for best picture, didn’t see those coming, very interesting. Have yet to see The Blind Side. The rest were almost a sure thing, very glad to see Up in there, not happy at all that Avatar got a nod. I liked it, yes, but not for best picture, not even for a nomination. My pick? The Hurt Locker of course, but I won’t be the least bit upset if it goes to Up in the Air or A Serious Man…
No surprises in the Best Director category. I’m hoping Bigelow has it locked, but anyone besides Cameron would be fine with me. I still need to see Precious, I know nothing of Lee Daniel’s work…
That Invictus WASN’T nominated for Best Picture is a surprise. Not because it’s good, I haven’t seen it, but because the Academy loves Eastwood. Freeman is nominated in the Lead Actor category, he may win just because he’s Morgan Freeman. Of course, I want Jeremy Renner to take it. I need to see Crazy Heart, Bridges is getting mad praise for it…
Is there a question on Leading Actress? I mean, Meryl Streep is nominated, of course they’ll give it to her. I haven’t seen a single one of those films, but I’m gonna cross my fingers and hope for Gabourey Sidibe in Precious…
Supporting Actor…haven’t seen any of those either, but given all the talk, I’m gonna say Christoph Waltz has it in the bag…
Both actresses in Up in the Air got a Supporting nod, but I don’t think they stand a chance against Mo’Nique. The Academy loves to award villians gold in supporting roles, and I hear she plays a darn good one…
Screenplays…for Adapted, it’ll be a tough win for any of them, but you might see Precious get some love here because of its subject matter. Original though? I’m gonna say the Coens take this one easily, if they don’t get the nod for Best Picture, then I’d say Hurt Locker…
Animated Feature…well, since Up is nominated here as well, I’m gonna say it takes it. Maybe it deserves it, but I think Fantastic Mr. Fox is the better film, though it lacks any real emotional connection to the characters. Still haven’t seen Coraline, maybe it will surprise everyone and take the gold…
The rest: the latest Potter film is nominated for Cinematography. It deserves more love than that, but I’m glad to see it got a nomination for something. Unfortunately it’ll be Avatar all the way here. Hopefully the only award that film wins. Haven’t seen any of the Foreign Language nominations, and the Editing category is just always a toss up. Like I said though, if Hurt Locker sweeps it won’t bother me at all.
Addition to the Best Actor comments: That Michael Stuhlbarg got left off the list is astounding, but I couldn’t see him winning over any of the others. And that’s not a knock on him, just that the Academy likes to hand out lead awards to actors and actresses for what they’ve done in the past, not what film they’re currently nominated for, which is why you’ll probably see Bridges or Freeman take it.
