Looking bleary-eyed and slightly uncomfortable, last year’s Supporting Actress winner, Monique, announced the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards categories in LA last month. As with this month’s Golden Globe awards, it’s an unsurprising but still strong list: great British hope The King’s Speech strolled regally into most of the top categories, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Colin Firth, Best Original Screenplay for David Seidler, Supporting nods for both Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush and a perhaps undeserved Best Director nomination for Tom Hooper. That film’s big rival, The Social Network, took many of the big prizes at the Golden Globes, and looks set to repeat at least some of that success here, with nominations for Best Picture, Best Director for David Fincher, an acting nod for Jesse Eisenberg, which he’ll inevitably lose to Firth, and a handful of technical awards.
In the supporting categories, The Fighter is the film to beat: the kind of old-fashioned comeback story the Academy loves to reward, packed with powerhouse performances from Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo, all of whom have been nominated along with director David O Russell, and the film itself. Echoing the Golden Globes, plenty of Time Out’s personal favourites are up for big awards: last year’s indie sleeper surprise Winter’s Bone received not only richly deserved acting nominations for Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes, but Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film as well. Five-star smasher The Kids Are All Right stands alongside it in the Best Picture list, along with Annette Bening’s Best Actress nomination and an Original Screenplay nod, while the wonderful Michelle Williams is also nominated for Best Actress in Blue Valentine.
More surprisingly, Black Swan is another big favourite, although it has been banned in Dubai. We saw Natalie Portman’s Best Actress nomination coming a mile off, but nominations for Best Picture and Best Director were less expected, considering the eccentricities of Darren Aronofsky’s film. We were also pleased to see the Coen brothers’ True Grit getting its due, with nods for Best Film, Best Director, Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Jeff Bridges, though a nomination for Hailee Steinfeld in the lead female role (rather than just in the supporting category) would have been welcome.
It was also nice to see Mike Leigh bagging an Original Screenplay nomination for Another Year, British street artist Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop getting some love in the Documentary category and Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours nominated for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for the increasingly impressive James Franco. The Oscars are notoriously America-centric, so it’s great to see Javier Bardem’s Cannes-winning, Spanish-language turn in Biutiful rewarded with a Best Actor nomination. And it’s a strong Foreign Language category this year: of the films we’ve seen, Dogtooth was a huge hit with our critics, while both Outside the Law and Biutiful received praise on our pages. Someone has to lose out, and this year it’s Inception: Christopher Nolan’s film was a critical hit in some circles, but its flashy visuals and convoluted plot failed to see it pick up many nominations besides Best Picture, which it has no chance of winning, plus Best Cinematography and technical awards. All in all, it’s a satisfying field: the Time Out film team is all but united behind The Social Network, arguably the most complex Best Picture nominee in years, but only a monstrous cynic would begrudge The King’s Speech its time in the sun.
And here’s the list of nominations…
Best Picture
Black Swan
Producers: Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin
Not yet released in the UAE
The Fighter
David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg
Inception
Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right
Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray
Not yet released in the UAE
The King’s Speech
Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin
Like to win
127 Hours
Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson
The Social Network
Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin
Time Out wants to win
Toy Story 3
Darla K Anderson
True Grit
Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Winter’s Bone
Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin
Directing
Black Swan
Darren Aronofsky
Not yet released in the UAE
The Fighter
David O Russell
The King’s Speech
Tom Hooper
The Social Network
David Fincher
Like to win, Time Out wants to win
True Grit
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
127 Hours
Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network
Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Like to win, Time Out wants to win
Toy Story 3
Screenplay by Michael Arndt; story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
True Grit
Written for the screen by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Winter’s Bone
Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Another Year
Written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter
Screenplay by Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson; story by Keith Dorrington, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson
Inception
Written by Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right
Written by Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg
Not yet released in the UAE
The King’s Speech
Screenplay by David Seidler
Like to win, Time Out wants to win
Cinematography
Black Swan
Matthew Libatique
Not yet released in the UAE, Like to win
Inception
Wally Pfister
Time Out wants to win
The King’s Speech
Danny Cohen
The Social Network
Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit
Roger Deakins
Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem in Biutiful
Not yet released in the UAE
Jeff Bridges in True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network
Colin Firth in The King’s Speech
Like to win, Time Out wants to win
James Franco in 127 Hours
Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in The Fighter
Like to win, Time Out wants to win
John Hawkes in Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner in The Town
Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech
Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right
Not yet released in the UAE
Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman in Black Swan
Like to win
Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine
Time Out wants to win
Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams in The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter in The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo in The Fighter
Like to win, Time Out wants to win
Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit
Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom
Not yet released in the UAE
Animated Feature Film
How to Train Your Dragon
Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
The Illusionist
Sylvain Chomet
Not yet released in the UAE
Toy Story 3
Lee Unkrich
Like to win, Time Out wants to win
Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland
Colleen Atwood
I Am Love
Antonella Cannarozzi
Time Out wants to win
The King’s Speech
Jenny Beavan
Like to win
The Tempest
Sandy Powell
Not yet released in the UAE
True Grit
Mary Zophres
Documentary (Feature)
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz
Time Out wants to win
Gasland
Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
Not yet released in the UAE
Inside Job
Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Not yet released in the UAE, Like to win
Restrepo
Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
Not yet released in the UAE
Waste Land
Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley
Not yet released in the UAE
Film Editing
Black Swan
Andrew Weisblum
Not yet released in the UAE
The Fighter
Pamela Martin
The King’s Speech
Tariq Anwar
127 Hours
Jon Harris
The Social Network
Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
Like to win, Time Out wants to win
Foreign Language Film
Biutiful Mexico
Like to win, Time Out wants to win
Dogtooth Greece
Not yet released in the UAE
In a Better World Denmark
Not yet released in the UAE
Incendies Canada
Not yet released in the UAE
Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) Algeria
Not yet released in the UAE
Make-up
Barney’s Version
Adrien Morot
Not yet released in the UAE
The Way Back
Edouard F Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
Time Out wants to win
The Wolfman
Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Not yet released in the UAE, Like to win
Music (Original Score)
How to Train Your Dragon
John Powell
Inception
Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech
Alexandre Desplat
Like to win
127 Hours
AR Rahman
The Social Network
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Time Out wants to win
Music (Original Song)
Coming Home from Country Strong: music and lyrics by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
Not yet released in the UAE
I See the Light from Tangled: music by Alan Menken; lyrics by Glenn Slater
If I Rise from 127 Hours: music by AR Rahman; lyrics by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
Like to win
We Belong Together from Toy Story 3: music and lyrics by Randy Newman
Time Out wants to win
Sound Editing
Inception
Richard King
Like to win
Toy Story 3
Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
Tron: Legacy
Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
True Grit
Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Unstoppable
Mark P Stoeckinger
Not yet released in the UAE, Time Out wants to win
Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland
Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter
Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
Inception
Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
Like to win, Time Out wants to win
Iron Man 2
Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick
Want to watch Oscar-worthy films at home?
Some Dubai channels are running an Oscars season, screening last year’s winners and nominees, as well as this year’s successful pictures in March. Here are the highlights.
Precious: Sunday February 20, 9pm, Showmovies
Up: Sunday February 27, 9pm, Showmovies
The Blind Side: Friday March 4, 9pm, OSN Premiere
The Hurt Locker: Friday March 11, 9pm, OSN Premiere
Crazy Heart: Thursday March 17, 9pm, OSN Cinema
See it live!
The Oscars ceremony will be screened live on Fox Movies on Monday February 28 at 3am, repeated at 9pm.
