Discussing More Best Picture Oscar® Nominations

In the Previous post directly below, we looked at the Academy Awards® nominations, announced January 25th. We began with the Best Picture nominee that received the most nominations for the coveted Oscar®, The King's Speech (12), and right behind it, True Grit (10). Next in the order of the number of nominations for Best Picture, are The Social Network, Inception and The Fighter. The Social Network and Inception each received eight nominations.

Besides the Best Picture nod, other nominations for The Social Network are: Best Actor for Jessie Eisenberg’s portrayal of  Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, Director (David Fincher), Adapted Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin) and Original Score (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). Other Achievement nominations are for Cinematography, Film Editing and Sound Mixing.

The other nominations for Inception are: Art Direction, Cinematography, Original  Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects, and Original Screenplay (Christopher Nolan). 

The surprise is that the creator of the film and director, Christopher Nolan, was nominated for Original Screenplay, but did not receive a nomination for Best Director. Because Nolan did not get a nomination in that category, and there is no nomination for Film Editing, either, Inception may be hurt in the final voting. The more nominations related to the Hollywood Guilds, the more votes a movie garners. With large Academy memberships are the Screen Actors Guild of (SAG), The Producers Guild of America (PGA) and the Director's Guild of America (DGA). The SAG nominations are this weekend.
 
The Fighter is next with seven nominations. Besides Best Picture, The Fighter received three acting nominations, as did The King's Speech. Christian Bale is nominated for an actor in a supporting role; Amy Adams for an actress in a supporting role; and Melissa Leo for an actress in a supporting role. Other Achievement nominations were: Directing (David O. Russell); Film Editing; and Original screenplay (Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson).
 
Click the title of this post to access the Official 2011 Oscar Web site. There will be many more posts on this blog discussing the nomination categories between now and the February 27th 83rd Academy Awards Gala. Next post? "Box Office and the Oscar".

Best Picture Oscar® Nominations and One Long Shot

I found no surprises in the Oscar nominations announced today by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the 83rd Academy Awards®. I haven't even seen The King's Speech, yet, but I tapped it a month ago to get an Oscar® nomination for the Best Motion Picture of 2010. It received the most nominations, twelve in all.

Actors Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush all received nominations, a stellar lineup. Firth was nominated for Best Actor in a lead role. Rush and Carter were nominated in the acting supporting categories, actor and actress respectively. Director Tom Hooper made the cut for achievement as best director.

The other nine Best Picture slots went to 127 Hours, The Kids Are All Right, Black Swan, The Social Network, Inception, The Fighter, Winter's Bone, Toy Story 3, and True Grit. The King's Speech did exceedingly well in the technical categories to gain a sure footing on the path to a Best Motion Picture Oscar.

Remember boys and girls, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has the biggest voting block in the Academy. Thus, where SAG goes, the academy usually follows. SAG will give their awards this Sunday (30th).

All the actors nominated for their roles in The Social Network are also nominated for SAG awards in the same categories. Plus, the movie is nominated for the Best Cast award. The others nominated by SAG for best cast are: Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right and The Social Network.

The other directors nominated are: David Fincher (The Social Network), Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), the Brothers Cohen (True Grit) and David O. Russell (The Fighter).

The King's Speech received seven other nominations for achievement in: art direction, cinematography, film editing, original score, original screenplay, sound mixing and costume design.

Getting the most nominations is always commendable in the Oscar race, but movies have racked up the most nominations before, only to go home empty handed. I do not think The King's Speech will experience that problem.

Now, that I have acknowledged True Grit above, I must clarify the statements used in some of the reporting about the movie's lack of even a single Golden Globe nomination. The words, or phrases, used were snubbed, overlooked, passed over, ignored, etc. The truth is, True Grit was not released until December 22, and the Globes ballots were mailed to members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) on December 2nd. The final screening date was the 8th, press conferences the 9th, and ballots were due at Ernst and Young on the 10th for tabulation. Paramount set the HFPA an impossible task.

In not releasing True Grit before December first, Paramount allowed the studio to grab a good box office gross over the holidays, and take the lead in money charts, but it was too late for True Grit to get any Golden Globe nominations. I think that was a bad move by Paramount.

True Grit came in second in the Oscar race with ten nominations, including acting honors for Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld. Also, the aforementioned Cohen brothers directing nomination as well as their nomination for best adapted screenplay. In the other "achievement in" categories, True Grit was nominated for: art direction, costume, cinematography, film editing, sound editing and mixing.

Actor Jeff Bridges (Rooster) is nominated by SAG for best actor. SAG nominated actress Hailee Stienfeld (Mattie) in the best supporting actress category, too. There has been some contention about Stienfeld's supporting actress nod. Some believe that she should have been nominated as best actress.

The best picture long shot? That would be Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney), which I previously suggested would probably be nominated in the Best Motion Picture category, as well as the Best Animated Feature Film category. With it in the last category are: How to Train Your Dragon (Paramount) and The Illusionist (Sony Pictures). If I were voting, I would vote for Toy Story 3 for the Oscar in this category. It is no Fantasia. I think the Best Picture nomination is a "special salute" to Walt Disney and all those who participated in the Toy Story trilogy, and that, in itself, is a good thing.

The same was probably true about the salute to UP last year. I personally felt that the salute was not only for Walt Disney and Pixar, as well as all who participated, but it was an extra special salute to Mr. Edward Asner and Mr. Christopher Plummer.


More posts to follow about the nominations. Next post, "Discussing Three More Best Picture Nominees".

UP Wins Annie Award

Actor William Shatner hosted the 37th Annual Annie Awards on Saturday, 6 February 2010, at UCLA's Royce Hall in Los Angeles, CA. The awards are sponsored by the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA - Hollywood, and this year they honored the best in animation in 2009. With only two exceptions, the Annie winner for Best Animated Feature has also won the Best Animated Motion Picture Oscar® for the same year.

Last year and 2007 were exceptions. Last year, the Society went with a sweep for KUNG FU PANDA, but WALL-E was the member-favorite of AMPAS® and it took home the Oscar. In 2007, the Annie went to CARS, but AMPAS members preferred HAPPY FEET.

 Last night, UP won the top two awards, Best Animated Feature and Best Director for Pete Docter, another feather in the cap of Pixar Animation Studios and, perhaps, a portend of an Oscar win in both categories. Laika's CORALINE and Disney's THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG each won three awards. Disney also won three for its television series, PREP AND LANDING. The Annie Awards ceremony will also be Webcast on www.annieawards.org beginning Tuesday, 9 February.

The list of awards not only includes movies, but television and some specialized technical awards. I'm taking a shortcut here sticking with motion pictures. If you do not see the category that interests you, click the title of this post to go to their Official Website to see the entire list.

Here are the nominees for selected categories with winners in red:

Best Animated Feature Film
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - Sony Pictures Animation
Coraline - Laika
Fantastic Mr. Fox - 20th Century Fox
The Princess and the Frog - Walt Disney Animation Studios
The Secret of Kells - Cartoon Saloon
Up - Pixar Animation Studios

Directing in a Feature Production
Wes Anderson "Fantastic Mr. Fox" - 20th Century Fox
Pete Docter "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios
Christopher Miller, Phil Lord "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" - Sony Pictures Animation
Hayao Miyazaki "Ponyo" - Studio Ghibli
Henry Selick "Coraline" - Laika

Character Design in a Feature Production
Daniel Lopez Munoz "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios
Shane Prigmore "Coraline" - Laika
Shannon Tindle "Coraline" - Laika

Character Animation in a Feature Production
Andreas Deja "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios
Eric Goldberg "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios
Travis Knight "Coraline" - Laika
Daniel Nguyen "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios
Bruce Smith "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Music in a Feature Production
Bruno Coulais "Coraline" - Laika
Michael Giacchino "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios
Joe Hisaishi "Ponyo" - Studio Ghibli
John Powell "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" - Blue Sky Studios

Production Design in a Feature Production
Christopher Appelhans "Coraline" - Laika
Ian Gooding "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios
Tadahiro Uesugi "Coraline" - Laika
Christophe Vacher "9" - 9 L.L.C.

Voice Acting in a Feature Production
Jen Cody - Voice of Charlotte - "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios
Dawn French - Voice of Miss Forcible - "Coraline" - Laika
Hugh Laurie - Voice of Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. - "Monsters vs. Aliens" - DreamWorks Animation
John Leguizamo - Voice of Sid - "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" - Blue Sky Studios
Jenifer Lewis - Voice of Mama Odie - "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Writing in a Feature Production
Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach - "Fantastic Mr. Fox" - 20th Century Fox
Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy - "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios
Timothy Hyde Harris and David Bowers - "Astro Boy" - Imagi Studios
Christopher Miller and Phil Lord - "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" - Sony Pictures Animation

Animated Effects
Scott Cegielski "Monsters vs. Aliens" - DreamWorks Animation
Alexander Feigin "9" - 9 L.L.C.
Eric Froemling "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios
Tom Kluyskens "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" - Sony Pictures Animation
James Mansfield "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios

ASIFA is a non-profit organization, founded by a group of animators in 1957, and chartered by UNESCO in 1960. ASIFA encourages the art of animation and furthers international understanding and goodwill through the medium. Today, there are about thirty chapters of ASIFA all over the globe. ASIFA is a French acronym,  "Association Internationale du Film D'Animation".