Oscar Nominations: What Sucks and What Doesn't.

Well, a couple shockers right out of the gate here, a couple snubs that make me incredibly depressed, and a couple nominations that I love. Let's get into it, shall we? I'll put asterisks next to the ones I predicted correctly. Best Picture 127 Hours* Black Swan* The Fighter* Inception* The Kids Are All Right* The King's Speech* The Social Network* Toy Story 3* True Grit* Winter's Bone* Got all 10 of 'em. I'd like to say I'm really good at this, but, honestly, it just wasn't hard to do this year. I suppose I'm pleased enough with the results here. There's nothing egregiously bad like, say, The Blind Side. I'm thrilled that the Academy managed to not nominate another terrible movie. Early winner prediction: The King's Speech Best Director Darren Aronofsky-Black Swan* Joel and Ethan Coen-True Grit David Fincher-The Social Network* Tom Hooper-The King's Speech* David O. Russell-The Fighter* The huge surprise here, obviously, is that Christopher Nolan and Inception were left out here. I'm not his biggest fan, but even I gotta ask, what did he do to the Academy? They must really despise him. That being said, I wouldn't have nominated him either. Still, the Internet is probably going to throw an Internet-riot when they find out. Early Winner Prediction: David Fincher Best Actor Javier Bardem-Biutiful Jeff Bridges-True Grit* Jesse Eisenberg-The Social Network* Colin Firth-The King's Speech* James Franco-127 Hours* It's delightful to see Robert Duvall ignored this morning, though it does mean I probably won't be able to see all the nominees before Oscar morning. Also groovy to see Eisenberg here for a thoroughly atypical performance, and of course, Mr. James Franco, who deserves to win. Early winner prediction: Colin Firth Best Actress Annette Bening-The Kids Are All Right* Nicole Kidman-Rabbit Hole* Jennifer Lawrence-Winter's Bone* Natalie Portman-Black Swan* Michelle Williams-Blue Valentine I absolutely love that Michelle Williams made it in here. That being said, it kills me that Julianne Moore didn't. C'est la vie. Early winner prediction: Natalie Portman Best Supporting Actor Christian Bale-The Fighter* John Hawkes-Winter's Bone Jeremy Renner-The Town* Mark Ruffalo-The Kids Are All Right* Geoffrey Rush-The King's Speech* Why the hell isn't Andrew Garfield here?! This could be the worst part of the ballot. It just breaks my heart to see him left off for his fantastic Social Network performance. I hate this. Early winner prediction: Christian Bale Best Supporting Actress Amy Adams-The Fighter* Helena Bonham-Carter-The King's Speech* Melissa Leo-The Fighter* Hailee Steinfeld-True Grit Jacki Weaver-Animal Kingdom* This category made me yell 'DAMMIT', followed quickly by loud clapping and whooping, no doubt making the neighbors wonder how I spend my mornings. Sure, Hailee Steinfeld got in at the expense of Black Swan's Mila Kunis, which sucks, but I'm absolutely thrilled that Jacki Weaver got in. In a fair world, she'd win this Oscar in an instant. Early winner prediction: Melissa Leo Original Screenplay Another Year The Fighter* Inception* The Kids Are All Right* The King's Speech* No Black Swan? Strange. Did not expect that. Still, it's nice to see Mike Leigh get some recognition for Another Year. Early winner prediction: The King's Speech Adapted Screenplay 127 Hours The Social Network* Toy Story 3* True Grit* Winter's Bone* I love that 127 Hours made it in here, as it's not really a dialogue-heavy piece. A little disappointed that The Ghost Writer missed, but that was a long-shot anyway. Early winner prediction: The Social Network Art Direction Alice in Wonderland* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 Inception* The King's Speech* True Grit* I'm really glad Harry Potter made it here, as this was one of the best-designed of the series. I hate, hate, hate that Alice in Wonderland shows up here for its ugly, joyless, stupid design. And no TRON. Early winner prediction: The King's Speech Costume Design Alice in Wonderland* I Am Love The King's Speech* The Tempest* True Grit* So, here I was, all set to unveil my 'best of 2010' costume category, full of movies too cool and contemporary for the Academy, and then they go and nominate I Am Love. I mean, I'm thrilled that it's here, but it steals a bit of my "I've got discerning taste and they don't" thunder. Sad that Burlesque didn't make it. Come on, there was a dress made entirely out of fake pearls! Early winner prediction: Alice in Wonderland Visual Effects Alice in Wonderland* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1* Hereafter Inception* Iron Man 2* As I'm sure you can guess, I am absolutely slain by the fact that TRON isn't on here. Maybe the Academy and I saw different movies, because if they'd seen the version I saw, they'd know how incredible it looked. Also, I hate that Hereafter made it, because now I actually have to try and see it. Early winner prediction: Inception Makeup Barney's Version* The Way Back The Wolfman* No Alice in Wonderland!! Rejoice!! That being said, I also really don't want to have to see Barney's Version. Meh, all my favorite movies in this field were ineligible anyway, so I don't care about this category much one way or the other. Early winner prediction: Barney's Version Film Editing 127 Hours Black Swan* The Fighter* The King's Speech* The Social Network* Kind of wild that Inception didn't make it here. Boy, the Academy sure didn't love that one like the rest of the world did, huh? Great to see 127 Hours and Black Swan, though. Early winner prediction: The Social Network Cinematography Black Swan* Inception* The King's Speech* The Social Network True Grit* Kind of annoying to see The King's Speech show up here. Still, they nominated Black Swan, and that's something. Early winner prediction: True Grit Original Score 127 Hours How to Train Your Dragon* Inception* The King's Speech* The Social Network* I hate that TRON didn't make the cut, especially boring crap like The King's Speech did, but that was never going to happen anyway. At least How to Train Your Dragon and The Social Network made it, which are both completely amazing. Incidentally, Trent Reznor (of '9 Inch Nails' fame) is now an Oscar nominee. Trippy. Early winner prediction: The King's Speech Sound Mixing Inception* The King's Speech Salt The Social Network True Grit* What the hell is The King's Speech doing here?! I mean, seriously. I get that the Academy loved this movie, but putting it over TRON, How to Train Your Dragon, 127 Hours, Black Swan, or any other of the hundreds of more interesting sound jobs this year is just heinous. This is probably my least favorite nomination of the morning. AAAAAAUUUGGGHHH. Seriously? So. Many. Good. Mixes. THE KING'S SPEECH. WHAT. THE. HELL. Early winner prediction: Inception Sound Effects Editing Inception* Toy Story 3* TRON Legacy* True Grit Unstoppable Thank God The King's Speech didn't show up here. You know they thought about doing it. This is also TRON's only sad, lonely little nomination. Don't worry, big guy. We know you're better than the rest of them. Also, it's an utter travesty that How to Train Your Dragon didn't make it here. Note: it's really strange to see a year when the two sound categories don't really line up. This year, they only share two nominees. Normally, they share four. Early winner prediction: Inception Original Song "If I Rise"-127 Hours* "Coming Home"-Country Strong "I See the Light"-Tangled* "We Belong Together"-Toy Story 3* It's hard for me to get worked up about this category, but it's a little sad that Cher's hilarious power ballad, "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me," from Burlesque, didn't make it. Turns out Burlesque didn't get any nominations. Sure, it's a bad movie, but it's fun! And they can't care if song nominees are from bad movies. After all, they nominated Country Strong. Early winner prediction: I See the Light Animated Film How to Train Your Dragon* The Illusionist Toy Story 3* I haven't seen The Illusionist (yet), so I can't comment on it beating out Tangled. At least Despicable Me didn't make it. Foreign Language Film Biutiful-Mexico* Dogtooth-Greece* In a Better World-Denmark* Incendies-Canada* Outside the Law-Algeria Hurray Dogtooth! I haven't seen it yet, but it's allegedly a graphic movie about incest and animal-slaughter, which is absolutely not up the Academy's alley. Congrats to them for this, the most bizarre nomination this morning. Early winner prediction: In a Better World Documentary Feature Exit Through the Gift Shop* Gasland* Inside Job* Restrepo* Waste Land I'm just thrilled that both Exit Through the Gift Shop and Restrepo made it, as they're both great movies. Also, Waiting For Superman, which is supposedly awful, but, for some reason, was the favorite to win, missed out, which I guess is probably awesome. Early winner prediction: Exit Through the Gift Shop Note: of the main nominees (ie all categories but animated, foreign language, and documentary), I haven't seen Biutiful, Another Year, The Tempest, Hereafter, Barney's Version, or The Way Back. I'm sure that I can see Another Year and The Way Back before the Oscars. The others? ...We'll see. Incidentally, I did pretty well with predicting. With the exception of the sound categories, I averaged 4/5 nominees guessed correctly. Here's a list of the 10 most nominated films: 1. The King's Speech-12 2. True Grit-10 3. The Social Network-8 4. Inception-8 5. The Fighter-7 6. 127 Hours-6 7. Black Swan-5 8. Toy Story 3-5 9. The Kids Are All Right-4 10. Winter's Bone-4 And here are a few notable films that got nothing: Shutter Island, Burlesque, Despicable Me, Waiting For Superman, Secretariat, The Ghost Writer, Life Above All, Made in Dagenham, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Easy A. ...I'm sure there are others, but they aren't coming to mind right now. There we have it. What are your reactions? Pleased? Angry? Surprised? Apathetic? Sound off!