Tomorrow morning, Tuesday February 2nd, the official nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards will be announced live. The 2010 Oscar presentation will take place Sunday, March 7, 2010, hosted by none other than the comedic pair of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.
Last year’s Academy Awards saw the lovable Hugh Jackman as host and the big categories of Best Picture and Best Director went to Slumdog Millionaire and Danny Boyle. Sean Penn took home another Best Actor award and Kate Winslet won Best Actress for The Reader.
This year we have some big competition with the biggest box office film of all time in Avatar making a run for the awards and its creator James Cameron making a big returning splash into Hollywood after his last showing being the the previous biggest film of all time and multiple Oscar winner in Titanic. James Cameron took home the Golden Globes for his sci-fi epic but with the Directors Guild of America giving credit to Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker this weekend, it’s now a possible favorite. We also can’t forget Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air starring everyone’s favorite George Clooney.
Keep in mind, this year’s structure of the awards in key categories will be slightly different. The big change of course comes with the attempt at increasing ratings and hype surrounding the major category of Best Picture where for the first time since the forties there will be not 5 nominees, but 10!
This is an obvious attempt to give more credit to the more popular box office hits rather than the smaller art-house and films and period pieces. Last year saw a bit of an uproar from many moviegoers over the snub of The Dark Knight and The Wrestler, not being nominated for key categories with those spots going to vastly less popular films like The Reader.
We can expect the five shoe-in nominations to be Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, Precious and Inglourious Basterds and the other five aren’t so clear cut. Up has a chance to get nominated for this and win best animated feature although in my opinion it doesn’t deserve to be in the Best Picture category. Wouldn’t it be cool to see District 9 in there?
UPDATE: Here are the Nominees for the 2010 Oscars:
BEST PICTURE
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up In The Air
Up
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
A Serious Man
BEST DIRECTOR
James Cameron Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels Precious
Jason Reitman Up In The Air
LEADING ACTOR
Jeff Bridges Crazy Heart
George Clooney Up In The AIr
Colin Firth A Single Man
Morgan Freeman Invictus
Jeremy Renner The Hurt Locker
LEADING ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock The Blind Side
Helen Mirren The Last Station
Carey Mulligan An Education
Gabourey Sidibe Precious
Meryl Streep Julie & Julia
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon Invictus
Woody Harrelson The Messenger
Christopher Plummer The Last Station
Stanley Tucci The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz Inglourious Basterds
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penélope Cruz Nine
Vera Farmiga Up In The Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick Up In The Air
Mo’Nique Precious
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
The Messenger (Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman)
A Serious Man (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
Up (Bob Peterson, Pete Docter & Tom McCarthy)
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell)
An Education (Nick Hornby)
In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche)
Precious (Geoffrey Flecther)
Up In The Air (Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner)
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Ajami (Israel)
El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Un Prophéte (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home
For the rest of the 2010 Oscar Nominees, go HERE.
Now that you know the nominees – what do you think? How awesome is it to see District 9 receiving a Best Picture nod? And are you blind-sided that The Blind Side made the list? Sound off and let us know!
2010 Oscars: Which movie should win Best Picture?
- Avatar (41%)
- The Hurt Locker (15%)
- Inglourious Basterds (14%)
- District 9 (11%)
- Up (8%)
- The Blind Side (5%)
- Up in the Air (3%)
- Precious (2%)
- A Serious Man (1%)
- An Education (0%)
Total Votes: 7,736
Loading ...Follow me on Twitter for my thoughts on the nominations @rob_keyes and come back for my live coverage of the Oscars in March!
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Avatar SOOOO doesn't deserve best picture. All it's good points were in the effects and sound categories. But it's Cameron, so there's your answer
why should the best picture category always be based on screenplay? (assuming that's what you mean)
Was discussing this with a ouple of pals of mine. What about Star Trek? Was very good imho, and I dont like space movies.
We came up with some other good films as well, cant remember any of them now though. :/
I loved Trek too but way too many plotholes and contrived plot points to be considered “best”. If it was in there for Best Pic we'd know the Oscars were really selling out and desperate for attention.
10 Nominees for Best Picture and The Road didn't make the cut? That's kind of disappointing. I guess I'll be rooting for Inglourious Basterds.
I'm also surprised that Avatar didn't get a Razzie nomination for Worst Picture.
It really doesn't seem all that fair that “Up” gets to be nominated for Best Animated and Best Picture. If “Avatar” belongs anywhere it's in the animated category…
And I'm sorry, but “The Blind Side” for Best Picture? “Invictus?” This ten nomination is ridiculous. The Oscars are all about being elitest and snobby. How can you be elitist and snobby if you let any movie into the Best Picture category?
It shouldn't be based on screenplay, but it should be based on screenplay, director, and acting and 1/3 should not make best picture. That is what I tend to think of the best. This would lead me to say Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Up In the Air, Invictus, Precious. I would like to see Hurt Locker, but I realize it should probably be (based on past awards, I haven't seen either) Up In The Air or Precious.
To the Samuel Goldwyn theatre at the crack of dawn, where Anne Hathaway and Academy president Tom Sherak read out this year's Oscar nominations . http://www.gucciwell.com Our hosts roll up with minimum fanfare and then retreat in haste,
I would have lost all respect for the Oscars if Christopher Waltz didn't at least get nominated for Best supporting actor.
Why would Avatar get a Razzie nomination? Critics loved it and so did the public (needless to say). Just because it may not have been up to your standards, does not mean it should get a Razzie nomination.
If it was up to me, I would have taken out Transformers and put in Paranormal Activity for the sheer fact that I was completely disappointed in PA and enjoyed Transformers. But, that's just my opinion. And like Avatar, there is no possible way that PA was even considered for a Razzie.
Maybe because Avatar isn't an animated movie?
Invictus wasn't nominated, that was a mistake and we apologize. Post has been corrected.
Did we see the same movie? Over half of it was animated! That's why everybody is going to see it… the stop-motion animation, the computer generated images. Just like what they did with “The Polar Express” and “A Christmas Carol.” Sure, it's not as cartoon-y, but who said animation is simply a cartoon?
You have restored my faith in this process by 10%. Now I just don't understand “Up” and “The Blind Side.” “(500) Days of Summer” should be on that list instead of one of those two.
Strange how RDJ got the Best Actor at the Golden Globes but didn't even get a nod from the Academy… not that I think he really deserved the Golden Globe… but I guess there are two category's for actors anyway in the Golden Globes.
District 9 being nominated is nice but lets be honest here. That is the Academy's way of saying “look, we give other films chances too!” Rubbish.
Personally, Up deserves to be in both categories, finally!!! In fact, you can substitute that entire animated category with some of the picks for best picture.
The first 5 minutes alone is proof why Up is just great.
I must say that this year's picks are quite mixed. Although, the biggest snub would have to be Sam Rockwell not getting anything for Moon. That film was dependent on his performance. I would trade Jeremy Renner with Rockwell.
Like everyone else, I wouldn't have made the same list if it were up to me. That said, none of the “overlooked this” or “'overrated that” actually bothers me, because the real test of a film's quality is time, not awards or money. It's a Wonderful Life was ignored by audiences and critics when it came out, and only came into its own when cable channels used it as cheap filler for Christmas programming starting in the Eighties. It may take Time, but the true classics of our time will come to be appreciated one day.
p.s. I voted for Inglourious Basterds in the poll.
So glad that District 9 got some love!
avatar isnt an animated film.. so u cant really say that:)
avatar isnt like a christmas carol or the polar express in any way. and it is not animated. u shud see how they made the film and u wud understand.
i think avatar shud be nominated for best picture. the story was kinda weak yeah, but the movie itself was mind blowing. the story, theme, underlying context or whatever, it may not have been that good but it reaches over the top on so many other lvls. so yes, it deserves a nomination.
So they didn't attach sensors to the actors faces to capture movement for their Na'vi counter-parts? It's pure CGI with no human actors really necessary? Well, then yes! By all means that makes it even less of an animated movie… oh wait, no it doesn't. It makes it more of an animated movie. I stand by my reasoning.
I'm there with you for The Road. Several of the movies could have easily been replaced with The Road and no one would have been the wiser. I also thought Moon should have been in there SOMEWHERE.
Heh heh heh, worded differently than I'd put it, though still true. Avatar is an experience movie, one for people to leave reality at the door and go somewhere else. Animated and CGI films do that in spades, and I'm more inclined to put Avatar in that category than predominantly live-action movies.
That being said, I think Avatar SHOULD dominate many of the more technical categories, but otherwise should have been left out of the weightier categories. If they left out The Dark Knight, they ought to do that with Avatar.
The animation category is specifically for purely animated movies. Movies that do NOT have live-action actors in it. Think Pixar and Disney.
This movie is NOT animated. If you think Avatar is animation, then I guess The Lord of the Rings is animated too. Because even though an actor played Golemn, his appearance in the movie is quite different from the actor.
Avatar isn't animated. The only part that you can argue is “animation” is the scenery and if you were to argue that than the majority of sci-fi movies that are released apparently should be considered “animated”.
I really think Avatar deserves best picture, the whole point of cinema is having an incredible experience that you wont ever forget, and despite Avatar's acting and story mishits, it was one hell of a cinematic experience.
i really didnt care for The Hurt Locker. Did nothing for me.
I'd like to see Coraline win best animated, it was a thousand times better than UP.
And the biggest idiocy on the whole list? Sandra Bullock, best actress? Are they having a joke, do they think its April 1st?
Would be nice to see Star Trek win for something though! I was disappointed its score wasnt nominated, because it was amazing.
I agree. Michael Giacchino wrote a very inspired score.
i agree that Rockwell should of gotten the nod for Moon but Jeremy Renner did an amazing job in Hurtlocker, he made that movie for me. So i dunno if i would trade him out for Rockwell.