Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Awards Watch: Oscar Nominations 2009

As you can see, Movie Dearest got up early this morning to catch the announcement of the nominees for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards!

Well, it looks like turning the Oscar Best Picture category up to 10 worked out for the Academy, as the finalist seem evenly matched between audience favorites — Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, Inglourious Basterds and Up — and critical darlings — An Education, The Hurt Locker, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, A Serious Man and Up in the Air.  Plus, nothing too embarrassing (The Hangover, Invictus, Nine) slipped in to big race, although it would have been nice to see such smaller gems as The Last Station, The Messenger or A Single Man get invited to the main event.

Nevertheless, those three Movie Dearest faves did factor into the acting races, which offered little surprises overall.  In fact, save for an unexpected nod for Crazy Heart's Maggie Gyllenhaal for Supporting Actress, the list is nearly identical to the Screen Actors Guild's (Diane Kruger, thanks for playing). There was even more déjà vu in the Best Director category, which matched the Directors Guild of America's shortlist, including a nomination for Precious' out director Lee Daniels.

The real Oscar shockers of the year were found farther down the nomination list, such as The Secret of Kells sneaking into the Animated Feature race and Nine's "Take It All", not "Cinema Italiano", making the cut for Original Song, where two toonful tunes from The Princess and the Frog were also recognized.  Speaking of which, just like last year, I will be covering this category for the "LAMBS Devour the Oscars" blogathon over at the Large Association of Movie Blogs, which kicks off later today.

And that is just the beginning of our coverage of Oscars '09 here at Movie Dearest.  Beginning this Saturday, we'll be running our 3rd annual MD Poll asking you to vote for who you want to win the little gold man in the five main categories.  Our Men on Film will also chime in with their own thoughts and predictions, plus other surprises, as we count down to the big night, Sunday March 7.

In the meantime, you can take a quick look at all the Oscar nominees in the comments section below while I take a nap ...

1 comment:

Kirby Holt said...

The Nominees for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards:

Picture:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Actor:
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Actress:
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Supporting Actor:
Matt Damon in Invictus
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Supporting Actress:
Penélope Cruz in Nine
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Director:
Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
James Cameron for Avatar
Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Jason Reitman for Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds

Adapted Screenplay:
District 9
An Education
In the Loop
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Up in the Air

Original Screenplay:
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

Cinematography:
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Art Direction:
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Costume Design:
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Original Score:
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

Original Song:
"Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog
"Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog
“Loin de Paname” from Paris 36
“Take It All” from Nine”
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart

Film Editing:
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Sound Mixing:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Sound Editing:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Visual Effects:
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Makeup:
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Animated Feature:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Foreign Language Film:
Ajami
El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes)
The Milk of Sorrow
Un Prophète (A Prophet)
The White Ribbon

Documentary Feature:
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Documentary Short:
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit à la Berlin

Animated Short:
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Live Action Short:
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants