WELL,As always I am reporting from the sunny and warm and "happening" city of Los Angeles... And today was a BIG day for us. Why, you ask??!!!? It was the day for the Academy Award nominations to be announced!!!! I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, which is in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And it was QUITE the experience! First of all, I had to be up at 2:00am., in order to get to the venue at 3:30, which is when media from around the world starts arriving. And once I got through the security check, there was a big breakfast spread for everyone to enjoy while we waited for the theater to open its doors. Then around 4;45a.m. the doors opened, and it was a media rush as everyone scrambled to find seats. At 5:30 a.m., Academy Award winner M'onique and the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences both gave a short greeting and immediately started listing out the nominated films/people for some of the top categories...which included Best PIcture, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, along with Best Foreign Film. I was amazed that with all that waiting, the nominations event itself only took about 15 min!!!
So the nominations go as follows... Best Picture..this year this category had 10 nominees...Winter's Bone, True Grit, The Kids Are All Right, Black Swan, The King's Speech, Toy Story 3, Inception, The Fighter, 127 Hours, and the current favorite for Best Picture...The Social Network. So far, in the US media and among critics, they are saying that The Social Network is definitely the film to beat in this category...however there ARE a few wild cards... Academy voters LOVE anything having to do with the royal monarchy...and True Grit is currently riding very high on momentum, which means that either of these might be able to overturn the favorable Social Network.
For Best Actor, Javier Bardem (who just became a first time father, welcoming a son with his wife Academy Award winning actress Penelope Cruz), Jeff Bridges (last year's winner), Jesse Eisenberg, James Franco (this year's co-host of the Academy Awards), and the man to beat...Colin Firth. Now honestly, I can't really see any of the other men winning...even though they are all phenomenal actors. Colin Firth has been receiving kudos for his role in King's Speech ever since the Golden Globes, and I just can't imagine it ending now.
Best Actress...now this COULD be a bit more difficult...we have Natalie Portman, Annette Bening, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lawrence, and Michelle Williams. In my opinion, the race is between Annette Bening and Natalie Portman. Ms. Bening has been nominated four times for an Academy AWard, and has yet to pick up a Golden Statue. So she is probably the sentimental favorite..HOWEVER Natalie Portman has been the one picking up the awards for Best Actress so far, so I have a feeling that Oscar night will be the same. Also...another fun fact...every actress that has been nominated WHILE pregnant has always won!
Now Best Supporting Actor nominees....John Hawkes, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Geoffrey Rush, and the current frontrunner, Christian Bale. This category, once again, has an incredibly versatile group of actors...however, Christian Bale is, most definitely, the man to beat.
Best Supporting Actress...Amy Adams, Helena Bonham Carter, Hailee Steinfield, Jacki Weaver, and Melissa Leo. So for this category, there are two (Amy Adams and Melissa Leo) who are representing the film "The Fighter"...which unfortunately is usually a curse on Oscar night. If you have two actors from the same film nominated in one category, it almost never goes to either of them. Not sure why...but that is usually what happens. Until now, however, Melissa Leo has been the actress most favored to win this category. Then you have the very young and talented Hailee Steinfield, who really should be in the "Best Actress" category...however, I guess the movie studio decided that she wouldn't be able to match up to the Nicole Kidmans and Natalie Portmans of the world. So they decided to submit her for Best Supporting Actress. Honestly, I feel that out of ALL the categories, this is the one that will be the most unpredictable one come Oscar night. The Golden Statue could go to ANY ONE of these amazing actresses.
Last, but not least, the directors category...Darren Aronofsky, David O. Russell, David Fincher, Tom Hooper, and the Coen Brothers.
Probably one of the biggest "snubs" in the nominations this year is the fact that Christopher Nolan was not nominated for this category for his directing of "Inception". In fact, only minutes after the nominations were announced, Twitter was abuzz with many Nolan fans angry at the fact that he was missing from the list of nominees. This category is also going to be very interesting to watch, because there is no real frontrunner...however I have a feeling that David Fincher will take the Golden Statue for his directing of The Social Network. So readers, who are you rooting for on February 27?
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