Academy Award Nominations

[Vash01]

BA/BSA issue and Hallie Seinfeld. It seems to me that the Academy sometimes performs these ridiculous contortions when it comes to juvenile actresses. It was the same thing with Tatum O'Neal. That was a lead performance as well, but she was in the BSA catagory.

They should just bring back the juvenile Oscar award.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Juvenile_Award

Haley Joel Osment in The sixth sense was nominated for a supporting role when he was really the lead in that movie.

They should bring back the juvenile Oscar award.

[CaptCrunch]

He was 19-20 years old when he did Ordinary People - hardly a juvenile.

I was referring to category fraud. Hutton was the clear lead in Ordinary People yet he was nominated in supporting.....like Tatum O'Neal and Hailee Steinfeld this year for True Grit.

[orbitz]

They should bring back the juvenile Oscar award.

Well the category would be hard pressed to cough up 5 juvenile nominees every year though.

[CaptCrunch]

Well the category would be hard pressed to cough up 5 juvenile nominees every year though.

The juvenile award never had its own category with nominees. The academy usually chose 1 winner. ie Shirley Temple in 1934, Judy Garland in 39 etc.

[Artemis@BC]

Well the category would be hard pressed to cough up 5 juvenile nominees every year though.

No law that says it has to be 5: take a look at the animated feature category ...

[VIETgrlTerifa]

I don't think there has to be a juvenile Oscar category. The Academy needs to be more stringent on who a studio can submit in the acting categories. I know it's much easier on Broadway as there is much less to wade through, but the committees look at the submissions prior to the nomination announcements and determine if someone is eligible for Lead or Featured acting categories. Of course, it's much more doable for the Tony Awards since it's only a committee that nominates rather than the whole acting branch of the Academy.

[pollyanna]

Nice article on Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Lawrence's family happy with supporting role amid Hollywood glitz

[martian_girl]

Those of you still planning dishes for your Oscar Party, there is a fun series of articles on The Huffington Post with recipes for each of the 10 Best Picture Nominees.


I'm somewhat about the Winter's Bone recipe.

[VIETgrlTerifa]

I finally saw The King's Speech and thought it was excellently executed. Firth is absolutely Oscar-worthy. However, I do think that the film (at least in the guild circles) is overrated in terms of accolades. It is worthy of being an Oscar contender for Best Picture, but I don't get why it's been winning so many awards. As for the SAG award, I agree with what someone else said up thread when they said that The Fighter had a stronger cast. I absolutely agree. To me, Rush and Firth weren't enough to give an award for best ensemble acting. I'd even go so far to say that I believe True Grit, Black Swan and The Kids Are All Right had a stronger acting ensemble.

I can see an argument about Best Director since people underestimate how difficult it is to direct acting scenes and a "quieter" or more "understated" film because the directors don't have the luxury of impressing the audiences with fast cuts, inventive editing, and other things that are simply more obvious. However, that being said, I thought Aronofsky and the Coen Brothers deserve Best Directing over Tom Hooper. I'm watching The Social Network tonight to see if I think Fincher deserves the win.

Geoffrey Rush was also very good, but I don't think he compares to Christian Bale's performance in The Fighter. Of all the Best Supporting Actor nominees I've seen, I'd rank them this way:

Christian Bale >> Mark Ruffalo > Geoffrey Rush >>> John Hawkes. Have yet to see Jeremy Renner.

Of the Best Supporting Actress nominees I've seen, I'd rank them this way:

Melissa Leo > Hailee Steinfeld >> Amy Adams >>> Helena Bonham Carter.

Not that Carter was bad, but her role (though well done) just wasn't very noteworthy to me. I mean I guess she's the most literal of the nominees in Best Supporting Actress while Steinfeld stretches that definition. To me, her role was like Mila Kunis in Black Swan. Very good (even great in the role) but the role itself didn't seem award-worthy. I haven't seen Jackie Weaver in Animal Kingdom yet.

I'm going to watch The Social Network tonight to see if these rankings change, but having seen 7 of the 10 Best Picture nominees, this is how I personally rank them:

True Grit > Black Swan/Toy Story 3 >> The King's Speech > The Fighter > The Kids Are All Right >>> Winter's Bone.

[emason]

Very good (even great in the role) but the role itself didn't seem award-worthy.

The award is for 'performance in a role', not for the role itself.

[vesperholly]

Christian Bale >> Mark Ruffalo > Geoffrey Rush >>> John Hawkes. Have yet to see Jeremy Renner.

I just saw The Town and I'd put Renner's performance just below Rush's. He took what could've been a throwaway stereotype and made it good, believable, and scary.

Bale should run away with this award. I've seen all these performances save John Hawkes, and Bale just did a phenomenal job. I might rank Rush a bit above Ruffalo, but mostly because his performance was larger.

[VIETgrlTerifa]

The award is for 'performance in a role', not for the role itself.

That may be true, but the roles themselves are also important, especially in getting award recognition. Otherwise, what separates a great performance from a great performance that's going to get awarded or at least nominated? So, other than brilliant campaign strategies from studios and actor recognition, the roles themselves do matter.

Also, the IFC Spirit Awards announced their winners.

http://www.ifc.com/news/2011/02/2011...nners-list.php

No big surprises really, and of course, these have little bearing on the Oscars, but it's nice to see what films they like under that big tent. Nice to see a lot of love for Black Swan.

[Rex]

I'm somewhat about the Winter's Bone recipe.

I know some people who swear by bone marrow. It's supposedly great on crusty hot bread.

[CaptCrunch]

Just got back from seeing Biutiful with Javier Bardem. Too long and somewhat ponderous. I did like the last 20 minutes though. Bardem was good but got in only cause for once it was a really weak year for Best Actor. IMO Best Actress was a much stronger category this year. Its also nominated for Best Foreign Language film which is surprising cause in no way was it that good of a movie. No way it wins in that category....I think the Danish film will probably win it.

I've now seen all best picture nominees and all acting nominees except Jackie Weaver in Animal Kingdom. Here's who I would vote for:

Best Picture: The Social Network
Best Director: David Fincher - The Social Network
Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network
Best Actress: Natalie Portman - Black Swan (if Julianne Moore had bee nominated for Kids I'd be voting for her)
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale - The Fighter (could be considered a lead performance, borders on category fraud....ditto Geoffrey Rush)
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo - The Fighter (I thought she should have won 2 years ago for Frozen River)

I think The King's Speech will be the big winner taking 6-7 awards. 3 each for Inception and The Social Network. I thought The King's Speech was very good but IMO The Social Network was easily the best film of 2010.

[Vash01]

Well the category would be hard pressed to cough up 5 juvenile nominees every year though.

That should not be an issue. Quite often there are just 3 nominations in a few categories like makeup, animated feature, etc. If they don't separate them by gender, it should be possible to find at least 3 child actors.

[jenny12]

I wonder if Anne Hathaway and James Franco will use the script Ricky Gervais wrote for them:

http://www.rickygervais.com/thissideofthetruth.php

[Vash01]

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale - The Fighter (could be considered a lead performance, borders on category fraud....ditto Geoffrey Rush)
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo - The Fighter (I thought she should have won 2 years ago for Frozen River)

I think The King's Speech will be the big winner taking 6-7 awards. 3 each for Inception and The Social Network. I thought The King's Speech was very good but IMO The Social Network was easily the best film of 2010.

I have to disagree with you on both supporting actors. Both were clearly supporting roles because Firth in the King's speech and Wahlberg in The fighter were clearly the lead roles. All others in those movies were supporting, regardless of how much screen time the actors got. To call those two supporting roles "category fraud" is a bit too much. The only clear category fraud was Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit. I thought Rush would win it until I saw the Fighter; Bale hit it out of the ballpark. However, if Rush wins, I would not consider that an upset; he was great in a subtle role. I don't feel that any of the other SA roles will win. This was a strong field for BSA men.

I am torn between The King's speech and The Social network for best picture. Both were outstanding. I lean toward TSN because it was more unconventional in its presentation and the topic (actually TKS also had unusual topic, gets my marks for it). However, I think TKS will win.

In the best lead actress category I would like Annette Bening to win, for a more complex role, but Natalie has this award in the bag. IMO Natalie's role was more one dimensional- feeling scared or depressed- though she did very well in it. I did not get to see Rabbit Hole.

I am also torn between Firth and Franco for the lead actor award. I wish they could tie, but Firth is going to win it, and deservedly so. He has been long overdue. Any other year Franco would have won it.

For best director I think David Fincher should win for the Social Network, for handling an extremely complex film brilliantly, but I think TKS (Tom Hooper) will nab this category too.

I felt that Helena Bonham Carter did all she could with the role that was not particularly strong. She benefitted from the success and popularity of TKS. The one possible upset I see this year is in this category. I would like to see Melissa Leo to win, but I am afraid Steinfeld may get it. I did not get to see Animal Kingdom.

I would like to see Inception win something, but I am afraid it will fall behind some of the other films in nearly every category except technical ones. At least it got nominated for BP,and I am happy about it. May be they should have considered releasing that movie in December.

I have not seen any of the foreign films- the theater for those is too far from me. Have to wait for the DVDs.

Can't wait for Sunday evening!