Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Oscars 2010: The nominees
Tom Huddleston offers his acute analysis on the list of nominees for the 2010 Academy Awards
So the Oscar nominations are in, and perhaps the only surprise is that they are, in the major categories at least, completely unsurprising.
Even this most staid and predictable of awards ceremonies usually manages to pull a few leftfield choices out of the bag – think Melissa Leo’s Best Actress nod for ‘Frozen River’ last year, or Julian Schnabel’s Best Director nomination for ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ in 2008 – but this time they’ve gone for the heavy hitters all the way.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to be happy about. Us Brits can be proud of Carey Mulligan, whose superb central turn in ‘An Education’ is rewarded with a Best Actress nod, along with the film itself in the Best Picture category, though that seems an outside bet. It’s also great to see ‘In The Loop’ in contention for Adapted Screenplay (if the Academy had a ‘Best Swearing’ category, it’d be a shoo-in), and Colin Firth nestling alongside the Hollywood royalty for his central turn as ‘A Single Man’.
In fact, looking further down the list this seems like the most international Oscars in living memory: we expected to find films like ‘The White Ribbon’ in the Best Foreign Language category, but its well-deserved nomination for Cinematography comes as a pleasant surprise. Add to that a nomination for 'Il Divo' for Make Up and ‘Paris 36’ in the Original Song category and it seems as though the Academy is finally beginning to ditch isolationism and reward movies which genuinely deserve it, no matter what their origin.
In the big categories, there’s not so much to be excited about: very nice to see ‘District 9’ up for Best Picture, and although there’s now room in that category to include outside bets like ‘Up’, it is likely that film will have to make do with Best Animated Feature.
The acting awards are equally unadventurous: expect to see Jeff Bridges take home a well-deserved gold chap for ‘Crazy Heart’, alongside Christoph Waltz's sinister supporting turn winning what we imagine will be the one notable award for ‘Inglourious Basterds’.
Of course, the safe money is on ‘The Hurt Locker’ and ‘Avatar’. The former is back on a roll following wins at both the Directors and Producers Guilds Awards last weekend. And while ‘Avatar’ still feels like the one to beat in light of the Golden Globes, a closer look at the nominations should be enough to give James Cameron pause. For one, there’s no acting nominations – unsurprising, given the nature of the film. But also to miss out in the writing categories seems more ominous: it’s hard to remember a Best Picture winner which hasn’t secured at least a nomination for the script, if not a win – except, worringly, 'Titanic'. Further down the list, ‘Avatar’ appears to be on equally shaky ground: with only nine nominations in total, most of them in the editing, sound and special effects categories, there’s no way the film can equal the 11-statuette haul of 'Titanic'.
And those nominations in full...
Best picture
Avatar
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up in the Air
The Blind Side
Up
Directing
Avatar (James Cameron)
The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
Precious (Lee Daniels)
Actress in a leading role
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker
Actress in a supporting role
Mo'Nique in Precious
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Penélope Cruz in Nine
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart
Actor in a supporting role
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Matt Damon in Invictus
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger
Foreign language film
Ajami
A Prophet
The Secret of Her Eyes
The White Ribbon
The Milk of Sorrow
Animated feature film
Up
The Princess and the Frog
Coraline
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Secret of Kells
District 9
An Education
Precious
Up in the Air
In the Loop
Writing (original screenplay)
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
A Serious Man
Up
The Messenger
Documentary (feature)
Burma VJ
The Cove (Louie Psihoyos)
Food, Inc (Robert Kenner)
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith)
Which Way Home?
Documentary (short subject)
China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Track: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit a la Berlin
Film editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Makeup
Il Divo
The Young Victoria
Star Trek
Music (original score)
Avatar
Fantastic Mr Fox
Up
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Music (original song)
Almost There, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman
Down in New Orleans, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman
Loin de Paname, from Paris 36
Take it All, from Nine by Maury Yeston
The Weary Kind, from Crazy Heart by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
Short film (animated)
French Roast
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
Logoramam
The Lady and the Reaper
A Matter of Loaf and Death
Short film (live action)
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants
Sound editing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up
Sound mixing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Visual effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek
Author: Tom Huddleston
User comments on this story
-
- Created the geaterst articles, you have. said...
- Created the geaterst articles, you have. Posted on Jan 21 2012 08:09
- Report as inappropriate
-
- EJ said...
- Well a lovely sunday to all you! Posted on Feb 07 2010 06:36
- Report as inappropriate
-
- tom appleton said...
- anyway, i'm accepting bets that the MUSIC oscar will go to SHERLOCK HOLMES. when the film comes out on DVD i'll definitely go and get the edition with all the extras and i will also buy the soundtrack CD. despite the fact i've already "§$%&/()=?`the film. Posted on Feb 07 2010 06:35
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Ciara said...
- Likes of Ciara... that'll be a US citizen, now living in London, who was (is) a huge JC fan but recognizes Avatar for being a huge $$$ machine. I don't disagree the technology and effects are spectacular, neither do I disagree the film conveys many important messages. But the story has been done BEFORE. Even South Park agrees! Obviously so does Hollywood which is why it's not up for best original screenplay. Posted on Feb 07 2010 06:27
- Report as inappropriate
-
- EJ said...
-
Hi Tom. Apparently you did'nt experience or value the (imo) loads of extra messages in Avatar that makes it a fantastic film. 3D is just an extra mean, not the message.
About the goggles: possibly these derive from the film being an issue itself. What can I say? In 2000 people could'nt believe internet would be as powerful as it is now. Innovation is everything. And in this case: the film is fantastic and the story is worth another view for some of us. (I rest my case lol) Posted on Feb 06 2010 18:34 - Report as inappropriate
-
- EJ said...
-
Acatar a cliche? A cliche is the blatant boredom of London parttime filmbuffs to disqualify this most gutsy film. Lack of vision to reckognize the difference between Pocaontas and Avatar says all about the likes of Ciara really.
Next please! Posted on Feb 06 2010 18:21 - Report as inappropriate
-
- tom appleton said...
- hi EJ, you will have noticed that in an earlier comment i waxed lyrical about the VERY AMERICAN sherlock holmes movie. as a quasi american writing from new zealand i am totally enthusiastic about IN THE LOOP, but it's really just the usual stuff, great britishTV fare. it leaves a lot of the US stuff eating dust. and AVATAR is truly only the "first talkie" of a new age, a company prospectus, "look what we can do with 3D now." wow. do i need to wear goggles to watch this on my IPAD? it makes my eyes feel funny. remember those funny computerised picture books 20 years ago where you had to look at the pages cross-eyed and then you saw 3D shapes emerging from the page? well --where are they now? Posted on Feb 06 2010 18:09
- Report as inappropriate
-
- EJ said...
-
Lovely display of pretentious English (not British) insular undeserved and non claimed 'artistic' arrogance 'i've seen IN THE LOOP, brilliant, totally unimaginable that anything like that could EVER come out of the US, but in british terms i would say'...'I mean the british standard is just naturally so much higher' and obviously Ciara is the even more expert having a HD home cinema system stating 'O dear. Avatar, original?'
All summed up silly English sniffing And that from a country that gave us Simon Cowell and Jonathan Ross.
What a joke the UK has become. Posted on Feb 06 2010 17:58 - Report as inappropriate
-
- tom appleton said...
- i've seen IN THE LOOP, brilliant, totally unimaginable that anything like that could EVER come out of the US, but in british terms i would say it's just really good middle-of-the road TV fare? i mean the british standard is just naturally so much higher than the oscar stuff. Oscar is all about bombast and trash, operatic RAH-RAH-RAH. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (tarantino naturally spells like that, he's dyslexic or something) is that kind of movie. DISTRICT 9, absolute rubbish. as far as i'm concerned, the oscars are not about art or classy acting or great moments in filmmaking, they're all about trash and cash and helping already successful movies to squeeze another 100 million dollars out a gullible public. Posted on Feb 06 2010 17:44
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Ciara said...
- O dear. Avatar, original? Go and watch Disney film - well, Cameron certainly did - the story is Pocahontas, or Dances with Wolves if you prefer. I am thrilled to see In The Loop in there, how I hope it gets the statue. Agree with the Moon comments too. Posted on Feb 06 2010 17:31
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Bob said...
- Can't understand how Moon has been overlooked. I honestly expected noms for best film, best male lead and best original score. And Hurt Locker is a decent film but really nothing special. Posted on Feb 06 2010 10:45
- Report as inappropriate
-
- tom appleton said...
-
AVATAR -- a great something, like a great animated mormon's flip chart. i would have given four oscars to SHERLOCK HOLMES -- best film, best main actor, BEST MUSIC and best props and background design.
AVATAR does deserve an oscar -- as best animated movie. Posted on Feb 04 2010 06:14 - Report as inappropriate
-
- EJ said...
- Avatar is boyond doubt the most original film ever made. Anyone who can't see that needs an extra pair of regular glasses besides the 3D ones. People who don't understand the many current issues this film addresses should go and watch Disney films instead. Posted on Feb 04 2010 02:29
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Wayne S said...
- Not surprising that "Avatar" is not nominated is the screenplay category. It's story was ridiculous and cliché-ridden. Certainly due some technicals, but on Oscar night, "Avatar" will have to share the wealth with some of its more deserving peers. Posted on Feb 02 2010 11:21
- Report as inappropriate
-
- maryp said...
- Granny O Grimm should do it I hope. 'All the best to all involved Posted on Feb 02 2010 09:23
- Report as inappropriate
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your comment now