By Jake Hirsohn, staff writer
In the wide world of movies, there is one time more exciting than any other: award season. The time when all the best movies get their reward is finally here.
The two most prominent of the movie awards are the Academy Awards, or Oscars, and the Golden Globes. The Golden Globes were presented on Jan. 16, and the Oscar nominations were released on Jan 25.
Merely a few months ago, it looked like 2010 would be one of the weakest movie years in recent memory, with only a few movies getting award buzz. At the same time in 2009, half of the eventual best picture nominees had already been released.
It all started with the Oct. 1 release of “The Social Network,” and before anyone knew it, it became one of the most compelling award seasons of the century.
The Golden Globes came out without a lot of surprises in the Best Picture, Drama, but a few jaw dropping nominations for Best Picture, Musical or Comedy.
The main surprises come from the amazing amount of recognition given to “Burlesque” and “The Tourist,” two movies which were not received with critical or commercial success, yet received multiple nominations including Best Picture, Musical or Comedy.
In the end, the right decisions were made and “The Tourist” did not win anything and “Burlesque” came away with just the best song award.
Overall, the winners at the Golden Globes came as no surprise. “The Social Network” stole the show, “The Fighter” and “The King’s Speech” got their fair share, and host Rickey Gervais infuriated everyone by mocking Hollywood in front of an audience of millions.
The Golden Globes are considered more mainstream and less prestigious than the Oscars, but the winners at the Oscars are predicted to be almost identical to those at the Globes this year. The Oscars will air on Feb. 27.
The most interesting categories are definitely Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor. In the Best Picture category, “The Social Network” and “The King’s Speech” are the frontrunners. It will likely come down to those two.
Initially, it looked like “The King’s Speech” would have the advantage, but after “The Social Network” cleaned up at both the Golfen Globes and the Critc’s Choice Awards, it now appears the phenomenon often reffered to as “The Facebook Movie” is the frontrunner.
Best Actor is likely to come down to Colin Firth and James Franco. Again, Firth will have the advantage because of the British period piece nature of “The King’s Speech”. Also, Franco is co-hosting Anne Hathaway, which decreases his chances, despite clearly deserving the award.
Firth also won the Golden Globe, among many of the other early awards, and now appears to be a lock for the Oscar. Christian Bale and Geoffrey Rush will duke it out for Best Supporting Actor. This category is a toss up, no one is sure who will win, but I am currently leaning towards Bale, especially after his win at the Golden Globes.
Besides in those categories, there shouldn’t be many suprises or controversies. Let’s hope not anyways.
Here are this year’s Oscar Nominations:
Best Picture: “Black Swan,” Mike Medavoy, “The Fighter” David Hoberman, “Inception,” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, “The Kids Are All Right,” Gary Gilbert, “The King’s Speech,” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman “127 Hours,” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle “The Social Network,” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, “Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, “True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, “Winter’s Bone” Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin,
At the Globes, “The Social Network” took this award, and rightfully so. It was by far the best movie of the year. The only competition would be “The King’s Speech,” which in my opinion is no competition at all. It was a great film, but the only reason it is getting so much consideration is because it is classic Oscar bait, being a British period piece about a king. I also disagree with the nomination of “Winter’s Bone” in place of “Blue Valentine,” one of my favorite movies of the year.
Actor in a Leading Role: Javier Bardem in “Biutiful” Jeff Bridges in “True Grit” Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network” Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech” James Franco in “127 Hours”
After Colin Firth’s win at the Globes, he is basically a lock to win the Oscar. But as I stated earlier, James Franco gave the better performance. The only snub in this category was Ryan Gosling, for his near perfect performance in “Blue Valentine.”
Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale in “The Fighter” John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone” Jeremy Renner in “The Town” Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right” Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech”
Personally, I have no doubt that Christian Bale deserves to take this award home, and after his win at the Globes he is now the favorite. The Academy once again snubs a younger more deserving actor, Andrew Garfield, in place of the more veteran John Hawkes. Andrew Garfield gave one of the strongest performances of the year as Mark Zuckerberg’s business partner and best friend in “The Social Network.”
Actress in a Leading Role: Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right” Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole” Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone” Natalie Portman in “Black Swan” Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”
The general buzz is that Natalie Portman will win for her very hyped performance as the crazy ballerina in “Black Swan.” It’s hard to argue with the greatness of her performance, but if Michelle Williams took it home, I couldn’t argue with that either.
Actress in a Supporting Role: Amy Adams in “The Fighter” Helena Bonham Carter in “The King’s Speech” Melissa Leo in “The Fighter” Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit” Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”
The Globes gave this award to Melissa Leo, and that’s where the Oscar should be headed. The Academy snubs another young performer in this cateory, nominating Jacki Weaver instead of the brilliant Mils Kunis. Surisingly, they did nominate the 14 year old Hailee Steinfeld for her performance in “True Grit.”
Animated Feature Film: “How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois ”The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet ”Toy Story 3″ Lee Unkrich
The winner at the Globes was “Toy Story 3” and it will win at the Oscars. It got nominated for Best Picture and now it will win this category. This is the only category that there is really no room for surprise or an upset. Pixar will take home the award for a third straight year.
Art Direction: “Alice in Wonderland” ”Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1″ ”Inception” ”The King’s Speech” ”True Grit”
While the art in Tim Burton’s adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland” was beautiful, I won’t be able to sleep at night knowing I said that movie deserves an Oscar. “Inception” should take home this award.
Cinematography: “Black Swan,” Matthew Libatique ”Inception,” Wally Pfister ”The King’s Speech,” Danny Cohen ”The Social Network,” Jeff Cronenweth ”True Grit,” Roger Deakins
In “The Social Network,” the cinematography, like the rest of the movie, was perect. Another win for the facebook movie in this category.
Costume Design: “Alice in Wonderland,” Colleen Atwood ”I Am Love,” Antonella Cannarozzi ”The King’s Speech,” Jenny Beavan ”The Tempest,” Sandy Powell ”True Grit” Mary Zophres
The Academy loves “The King’s Speech” so I imagine this award will go there, or “The King’s Speech.”
Directing: “Black Swan,” Darren Aronofsky ”The Fighter,” David O. Russell ”The King’s Speech,” Tom Hooper ”The Social Network,” David Fincher ”True Grit,” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
I thought the nominations in this category would not be very interesting, unfortunately, they were. David Fincher is the obvious winner here, but the interesting part is the lack of a nomination for certified genius Christopher Nolan, and his Best Picture nominee, “Inception.” After the Academy completely snubbed Nolan’s master piece, “The Dark Knight,” back in 2008, this seemed like an obvious time to make it up to him. “Inception” was one of the most commercially and critically successful movies of the year, and most importantly, an amazing visual achievement due to Nolan’s brilliance. You could really replace any of the current nominees besides Fincher with Nolan.
Documentary (Feature): “Exit through the Gift Shop,” Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz ”Gasland,” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic ”Inside Job,” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs ”Restrepo,” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger ”Waste Land,” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley
The Globes do not have a Best Documentary category, but “Restrepo” won at the Critic’s Choice Awards, and is likely the favorite for the Oscars.
Documentary (Short Subject): “Killing in the Name” ”Poster Girl” ”Strangers No More” ”Sun Come Up” ”The Warriors of Qiugang”
Film Editing: “Black Swan” ”The Fighter” ”The King’s Speech” ”127 Hours” ”The Social Network”
As I said earlier, “The Social Network” was perfect, and could really win any award, but it is more likely for the Academy to give this one to “The King’s Speech.”
Foreign Language Film: “Biutiful,” from Mexico, ”Dogtooth,” from Greece ”In a Better World,” from Denmark ”Incendies,” from Canada ”Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi),” from Algeria
Javier Bardem got nominated for his work in “Biutiful,” so it will probably win this award.
Makeup: “Barney’s Version,” Adrien Morot ”The Way Back,” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng ”The Wolfman,” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Even though “The Wolfman” looked like an awful film, the makeup looked pretty cool. The hairy thriller could easily win this award.
Music (Original Score): “How to Train Your Dragon,” John Powell ”Inception,” Hans Zimmer ”The King’s Speech,” Alexandre Desplat ”127 Hours,” A.R. Rahman ”The Social Network,” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Even though there were rumors of the score for “The Social Network” being ineligible, it got a nomination, and now it has to win. It was the best score I have ever heard.
Music (Original Song): “Coming Home” from “Country Strong,” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey ”I See the Light” from “Tangled,” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater ”If I Rise” from “127 Hours,” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong ”We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3,” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“If I Rise” should win here, because I want “127 Hours” to win something.
Short Film (Animated): “Day & Night,” Teddy Newton ”The Gruffalo,” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang ”Let’s Pollute,” Geefwee Boedoe ”The Lost Thing,” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann ”Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois
The animated short before “Toy Story 3,” “Day and Night,” was genius and should win here.
Short Film (Live Action): “The Confession,” Tanel Toom ”The Crush,” Michael Creagh ”God of Love,” Luke Matheny ”Na Wewe,” Ivan Goldschmidt ”Wish 143,” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite
Sound Editing: “Inception,” Richard King ”Toy Story 3,” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers ”Tron: Legacy,” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague ”True Grit,” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey ”Unstoppable,” Mark P. Stoeckinger
The sounds of “Inception” were strong and really fit the tone of the movie.
Sound Mixing:”Inception,” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick ”The King’s Speech,” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley ”Salt,” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin ”The Social Network,” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten ”True Grit,” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
“Inception” wins here as well.
Visual Effects:”Alice in Wonderland,” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips ”Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1,” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi ”Hereafter,” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell ”Inception,” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb ”Iron Man 2,” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick
“Inception” was the visual achievement of the year without a doubt, “Inception” wins again.
Writing (Adapted Screenplay):“127 Hours,” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy ”The Social Network,” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin ”Toy Story 3,” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich ”True Grit,” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen ”Winter’s Bone,” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
Aaron Sorkin got the win at the Globes for his incredible work on “The Social Network.” Even if the Academy robs “The Social Network” of all of its other awards, this one will go to Sorkin.
Writing (Original Screenplay): “Another Year,” Written by Mike Leigh ”The Fighter,” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson ”Inception,” Written by Christopher Nolan ”The Kids Are All Right,” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg ”The King’s Speech,” Screenplay by David Seidl
The writing in “The King’s Speech” was surprisingly enjoyable. “The King’s Speech” wins here.
(http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1656582/2011-oscar-nominations.jhtml)
