Yes, that wailing sound you heard at 8:43 AM this morning was Ben Affleck painfully crying out "What do I have to do to impress you people!" as The Town became the best movie of the year not to get an Oscar nomination. Seriously!?!?!?!!
127 Hours was not a better film (in my humble opinion), but it, and indie darling Winter's Bone, surprisingly earned Best Picture nominations over the action-packed crime thriller.
Who else shocked us this morning when the Oscar nominations were announced?
See the full list of nominees here.
Javier Bardem nominated for Best Actor - It's good to be a sexy, smoldering Spanish dude. Passed over for just about every award and nomination during the Awards Season, Bardem was the forgotten man until today. Robert Duvall looked to have this nomination locked up for his performance in Get Low after winning nominations at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Critics Choice Awards and more. Did a late push and campaign by Julia Roberts to help Javier make the difference?
Toy Story 3 makes a little bit of history - By winning a nomination for Best Picture, Toy Story 3 becomes only the 3rd animated film to be nominated for Best Picture (Beauty and The Beast and Up are the other two).
John Hawkes wins Best Supporting Actor nomination over The Social Network's Andrew Garfield - Maybe we shouldn't have been completely surprised. Hawkes won a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, and 90% of those nominees get Oscar nominations as well because many of the same voters are picking the nominees at the Oscars (remember, actors nominate actors, directors nominate directors, etc). I just thought Garfield was building momentum, winning other nominations and gaining popularity as The Spider-Man publicity machine kicked into high gear (her will be Spider-Man in Summer 2012). Check out Winter's Bone on DVD if you are curious to see what all of the fuss is about as the movie is nominated for Best Picture, and star Jennifer Lawrence is nominated for Best Actress as well.
Tough and Mature Defeats the Sexy Young Gal Who Did the Hot Lady Loving Scene - Mila Kunis looked poised to be the beneficiary of the sensation known as Black Swan. She had that SAG nomination going for her. The movie, director and Portman all had nominations locked up. Yet, Jacki Weaver, the long time Australian actress who played the matriarch of a crime family in Animal Kingdom, took that nomination from her (stole it? snatched it?). It was a wonderful campaign by the studio that started at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2010, and a nod to the hard working vets. Will Mila ever be in a movie as good as Black Swan again?
Christopher Nolan Snubbed - The guy makes some of the most mindbending, cliche breaking, successful and compelling movies you have ever seen (The Dark Knight, Inception, Memento, The Prestige), yet, gets very little love from the Hollywood establishment.
In many ways, I think Nolan is the choice of young Hollywood, while older, traditional Hollywood doesn't get him. The passing over of The Dark Knight a couple years ago has often been cited as one of the biggest reasons the Oscars expanded Best Picture to 10 nominees, but Nolan was the victim of the Hollywood establishment's and Oscar voters' darlings, Joel and Ethan Coen, who earned a Best Director nomination over him today. I like True Grit, so I won't express dismay, but there should have been room for Nolan somewhere.
Over the summer, many thought Inception would be the frontrunner for Best Picture and Nolan would be the frontrunner for Best Director, but was the movie forgotten by voters as summer breezes turned into winter bluster?
Javier Bardem nominated for Best Actor - It's good to be a sexy, smoldering Spanish dude. Passed over for just about every award and nomination during the Awards Season, Bardem was the forgotten man until today. Robert Duvall looked to have this nomination locked up for his performance in Get Low after winning nominations at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Critics Choice Awards and more. Did a late push and campaign by Julia Roberts to help Javier make the difference?
Toy Story 3 makes a little bit of history - By winning a nomination for Best Picture, Toy Story 3 becomes only the 3rd animated film to be nominated for Best Picture (Beauty and The Beast and Up are the other two).
John Hawkes wins Best Supporting Actor nomination over The Social Network's Andrew Garfield - Maybe we shouldn't have been completely surprised. Hawkes won a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, and 90% of those nominees get Oscar nominations as well because many of the same voters are picking the nominees at the Oscars (remember, actors nominate actors, directors nominate directors, etc). I just thought Garfield was building momentum, winning other nominations and gaining popularity as The Spider-Man publicity machine kicked into high gear (her will be Spider-Man in Summer 2012). Check out Winter's Bone on DVD if you are curious to see what all of the fuss is about as the movie is nominated for Best Picture, and star Jennifer Lawrence is nominated for Best Actress as well.
Tough and Mature Defeats the Sexy Young Gal Who Did the Hot Lady Loving Scene - Mila Kunis looked poised to be the beneficiary of the sensation known as Black Swan. She had that SAG nomination going for her. The movie, director and Portman all had nominations locked up. Yet, Jacki Weaver, the long time Australian actress who played the matriarch of a crime family in Animal Kingdom, took that nomination from her (stole it? snatched it?). It was a wonderful campaign by the studio that started at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2010, and a nod to the hard working vets. Will Mila ever be in a movie as good as Black Swan again?
Christopher Nolan Snubbed - The guy makes some of the most mindbending, cliche breaking, successful and compelling movies you have ever seen (The Dark Knight, Inception, Memento, The Prestige), yet, gets very little love from the Hollywood establishment.
In many ways, I think Nolan is the choice of young Hollywood, while older, traditional Hollywood doesn't get him. The passing over of The Dark Knight a couple years ago has often been cited as one of the biggest reasons the Oscars expanded Best Picture to 10 nominees, but Nolan was the victim of the Hollywood establishment's and Oscar voters' darlings, Joel and Ethan Coen, who earned a Best Director nomination over him today. I like True Grit, so I won't express dismay, but there should have been room for Nolan somewhere.
Over the summer, many thought Inception would be the frontrunner for Best Picture and Nolan would be the frontrunner for Best Director, but was the movie forgotten by voters as summer breezes turned into winter bluster?
