The obligatory Oscar nominations post

Well I guess it's time for the obligatory Oscar nominations post, so here we go with a look at the main 'big' categories;

BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
George Clooney (Up in the Air)
Colin Firth (A Single Man)
Morgan Freeman (Invictus)
Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)

I suspect Jeff Bridges will take this one for well basically being Jeff Bridges. It's as if everyone suddenly realised that he's been around for years and pretty much excellent in everything he's been in. If anyone will take it from him it will be Colin Firth who but all accounts is outstanding in A Single Man. (I am going to have to pack in some cinema time in the next few weeks and catch some of these)

ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Helen Mirren (The Last Station)
Carey Mulligan (An Education)
Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)
Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia)

You'd wouldn't have guessed it a few years ago but the smart money appears to be on Sandra Bullock for this one as she puts in a strong performance in between comedy pratfalling (which she also typically does very well too). Of course the Academy loves Meryl Streep so she's always in with a chance and Sidibe could be a strong outside bet. Plus it's great to see Helen Mirron and Carey Milligan in there flying the flag.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon (Invictus)
Woody Harrelson (The Messenger)
Christopher Plummer (The Last Station)
Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)
Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)

Christoph Waltz can dust off his shelf and buy a display case already, having won every other acting award in his category during award season he's pretty much a dead certainty for this one. Which is fine by me as he is excellent in Basterds bringing menace and glee together in one chilling character.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz (Nine)
Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)
Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart)
Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air)
Mo'Nique (Precious)

Mo'Nigue appears to be the early favourite for this but I think it might end up with one of the performances from Up In The Air and in that case most likely with Vera Farmiga who proves every bit George;s equal in the film.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Ajami (Israel)
El Secreto de Sus Ojos - The Secret of Their Eyes (Argentina)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Un Prophete - A Prophet (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)

Confess it's only The White Ribbon that I really know anything about this year in a category that isn't as strong as it has been for the last few years but from what I can pick up the film I know about is the leading contender.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman (The Messenger)
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (A Serious Man)
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy (Up)

I'd love to see Quentin pick this up for Basterds but it's a strong group this year and not easy to call. The Coen's effort I think will prove to esoteric to pull in enough votes I think but Boal's work for Hurt Locker is I suspect the most likely to take the prize.

BEST ANIMATION
Coraline
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

And the award for Best Pixar Film goes to....UP! Again it's hard to see beyond the Pixar crew for this one but there's a chance of a upswelling of support for Disney's return to traditional hand drawn animation with The Princess and the Frog.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell (District 9)
Nick Hornby (An Education)
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche (In the Loop)
Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious)
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air)

Great to see In The Loop pick up a nomination for this one, from Alan Partridge to the Oscars for out Armando! But I think it's a toss up between Up In The Air with it's timely themes and Precious the adaption of the Oprah Winfrey endorsed novel.

BEST DIRECTOR
James Cameron (Avatar)
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Lee Daniels (Precious)
Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)

The first of the big biggies and it's basically between James Cameron and his former wife Kathryn Bigelow. Now if Avatar ends up with one of the two major awards I'd prefer it was this one as I can fully appreciate the scale of the project in terms of technical achievement and for that Cameron can be commended. On the other side Bigelow has delivered a great drama with sequences of chair cracking tension and she has been doing well in the award season so far. I think Bigelow is a very slight favourite but it's hard to call.

BEST PICTURE
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

A mixed bag in the newly expanded Best Picture category, District 9's appearance is a bit of a surprise but not a bad one although it was one third a great film, one third a good and one third average - almost exactly in the order through the running time. Up will take the animated film instead, A Serious Man is too oddball to really get momentum, Basterds is a little to tonally unbalanced (and old news). An Education, The Blind Side and Up In The Air might have stood a chance if not up against the three pictures not yet mentioned. Precious stands a chance as it's the kind of issue drama right up the Academy's street and even features good acting work form Mariah Carey or all people. But it seems to be much like the previous category to be a straight up fight between Avatar and The Hurt Locker.

I wouldn't argue that either is a particularly great film but of the two Hurt Locker is the stronger overall as a film. Avatar I felt was nothing that special, technically very accomplished by the paper thin characterisation and plot by numbers meant I was sitting think about the choices behind shot framing and audio design whilst I was watching it for the first (and so far only) time at the cinema. Now this means I really wasn't invested in the film as a story at all and had taken to looking at it with technical critical eyes to keep myself amused through phases of it.

Hurt Locker when I saw it (admittedly quite a while ago now) did hold my attention throughout and it was afterwards when thinking back on it that I thought about the directorial choices and level of performance as supposed to during it. So for me Hurt Locker edges it.

Overall despite the larger list of noms here last year's choices I think provided a better set of films with Slumdog Millionaire, Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, The Reader (although Kate was much better in Revolutionary Road) and Milk.