The list of nominees for this year's Oscars was just released. The ceremonies themselves will be on March 7. Below are some of my thoughts and predictions, and at the very bottom of this post is my personal top 5 of 2009.
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Best Picture
Nominees: Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, Up in the Air
Comments: This year, the Academy decided to expand the field of nominees for Best Picture to 10 as opposed to the usual 5. This was probably due to the outrage that The Dark Knight didn't get a nomination last year. The result of this change is that more movies can now claim the title "Oscar nominee," but at the same time, that title is now less significant. If you want to figure out what the Academy deems the "Top 5," just take a look at the nominees for Best Director, which are in most cases consistent with the nominees for Best Picture.
No huge surprises here, maybe other than the omission of Clint Eastwood's Invictus in favor of The Blind Side. Nice to see District 9 and Up in this list. The more I look at this, though... 10 nominees is just ridiculous. The "niceness" of seeing some movies on the list of nominees doesn't make up for the damage they've done to the honor of getting such a nomination.
You'd have to consider The Hurt Locker a reasonably big favorite here. It has been, by far, the most critically acclaimed movie of the year, and this would be a perfect opportunity to finally honor a film made by a well-deserving woman. Avatar, which won the Golden Globe Award, remains a dark horse, and I'd all but eliminate any movie other than those two from contention.
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Best Directing
Nominees: James Cameron (Avatar), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), Lee Daniels (Precious), Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)
Comments: A worthy list that probably would have been exactly the same as the list of Best Picture nominees had the Academy not gotten their crazy idea. Kathryn Bigelow must win this. Yes, I am requiring that the Academy give this award to her. Bigelow's ex-husband James Cameron won the corresponding Golden Globe this year, which is unforgivable. I can see a case for Avatar winning Best Picture but absolutely not for Best Directing. If James Cameron wins this award, I might go crazy.
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Best Adapted Screenplay
Nominees: District 9, An Education, In the Loop, Precious, Up in the Air
Comments: Up in the Air and it's charming, nicely-paced writing is going to be hard to beat.
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Best Original Screenplay
Nominees: The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, The Messenger, A Serious Man, Up
Comments: This one is tougher to call. I like Tarantino's quirky yet deliberate writing in Inglourious Basterds here. Mark Boal's screenplay in The Hurt Locker also has to be in contention, largely because of the movie that it's in. The Coen brothers' A Serious Man has some... well, Coen-esque writing and could be a dark horse.
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Other Awards
Acting: I haven't seen many of these movies, but from what I've read, all four acting awards seem to be locks. Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Christoph Waltz, Mo'Nique - congratulations.
Animated Feature: Well, I've seen 4 of the 5 nominees. Bummed that Ponyo didn't make it. I'll be rooting for my favorite movie of the year Fantastic Mr. Fox, but realistically, Pixar should score their fifth win here with Up.
Cinematography: Avatar.
Editing: I'd have to go with The Hurt Locker for this one. Really impressive.
Visual Effects: Take a wild guess.
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My Top 5 of 2009
1) Fantastic Mr. Fox
2) The Hurt Locker
3) District 9
4) Up in the Air
5) Inglourious Basterds
Honorable mentions: Precious, Ponyo, (500) Days of Summer, Up, An Education
This list may change a little if I see any more movies from last year. Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Hurt Locker were easy choices for #1 and #2, though choosing what order to put them in was difficult. Let's just say that Fantastic Mr. Fox was "my favorite" movie of the year while The Hurt Locker was "the best." Really, really tough choice for the #5 spot between Inglourious Basterds and Precious. I guess this is what it feels like to be the Academy.
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Coming soon: My top 10 movies of the decade!
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