New Delhi:
America breakfasted as 2011's Oscar nominations were announced on January 25. And the fight between Mark Zuckerberg's cinematic self and HRH George IV just got more interesting with The Social Network trailing The King's Speech by 4 nominations.
The Academy's fondness for the British stiff upper lip was evident in the film's 12 nominations. These include Best Picture, Best Director for Tom Hooper, Best Actor for Colin Firth, Best Supporting Actor for Geoffrey Rush and Best Supporting Actress for Helena Bonham Carter. It also might take home the award for Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing , Original Score, Sound Mixing and Original Screenplay. The King's Speech just became the film to beat this year.
True Grit was not overlooked, as it had been for the Golden Globes, scored 10 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director for the Coen Brothers, Best Actor for Jeff Bridges and Best Supporting Actress for Hailee Steinfeld.
Way behind the Brits is The Social Network with 8 nominations. It's up Best Picture, Best Director for David Fincher, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score, all of which awards it won at The Golden Globes. Jesse Eisenberg scores a nomination for Best Actor but Andrew Garfield didn't manage one for Best Supporting Actor. Neither did Justin Timberlake, so the Academy will have to find another way of pulling eyeballs on Oscar Night.
Colin Firth, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg and James Franco all made the Best Actor list, as expected. The last spot, which could have gone to Johnny Depp for Alice In Wonderland, went instead to Javier Bardem for Biutiful. Jeff Bridges and Colin Firth clash for the second year in a row. Bridges took the award last year for Crazy Heart, beating Firth who was nominated for A Single Man.
No surprises among the leading ladies. Natalie Portman and Annette Bening are the favourites for Black Swan and The Kids Are All Right respectively. Nicole Kidman gets a nod for Rabbit Hole, Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone and Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine. Of them, Nicole Kidman is the only one to have previously won an Oscar and chances are she's not going to be taking it home this year. That honour will probably fall to either Natalie or Annette.
The Best Supporting Acting categories contained some expected names - Christian Bale, Geoffrey Rush, Mark Ruffalo, Melissa Leo, Hailee Steinfeld and Helena Bonham Carter - as well as some surprises: Jacki Weaver made it for Animal Kingdom while Mila Kunis was inexplicably overlooked for Black Swan.
The 10 films vying for Best Picture are The King's Speech, The Social Network, True Grit, Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, Inception, Toy Story 3 and Winter's Bone. Our money's on the first two.
And flying the flag for India will be A R Rahman, looking for a repeat of his Slumdog success with 2 nominations for 127 Hours - Best Original Score and Best Original Song
We, for one, can't wait till Oscar night at the end of February.
The Academy's fondness for the British stiff upper lip was evident in the film's 12 nominations. These include Best Picture, Best Director for Tom Hooper, Best Actor for Colin Firth, Best Supporting Actor for Geoffrey Rush and Best Supporting Actress for Helena Bonham Carter. It also might take home the award for Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing , Original Score, Sound Mixing and Original Screenplay. The King's Speech just became the film to beat this year.
True Grit was not overlooked, as it had been for the Golden Globes, scored 10 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director for the Coen Brothers, Best Actor for Jeff Bridges and Best Supporting Actress for Hailee Steinfeld.
Way behind the Brits is The Social Network with 8 nominations. It's up Best Picture, Best Director for David Fincher, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score, all of which awards it won at The Golden Globes. Jesse Eisenberg scores a nomination for Best Actor but Andrew Garfield didn't manage one for Best Supporting Actor. Neither did Justin Timberlake, so the Academy will have to find another way of pulling eyeballs on Oscar Night.
Colin Firth, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg and James Franco all made the Best Actor list, as expected. The last spot, which could have gone to Johnny Depp for Alice In Wonderland, went instead to Javier Bardem for Biutiful. Jeff Bridges and Colin Firth clash for the second year in a row. Bridges took the award last year for Crazy Heart, beating Firth who was nominated for A Single Man.
No surprises among the leading ladies. Natalie Portman and Annette Bening are the favourites for Black Swan and The Kids Are All Right respectively. Nicole Kidman gets a nod for Rabbit Hole, Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone and Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine. Of them, Nicole Kidman is the only one to have previously won an Oscar and chances are she's not going to be taking it home this year. That honour will probably fall to either Natalie or Annette.
The Best Supporting Acting categories contained some expected names - Christian Bale, Geoffrey Rush, Mark Ruffalo, Melissa Leo, Hailee Steinfeld and Helena Bonham Carter - as well as some surprises: Jacki Weaver made it for Animal Kingdom while Mila Kunis was inexplicably overlooked for Black Swan.
The 10 films vying for Best Picture are The King's Speech, The Social Network, True Grit, Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, Inception, Toy Story 3 and Winter's Bone. Our money's on the first two.
And flying the flag for India will be A R Rahman, looking for a repeat of his Slumdog success with 2 nominations for 127 Hours - Best Original Score and Best Original Song
We, for one, can't wait till Oscar night at the end of February.
