The nominees for the 82nd annual Academy Awards were announced this morning. Avatar and The Hurt Locker both topped the list, with nine nominations each. The 12 genre films with nominations this year far outstrips last year’s seven, though the total number of nominations (35) is only a few more than last year (31). Last year, our films earned three acting nominations; this year, only one.
There was also much made of this year’s expansion of the Best Picture nominees list from five to ten perhaps opening it up to more film outside the mainstream. Three sf/f/h films are nominated for Best Picture this year, compared to only one last year, so there may be something to that.
Nominees of genre interest include:
Avatar: Art Direction; Cinematography; Directing; Film Editing; Music (Original Score); Best Picture; Sound Editing; Sound Mixing; Visual Effects
Coraline: Animated Feature Film
District 9: Film Editing; Best Picture; Visual Effects; Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Fantastic Mr. Fox: Animated Feature Film; Music (Original Score)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Cinematography
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus: Art Direction; Costume Design
The Lovely Bones: Supporting Actor (Stanley Tucci)
The Princess and the Frog: Animated Feature Film; Music (Original Song: “Almost There”); Music (Original Song: “Down in New Orleans”)
Sherlock Holmes: Art Direction; Music (Original Score)
Star Trek: Makeup; Sound Editing; Sound Mixing; Visual Effects
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Sound Mixing
Up: Animated Feature Film; Music (Original Score); Best Picture; Sound Editing; Writing (Original Screenplay)
The full list of nominees is on this page. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—the organization which gives out the Oscars—has announced that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will co-host the award show on Sunday 7 March at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, and that it will be televised live by ABC beginning at 5PM PT. (Martin was the host in 2001 and 2003; this will be Baldwin’s first time hosting the show.)
No fair! “Up” is nominated for best Animated Feature Film AND Best Picture? Giving it TWO chances to win? I didn’t think that was within the rules.
I’m not sure how “Sherlock Holmes” is a science fiction, fantasy or horror film, since the “supernatural” events in that movie were shown to be hoaxes. It played like a nineteenth century thriller to me.
I walked out of the theatre after “Avatar” thinking that this picture MIGHT be the one to break the curse, the first science fiction film in history to win Best Picture. Now, I’m not so sure. I’m cynical enough to think the Academy voters will dismiss it as a gimmick, and hand the top honors to some dreary tragedy that played to empty theatres.