The nominees for the 83rd annual Academy Awards were announced this morning. The King’s Speech and True Grit topped the list, with 12 and 10 nominations, respectively. The 13 feature-length genre films with nominations this year bests last year’s number by one, though the total number of nominations (32) is three fewer than last year.
Last year, the Academy expanded the Best Picture nominees list from five to ten, perhaps opening it up to more film outside the mainstream. And last year, three sf/f/h films were nominated for Best Picture. This year, we maintained that number, though one is an animated film, and one is a stealth genre film (Black Swan).
Nominees of genre interest include:
Alice in Wonderland: Art Direction; Costume Design; Visual Effects
Black Swan: Best Picture; Actress in a Leading Role (Natalie Portman); Cinematography; Directing; Film Editing
The Gruffalo: Short Film (Animated)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1: Art Direction; Visual Effects
Hereafter: Visual Effects
How to Train Your Dragon: Animated Feature Film; Music (Original Score)
The Illusionist: Animated Feature Film
Inception: Best Picture; Art Direction; Cinematography; Music (Original Score); Sound Editing; Sound Mixing; Visual Effects; Writing (Original Screenplay)
Iron Man 2: Visual Effects
The Lost Thing: Short Film (Animated)
Tangled: Music (Original Song: “I See the Light”)
The Tempest: Costume Design
Toy Story 3: Best Picture; Animated Feature Film; Music (Original Song: “We Belong Together”); Sound Editing; Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Tron: Legacy: Sound Editing
The Wolfman: Makeup
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 James Franco and Anne Hathaway will co-host the award show on Sunday 27 February at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, and that it will be televised live by ABC beginning at 5PM PT.
In naming them the co-hosts, the producers of the show said “James Franco and Anne Hathaway personify the next generation of Hollywood icons—fresh, exciting, and multi-talented. We hope to create an Oscar broadcast that will both showcase their incredible talents and entertain the world.”
I’m not sure it’s fair of the Academy to nominate “Toy Story 3” for top honors in two different categories (Best Picture, Best Animated Feature Film). It gives it an unfair advantage and further points up the idiocy in having separate categories for live and animated films.
I must disagree with your classifying “Black Swan” as a genre film. It was a brilliant arc of madness, but that’s hardly science fiction or fantasy, even dark fantasy.
That leaves one and only one contender that might break the 83-year-old curse of science fiction Best Picture snubs: “Inception”. It’s a great movie, but I’m not sure it’s enough to overcome Oscar’s prejudice. Nevertheless, I’ll be crossing my fingers for it. Ominously, however, the Academy failed to nominate its director, Christopher Nolan, for Best Director. Since the Academy dislikes splitting Best Picture/Best Director awards, this looks like they’ve already made up their minds.
Aussiecon 4 Artist GoH Shaun Tan was nominated in the Best Animated Short Film category.
I have to disagree with you, Sarah, regarding Black Swan. Her transformation into the swan is quite fantastical, and if that fall from perfection into madness isn’t horrific enough to qualify, it ought to.
Yes, Steven, we got that. His film is The Lost Thing. But thanks for emphasizing it for our readers.