The Oscar nominations are in, and while “The King’s Speech” is leading the way with twelve nominations, I’m very surprised at all the love “True Grit” received this morning, in second place with ten nominations, after being snubbed by the Golden Globes and The Directors Guild of America.
The gauntlet of Public Relations worked well for some of these surprise nominees, who eased out, what seemed to be, surefire nominees.
Julia Roberts hosted a screening of “Biutiful” last month in Los Angeles, praising her “Eat, Pray, Love” co-star Javier Bardem. Since the Academy’s voting majority is actors, actors campaigning for each other seems to work. Bardem eased out potential nominees Robert Duvall for “Get Low” (who was the front runner for most of the year to win his 2nd Best Actor Oscar) and Ryan Gosling for the controversial “Blue Valentine”, in which the films NC-17 publicity tirade scared too many voters off in acknowledging it more. Though Michelle Williams’ performance got recognized, the movie is nothing without Gosling.
With exception of Natalie Portman, the rest of the “Black Swan” ensemble got shut out. One of the surprises I was hoping for this morning was for Barbara Hershey to land a Supporting Actress nod for her Piper Laurie-esque “Carrie” performance. Ah, well.
The Best Actress race will be a show down between three-time nominee Annette Bening and Natalie Portman’s tour de force. Oscar pundits say Portman has it won already. But, I can’t seem to wrap my head around that, considering Bening is consistently turning out good work, this being among her best. She always seems to be in contention, whether she gets nominated of not. Oh, and she’s married to Warren Beatty. What does Bening’s spouse have anything to do with this? The Roberts/Bardem logic applies here, as well. Bottom line though, it’s the work. The work is so good, it got Julianne Moore snubbed…again.
The biggest surprise of the morning for me was the nomination for John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone”, who, for me, was the best thing about the movie. It was at that moment I was expecting “Winter’s Bone” to do well. It was sure to, and did, wind up in one of the ten spots. Jennifer Lawrence’s star-making turn got acknowledged, as did the screenplay. The most common reaction from this group of filmmakers is sure to be, “It’s great just to be nominated.”
Even though many would say the surprise in the Director category is Joel and Ethan Coen securing a nomination, it’s really David O. Russell besting Christopher Nolan. While “The Fighter” is a well-done work, it’s the performances that drive the movie, not his directing. The resolution of the film seems more like a conclusion rather than a victory. It surely doesn’t have the power that “Rocky” continues to have 35 years later. Even though Rocky loses to Apollo, at the end of that flick, Rocky still won. “Inception” is a film driven by it’s director, not it’s performances. As stated here before, Nolan is the star of “Inception”. Failing to recognize him is disappointing. Nolan did wind up in the “Citizen Kane/Pulp Fiction” consolation prize category, Best Original Screenplay.
With all the love “True Grit” received this morning, don’t be surprised if Hailee Steinfeld pulls a Tatum O’Neal and wins Best Supporting Actress for “True Grit”. You heard it here first.
The Academy Awards air on February 27, 2011 on ABC. More predictions coming soon.
