Well, it’s that time again. The Academy Award nominees have been announced and, per usual, I’ve seen almost none of these films or performances yet.
Because the Academy refuses to award out-of-the-box thinking like this.
But hell. I’ll talk a little about it anyway.
1. The Best Picture Nominees
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
I have seen Django Unchained — review out sometime next week — and while I really liked it, I doubt that it’s the best film of the year. I should attempt to see at least ONE of the other nominees before February 24th. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but if it does, I’ll probably watch Silver Linings Playbook, Beasts of the Southern Wild, or Argo. Surprisingly, my interest in Zero Dark Thirty has actually risen — but probably not enough to make the deadline.
Least Likely to See:
Sorry. I still have NO interest.
Second Least Likely:
Three hour tragic musicals aren’t really my thing, and anyway, I’ve mostly been hearing very so-so things. I think I’ll just watch the Anne Hathaway scene and be fine. Or maybe I’ll just watch the Anne Hathaway and Samuel L. Jackson Sad-Off again.
2. Snubs and Surprises:
A. I’m a little surprised that Kathryn Bigelow didn’t get nominated for Zero Dark Thirty, but I’m just astounded that Ben Affleck also failed to get nominated for Argo when I assumed he was a shoo-in. In fact, I actually feel a little bad for the guy — which is kind of ridiculous, since I haven’t even seen the movie yet. Still.
B. I’m also surprised that John Hawkes didn’t get nominated for The Sessions. I feel a little bad for him too — again, I haven’t seen the movie, so I don’t know if he should have gotten the nod or not, but I like the actor, and it sounds like an interesting film.
C. The Academy actually nominated Quvenzhané Wallis for Best Actress.
Wallis is nine now, but she was only six when she starred in The Beasts of the Southern Wild, making her the youngest Oscar nominee for Best Actress ever. Considering that the Academy Awards knocked Hailee Steinfeld down to a Best Supporting nod a few years ago when she was clearly the lead of True Grit, I just wasn’t sure the Academy was going to award a six-year old for Best Actress.
I don’t think she’ll win, but I do think we’ve easily found our cutest nominee for the award season.
D. Christoph Waltz is nominated over co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson for Best Supporting Actor.
Well, okay. I actually don’t think this was particularly surprising, but a lot of people really thought DiCaprio was going to get the nod. Honestly, if I was in charge of things, I probably would have given it to Samuel L. Jackson, myself, but Christoph Waltz is awesome in this movie, so I’m not upset at all.
3. A few predicted winners (at least for the moment — it will probably change as we get into award season):
Best Picture: Lincoln
Best Director: Steven Spielberg – Lincoln
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Best Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway –Les Miserabless
Best Foreign Language Film: Amour
Best Adapted Screenplay: Dave Magee – Life of Pi
Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained
Also, if The Avengers does not win for Best Visual Effects, I may have to be annoyed. I guess I don’t get to be annoyed without having actually watched Life of Pi, but I was emphatically not impressed by those trailers, and the visual effects for The Avengers were AWESOME.
Fill in requisite “you won’t like him if he loses” joke here.
And for a full list of the Academy Award nominees . . . there you go.
My Geek Blasphemy 
Is there any particular reason you’re not interested in seeing Life of Pi? Just curious.
And I also really hope The Avengers wins for Best Visual Effects, because The Hulk alone should make it a shoo-in.
I also really hope Wreck-It Ralph wins Best Animated Film. It’s been a strong year for animated films in general (I was kind of hoping this would be another year where at least one was nominated for Best Picture tbh), but that was hands down my favorite.
Mostly, it was the trailer. What I know of the story doesn’t particularly grab me anyway (I haven’t read the book), but the trailer really struck a bad chord with me. It seemed overly saccharine and sentimental, like it was trying so hard to be Important and Moving, capital I, capital M. I know it’s not entirely fair to judge a movie based solely on the trailer, and I do have friends who have liked the film — but I just have no interest at all.
I haven’t watched Wreck-It Ralph yet, but I’ve heard overwhelmingly good things.
Wreck-It Ralph is the only animated nominated film I’ve seen, but I’m hoping that there’s something better which will win it. All the video game stuff was a lot of fun, but the story underneath had a lot of really cliched moments which prevented me from getting emotionally invested.