82nd Academy Awards Nominations

It's Oscar nomination day and the nominations were announced bright and early at 8:30 EST this morning, and oddly it's a year of very few big surprizes but a year of several happy surprizes.

The heavy hitters this year are The Hurt Locker and Avatar which are both up for 9 nominations, and are competing against each other in 7 of those nominations: Cinematography, Directing, Film Editing, Original Score, Best Picture, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. The Hurt Locker is also up for Original Screenplay and a very well deserved nomination for Jeremy Renner - Performance by an actor in a leading role and Avatar's additional two nominations are for Art Direction and Visual Effects (which has to be a lock this year!).

One of the biggest changes this year to the awards is the switch from have 5 to 10 best picture nominations, which is a great way for more films to get more recognition, but if it doesn't go to either the The Hurt Locker and Avatar I'll be very surprized! When the Best Picture nominations starting with Avatar, which received zero audience reaction or response. That followed with The Blind Side being nominated with blind sided a lot of us! The remaining 8 nominations are The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, A Serious Man, Up and Up in the Air.

Up receiving a Best Picture nomination has been getting lots of buzz considering no film has had that honour since Beauty and the Beast (1991). Also interesting that the Animated film nominations this year rises to 5 films nominated from 3 in previous years, which means that the 2 categories only 3 nomination category this year are Make Up and Visual Effects

Speaking of Make Up, I've heard several rumblings recently on the darker films not getting make up nominations and I think there is some truth to that, this year District 9 would have been well placed to get a make up nomination although Il Divo, Star Trek and The Young Victoria are all well deserved or their nominations.

I have to re-iterated my excitement that Jeremy Renner is nominated for Performance by an actor in a leading role for The Hurt Locker, and it's no surprize to see him in the company of Jeff Bridges there for Crazy Heart but this is the one category I was really hoping to see some more gutsy over safe choices. In particular it would have be thrilling to see Sam Rockwell be nominated for Moon and Tom Hardy be nominated for Bronson.

But on a more positive note there are many well deserved nominations, including for Adapted Screenplay, In the LoopThe Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus getting 2 nominations: Art Director and Costume Design, and The Young Victoria getting 3 nominations: Art Direction, Costume Design and Makeup. In fact, I think this year the costume design category is the one with the most fierce competition as all 5 films had fantastic costumes: Bright Star, Coco before Chanel, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Nine and The Young Victoria.

Congratulations to all the nominees! Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out on March 7, 2010. Now, to plot out how to see the additional 9 films I need to see in that time!

See also nominations listed of films ranked by number of nominations with nominations detailed and nominated films list.

The 82nd Academy Awards will be broad casted live Sunday March 7, 2010 starting at 8pm EST on ABC.

82nd Academy Awards Nominations

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Matt Damon in Invictus
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Penélope Cruz in Nine
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Mo'Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

Best animated feature film of the year
Coraline - Henry Selick
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wes Anderson
The Princess and the Frog - John Musker and Ron Clements
The Secret of Kells - Tomm Moore
Up - Pete Docter

Achievement in art direction
Avatar - Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg, Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro, Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
Nine - Art Direction: John Myhre, Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
Sherlock Holmes - Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood, Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
The Young Victoria - Art Direction: Patrice Vermette, Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Achievement in cinematography
Avatar - Mauro Fiore
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Bruno Delbonnel
The Hurt Locker - Barry Ackroyd
Inglourious Basterds - Robert Richardson
The White Ribbon - Christian Berger

Achievement in costume design
Bright Star - Janet Patterson
Coco before Chanel - Catherine Leterrier
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Monique Prudhomme
Nine - Colleen Atwood
The Young Victoria - Sandy Powell

Achievement in directing
Avatar - James Cameron
The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow
Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Lee Daniels
Up in the Air - Jason Reitman

Best documentary feature
Burma VJ - Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
The Cove - Nominees to be determined
Food, Inc. - Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers - Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
Which Way Home - Rebecca Cammisa

Best documentary short subject
China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province - Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner - Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant - Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
Music by Prudence - Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
Rabbit à la Berlin - Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Achievement in film editing
Avatar - Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
District 9 - Julian Clarke
The Hurt Locker - Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
Inglourious Basterds - Sally Menke
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Joe Klotz

Best foreign language film of the year
Ajami - Israel
El Secreto de Sus Ojos - Argentina
The Milk of Sorrow - Peru
Un Prophète - France
The White Ribbon - Germany

Achievement in makeup
Il Divo - Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
Star Trek - Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
The Young Victoria - Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
Avatar - James Horner
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Alexandre Desplat
The Hurt Locker - Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
Sherlock Holmes - Hans Zimmer
Up - Michael Giacchino

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
"Almost There" from The Princess and the Frog - Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
"Down in New Orleans" from The Princess and the Frog - Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
"Loin de Paname" from Paris 36 - Music by Reinhardt Wagner, Lyric by Frank Thomas
"Take It All" from Nine - Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
"The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" from Crazy Heart - Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Best motion picture of the year
Avatar - James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
The Blind Side - Nominees to be determined
District 9 - Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
An Education - Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
The Hurt Locker - Nominees to be determined
Inglourious Basterds - Lawrence Bender, Producer
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
A Serious Man - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
Up - Jonas Rivera, Producer
Up in the Air - Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Best animated short film
French Roast - Fabrice O. Joubert
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty - Nicky Phelan and Darragh O'Connell
The Lady and the Reaper / La Dama y la Muerte - Javier Recio Gracia
Logorama - Nicolas Schmerkin
A Matter of Loaf and Death - Nick Park

Best live action short film
The Door - Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
Instead of Abracadabra - Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
Kavi - Gregg Helvey
Miracle Fish - Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
The New Tenants - Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Achievement in sound editing
Avatar - Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
The Hurt Locker - Paul N.J. Ottosson
Inglourious Basterds - Wylie Stateman
Star Trek - Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
Up - Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Achievement in sound mixing
Avatar - Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
The Hurt Locker - Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
Inglourious Basterds - Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
Star Trek - Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Achievement in visual effects
Avatar - Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
District 9 - Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
Star Trek - Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Adapted screenplay
District 9 - Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
An Education - Screenplay by Nick Hornby
In the Loop - Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
Up in the Air - Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Original screenplay
The Hurt Locker - Written by Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds - Written by Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger - Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
A Serious Man - Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Up - Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter

Lists on the Oscars site can be found here and a printable version is here.