Oscar 2010: Nomination Reactions, Surprises, and Snubs

The dust hasn't really settled, and I'll say it'll be up in the air for a few days since these nominations were announced. We knew there were going to be a few surprises, but we hadn't the foggiest idea what they were. Now we do, so lets start at the bottom with my reactions and work our way up. The short film categories don't grab much attention, and they never have. We'll have to seek them out in order know more, but I'm glad Day and Night snagged a nod. I never saw what people didn't like about that one. TRON Legacy was snubbed for Visual Effects, most likely due to that distracting Jeff Bridges doppelganger, so that left a place open for a film to sneak in. Unfortunately, it wasn't Scott Pilgrim vs. the World as I predicted, but Hereafter for that one tsunami scene. I'm alright, if alright means despondent.

I hadn't an idea at all of what would be nominated for Best Sound Editing and Mixing, so I all the surprises are a bit negated by that. Salt and Unstoppable making it in was mildly surprising, but even more shocking was that Black Swan was snubbed for both. I thought it had some heat going in those categories, but it seems I was wrong. A few of my friends will be disappointed that Burlesque went home with absolutely no nominations, specifically in the Original Song category. I'm glad Toy Story 3 and Tangled made it in for "We Belong Together" and "I See The Light", respectively. Only four nominations is also a bit surprising, without a doubt.

No doubles for Desplat for Original Score, but he did get in for The King's Speech, so count that for what it is. Only real surprise in that race is that A.R. Rahman made it in for 127 Hours, a score which I wasn't really too taken with. My first big victory lap is in the Makeup category where, even though The Wolfman was horribly nominated, Alice in Wonderland was snubbed and The Way Back and Barney's Version made it in! You cannot believe how happy that makes me. I would be so much happier if it weren't for the next news, which is the first blow against Christopher Nolan's most recent success. Inception was snubbed for Film Editing! This was the first sign that this wasn't going to be Nolan's year. Perhaps they're pushing him to do better with The Dark Knight Rises. I can't know for sure.


A mix of disappointment and delight comes with the Documentary nominations, which includes the wild card favorite Exit Through the Gift Shop. However, what was the price? Waiting for "Superman" was wrongly snubbed from the entire show, without even a nomination for Original Song. The conclusion I gather from this is that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science doesn't care about your children. No surprise there. I have no qualms against Costume Design, because it's the only category where pretty much everything went according to plan. So glad I Am Love is up for that.

Moving up to cinematography, The King's Speech is the major shocker here, and it clearly doesn't belong. I need somebody to console me in my rage, because it's growing quite quickly. On the other hand, I'm super excited that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 walked away with an Art Direction nomination. Deathly Hallows: Part 1 walked away with two nominations, but the other British drama, The King's Speech, ran away with the top tally of 12 nominations. I'll have more to say on this later. No surprises in the animated feature category, with The Illusionist making that third spot. I was 80% correct with my unadvised and blind predictions for Best Foreign Language film, with the exception of Outside the Law.

Rabbit Hole didn't make it into the screenplay race, unfortunately, and The Fighter surprisingly broke into those races. Hailee Steinfeld made it into the Supporting Actress category, making it a race between her and Melissa Leo for that title. Jacki Weaver beat Mila Kunis out for the fifth slot. John Hawkes made the cut for Supporting Actor, beating out Andrew Garfield for The Social Network. Javier Bardem nabbed the fifth slot for Best Actor, so he's probably pretty happy today. The Best Picture nominations are exactly as I predicted them, with Winter's Bone happily making the cut. The big surprise of the morning, and this is still reverberating through the internet, is that Christopher Nolan was not nominated for Best Director for Inception. It's completely outlandish, and people are joking about the Director race expanding to ten next year. It's a highly bittersweet atmosphere, as is always the case. I'll have my winner predictions up by the end of the day. All the nominations can be seen at the Oscar Predictions page.