'Twas the night before Oscar noms...

The long wait is (nearly) over. In just under twelve hours, we'll all be put out of our misery and all the speculation will come to an end. Save for that unsettling PGA win over the weekend that seemingly blew the Best Picture race wide open again, the winners have been decided long ago, so the only surprise element that remained were the nominations themselves. It is too depressing for me to give a predictions list that sees "The King's Speech" having the most nominations out of all the other superior films this year, so I have decided to write out a dream ballot. Here is what I would nominate, were I a member of the Academy:

Best Picture

"Another Year"
"Black Swan"
"Blue Valentine"
"The Fighter"
"The Ghost Writer"

"127 Hours"

"The Kids Are All Right"

"Rabbit Hole"
"The Social Network"
"True Grit"

Special mentions:
"Greenberg"
"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World"

Director

Darren Aronofsky - "Black Swan"
David Fincher - "The Social Network"
Mike Leigh - "Another Year"
Roman Polanski - "The Ghost Writer"
David O. Russell - "The Fighter"

Pains me not to include:
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen - "True Grit"


Special mentions:

Danny Boyle - "127 Hours"
Debra Granik - "Winter's Bone"

Lead Actor
Aaron Eckhart - "Rabbit Hole"

Jesse Eisenberg - "The Social Network"

Colin Firth - "The King's Speech"
James Franco - "127 Hours"
Ryan Gosling - "Blue Valentine"

Special mentions:

Jim Broadbent - "Another Year"
Ben Stiller - "Greenberg"

Have not seen it yet, but needs a mention just by virtue of being him:
Javier Bardem - "Biutiful"

Lead Actress

Nicole Kidman - "Rabbit Hole"
Jennifer Lawrence - "Winter's Bone"
Natalie Portman - "Black Swan"
Hailee Steinfeld - "True Grit"
Michelle Williams - "Blue Valentine"

Special mentions:

Annette Bening - "The Kids Are All Right"
Greta Gerwig - "Greenberg"
Julianne Moore - "The Kids Are All Right"
Ruth Sheen - "Another Year"
Emma Stone - "Easy A"
Tilda Swinton - "I Am Love"



Supporting Actor

Christian Bale - "The Fighter"
Colin Farrell - "The Way Back"
Andrew Garfield - "The Social Network"
John Hawkes - "Winter's Bone"
Geoffrey Rush - "The King's Speech"

Special mentions:

David Bradley - "Another Year"
Matt Damon - "True Grit"
Armie Hammer - "The Social Network"
Bill Murray - "Get Low"
Jeremy Renner - "The Town"
Mark Ruffalo - "The Kids Are All Right"

Supporting Actress

Amy Adams - "The Fighter"
Lesley Manville - "Another Year"
Jacki Weaver - "Animal Kingdom"
Dianne Wiest - "Rabbit Hole"
Olivia Williams - "The Ghost Writer"

Special mentions:
Marion Cotillard - "Inception"
Mia Wasikowska - "The Kids Are All Right"

Adapted Screenplay

"The Ghost Writer" - Robert Harris, Roman Polanski
"Rabbit Hole" - David Lindsay-Abaire
"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" - Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright
"The Social Network" - Aaron Sorkin
"True Grit" -Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Original Screenplay
"Another Year" - Mike Leigh
"Blue Valentine" - Derek Cianfrance, Joey Curtis, Cami Delavigne
"Greenberg" - Noah Baumbach
"The Kids Are All Right" - Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko
"The King's Speech" - David Seidler

Pains me not to include:

"Black Swan" - Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John J. McLaughlin
"The Fighter" - Eric Johnson, Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy

Special mentions:
"Cyrus" - Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
"Easy A" - Bert V. Royal

Cinematography
(I'm not going to pretend I know anything about this category, but I have a personal stake in Roger Deakins winning a fucking Oscar, already. Though I would have preferred it to be for Ass of JJ, No Country or The Man Who Wasn't There. If Roger wasn't in the race, I would give it to Aronofsky's man)

"Black Swan" - Matthew Libatique

"The Fighter" - Hoyte Van Hoytema
"127 Hours" - Enrique Chediak, Anthony Dod Mantle
"Inception" - Wally Pfister
"True Grit" - Roger Deakins

Special mention:
"Shutter Island" - Robert Richardson

Original Score

"The Ghost Writer" - Alexandre Desplat
"The Illusionist" - Sylvain Chomet
"Never Let Me Go" - Rachel Portman
"The Social Network" - Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
"TRON Legacy" - Daft Punk

Special mention:
"Inception" - Hans Zimmer (BRAAAAWWWWWWW)

Having only seen "Toy Story 3" and "The Illusionist," I did not think it reasonable to make a ballot for the Animated Feature category. But I will say that this is the category in which Pixar's offering of the year belongs, not Best Picture. After raising their bar unbelievably high in the past three years, I felt very let down by Pixar this year. I was happy to see "Up" in the top ten last year and I would have put both "WALL-E" and "Ratatouille" in my top ten in their respective years. But this is far from the best Pixar has churned out and for it to have any actual hope of a best picture win or even nomination is preposterous to me. But, it's the best reviewed movie of the year, so I'm just not seeing whatever everyone else is seeing.
"The Illusionist," on the other hand, while not measuring up to the impossibly high standards set by "The Triplets of Belleville," was still one of the most beautiful things I have seen in this or any year. With 2D animation seemingly a thing of the past, this film should absolutely get in the top three above "Tangled" or "Despicable Me." The sheer number of 3D movies being released every year is ridiculous and unnecessary beyond belief. And when there are true artists like Sylvain Chomet who still believe in the medium and create such magnificent works of art, they should be celebrated each and every time.

The film lacks a strong plotline (and there is almost zero dialogue), which can you leave you with an empty or dissatisfied feeling, but there is no denying the tremendous talent and love and dedication behind it and every still of the film continues to leave me breathless, every single time. Not to mention the music, which is unsurprisingly one of its best aspects, as was the case with "Triplets."

When it comes to Documentary Feature, I have unfortunately not seen enough of the contenders to make any kind of an informed decision. The only ones that I have seen are "Inside Job," "Client 9" and "Exit Through the Gift Shop," all three of which I loved and would be pleased to see nominated (I think only "Inside Job" is guaranteed a nom at the moment, despite "Gift Shop" being the most decorated doc of the year).

As for the Foreign Language category, I've only seen "Even the Rain," which was incredibly moving and I would be very happy to see it pull an upset with a nomination tomorrow morning. Not having seen any of the other 8 shortlisted titles, I think it would be interesting to see these as the nominees:

"Confessions"

"Dogtooth"
"Even the Rain"
"Incendies"
"Outside the Law"

So there it is. If I see any semblance of this tomorrow morning, I will be doing a little dance. We shall see.