Review of 2010: Oscar Night Reaction & General Reflection

Jennifer Hudson bids farewell to 2010.

Last night was one of the strangest Oscar ceremonies in recent memory, and I'm not solely talking about the outlandish behaviour of a certain James Franco. With the possible exception of 2005, every year since I've been watching (2001-Present) has seen a decent tally of wins for the Best Picture victor, especially when they were particularly nailed-on for victory (Lord of the Rings, Slumdog Millionaire.) Moreover, the amount of times I've seen technical prizes tokenly handed out to Picture frontrunners in tick-the-box fashion, is downright obscene. Despite feeling reviled by the awardage of the big prize to "The King's Speech" I'm actually encouraged that the Academy appeared to consider the merits of each category more closely this year, awarding cinematography to "Inception" (a close second to "Black Swan" by my reckoning) and Best Original Score to the intricate score of "The Social Network," both of which remained cool outsiders in the betting.

The good parts of the ceremony largely entailed of a more sensible broadcast, short on montages and mini-introductions (we know what the nominated films are!), and back to substantial acting clips and song performances (which I believe in, despite their tendency to nominate terrible songs.) The bad emerged in the form of Celine Dion's excruciatingly sentimental accompaniment to the In Memoriam segment,  and the tacky sketch-style methods of the hosts, who just didn't seem to have the knack for this brand of comedy. I also felt that it was rather hurriedly ploughed through, managing to omit some of the staple unnecessary elements of the broadcast, but content to once again burden the winners with rashly-utilised exit music.

The Full List of Oscar Winners:

Best Picture: "The King’s Speech"

Best Director: Tom Hooper, "The King’s Speech"

Best Actor: Colin Firth, "The King’s Speech"

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, "Black Swan"

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, "The Fighter"

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, "The Fighter"

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, "The Social Network"

Best Original Screenplay: David Seidler, "The King’s Speech"

Best Animated Feature: "Toy Story 3"

Best Editing: Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter, "The Social Network"

Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister, "Inception"

Best Original Score: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, "The Social Network"

Best Art Direction: "Alice in Wonderland"

Best Costume Design: "Alice in Wonderland"

Best Visual Effects: "Inception"

Best Make-Up: "The Wolfman"

Best Sound Mixing: "Inception"

Best Sound Editing: "Inception"

Best Song: We Belong Together, "Toy Story 3"

Best Documentary: "Inside Job"

Best Documentary Short: "Strangers No More"

Best Live Action Short: "God of Love"

Best Animated Short: "The Lost Thing"

Best Foreign Language Film: "In a Better World," Denmark

Best Speech: Charles Ferguson, director of "Inside Job," whose only fault at the podium was not being Banksy. Keep knocking those bankers down.

Worst Speech: Tom Hooper, who does little for the white-British stereotype that we're all well-to-do and listen to our mothers.

Most Satisfying Victory: Aaron Sorkin's screenplay victory must rank as one of the finest in the category for a long, long time.

Least Satisfying Victory: I'm trying not to sound too bitter, but again, it has to be Tom Hooper. It's no wonder he looked like the cat that got the cream, when he beat such visionary opponents with a film that feels so visually drab and lifeless.

Thankfully for Colin, this rant is over.

Some Words about 2010 in General: From an Indie perspective, there was an awful lot to be encouraged about this year. I don't approve of a ten-wide Best Picture field, but it's heartening that smaller productions can gather a lot of traction from critical adoration and early popularity (see: "Winter's Bone" and "The Kids Are All Right") and gain multiple acting nominations in the process. I sincerely hope that this isn't a one-off, and I suspect it won't be, if American mainstream cinema continues to generally struggle.

The other key observation is that there simply is no accounting for taste. Connotative, schematic displays of "prestige" still rule the roost, but only when enough people rally behind them. One hopes that this royal triumph does not aid in slackening the tolerance towards gaudy shows of period elegance, but as ever, we'll have to wait until next year to find out.

Final Oscar Predictions: Part 1/2

It's difficult to believe that "The Hurt Locker" took home the Best Picture prize almost a year ago, but here we are again. I always love Awards Season, but these last few weeks have seemed particularly long, tumultuous, and bitter, so it'll be kind of a welcome relief when we have a whole host of OTHER films to talk about.

For now, here are my final Oscar predictions for the fourteen categories that aren't the perceived "big eight":

Animated Feature

"How to Train Your Dragon"

"The Illusionist"

"Toy Story 3"

Predicted Winner: "Toy Story 3"

My Favourite: "The Illusionist"

The single best year for this category will surely see a repeat of last year's "Up" winning, crowning "Toy Story" in consolation for their expected loss in the Best Picture category. The nomination is the reward.

Art Direction

"Alice in Wonderland"

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1"

"Inception"

"The King's Speech"

"True Grit"

Predicted Winner: "The King's Speech"

My Favourite: "Inception"

I'm holding off on predicting a Speech sweep, but this should be one of the easier gets for the period piece.

Cinematography
"Black Swan," Matthew Libatique

"Inception," Wally Pfister

"The King's Speech," Danny Cohen

"The Social Network," Jeff Cronenweth

"True Grit," Roger Deakins

Predicted Winner: "True Grit"

My Favourite: "Black Swan"

It could go to Cohen (god forbid) or Pfister (up-and-comer) but doesn't it seem like it's Deakins turn by now? The film probably won't win anything else.

Costume Design

"Alice in Wonderland," Colleen Atwood

"I Am Love," Antonella Cannarozzi

"The King's Speech," Jenny Beavan

"The Tempest," Sandy Powell

"True Grit," Mary Zophres

Predicted Winner: "Alice in Wonderland"

My Favourite: "I Am Love"

It's Atwood or Beavan, but they like SHOWY.

Documentary Feature

"Exit through the Gift Shop"

"GasLand"

"Inside Job"

"Restrepo"

"Waste Land"

Predicted Winner: "Waste Land"

My Favourite: "Exit through the Gift Shop"

Perhaps the case of a split? Inside Job's topic is formal, and Exit's is too out-there. Word on Waste Land is that it's a crowd-pleaser, so why not?

Documentary (Short Subject)

"Killing in the Name"

"Poster Girl"

"Strangers No More"

"Sun Come Up"

"The Warriors of Qiugang"

Predicted Winner: "Poster Girl"

Judging from the themes of each doc, Poster or Strangers seem the most sympathetic. Children in a school, or fallen war hero? Plumming for the latter.

Film Editing

"Black Swan," Andrew Weisblum

"The Fighter," Pamela Martin

"The King's Speech," Tariq Anwar

"127 Hours," Jon Harris

"The Social Network," Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Predicted Winner: "The Social Network"

My Favourite: "The Social Network"

Going to go for this, because I only think the film will win 1 or 2 awards elsewhere.

Foreign Language Film

"Biutiful" (Mexico)

"Dogtooth" (Greece)

"In a Better World" (Denmark)

"Incendies" (Canada)

"Outside the Law" (Algeria)

Predicted Winner: "In a Better World"

My Favourite: "Dogtooth"

"Biutiful" and "Incendies" are both unrelentingly heavy, and without a great deal of sentiment. I think they'll go for Susanne Bier's film.

Original Score

"How to Train Your Dragon," John Powell

"Inception," Hans Zimmer

"The King's Speech," Alexandre Desplat

"127 Hours," A.R. Rahman

"The Social Network," Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Predicted Winner: "The King's Speech"

My Favourite: "How to Train Your Dragon"

Original Song

"Coming Home," from "Country Strong"

"I See the Light," from "Tangled"

"If I Rise," from "127 Hours"

"We Belong Together," from "Toy Story 3"

Predicted Winner: "Country Strong"

My Favourite: None of them.

Makeup

"Barney's Version"

"The Way Back"

"The Wolfman"

Predicted Winner: "The Wolfman"

The most obvious styling of the bunch.

Short Film (Animated)

"Day and Night"

"The Gruffalo"

"Let's Pollute"

"The Lost Thing"

"Madagascar, a Journey Diary"

Predicted Winner: "Day and Night"

Pixar.

Short Film (Live Action)

"The Confession"

"The Crush"

"God of Love"

"Na Wewe"

"Wish 143"

Predicted Winner: "Wish 143"

Cancer.

Sound Editing

"Inception"

"Toy Story 3"

"Tron: Legacy"

"True Grit"

"Unstoppable"

Predicted Winner: "Inception"

My Favourite: "Inception"

Sound Mixing

"Inception"

"The King's Speech"

"Salt"

"The Social Network"

"True Grit"

Predicted Winner: "Inception"

My Favourite: "Salt"

Visual Effects

"Alice in Wonderland"

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1"

"Hereafter"

"Inception"

"Iron Man 2"

Predicted Winner: "Inception"

A Review of Incendies (Villeneuve, 2011)

Incendies

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Starring: Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Lubna Azabal, Maxim Gaudette, Rémy Girard, Abdelghafour Elaaziz

Grade: C+

Written for Subtitled Online:

Oscar’s Foreign Language committee this year selected “Incendies,” the latest project of Canadian-born Denis Villeneuve (Maelström, Polytechnique) as one of its five nominated picks. The film first premiered as part of the Critics Week at last year’s Venice Film Festival, and has since gone on to showings at Toronto, and more recently Sundance. “Incendies,” which translates from French as “fire,” follows in the mould of Villeneuve’s previous forays into personal self-discovery (particularly of women) and the cultural hybridism which makes us who we are.

After the death of their mother Nawal, twin siblings Jeanne and Simon are read her will, which states that she’d like them to travel to the Middle East to find their estranged father and brother. Carrying resentment towards his mother, Simon’s immediate reaction is hostile, but Jeanne is eminently more curious about her ambiguous upbringing, and so abandons her studies in search of answers. The film features extended flashbacks of Nawal searching for the son she had as a teenager, and how she is led into a world of criminality and shame. As Jeanne ventures on her journey she finds herself taking a path parallel to Nawal’s, and as the film interchanges between each woman’s stories, the murkier elements of their family history are revealed.

Despite there not being many specific locations in the film, “Incendies” possesses a surprisingly powerful sense of visual scope, heavily aided by the methods of director Villeneuve. He exercises an assured ease of storytelling; unfussy and simple across sparse terrain, effective in drawing us into a scene and generous in allowing us to recognise where we are in his puzzling wilderness. Save for some liberal use of Radiohead tunes, “Incendies” bears a mythical aesthetic refinement, and without seeming at all over-stylised or idyllic. It meshes well with the general uncertainty of the characters and their quest for closure, the large desolate expanses alluding to a realm of unknown possibility.

“Incendies” is comparable with Julian Schnabel’s Miral in terms of structure, depicting women in search of solace at the same points in their life, but in different points in time. While Schnabel’s film toys with that structure to tremendous self-detriment, the way “Incendies” runs its old and new story strands parallel to one another enhances our view of the women, and ties the film’s themes together well through cross-generational relativity. It’s an astutely interdependent way of presenting Jeanne’s cultural homecoming, how in retracing her mother’s steps they share some form of cyclical, realised strength. We don’t really know much about Jeanne’s character, since she becomes a passive component of a deluge of revelations, but the fact that we’re undergoing this Middle Eastern learning curve with her allows us to somewhat identify with her naïve, misunderstood outlook on heritage and belonging.

The film’s key misfires emerge when it comes to generating drama; effective certainly, but flagrant and undeniably contrived. A scene in which Nawal is the only survivor of a massacre reeks of religious symbolism and doesn’t fit well within the grand scheme of things. Worse still, the final discovery in the film is an emotionally manipulative device that feels orchestrated to make “Incendies” feel that bit more impacting as a dramatic showcase. All this revelation does is leave a bitter taste in the mouth, and ensures that the film has straddled both the sublime and the ridiculous. For long periods “Incendies” is basically a heavy-set version of reality television show “Who Do You Think You Are?” providing genealogical information as its primary dramatic impetus. It’s an interesting way of relaying exposition, but, considering the rather aimless way in which Jeanne embarks on this journey, there’s an awful lot of amateur-sleuthing going on. It’s somewhat remarkable, for example, how she so fortunately stumbles upon key figures of her mother’s past without really encountering any resistance to her cause.

The encroaching impression you get while watching “Incendies” is that it has somewhat taken the easy way out; that by making the entire film a slow-burning discovery, all of the major plot points are mapped-out so that we can’t really challenge them. This has already “happened,” therefore we’re supposed to accept it? Once Jeanne has learned all that she can about her family it becomes clear that the film has always been working towards this dark emotional payoff, promoting the expanse of its cultural network before then asserting that “It’s a small world after all.” The sensationalist culmination detracts from the natural feel of the film, and disappointingly undermines the patience with which it documents Jeanne’s cultural enlightenment.

Villeneuve’s visual flair makes “Incendies” more of a compelling mystery than it really ought to be, ambitious in terms of structure and theme, but far too rash with its dramatic devices. Above all, it makes you think about this family; why this mother was so alienated from her children, and is so well-crafted overall that the late, arrogant element of surprise feels like a betrayal. Is this manipulation part of a desperate ploy to shock? Either way, the fire analogy rings true: the lost souls of “Incendies” suffer severe burns, but sadly, so do we.

Full List of 2010's Oscar Nominations (& Reaction)

For once I found myself mildly thrilled with some of the Academy's choices this morning. Everyone's idea of "best" is different, but Oscar rarely gives its due to the truly incisive pieces of filmmaking in a given year. This time around they did show that sometimes the performance is valued over the buzz/status of the performer, nominating Jacki Weaver and John Hawkes for low-key Supporting roles. I'm also really pleased that "Exit through the Gift Shop" made it into Best Documentary Feature and "Dogtooth" (totally out-there for AMPAS!) got into the Foreign Language category. A final congratulatory word for Antonella Cannarozzi, whose sumptuously-crafted costumes for "I Am Love" are deservedly recognised.

Best Picture

"Black Swan"

"The Fighter"

"Inception"

"The Kids Are All Right"

"The King's Speech"

"127 Hours"

"The Social Network"

"Toy Story 3"

"True Grit"

"Winter's Bone"

Prediction Score: 10/10

The ten I predicted, which isn't that much of a coup since there only really seemed to be eleven in the chase. I suppose it probably came down to "The Town" not getting enough high-placed votes. As great as it is, I can't imagine it being many people's favourite movie. I suspected that "127 Hours" was not in as weak a position as some were saying, and its decent showing today suggests it finished comfortably ahead of Affleck's film.

Directing

"Black Swan" Darren Aronofsky

"The Fighter" David O. Russell

"The King's Speech" Tom Hooper

"The Social Network" David Fincher

"True Grit" Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Prediction Score: 5/5

And my late doubts about Nolan proved to be correct, too! I don't think they'll go for him until he makes a more middle-of-the-road picture, which will happen.

Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem in "Biutiful"

Jeff Bridges in "True Grit"

Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network"

Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"

James Franco in "127 Hours"

Prediction Score: 4/5

A case of "Get Low" being too small, too crowded out, or just not exciting enough? Either way, I suppose nobody can bet against cancer.

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale in "The Fighter"

John Hawkes in "Winter's Bone"

Jeremy Renner in "The Town"

Mark Ruffalo in "The Kids Are All Right"

Geoffrey Rush in "The King's Speech"

Prediction Score: 4/5

I was wrong about them snubbing Hawkes - is this a classic case of age and reputation winning out? I really like this lineup.

Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening in "The Kids Are All Right"

Nicole Kidman in "Rabbit Hole"

Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter's Bone"

Natalie Portman in "Black Swan"

Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine"

Prediction Score: 5/5

Best Best Actress lineup since 2004.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams in "The Fighter"

Helena Bonham Carter in "The King's Speech"

Melissa Leo in "The Fighter"

Hailee Steinfeld in "True Grit"

Jacki Weaver in "Animal Kingdom"

Prediction Score: 5/5

All the Steinfeld/Lead amendments came too late to make a difference, but I'm thrilled that Jacki Weaver managed to beat out Mila Kunis, despite feeling more than a tad sorry for the "Black Swan" star. Just one of those things.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

"127 Hours"

"The Social Network"

"Toy Story 3"

"True Grit"

"Winter's Bone"

Prediction Score: 4/5

Writing (Original Screenplay)

"Another Year"

"The Fighter"

"Inception"

"The Kids Are All Right"

"The King's Speech"

Prediction Score: 4/5

Animated Feature Film

"How to Train Your Dragon"

"The Illusionist"

"Toy Story 3"

Documentary (Feature)

"Exit through the Gift Shop"

"GasLand"

"Inside Job"

"Restrepo"

"Waste Land"

Documentary (Short Subject)

"Killing in the Name"

"Poster Girl"

"Strangers No More"

"Sun Come Up"

"The Warriors of Qiugang"

Foreign Language Film

"Biutiful" (Mexico)

"Dogtooth" (Greece)

"In a Better World" (Denmark)

"Incendies" (Canada)

"Outside the Law" (Algeria)

Short Film (Animated)

"Day & Night"

"The Gruffalo"

"Let's Pollute"

"The Lost Thing"

"Madagascar, a Journey Diary"

Short Film (Live Action)

"The Confession"

"The Crush"

"God of Love"

"Na Wewe"

"Wish 143"

Art Direction

"Alice in Wonderland"

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1"

"Inception"

"The King's Speech"

"True Grit"

Cinematography

"Black Swan" Matthew Libatique

"Inception" Wally Pfister

"The King's Speech" Danny Cohen

"The Social Network" Jeff Cronenweth

"True Grit" Roger Deakins

Costume Design

"Alice in Wonderland" Colleen Atwood

"I Am Love" Antonella Cannarozzi

"The King's Speech" Jenny Beavan

"The Tempest" Sandy Powell

"True Grit" Mary Zophres

Film Editing

"Black Swan" Andrew Weisblum

"The Fighter" Pamela Martin

"The King's Speech" Tariq Anwar

"127 Hours" Jon Harris

"The Social Network" Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Makeup

"Barney's Version"

"The Way Back"

"The Wolfman"

Music (Original Score)

"How to Train Your Dragon" John Powell

"Inception" Hans Zimmer

"The King's Speech" Alexandre Desplat

"127 Hours" A.R. Rahman

"The Social Network" Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Music (Original Song)

"Coming Home" from "Country Strong"

"I See the Light" from "Tangled"

"If I Rise" from "127 Hours"

"We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3"

Sound Editing

"Inception"

"Toy Story 3"

"Tron: Legacy"

"True Grit"

"Unstoppable"

Sound Mixing

"Inception"

"The King's Speech"

"Salt"

"The Social Network"

"True Grit"

Visual Effects

"Alice in Wonderland"

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1"

"Hereafter"

"Inception"

"Iron Man 2"

The British Weighs In (and so do BAFTA)

Things are hotting up on the Awards front (or cooling down, depending on whether you think there's hope of an upset in one of the Actress categories) with the HFPA and BAFTA announcements these past couple of days. Yesterday was a serious hangover day for me (so many spirits, so little time) so at the risk of flogging a dead horse, here are the Golden Globe winners:

Drama: The Social Network

Musical or Comedy: The Kids Are All Right

Director: David Fincher, The Social Network

Best Actor, Drama: Colin Firth, The King's Speech

Best Actress, Drama: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Actor, Musical or Comedy: Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version

Best Actress, Musical or Comedy: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter

Original Score: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network

Original Song: "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" (written by Diane Warren), Burlesque

Foreign Language Film: In a Better World

Animated Film: Toy Story 3

Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

The winners were much less interesting than the whole hoopla around Ricky Gervais, who insulted anyone and everyone. For the record, I don't think you need to be personal about people to be funny, but when there's an organisation as shamelessly celeb-motivated as the HFPA they need to be taken down a peg or two. Awards shows exist to celebrate movies, but, as anyone on Twitter knows, most of the comments directed at performers/films involved are a critique. It's difficult to say what everyone else is thinking, but doesn't Gervais succeed simply because he's willing to call the Globes out on nominating "The Tourist" for ridiculous reasons? Personally, I wish he'd gone a step further and said something about "Alice in Wonderland" and "Red" while he was at it.

I won't say too much about what this means for everyone's Oscar bids, mainly because I plan to assess the big eight races in the next week with some final Oscar nominee predictions. Save for Director, no category seems totally locked up - which is more than can be said for the eventual winners. Still, ask the people behind The Aviator, Brokeback Mountain, Babel, Atonement, and Avatar whether they'd be confident about repeating a Globe win at the Oscars.

BAFTA Nominees:

BEST FILM

Black Swan

Inception

The King's Speech

The Social Network

True Grit

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

127 Hours

Another Year

Four Lions

The King's Speech

Made in Dagenham

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

The Arbor

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Four Lions

Monsters

Skeletons

DIRECTOR

127 Hours - Danny Boyle

Black Swan - Darren Aronofsky

Inception - Christopher Nolan

The King's Speech - Tom Hooper

The Social Network - David Fincher

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Black Swan - Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz, John McLaughlin

The Fighter - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson

Inception - Christopher Nolan

The Kids Are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg

The King's Speech - David Seidler

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

127 Hours - Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel

The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin

Toy Story 3- Michael Arndt

True Grit - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Biutiful - Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik, Fernando Bovaira

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Søren Stærmose, Niels Arden Oplev

I Am Love - Luca Guadagnino, Francesco Melzi D'Eril, Marco Morabito, Massimiliano Violante

Of Gods and Men - Xavier Beauvois

The Secret in their Eyes - Mariela Besuievsky, Juan José Campanella

ANIMATED FILM

Despicable Me

How to Train Your Dragons

Toy Story 3

LEADING ACTOR

Jarvier Bardem - Biutiful

Jeff Bridges - True Grit

Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network

Colin Firth - The King's Speech

James Franco - 127 Hours

LEADING ACTRESS

Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right

Julianne Moore - The Kids Are All Right

Natalie Portman - Black Swan

Noomi Rapace - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale - The Fighter

Andrew Garfield - The Social Network

Pete Postlethwaite - The Town

Mark Ruffalo - The Kids Are All Right

Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams - The Fighter

Helena Bonham Carter - The King's Speech

Barbara Hershey - Black Swan

Lesley Manville - Another Year

Miranda Richardson - Made in Dagenham

ORIGINAL MUSIC

127 Hours - AR Rahman

Alice in Wonderland - Danny Elfman

How to Train Your Dragon - John Powell

Inception - Hans Zimmer

The King's Speech - Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY

127 Hours - Anthony Dod Mantle, Enrique Chediak

Black Swan - Matthew Libatique

Inception - Wally Pfister

The King's Speech - Danny Cohen

True Grit - Roger Deakins

EDITING

127 Hours - Jon Harris

Black Swan - Andrew Weisblum

Inception - Lee Smith

The King's Speech - Tariq Anwar

The Social Network - Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Alice in Wonderland - Robert Stromberg, Karen O'Hara

Black Swan - Thérèse DePrez, Tora Peterson

Inception - Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat

The King's Speech - Eve Stewart, Judy Farr

True Grit - Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh

COSTUME DESIGN

Alice in Wonderland - Colleen Atwood

Black Swan - Amy Westcott

The King's Speech - Jenny Beavan

Made in Dagenham - Louise Stjernsward

True Grit - Mary Zophres

SOUND

127 HOURS - Glenn Freemantle, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Steven C Laneri, Douglas Cameron

Black Swan - Ken Ishii, Craig Henighan, Dominick Tavella

Inception - Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo, Ed Novick

The King's Speech - John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Paul Hamblin

True Grit - Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F Kurland, Douglas Axtell

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

Alice in Wonderland - Nominees TBC

Black Swan - Dan Schrecker

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicolas Ait'Hadi, Christian Manz

Inception - Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Peter Bebb

Toy Story 3 - Nominees TBC

MAKE UP & HAIR

Alice in Wonderland - Nominees TBC

Black Swan - Judy Chin, Geordie Sheffer

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin

The King's Speech - Frances Hannon

Made in Dagenham - Lizzie Yianni Georgiou

I'm slightly ashamed at the narrowness of it all. Fourteen nominations is excessive enough a total as it is, without bestowing them upon "The King's Speech", a film with dull performances and even duller production values. It's also disappointing how much the Picture, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing and Sound categories overlap. There were more than seven pictures out in 2010, wouldn't ya know?

On the plus side: Julianne Moore's hopes of an Oscar nod remain alive, and Hailee Steinfeld gets into the right category for once. However, I cannot fathom how anyone can think Noomi Rapace is better than Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Williams, Tilda Swinton, or even Hilary Swank, who acquits herself well in "Conviction" and is surely in a baitier role. This category reinforces the sense that this is more about the popularity of the films than it is about other factors like (shock horror!) the performance, or (surprisingly) the reputation of the women in the running.

 

More commentary to follow this week, along with a review of Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy, recently released on DVD in the U.K. The film reaches cinemas across the Atlantic on March 11.