Oscar Nominations 2011: My Thoughts

So there were some surprises this year.  After moaning the last two years that the Entertainment Weekly spoiled everything, I avoided it this year.... that may have contributed to the surprise factor, but I think there would have been some genuine surprises regardless.

Hugo got the most nominations (11).... I thought The Artist had this in the bag, but it had one less at 10.  This means that The Artist has a little competition for Best Picture.

Best Picture nominees: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Tree of Life were both unexpected for me.  I must say however, since the former got 2 total nominations and the later 3, it certainly seems that their Best Picture nominations were therefore unjustified. Among the other Best Picture nominees with few total noms were also Midnight in Paris (4 total), The Help (4).  My prediction that The Help would have a big haul was WAY off.

Best Actor nominees: I saw Leo's shut out a mile away (he always gets shut out!).  I did not see Gary Oldman or Demian Bichir's nominations coming.  I knew if there was gonna be a surprise it would be in Best Actor.  So, what the heck is A Better Life?

Best Actress: The easiest to predict, no surprises.

Best Supporting Actor: When they announced Kenneth Branagh and then (alphabetically) Jonah Hill I was like what the? What about Albert Brooks?  That I would have put $1 million on.  The BIG shut out I think.  I did not see Nick Nolte or Max von Sydow's nominations.  In November though when von Sydow was getting buzz I said how happy I would be if he got nominated because he has only had 1 nomination to date and should have at least 2 career nominations: so I'm glad. It seems likely that Christopher Plummer will now win (this will be my first non-seen Oscar acting win in a long time... Netflix!)

Best Supporting Actress: I thought The Descendants' Shailene Woodley would get it instead of Janet McTeer (how boring it went that way!)

So glad Adventures of Tintin was shut out of Animated Film... it wasn't anything (stupid Golden Globes).

Weird to see Midnight in Paris get no acting nominations, just because it's a Woody Allen film and would seem par for the course.  If I'm disappointed about anything it's that someone didn't get in there (Owen Wilson, Kathy Bates, etc.)

My Best Score predictions of a few blogs ago were off. John Williams got 2 nominations! (His Tintin score was derivative of his own stuff!) Williams now has 47 career nominations. Walt Disney has the record most individual nominations with 59, but Williams is creeping up on that!!