Oscar Nominations 2012: My Thoughts

Wow! This was a surprising morning. I would have guessed the "same old, same old" and it turned out to be one of the most interesting. The nominations went much more along the lines of my own personal preferences for the year as well, so I'm happy about that.

First off: the most shocking was Best Director.  Kathryn Bigelow's snub wins the award for the one-I-would-have-staked-my-life-on nomination (not unlike Albert Brooks in Drive last year). It has, of course, killed Zero Dark Thirty's chances at Best Picture. Lincoln has essentially won Best Picture and Best Director as of a few minutes ago...! I ALSO would have staked my life on a Best Director nomination for Ben Affleck (although I'm the only one who wasn't in love with Argo).  Affleck must be in a coma right now! When the DGA nominations came out, I said I would love to see David O. Russell get in and one of the others bumped... which looks like what happened to Tom Hooper. And I must say I DIDN'T like the way Les Miserables was directed.

I've been making bets all morning that Emmanuelle Riva will win Best Actress over Jessica Chastain.  My thinking is Amour and Zero Dark Thirty BOTH got 5 nominations, however this translates to: Amour's stock just hit the roof and Zero Dark Thirty's stock just PLUMMETED. And even though I didn't love Amour (pun!), I acknowledge that Emmauelle Riva did a helluva job.

Beasts of the Southern Wild's nominations elude me, especially quite frankly screenplay. I mean, c'mon! It will have to be happy with its nominations: no wins seem likely.

Jees, Leonardo DiCaprio can't get arrested at the Oscars!

I would have liked to see more nominations for Moonrise Kingdom, but at least it got screenplay.

First Oscar nomination for Robert DeNiro since Cape Fear (1991)!

Skyfall didn't get the "big" nominations (acting/picture, etc.) but with 5 nominations it is the most nominated James Bond film of all-time (The Spy Who Loved Me [1977] got 3 nominations).

I haven't done the research, but I believe that Silver Linings Playbook is the first film to be nominated in all 6 of the top categories since Reds (1981). I'll get back to you on that! [UPDATE: Yup, I was right... Silver Linings is indeed the first film since Reds to be nominated in ALL six major categories].

I was right that Lincoln would get the most nominations (12) [per my predix yesterday] but did not see Life of Pi's 11 nominations as #2 most nominated....

I thought the Seth/Emma patter during the nominations was ugh, by the way. I didn't like Seth's bitchy gag about directing, but must admit I laughed at his comment that adapted screenplay involved copy-and-pasting from MS Word to Final Draft...!